the Citie aforesayd 

, being a famous schole of all good learnyng & discipline. MarginaliaThe fury of Mahumete the Turke agaynst the Citie and schole of Athenes.Agaynst the which Citie he did so furiously rage for the hatred of good letters, that hee thought he ought not to suffer the foundations therof to stande, because that Citie was a good nourse and fosterer of good Artes and Sciences. MarginaliaAthenes, destroyed.Wherfore he commaūded the Citie to be rased and vtterly subuerted: & where soeuer any monumentes or bookes could be founde, he caused them to be cast into durtye sinkes & the filthyest places of þ^e Citie, or put to þ^e most vile vses þ^t could be deuised, for extirpyng & abolishing of all good literature. And if he vnderstode any to lamēt the case & ruine of þ^e noble place, those he greuously punished & put to death.

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Thus the famous and auncient school of Athenes, being destroyed and ouerthrowne, hee returned his armye and power into Thracia, where in all hast he gathering his power together both by sea and by land, MarginaliaThe siege and takyng of Cõstantinople.with a mighty multitude compassed the Citie of Constantinople about, and began to laye his siege agaynst it, in the yeare of our Lord. 1453. and in the. 54. day of the said siege it was taken, sacked, & the Emperour Constantinus slayne. As touching the crueltie and fearcenes of the Turkes in gettyng of this Citie, & what slaughter there was of men, women and children, what calamitie and miserie was there to be sene, for somuch as sufficient relation, with a full description therof hath bene made before, MarginaliaVide supra pag. 838.pag. 838. it shalbe superfluous now to repeate the same. This onely is not to be omitted touchyng iij. principall causes of the ouerthrowe of this Citie: MarginaliaThree causes speciall noted in the winning of Constantinople.wherof the first was the filthy auarice of those Citizens whiche hydyng their treasures in the ground, would not employe the same to þ^e necessary defense of their Citie. For so I finde it in story expressed, that when the Turke, after the takyng of the Citie, had found not so much treasure as he looked for, suspectyng with hym selfe (as truth was) the treasures & riches to be hydden vnder þ^e ground, cõmaunded the earth to be digged vp, & the fundations of þ^e houses to be searched: where when he had found treasures incredible, what (quoth he) howe could it be þ^t this place could euer lacke munition and fortificatiõ, which did flowe and aboūde with such great riches as here is, and plenty of all thinges? MarginaliaEx Ioanne Ramo Lib. 2. rerum Turticarum.The second cause was the absence of the nauy of þ^e Venetians, which if they had bene ready in tyme, might haue bene a safegard agaynst the inuasion of the enemies. A third cause also may be gather vpõ occasion incident in stories, either for þ^t the Citie of Constantinople, xv. yeres before, did yelde to þ^e Bishop of Rome, as is before to be sene, MarginaliaVide supra pag. 829.pag. 829. or els because (as in some writers it is euidēt) that Images were there receaued & maynteined, in their Churches, and by the Turkes the same time destroyed.

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Ioannes Ramus MarginaliaEx Ramo.writyng of the destruction of this Citie, amongest other matters maketh relation of MarginaliaAn image of the Crucifixe in Constantinople.the Image of the Crucifixe, beyng there in the highe temple of Sophia: whiche Image the Turke tooke, and writyng this superscription vpõ the head of it: hic est Christianorum Deus. I. this is the God of the Christians, gaue it to his souldiours to be scorned, and commuandyng þ^e sayd Image with a trumpet to be caried through all his armie, made euery man to spitte at it most contumeliously. MarginaliaWhat offences be geuen to the infidels by images in Christian Churches.Wherin thou hast (good reader) 

by the way to note, what occasion of sclaunder and offence we Christians geue vnto the barbarous infideles by this our vngodly superstition in hauing Images in our temples, contrary vnto the expresse cõmaundement of God in his word. For if S. Paul writyng to þ^e Corinth. sayeth: we know Christ now no more after the flesh: how much lesse then is Christ to be knowen of vs in blind stockes & Images set vp in our tēples, seruyng for none other purpose but for the infidels to laugh both vs and our God to scorne, and to prouoke Gods vengeaunce? whiche by the lyke exãple (I feare) may also falle vpon other Cities, where such Images and Idolatrous superstition is maintey-ned: MarginaliaVienna admonished.wherof God graunt Vienna to take hede betyme, whiche hath bene so long, and yet is in such great daunger of the Turke, and polluted with so many Images and playne Idolatrie.

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MarginaliaThe cruell murther by the Turkes in the Citie of Constãtinople.In Summa to make the story short, such was the crueltie of these Turkes in wynnyng the Citie, that whē Mahumete had geuen licence to the souldiers iij. dayes together, to spoyle, to kill & to doo what soeuer they listed, there was no corner in all Constantinople, whiche dyd not either flowe with Christian bloud, or els was polluted with abhominable abusing of maydes, wiues and matrones, without all reuerence of nature. Of þ^e which Citizens, some they murthered: some they rosted vppon spittes: of some they fleyed of their skinne, hangyng thē vp to consume with famine: of other some they put salte into their woundes, the more terribly to torment them: In so much that one of them contended with an other, who could deuise most straūge kyndes of new tormētes and punishementes, exercising such cruelty vpon them, MarginaliaA lamentable destruction of the Citie of Constãtinople.that the place where the Citie was before, semed now to be no Citie, but a slaughter house or shãmels of Christian mens bodyes. Amõg the dead bodyes, the body also of Constantine the Emperour was foūd: whose head beyng brought to Mahumete, he commaunded to be caryed vpon a speare throughe the whole Citie for a publike spectacle and derision to all the Turkish armye. MarginaliaThe bloudy crueltie of the Turke agaynst the Christian captiues.And because he would diminish the number of the captiues, whiche semed to him to be very great, he neuer rose frõ his table, but he put euery daye some of the nobles to death, no lesse to fill his cruell mynde w^t bloud, then his body was filled with wyne: whiche he vsed so long to do as any of the nobles of that Citie was left alyue: And of the other sorte also, as the stories do credibly reporte, there passed no day in the whiche he did not orderly slay more then three hundreth persons: the residue he gaue to his rascall souldiours to kill and do with them what they would. Where is to be noted, that as Constantinus the sonne of Helena, was the first Emperour of Constantinople: so Constantinus the sonne also of Helena, was the last Emperour therof 

.

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MarginaliaThe citie of Pera yeldeth it selfe for feare to the Turke.Not farre frõ the sayd Citie of Constantinople, there was an other litle Citie called Pera and once called Gallatia, situated by þ^e sea side: who hearing of the miserable destruction of Constantinople & seyng the Citie flaming with fire, sent certaine of their chief men with spede to Mahumete, declaryng vnto him that they neither had sent any helpe to the Citie of Constãtinople, neither yet wrought any detriment to any of his armye: wherfore they desired and prayed him, that as they would gladly yelde vnto him, so he would be fauourable vnto them and spare them, and not to punishe the giltles with the giltie. Mahumete, although hee was not ignoraunt that for feare, rather then of any good will, they submitted them selues, and that they would rather resiste hym if they had bene hable, yet he receiued for that tyme, the submission of the messengers: but sendyng with them his Embassadours into the Citie, he commaunded also his armye to followe withall, and to enter with hym into the Citie. Whiche, although it was greatly suspected and misliked of the Citizēs, yet they durst no otherwise do, but suffer them to enter: which beyng done, the Embassadour gaue a signe to the souldiours, euery man to do what soeuer he was byddē. MarginaliaThe Citie of Pera spoyled.Of whom some came to the walles: some to the temples & Churches: some to the streetes and houses of þ^e Citie, plucking all things down to the ground, sackyng and raungyng with no lesse fury and abominable filthynes, then they had done at Constantinople before, sauyng onely that they absteyned frõ murther: MarginaliaDroncken Mahumets false of promise.but the same day letters came frõ Mahumete to the Embassadour that he should spare none, but destroy and murther all that euer were in þ^e Citie. Which message, because it semed to the Embassadour to be to

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