Note 43 — Chapter VI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS IN EUROPE UNDER THE TURKS.
Reading edition
De la Jonquière, p. 34. A similar contrast was made in 1605 by Richard Staper, an English merchant who had been in Turkey as early as 1578: “And notwithstanding that the Turks in general be a most wicked people, walking in the works of darkness … yet notwithstanding do they permit all Christians, both Greeks and Latins, to live in their religion and freely to use to their conscience, allowing them churches for their divine service, both in Constantinople and very many other places, whereas to the contrary by proof of twelve years’ residence in Spain I can truly affirm, we are not only forced to observe their popish ceremonies, but in danger of life and goods” (M. Epstein: The Early History of the Levant Company, p. 57. London, 1908.) ↑