The grand Turk, moved by presumption at his unexpected success and prosperity, and through his great pride, sent two letters to pope Nicholas, of similar contents,--the one in Latin, the other in French. The tenour of the last was as follows: 'Morbesan lord of Achaia, son to Orestes, with his brothers,--to the high priest of Rome, health, according to his deserts. Whereas it has lately come to our ears that, at the request and prayers of the people of Venice, you have publicly preached in your churches, that whoever shall take up arms against us shall receive in this life a remission of his sins, with a promise of life eternal hereafter. This we did not hear of until the arrival of some pilgrims, who have crossed the sea in venetian vessels,--and it has caused in us the utmost astonishment. Although you may perhaps have received powers from the God of thunders to absolve and release souls, so much the more prudently and discreetly should you exercise this power, nor by such means induce the Christians to act hostilely against us, and more especially the Italians; for we have lately had information that our fathers have declared the turkish nation was innocent of the death of your CHRIST crucified,--and that they neither possess nor have any knowledge of those places which are by you held sacred, and that we have always had the jewish nation in hatred, who, from what we have read in histories and chronicles, did most treacherously betray and deliver up the CHRIST to the roman judge in Jerusalem, to suffer death on the cross. 'We marvel, therefore, and grieve, that the Italians should be our enemies,--for we are naturally inclined to be attached to them, as being, like to ourselves, of the issue of the trojan race, and of ancient birth. We are sprung from the same blood, and regularly descended from king Priam and his line; and it is our intention to advance with our armies to those parts of Europe that have been promised to us by the gods of our forefathers. We have also the intention of restoring Troy the great, and to avenge the blood of Hector and the queen Ixion[180], by subjecting to our government the empire of Greece and punishing the descendants of the transgressors. We also intend subjugating the island of Crete, and the others in that sea, of which the Venetians have robbed us by violence. 'We require, therefore, that you act with more discretion, and that you impose silence on your preachers in Italy, that they may no longer comply with the requests before mentioned of these Venetians, and provoke the Christians to wage war against us, as we have no cause of warfare against them from any difference in our creeds. It is of no importance that we do not put our whole faith in your CHRIST, since we allow him to have been a very great prophet; and as we do not follow his law, we are not to be compelled to believe in him.