“These are they, in whom is reposed not only the whole government of the state, but also the command of all the arms of this so great an empire; and yet these are neither dukes, nor marquises, nor counts, but all by origin are shepherds, and persons base and vile; wherefore it would be well if this most serene republic, imitating in this direction the Grand Signor, he who from this sort of persons, his slaves, creates and makes the best captains, _sanjaks_ and _beylerbeys_, giving them in this way credit and reputation.... “Just as the whole government of the affairs of the state and the command of its arms is reposed in the hands or the control of slaves by origin Christian, and then made Turks by various accidents; so the government of the affairs which look toward justice, and all the charge of affairs of religion are located in the hands of native Turks, sons of Turks, who having been educated in the universities instituted by the Grand Signor and the present ministers, and made learned in their laws, which consist, both civil and criminal, in no other teaching than that of the sole book, the Koran, become _imâms_, or priests, who govern mosques; _kazis_, or podestas; _hojas_, or preceptors of great men; and finally _kaziaskers_, or judges of supreme appeal, of whom there are only two, the one in Asia and the other in Europe; and the head of all these and supreme in their religion is the _mufti_, like the pope among us, who is chosen by the Grand Signor.”[74] Lastly, Matteo Zane shall speak, Venetian _Bailo_ in Constantinople from 1591 to 1597. In the imperfect record of his vigorous report, the illustrious diplomatist says: “The Turks are partly natives and partly renegades; the natives, who live for the most part in Asia, are in comparison with the renegades less depraved and less tyrannous, because they still have in them some religion, which the others have not,—the most arrogant and scoundrelly men that can be imagined, having seemingly with the true faith lost all humanity. This alienation from religion is fitting in desperate characters, who are induced to it by licentious freedom of life, and by seeing placed in their hands the arms, the government, the riches, and in short the whole empire, excluding the native Turks, who are admitted only to the careers of justice, as that of _kazi_ and the like, and to those of religion, such as _mufti_, _hoja_, and _imâm_, as is very well known.”[75]