[141] See Creasy, _History of the Ottoman Turks_, chap. viii.: ‘The schism of the Sunnites and the Schiis (the first of whom acknowledge, and the last of whom repudiate the three immediate successors of the Prophet, the Caliphs Abubeker, Omar, and Othman) had distracted the Ottoman world from the earliest times. The Ottoman Turks have been Sunnites. The contrary tenets have prevailed in Persia; and the great founder of the Saffide dynasty in that country, Shah Ismael, was as eminent for his zeal for the Schii tenets, as for his ability in council, and his valour in the field. The doctrine of the Schiis had begun to spread among the subjects of the Sublime Porte before Selim came to the throne; and though the Sultan, the Ulema, and by far the larger portion of the Ottomans, held strictly to the orthodoxy of Sunnism, the Schiis were numerous in every province, and they seemed to be rapidly gaining proselytes. Selim determined to crush heresy at home before he went forth to combat it abroad, and in a deliberate spirit of fanatic cruelty he planned and executed a general slaughter of such of his subjects as were supposed to have fallen away from what their sovereigns considered to be the only true faith.’ This massacre took place in 1513. The Selim here mentioned was the father of Solyman. See Creasy, _History of the Ottoman Turks_, chap. viii. There was not much to choose between Philip of Spain in the West and Selim in the East! See Motley, _Dutch Republic_, part iii. chap. 2. [142] Scordium, or water germander, is mentioned in Salmon’s _Herbal_ as a sudorific, &c.; he notices that it has a smell of garlic, and that it is a specific against ‘measles, small-pox, and also _the plague or pestilence itself_.’ The plague is a form of blood poisoning; a medical friend whom we consulted considered that the symptoms indicated only a mild form of the disease; he also entirely approved of the physician’s treatment of the case. [143] See note page 254. [144] An electuary is a medicine of a pasty consistence composed of various ingredients. The one mentioned in the text was invented by the celebrated physician Frascatorius. It contained scordium, from which its name is derived. The prescription for it may be found in Larousse’s _Dictionnaire Universel_, vii. 3117. Evelyn went to see the severall ‘drougs for the confection of _Treacle_, _Diascordium_, and other electuaries.’—_Diary_, p. 262. [145] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_. [146] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_. [147] See page 90. [148] Rakos is the name of a plain near Pesth; the greater extraordinary Hungarian Diet used to assemble on this plain after the manner of the Polish Diet which met near Warsaw. The Turks continued to use the place for mustering their militia. [149] The Emperor Claudius was murdered by his wife Agrippina, who gave him poison in a dish of mushrooms. Tacitus, _Annals_, xii. 67.