ALSO Machomet badde in his boke Alkaron, that euery man shoulde haue two wives or three or foure, but now they take nine and as many lemmans as them liketh, & if any of their wives doe amisse against their husbandes, he may driue hir out of his house, and take another, but he must giue to hir part of his goodes. Also when men speake of the Father, and the Sonne, and holy Ghost, they saye they are three persons, but not one God, for their boke Alkoran speaketh not thereof, nor of the trinitie, but they say that God spake or else he was dumb, and that God hath a ghost,[1] or else he were not alive, & they say Gods word hath great strength, and so saith theyr Alkaron & they say that Abraham and Moyses were greatly in favor with God, for they spake with him, & Machomet was right messenger of God. And they haue many good articles of our faith and some understand the scriptures, profites, gospels, and the Bible, for they haue them written in theyr language, in this maner they knowe holy writ, but they understande it not, but after the letter and so do the Jewes, for they understande it not, but after their letter ghostly, and therefore saith Sainct Paule, _Litera occidit: Spiritus vivificat_--that is to say, Letter dieth, and ghost maketh quicke. And the Sarasins say y^t Jewes are wicked, for they kepe not y^e lawe of Moyses the which he toke to them, & also chrysten men are yll, for they kepe not the commaundments of the gospels that Jesu Christ sent unto them & therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan tolde me upon a daye in his chamber, voiding[2] out all other men, as Lordes, Knightes & other, for he woulde speke with me in counsel, and then asked he me how christen men governed them in our countrey and I aunswered him & sayd, right well thankes be to God; & he sayd, secretly nay, for he sayd that our priestes made no force of gods service, for they shoulde giue good example to men, to doe well, and they giue ill example, and therefore when the people should go on the holy daies to church to serve God they go to the taverne to sin in glotony both day and nighte, and eate and drink as bestes, that wot not when they haue had ynough, and also Christen men he sayde, inforced them to fight together & eche to begile other and they are so proude, that they wot not how they may cloth them, now short, now long, now straite now wyde, of all manner of fassions. They shoulde be simple, meke and softe, and doe theyr almes as Jesu Christe dyd, in whome they beleve, and he sayde they are so covetouse, that for a lyttle money they sell theyr children, theyr systers, and theyr wyves, and one taketh another mans wife, and none holdeth his fayth to other, therefore sayde he, for theyr sinnes hath God given these landes to our handes, and not through our strength, but all for your synnes. For we wot well, that when that ye serve well your god, that he wyll helpe you, so that no man shall winne of you, if that ye serve your god as