Of the Ilandes of Grece.

ABOUT Grece be many yles that men cal Calastre,¹ Calcas Settygo, Thoysoria, Mynona, Faxton, Molo, Carparte and Lempne, and in this yle is mount Athos that passeth the clowdes & there are divers speaches and many countries that are obedient to the Emperour of Constantinople, that is to say Turcoply, Pyncy, Narde, Comage and many other, Tracy & Macedony, of which Alexander was king. In this countrey was Aristotle borne, in a citie that men call Strages, a little from the citie of Tragie, & at Strages is Aristotle buried, and there is an aulter on his tombe, and there they make a greate feast every yeare as he were a saint, & upon his aulter the lordes holde their great counsayles and assemblies and they think, that through the inspiration of God & him, they should have the better councill. In this countrey are right highe hilles, there is an hill that men call Olimphus that departeth Macedonie and Tracy, and is as high as the cloudes, and the other hill that men call Athos is so highe, that the shadow of him stretcheth unto Olimphus and it is neare lxxvii myle between, and above that hill is the aire so cleere, that men may fele no wynde there, and therefore may no beast live there the ayre is so drye, and men say in the countrey that Philosophers somtyme went up to these same hilles and helde to their noses a sponge wet with water for to have ayre, for the ayre was so drye there & above in the pouder² of the hill they wrote letters with their fingers, and at the yeares ende they came againe and found those letters which they had written the yeare before without any defaute,³ and therefore it seemeth well that these hilles passe the cloudes to y^e pure aire.

At Constantinople is the Emperours palaice which is fayre and well dight,⁴ and therein is a palaice for justing,⁵ and it is made about with stages that eche man may well see and none greve,⁶ other & under these stages are stables vauted for the Emperours horses and all the pillers of these stables are of marble. And within the church of Saint Sophy, an Emperour wold haue layd the body of his father when he was dead, and as they made the grave they found a body in the earth & upon that body lay a great plate of fine gold & there upon was written in Ebrew, Greke & Latin letters that sayde thus: Jesus Christus nascetur de virgine Marie, et ego credo in eum. That is to say, Jesu Christ shal be borne of the Virgin Mary & I believe in him. And the date was that it lay in the earthe 200⁷ yeare before our Lord Jesu Christ was borne, and yet is that plate in the treasory of the Church, and men say that it was Hermogenes⁸ the wise man. And neverthelesse if it be so that men of Grece be Christen, yet they vary from our fayth, for they say that the holy ghoste commeth not out of the sonne, but all onely of the father, and as they are not obedient to the Church of Rome, nor to the Pope, and they saye that theyr Patryarkes haue as much power over the sea, as the Pope hath on this syde the sea. And therefore Pope John the XXII. sente letters to them, how Christen fayth should be all one, and that they shoulde be obedient to a pope that is Christes Vykar in earthe, to whome God gave plaine⁹ power to binde and to assoyle,¹⁰ and therefore they should be obedient to him. And they sent him divers aunsweres, and among other they said thus. Potentiam tuam summam circa subjectos tuos firmiter credimus. Superbitatem tuam sustinere non possumus. Avaritiam tuam satiare non intendimus. Dominus tecum fit, quia Dominus nobiscum est. Vale. That is to say, we beleve wel that thy power is great upon thy subjectes. We may not suffer thy pryde. We are not in purpose to fulfille thy covetyse.¹¹ Our Lorde be with thee, for our Lorde is with us. Farewell. And other aunswere might not be haue of them. And also they make theyr sacrament of the aulter of therf bread,¹² for our Lord made it of therf bread when he made his maunde.¹³ And on sherthursday¹⁴ make they theyre bread in tokening of the maunde, and they dry it at the sonne,¹⁵ and kepe it all the yeare & give it to sick men instede of gods body. And they make but one unction when they Christen Children, and they anoynt no sick men, and they say there is no purgatory, and soules shall haue neither joy ne payne untill the day of dome.¹⁶ And they say that fornication is no deadly sinne, but a kindly thing, and that men & women shoulde wed but once, and who so weddeth more than once theyr children are bastards and gotten in sinne, and theyr priestes also are wedded, and they say that usury or simony is no deadly sinne and they sell benefices of holy churche, and so did men of other places and is great sclaunder,¹⁷ for now is Simony King crowned in holy churche, God amende it when his will is. And they say that in Lent men should not singe masse but on the Saterday and on the Sonday, and they fast not the Saterday no tyme in the yeare, but if it be Christmas or Easter even. And they suffer no man that is on this side the Grece sea to sing at theyr aulters, and if it fall that they do through any hap,¹⁸ they wash theyr aulters as sone without tarieng with holy water, and they say that there should be but one masse sayde at one aulter in a day. And they say that our Lorde did neuer eate meate but that he made a token¹⁹ of eating. And also they say that we sinne deadly in shaving of our berdes, for the berde is a token of a man, and a gift of our Lord and they saye that we sinne in eating of beastes that were defended²⁰ in the olde lawe, as swyne, hares and other beastes.

And thus they saye that we sinne in eating of fleshe on the dayes before Ashwednesday, and in eating of fleshe on the Wednesdaye, and when we eate chese or egges on the Fryday and they curse all those that eate no fleshe on the Saterday. Also the Emperour of Constantinople maketh the Patriarkes, Archebishoppes and Bishoppes, and he giveth all the dignities of the churches, and depryveth them that are unworthy, although it be so that these touch not the way, nevertheless they touch that which I haue behight²¹ to shew a parte of the custome, maners, and diversitie of countries, and for this is the first countrey that is discordaunt from our faithe and letteth²² our faithe on this side the sea, therefore haue I sette it here that ye may see the diversitie between our faith & theirs, for many men haue great liking to here speake of straunge things.

1: Calliste, which Ferrarius, in his Lexicon Geographicum (edit. 1670), says is an island in the Ægean Sea. The other islands have different names in different MSS., but are not worth the trouble of identifying, except Lampne as Lemnos—where Mandeville places Mount Athos. Plutarch and Pliny said that, in the summer solstice this mountain projected its shadow on the market-place of Myrina, the capital city of Lemnos, and that a brazen cow was there erected to mark the termination of the shadow; but this is as probable as the distance given, namely, seventy-seven miles, which is manifestly erroneous. The spelling of the geographical names is very bad, and renders it a difficult task to identify them: for instance, if it were not a well-known fact that Aristoteles was born and buried at Stagira, it would be very difficult to identify Strages as being the same place. Again, Olimphus is used instead of Lemnos, in connection with the shadow of Mount Athos.

2: Powder, dust.

3: Uninjured.

4: Furnished.

5: Jousting or tilting.

6: Inconvenience.

7: Pynson and other editions say Two thousand.

8: Here the chronology is somewhat involved, as Hermogenes lived in the time of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who was born a.d. 121.

9: Plenary.

10: Absolve.

11: Covetousness.

12: Unleavened bread.

13: Last Supper.

14: Shrove Thursday.

15: In the sun.

16: Doom, or the day of judgment.

17: Scandal.

18: If by chance they should do so.

19: Only seemed to eat.

20: Forbidden.

20: Promised.

20: Hinders.