best sorts of Trades, (and some of them even by the Pope's Connivance circumcised and acting the part of Turkish Priests,) they got so throughly both into the Knowledge and Confidence of all Kinds and Ranks of People here, and especially the better sort, that under pretence of proposing their own Doubts, they soon overturn'd the establish'd Religion, in the Minds of all Persons eminent for their Posts or Learning.
They conceal'd the Christian Truths at first under the pretended Name of Serabackzi or Enthusiasts, till at length their Doctrines got Admission into the Seraglio, by the means of the Renegedo Vizier Ibrahim, in 1955 or 56, who they say, to make amends for his Apostasy, gave this Sect (whose Designs he was not only fully acquainted with, but also conducted) all possible Countenance and Encouragement. By his means it was, that so many Printing-Presses were disperss'd thro' the whole extent of the Ottoman Empire, thereby supplanting and almost extirpating the infinite Crowd of Scribes and Hogies, who liv'd by writing the Books of the Law and the heaps of Comments on the Alcoran, and consequently were the hottest Zealots for the Glory and Honour of Mahometism.
With
