Oour holy father pope Leo the .x. of that name vnto all cristen people that these present letters shall see sendith salutacion and th apostolyque blissynge .

¶ Almyghty god our creatour and redemptour to th entent he wolde delyuer mankynde from the thraldom and boundes of our goostlye ennymye the deuyll / was contentyd to sende downe into erth his onlye gotten sone to be endewyde with the nature of man for mannys redempcion . By whose example / our sayd holy father beynge moued / enforsith hym selfe with all studye / for to delyuer from the yooke of seruitude all those cristen people / whiche for the worshyppynge of cristys feyth in the miserable boundage of the ennymyes of cristys feithe be oppressed .

¶ Item our sayd holy father hath vnderstande that his welbelouyd chylde Iohn Sargy of Corfu layman of the diocys of Athenis / beynge borne of an noble progeny / with his two bretherne passynge by shyp / vpon the see of Egey / towardes the Ile of Creta / was taken by certayne turkes robbers vpon the see and brought by them vnto myserable seruytude and boundage .

¶ Item our sayd holy father declareth how that the sayd John Sargy was delyuered from the sayd seruytude ( his sayd two brethern abydynge still in captyuytie ) for whose redempcyon and raunsome thre hundreth ducates of golde large was ordeyned for to be payed voto the sayd turkes / whiche by reason of theyr pouertie / they be nat able for to paye . Wherfore greatly it is to be dred that onlesse In breue tyme the sayd prysoners be comforted in that byhalfe with the deuout almes of cristen people / they beynge nat able longe to suffre the paynes of so cruell thraldome shall be compelled for to denye the name of Iesu criste and his holy cristen religion .

¶ Wherfore our sayd holy father vsynge the rowme in erth of our sauyour criste Iesu / who of his pytie and mekenes rewardith all deuout almoses and mercyfull gyftes by oon hundreth folde . And gyueth vnto his trew people moche more than they can deserue / gladly moueth all trewe cristen people vnto the warkes of pytie / by indulgences and remyssions of synnes / to th entent / that they may be more apte vnto the fauours of god / and also by meane of theyr temporall gyftes they may deserue to obteyne the rewardes of eternall helthe .

¶ Our sayd holy father therfore desyrynge that the sayd prysoners shulde be delyuered from the sayd cruell seruytude / and that cristen people may more gladly put to theyr helpynge handes for theyr redempcion for that / that they shall perceyue them selfe to be refresshed more plentyously by the gyftes of heuynly grace / trustynge vpon the mercy of almyghty god / and th auctoryte of Peter and Paule his holy apostels / vnto all & euery trewe cristen people bothe man & woman trewly penytent and confessyd / the whiche vnto the sayd Iohn Sargy / or vnto any honest man that by hym shall be deputed / wyll put theyr helpynge handes of theyr laufull goodes alter theyr deuocion for the redemynge of the sayd prysoners / as often tymes as they so do / mercyfully graunteth .xv. yeres and as many lentes of pardon and indulgence / in remission of theyr synnes .

¶ Item our sayd holy father commaundeth all Patriarches archebysshops & bysshops vnder payne of interdiccion of enterynge the churche / and all Abbottes / Priors / Plebaynes / Person and / Vycars of parrisshe churches / and prechers of the worde of god / and other spirituall persons vnto whome these present letters shall come vnder payne of the sentence of excommunycacion that they publysshe or cause to be publysshed the sayd letters / in theyr churches / whan the moost people be theyr accompanyed to here the deuyne seruyce / and as often tymes as they shall be requyred therunto vpon the sayd Iohnns partye .

¶ Item our sayd holy father commaundeth that in euery parrysshe / where the sayd Iohn shall come / two honest and credyble persons shall be deputed by the sayd curates / whiche / by the way of pytie and charyte / shall gether the almes and deuocion of people / and the same so gethered they shall trewly delyuer vnto the sayd Iohn or his deputis / and ferther helpe and fauour them as apperteyneth .

¶ Item our sayd holy father inhybyteth and commaundeth / euery man what degre or estate so euer he be of / and also the commissaries deputed for the buyldynge of saynt Peters churche in Rome that they ne any of them trouble moleste or let the forsayd Iohn or his deputies in this ther present cause . Whiche his holynes wyll nat / to be comprised in any reuocacion or suspencion of lyke indulgence made in that by halfe by his holynes and the holy see apostolyque though all the sayd reuocacion be made in fauour of the sayd buyldynge of saynt Peters churche in Rome / and the forsayd letters of indulgence his holynes wyll / do stande in strengthe and effect only for the terme of foure yeres next and imediatly folowynge the date of the same . Whiche is gyuen at Rome the yere of the incarnacion of our lorde Iesu criste . M. CCCCC.xvi . the .xii. day before the kalenders of Iune the fourth yere of our sayd holy father the pope .