In the preface, page 10, we read: “Since, my beloved, all the truly pious have a sincere joy and the greatest delight [to know], that many pious people are found upon earth, it has seemed good to me, to acquaint you with a brief testimony that has fallen into my hands: How, in the year 1540, or a little before, certain persons were brought captive by the Turks, from Moravia, to Thessalonica, in Turkey, and sold as slaves; which slaves there became acquainted with the (Thessalonian) Christians. Observing their life and conversation, they said to these Thessalonians, that in Moravia there lived a people who were like them in life and conversation, and were called Anabaptists; which kindled in the Thessalonians a zeal to examine the truth of the matter; and it further happened, as the testimony states,” etc.
NOTE.--Besides what we have noted concerning the churches at Thessalonica, Balthasar Lydius gives this account: “We will first speak of the Greek churches, who, in great numbers, are under the dominion of the Grand Turk; for in the city of Thessalonica, by the Turks now called Salonick, the Christians or Greeks have more than thirty churches, while the Turks, on the other hand, have only three; and so it is in other places in the vicinity. These churches do not recognize the Pope as the general head of the church.” This appears from the book of _Nilus. Balth Lydii, 3. Tract. of the Waldenses, p. 33, col. 1. Nilus de Primatu Papa, p. 48, 51 edit., Wechel, A. D., 1608._
On page 42 of the book referred to above, we read: _Brief account how through some Moravians who had been captured by the Turks, and had come to Thessalonica, in Turkey, the Christians at Thessalonica obtained information that in Moravia there lived fellow believers of theirs, who were there called Anabaptists; and how, in order to ascertain the truth of the matter, they sent three of their brethren to Moravia, in Germany._
“I, the undersigned, testify that in Moravia there lived with me, for the space of three years, a man of our brethren, about a hundred years old, named Leonard Knar, who related to me that in his time, when he was a servant in the common house of the common church at Popitz, under the stewart, Hans Fuhrman, three brethren of the church of Thessalonica were sent to Germany to inquire after their fellow believers, who, as they had learned from the prisoners, as stated above, were living in Moravia.
“They first came to Nickelsburg, on the frontier of Hungary, where they went to a priest and inquired after this people. He entered a carriage and rode with these three men to Pausrom, to those who are there called Huterites, and in the Netherlands, Moravians.
“Having well examined their life and conversation, they discussed with them, in the Latin language, in which they were well versed, all the articles of the faith, but found that in three principal articles they did not accord; namely, first in _shunning_, as this article was maintained by the Huterites; secondly, in the _community of goods_, which virtually consists with them more in dominion and servitude, than in equality; thirdly, that they withhold from those who fall away from their communion and leave them the property which they brought in, on account of which these three men parted from them with tears in their eyes, because they had performed such a difficult and laborious journey in vain.
“The same priest then brought them in same place (Pausrom), to the Schwitzer church, who derive their name from Hans Schwitzer, who, through one of their brethren, named John Peck (who, with Hans Fuhrman and twelve other persons, had lain in prison for nine years, in the castle Passau on the Danube, in Bavaria, for the testimony of the faith), discussed in Latin all the articles of their faith. They agreed well in all points, on account of which they being mutually filled with great joy, acknowledged each other as dear brethren, and in token thereof, commemorated together the Lord’s Supper, with great gladness, confessing themselves the true church of God. They stated further that the church of God at Thessalonica had remained unchanged in faith from the time of the apostles, and that they still preserved in good condition the letters which the apostle Paul wrote to them with his own hands.