The text reads "LIVER TVRCX DAN PAVS" ('Rather Turkish than Papist') and "EN DESPIT DE LA MES" ('In spite of the Mass'). Wearing half moons was already in practice in and around Antwerp by attendants of “”, open-air sermons, by . Modet popularized the slogan “Liever Turks dan paaps” (“Rather Turkish than Papist”). The phrases are meant to express a solidarity with the Turks who were also fighting the Habsburgs at that time, as well as opposition to the Catholic pope.