ABSTRACT
When the friars aforesaid were at Ormes they made a bargain for a certain ship to take them to Polumbum, but being once on board they were taken against their will to Tana. Here there be fifteen houses of Christians, that is to say of Nestorians, who are schismatics and heretics. And the friars having thus come hither, found harbour in the house of one of those Christians. And whilst they were staying there, one day there arose a quarrel between the good man of the house and his wife, and in the evening he gave her a sound beating. And in the morning the woman went and made a complaint of the beating to the Cadi, i.e., in their tongue the Bishop. And the cadi having asked her if she had any proof of what she alleged, she answered that she could well prove it, “ For,” quoth she, 118“there were four Frank Rabbans 1 ,” (which is to say in our tongue four men of a religious order) “ there in the house when he handled me thus. Question them and they will tell you the truth.” And when the woman said this, there was a certain man of Alexandria there present who begged the cadi to send for them, saying that they were men of great learning and knowledge in the Scriptures, and that it would be good to have a dispute with them concerning religion. The cadi, hearing this, sent for them. And so when those brethren were brought before him, to wit, Friar Thomas of Tolentino in the March of Ancona 2 , Friar James of Padua, and Friar Demetrius, a Georgian lay brother good at the tongues, (Friar Peter of Sienna being left at home to take care of their things), the cadi began at once to dispute with them about our Faith. And when the infidels disputed with them in this manner, alleging that Christ was mere man and not God, Friar Thomas took it in hand, and proved by arguments and instances that He was God and Man in one, and so confounded the Saracens that they were absolutely unable to maintain the contrary.
