ABSTRACT
Then the Cadi seeing himself thus put to confusion by them before the whole people, began to call out with a loud voice: “ But what sayest thou of Machomet? What sayest thou of Machomet ? ” For such is the wont of the Saracens, that when they cannot maintain their cause with arguments, they take to maintaining it with swords and fists. And as the Cadi thus questioned Friar Thomas, the brethren answered saying: “ We have proved to thee by arguments and instances that Christ who delivered a religion to the world was true God and Man, and since him Machomet hath come and hath delivered a religion which is contrary to the former. If thou be wise then well mayst thou wot what to think of him.” Then the Cadi and the other Saracens only shouted the louder: “But again what sayest thou of Machomet ? ” Then Friar Thomas replied : “ Since ye can only repeat What do I say of him, I should blush to refuse the reply ye seek. I reply then, and tell you that Machomet is the son of perdition, and hath his place in hell with the devil his father, and not he only but all such as follow and keep his law, false as it is, and pestilent and accursed, hostile to God and the salvation of souls.” And when the Saracens heard this they all began to shout with a loud voice together : “Let him die ; Let him die, for he hath blasphemed the Prophet!” And then they took the friars and bound them there in the sun, that they might die a dreadful death by the intense heat. For there the heat is so great that if one shall stand [bareheaded] in the sun for the space of a single mass he will die outright. Yet there they abode in the sun praising and glorifying God from the third until the ninth hour, cheerful and unscathed. And when the Saracens saw this they took counsel together, and came to the brethren, saying : “ We mean to kindle a great blazing fire, and to cast you into it. And if the doctrine ye hold be true the fire will not burn you, but if it be false and evil ye shall be utterly consumed.”
