But the explanation, probably true, was the signal for frantic cries:
“Out on the blasphemer! The accursed Jew! Let him die the death!”
And it is very probable that he would have been “done to death” had not an interruption, characteristic of the age, occurred.
Two friars, clad in the garb of Saint Francis, just then entered the square and learned the cause of the tumult. Their action was immediate. The brethren stalked into the midst of the crowd, which made way for them as if a superior being had commanded their reverence, and one of the two mounted on a cart, and took for his text, in a clear piercing voice which was heard everywhere, “Christ, and Him crucified.”
The swords were hastily thrust into their scabbards, the missiles ceased. The other brother had reached the Jew.
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” said he. “He is the prisoner of the Lord; accursed be he who touches him; may his hand rot off, and his light be extinguished in darkness.”
All was now silence as the first brother, pale with recent illness, but radiant with emotion, began to speak.
And Martin preached, taking his illustrations from the circumstances of the day.
“The object of the Crucifixion,” he said, “had yet to be attained amongst them.”
A crucifix had, as he heard, shone with a mysterious light, and one had desecrated it with his tongue. But, worse than that, he saw a thousand desecrated forms before him who ought to be living crucifixes, for were they not told to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, to remain upon their voluntary crosses till Christ said, “Come down. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord”? And were they doing this? Were they repaying the love of Calvary, as for instance the saints of that day, Saints Philip and James, had done; giving heart for heart, love for love; or were they worshipping dread and ghastly idols, their own lusts and passions? In short, were they to be companions of the angels—God’s holy ones? Or the slaves and sport of the cruel and fiery fiends for evermore?