poison of false belief, to undermine Catholic teaching everywhere.
Such men, whose whole aim in life is to be praised, are mortally
wounded, and bellow unbearably, whenever they feel that their
standing in the community is diminished in any way. Seeing his
opportunity with the hermit, the Ancient Enemy approached the wretch
with these words, "If," he said, "you want certain solace for having
been rejected, and you want power far greater than that of a
patriarch, look very carefully at that young man who was with those
who came to you lately--I shall recollect for you his clothing, his
face, his physical appearance, his name--fill his vigorous, receptive
mind with the teaching that lies near to your heart. Pursue this man,
who will listen faithfully to your teachings and propagate them far
and wide." Encouraged by the utterance, the hermit searched among
the groups that visited him for the identifying signs of the young
man. Recognizing him, he greeted him affectionately, then imbued him
with the poison with which he himself was rotting. And because he
was a poor man, and a poor man has less authority than a rich one, he
proceeded to procure wealth for himself by this method: a certain
very rich woman had recently become a widow; the filthy hermit sent a
messenger to bring her to him, and he advised her to marry again.
When she told him that there was no one appropriate for her to marry,
he said that he had found for her a prophet who was appropriate, and
that, if she consented to marry him, she would live in perfect
happiness. He persisted steadily in his blandishments, promising
that the prophet would provide for her both in this life and in the
next, and he kindled her feminine emotions to love a man she did not
know. Seduced, then, by the hope of knowing everything that was and
everything that might be, she was married to her seer, and the
formerly wretched Mahomet, surrounded by brilliant riches, was lifted,
perhaps to his own great stupefaction, to unhoped-for power. And