every vice for his followers, in order to attract more of them. By
doing this he gathered a huge mob of people, and the better to
deceive their uncertain minds with the pretext of religion, he
ordered them to fast for three days, and to offer earnest prayers for
God to grant a law. He also gives them a sign, because, should it
please God to give them law, he will grant it in an unusual manner,
from an unexpected hand. Meanwhile, he had a cow, whom he himself
had trained to follow him, so that whenever she heard his voice or
saw him, almost no force could prevent her from rushing to him with
unbearable eagerness. He tied the book he had written to the horns
of the animal, and hid her in the tent in which he himself lived. On
the third day he climbed a high platform above all the people he had
called together, and began to declaim to the people in a booming
voice. When, as I just said, the sound of his words reached the
cow's ears, she immediately ran from the tent, which was nearby, and,
with the book fastened on her horns, made her way eagerly through the
middle of the assembled people to the feet of the speaker, as though
to congratulate him. Everyone was amazed, and the book was quickly
removed and read to the breathless people, who happily accepted the
licence permitted by its foul law. What more? The miracle of the
offered book was greeted with applause over and over again. As
though sent from the sky, the new license for random copulation was
propagated everywhere, and the more the supply of permitted filth
increased, the more the grace of a God who permitted more lenient
times, without any mention of turpitude, was preached. All of
Christian morality was condemned by a thousand reproofs, and whatever
examples of goodness and strength the Gospel offered were called
cruel and harsh. But what the cow had delivered was considered
universal liberty, the only one recommended by God. Neither the
antiquity of Moses nor the more recent Catholic teachings had any