3,359
edits
Changes
no edit summary
On the following day he met the king as he was riding his horse in public. He asked El-Kamel publicly for the pardon or to be purified by the edge of the sword. Such words at that age seemed to the king to be those of a drunkard. So he ordered him to be jailed for three days to sober up. The news of his petition and arrest spread in the countryside like wild fire. The Coptic government officials were alarmed and asked Abu-Shaker to meet the saint. This second meeting with Abu-Shaker occurred on the first day of his detainment. A similar conversation took place, with Abu-Shaker offering the possibility of a conditional pardon from the king, but St. John quietly persisted in his determination. As Abu-Shaker was leaving, he gave his guards some money to protect the saint. On that first night, John was also summoned by the king. There he was offered riches and safe conduct out of the country where he could freely practise Christianity. All this was contingent on him confessing publicly that he was a Muslim. This was also not acceptable to the saint. So he was put back in jail for the remainder of the three days.
On the morning of the fourth day, he was summoned before the king in the marketplace. There he was to be tried for the "sin" of wanting to be a Christian again. The day of the trial coincided with a major event. A naval parade was underway which brought people from nearly every known nation, rank, and profession. John was brought before the king amid the customary noise that one would expect from such a gathering. There, the king made another attempt to dissuade the saint from his intentions by such lucrative offers as royal gifts, money, and high government appointment. The reponse response was made in the same polite way that the saint had done before: either to give him back his faith or purify him by the edge of the sword.
The king took the advice of his chief justice and his Elder of Elders, the chief religious cleric. The latter suggested, on religious grounds according to Islamic Shari'a law, the punishment of beheading; and the king agreed. However he drafted the services of a Mamluke [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk] knight, named Philim, to use undeadly force to persuade the saint to abandon his firm stand. This Philim, a European Christian who had converted to Islam, failed in his mission. He eventually was ordered by the king to carry on the Elder of Elders' sentence. The gallantry of the saint apparently made Philim nervous enough to fail to completey sever the head from the body.
