Jesus replied with a stern rebuke, addressing the questioners as hypocrites, and exposing the falsity of a system which allowed the breach of fundamental commandments in order that traditional regulations might be observed.

He maintained an attitude of defiance and of "Roman resolution," smiled scornfully at his questioners, making no secret of his intentions, replied to the king, who asked why he would kill him, that the pope had excommunicated him, that "dangerous diseases require a desperate remedy," adding fiercely to the Scottish courtiers who surrounded him that "one of his objects was to blow back the Scots into Scotland."

The questioners were pious Nazarenes who felt guilt toward God that they had to remain unwashed in their difficult circumstances.

from the mountain of Klabat or Kalabat, or from Seli Besi, an iron kris carried by the natives, of whom those who were first asked for the name of the island were conceived, according to this theory, to have misunderstood their questioners.