]

which, of course, are interpolations. An interesting example of a forgery
in ecclesiastical matters is in the charter said to have been given by St.
Patrick, granting indulgences to the benefactors of Glastonbury, dated "In
nomine domini nostri Jhesu Christi Ego Patricius humilis servunculus Dei
anno incarnationis ejusdem ccccxxx." Now if the Benedictines are right in
saying that Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, first arranged the
Christian chronology c. 532 A.D., this can hardly be other than spurious.
See Arbuthnot, loc. cit., p. 38.

[1] "_Discipulus._ Quis primus invenit numerum apud Hebraeos et AEgyptios?
_Magister._ Abraham primus invenit numerum apud Hebraeos, deinde Moses; et
Abraham tradidit istam scientiam numeri ad AEgyptios, et docuit eos: deinde
Josephus." [Bede, _De computo dialogus_ (doubtfully assigned to him),
_Opera omnia_, Paris, 1862, Vol. I, p. 650.]

"Alii referunt ad Phoenices inventores arithmeticae, propter eandem
commerciorum caussam: Alii ad Indos: Ioannes de Sacrobosco, cujus
sepulchrum est Lutetiae in comitio Maturinensi, refert ad Arabes." [Ramus,
_Arithmeticae libri dvo_, Basel, 1569, p. 112.]

Similar notes are given by Peletarius in his commentary on the arithmetic
of Gemma Frisius (1563 ed., fol. 77), and in his own work (1570 Lyons ed.,
p. 14): "La valeur des Figures commence au coste dextre tirant vers le
coste senestre: au rebours de notre maniere d'escrire par ce que la
premiere prattique est venue des Chaldees: ou des Pheniciens, qui ont ete
les premiers traffiquers de marchandise."

[2] Maximus Planudes (c. 1330) states that "the nine symbols come from the
Indians." [Waeschke's German translation, Halle, 1878, p. 3.] Willichius
speaks of the "Zyphrae Indicae," in his _Arithmeticae libri tres_ (Strasburg,
1540, p. 93), and Cataneo of "le noue figure de gli Indi," in his _Le
pratiche delle dve prime mathematiche_ (Venice, 1546, fol. 1). Woepcke is
not correct, therefore, in saying ("Memoire sur la propagation des chiffres
indiens," hereafter referred to as _Propagation_ [_Journal Asiatique_, Vol.
I (6), 1863, p. 34]) that Wallis (_A Treatise on Algebra, both historical
and practical_, London, 1685, p. 13, and _De algebra tractatus_, Latin
edition in his _Opera omnia_, 1693, Vol. II, p. 10) was one of the first to
give the Hindu origin.

[3] From the 1558 edition of _The Grovnd of Artes_, fol. C, 5. Similarly
Bishop Tonstall writes: "Qui a Chaldeis primum in finitimos, dei