ough he believed it might have come from the apostolic age, is
assigned by modern criticism to the twelfth century. In the course of
printing, some bad errors were introduced, and the last six verses of
the Apocalypse, wanting in all the manuscripts, were supplied by an
extremely faulty translation from the Latin. The results were such as
might have been anticipated. Though the text has been vastly purified
by modern critics, the edition of Erasmus was of great service and was
thoroughly honest. He noted that the last verses of Mark were doubtful
and that the passage on the adulteress (John vii, 53 to viii, 11) was
lacking in the best authorities, and he omitted the text on the three
heavenly witnesses (I John v, 7) as wanting in all his manuscripts.

For this omission he was violently attacked. To support his position
he asked his friend Bombasius to consult the Codex Vaticanus, and dared
to assert that were a single manuscript found with the verse in Greek,
he would include it in subsequent editions. Though there were at the
time no codices with the verse in question--which was a Latin forgery
of the fourth century, possibly due to Priscillian--one was promptly
manufactured. Though Erasmus suspected the truth, that the verse had
been interpolated from the Latin text, he added it in his third edition
"that no occasion for calumny be given." This one sample must serve to
show how Erasmus's work was received. For every deviation from the
Vulgate, whether in the Greek text or in the new Latin translation with
which he accompanied it, he was ferociously assailed. His {565} own
anecdote of the old priest who, having the misprint "mumpsimus" for
"sumpsimus" in his missal, refused to correct the error when it was
pointed out, is perfectly typical of the position of his critics. New
truth must ever struggle hard against old prejudice.

While Erasmus was working, a much more ambitious scheme for publishing
the Scriptures was maturing under the direction of Cardinal Ximenez at
Alcala or, as the town was called in Latin, Complutum. The
Complutensian Polyglot, as it was thence named, was published in six
volumes, four devoted to the Old Testament, one to the New Testament,
and one to a Hebrew lexicon and grammar. The New Testament volume has
the earliest date, 1514, but was withheld from the public for several
years after this. The manuscripts from which the Greek texts were
taken are unknown, but they were better th