oo ignorant.]

[Footnote 114: The P. Quesnel started this opinion, which has been
favorably received. But the three following truths, however surprising
they may seem, are now universally acknowledged, (Gerard Vossius, tom.
vi. p. 516-522. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 667-671.) 1. St.
Athanasius is not the author of the creed which is so frequently read in
our churches. 2. It does not appear to have existed within a century
after his death. 3. It was originally composed in the Latin tongue, and,
consequently in the Western provinces. Gennadius patriarch of
Constantinople, was so much amazed by this extraordinary composition,
that he frankly pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man. Petav.
Dogmat. Theologica, tom. ii. l. vii. c. 8, p. 687.]

[Footnote 115: 1 John, v. 7. See Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau
Testament, part i. c. xviii. p. 203-218; and part ii. c. ix. p. 99-121;
and the elaborate Prolegomena and Annotations of Dr. Mill and Wetstein
to their editions of the Greek Testament. In 1689, the papist Simon
strove to be free; in 1707, the Protestant Mill wished to be a slave;
in 1751, the Armenian Wetstein used the liberty of his times, and of his
sect. * Note: This controversy has continued to be agitated, but with
declining interest even in the more religious part of the community; and
may now be considered to have terminated in an almost general
acquiescence of the learned to the conclusions of Porson in his Letters
to Travis. See the pamphlets of the late Bishop of Salisbury and of
Crito Cantabrigiensis, Dr. Turton of Cambridge.--M.]

[Footnote 116: Of all the Mss. now extant, above fourscore in number,
some of which are more than 1200 years old, (Wetstein ad loc.) The
orthodox copies of the Vatican, of the Complutensian editors, of Robert
Stephens, are become invisible; and the two Mss. of Dublin and Berlin
are unworthy to form an exception. See Emlyn's Works, vol. ii. p
227-255, 269-299; and M. de Missy's four ingenious letters, in tom.
viii. and ix. of the Journal Britannique.]

[Footnote 117: Or, more properly, by the four bishops who composed and
published the profession of faith in the name of their brethren. They
styled this text, luce clarius, (Victor Vitensis de Persecut. Vandal.
l. iii. c. 11, p. 54.) It is quoted soon afterwards by the African
polemics, Vigilius and Fulgentius.]

[Footnote 118: In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Bibles were
corrected by Lanfranc, archbishop