of Canterbury, and by Nicholas,
cardinal and librarian of the Roman church, secundum orthodoxam fidem,
(Wetstein, Prolegom. p. 84, 85.) Notwithstanding these corrections, the
passage is still wanting in twenty-five Latin Mss., (Wetstein ad loc.,)
the oldest and the fairest; two qualities seldom united, except in
manuscripts.]

[Footnote 119: The art which the Germans had invented was applied in
Italy to the profane writers of Rome and Greece. The original Greek of
the New Testament was published about the same time (A.D. 1514, 1516,
1520,) by the industry of Erasmus, and the munificence of Cardinal
Ximenes. The Complutensian Polyglot cost the cardinal 50,000 ducats.
See Mattaire, Annal. Typograph. tom. ii. p. 2-8, 125-133; and Wetstein,
Prolegomena, p. 116-127.]

[Footnote 120: The three witnesses have been established in our Greek
Testaments by the prudence of Erasmus; the honest bigotry of the
Complutensian editors; the typographical fraud, or error, of Robert
Stephens, in the placing a crotchet; and the deliberate falsehood, or
strange misapprehension, of Theodore Beza.]

The example of fraud must excite suspicion: and the specious miracles by
which the African Catholics have defended the truth and justice of their
cause, may be ascribed, with more reason, to their own industry, than
to the visible protection of Heaven. Yet the historian, who views this
religious conflict with an impartial eye, may condescend to mention
one preternatural event, which will edify the devout, and surprise the
incredulous. Tipasa, [121] a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen
miles to the east of Caesarea, had been distinguished, in every age, by
the orthodox zeal of its inhabitants. They had braved the fury of the
Donatists; [122] they resisted, or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians.
The town was deserted on the approach of an heretical bishop: most of
the inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to the coast of
Spain; and the unhappy remnant, refusing all communion with the usurper,
still presumed to hold their pious, but illegal, assemblies. Their
disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Hunneric. A military count was
despatched from Carthage to Tipasa: he collected the Catholics in the
Forum, and, in the presence of the whole province, deprived the
guilty of their right hands and their tongues. But the holy confessors
continued to speak without tongues; and this miracle is attested by
Victor, an African bishop, who publishe