TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE. 5

from an ironical report of this kind put about in the Weft, andi* thethus recorded by ViCtor Turonenfis. i( MeJJala. F. C. confulibus , FLtSH ’“ Conjiantinopoli, jubente Anajlafio Imperatore , Jan&a evangelia f" tanquam ab idiotis compofita reprehenduntur , et emendanturthat is, “ In the confullhip of Meffala, the holy gofpels, by the" command of the emperor Anaftafius, were cenfured and cor-" reCted at Conftantinople; as if written by evangelifts that were" idiots,” Here Vicftor errs in the year. For Meffala was con-ful anno Chrifti 506; that is, lix years before the banilhment ofMacedonius. But Vi&or is very uncertain in dates of the years.

For he places the banilhment of Macedonius in the confullhip ofAvienus 503; and the above-mentioned tumuit about the Triju-gium in the confullhip of Probus, anno Chrifti 513; whereasall thefe things happened in the fame year. For it is plain bythis chronicle, that the Scriptures were examined and correCtedabout this time by a council at Conftantinople, by the order ofAnaftafius; and I meet with no other council to which this cha-racter can agree, befides that which depofed Macedonius. Nowthat they Ihould cenfure and correCt the gofpels, as if written byidiots, is too plainly ironical to be true hiftory; and therefore itmuft be an abufive report invented and put about to ridicule andIhame the council, and to propagate the corruptions of Macedo-nius as the genuine apoftolic reading of the Scriptures, whichthe council had rafhly correCted.

XXI. So then the falfation was fet on foot in the beginningof the fifth century, and is now of about twelve hundred yearsftanding; and therefore fince it lay but in a letter, and fo wasmore eafily fpread abroad in the Greek manufcripts, then the tef-timony of " the Three in heaven” in the Latin ones; we neednot wonder if the old reading be fcarce to be met with in anyGreek manufcripts now extant, and yet it is in forne.

XXII. For though Beza telis us, that all the Greek manu-fcripts read ©sof; yet I muft teli Beza’s readers, that all his ma-nufcripts read 0, For he had no other manufcripts of the epifi-des befides the Claromontan; and in this manufcript, as Morinusby ocular infpeCtion has fince informed us, the ancient reading

4 A 2 was