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426 Credibility of the Vospel liistonj.
The passages of Titus above cited imply as much. Pope
Leo > seems to say it expressly.
But they may be acquitted here likewise. I have formerly^
said what is sufficient for answering Titus. And Fabri-
cius" has helped us to a good solution for Leo. ' All that is
' to be understood by his complaint against the Manichees,
' is, that they made use of some apocryphal books, in which
' Christ was brought in speaking what he never said: but
' they did not make any alterations in the words of thegos-
' pels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or any other of the
' canonical books of the New Testament received by them,
' but only endeavoured to pervert them by false interpreta-
' tions.'
That they really did not make any siich alterations may
be well argued from the testimony given by Photius to the
Paulicians of his time, whom he always considers as Mani-
chees. He says, ' they'' do not make any material altera-
' tions in the scriptures, as Marcion and Valentinus did.'
And presently afterwards he says, ' they do not corrupt the
* gospel by any insertions or additions.'
Mr. Wolff, in his notes upon that passage of Photius, says
he does not see how this can be reconciled with the accounts
given by Titus and Archelaus. As for Titus, what was
formerly said may suffice. Nor is there, perhaps, any greater
difficulty in the words of Archelaus. We have indeed seen
that'^ Mani pretended the scriptures of the New Testament
had been altered by others. And in the place referred to by
Mr. Wolff, Archelaus says that ' when'' Mani had ourscrip-
y Ipsasque evaogelicas et apostolicas paginas, quaedam auferendo,et qua^dam
inserendo, violaverunt ; confingentes sibi, sub apostolorum nominibus, et sub
verbis ipsis Salvatoris, multa volumina falsitatis, quibus erroris sui commenta
muniront, et decipiendorum mentibus mortiferum virus eifunderent. Leo,
Semi. 4. in Epiph. cap. 4. ^ See p. 410.
* Haec Leonis verba accipienda sunt de libris apocryphis a nescio quibus
sutoribus fabularum sub apostolorum nomine scriptis, quos a Manichaeis lectos
notat Augustinus, 1. 22. c. 79. Contra Faustum, et Timothaeus presbyter in
loco supra, p. 178, et seq. adducto. In his Salvator subinde loquens induce-
batur. Caeterum in evangeliis Matthaei, Marci, Lucae, et Joannis, atque in
epistolis Pauli,—nihil vel inserendo vel auferendo violasse haereticos istos, sed
tantum prava interpretatione scripta ilia divina pervertisse, lestatur Photius
MS. contr. Manichaeos, lib. i. Fabr. ib. p. 30G, 337.
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