A guide to the textual criticism of the New Testament - Holy Bible ...

THE INFANCY.
the course of his advancement he had passed from a dungeon,
where he had spent six years of his Hfe, to the Archbishopric
of Toledo and the Regency of Castile; and in his later days
laid out the vast income of his See upon charitable or public
objects. Having collected together as many Manuscripts
as he could, he set Lopez de Stunica and other learned
editors to the work in 1502, on which he expended more
than 50,000 ducats, or about ;;^2 3,000. It was intended to
commemorate the birth of Charles V. But many years
elapsed ere the completion of the New Testament in Greek
and Latin on Jan. 10, 1514; and the book was not published
till 1520, after Ximenes' death, and did not get into
general circulation till two years after.
The Complutensian Polyglott—for such was the title,
derived from the
Latin name {Co?nplutu??i) of Alcalk—was
said by the editors to have been constructed from selected
Manuscripts of great age and accuracy, supplied by Pope
Leo X., who was the patron of the undertaking. Attempts
have been made without success to ascertain what these
Manuscripts were. The only result is that we must abide by
the assertion of the editors and the character of the work.
The Complutensian is admitted to be a fair but not by any
means a faultless edition of the text that had already been
in vogue, as is universally admitted, for upwards of a thousand
years.
2. But the Complutensian Polyglott was actually anticipated
in publication by a Greek Testament in Germany.
Froben, the printer of Basle, hearing of the operations in
Spain, and wishing to forestall them, sent to Erasmus, who
was then staying in England, and pressed him earnestly to
undertake the office of editor. Erasmus received the first
overtures on April 17, 15 15. But such was the haste made