of his own manuscript, and the entire collation then hinges on a single report, unaccompanied by anything that would verify its truth. The two collators may therefore both make mistakes, or both deliberately lie.

If, on the other hand, the task were undertaken by a number of witnesses whose combined testimony yields certainty, then every single manuscript—in every language—would require a group of such witnesses to attest to its exact wording. Those very same individuals would have to certify, in person, the wording of every manuscript in every language; they would testify to the text of each copy, while another group of equal standing would in turn testify to the wording of the next copy and to its agreement with the previous one (and these, or another group of the same strength, would then confirm the agreement of the second copy).

It is obvious that no one has ever carried out such a procedure, nor could anyone do so. Even if all the Christian kings—and the scholars of their realms—were to unite for that purpose, they would still be unable to accomplish it. Some manuscripts are in the hands of Muslims, others are in lands over which the Christians have no authority, and even within their own domains there may be copies whose owners have never brought them to light.

Consequently, anyone—Christian or otherwise—who declares that every manuscript of these books on earth agrees with every other manuscript is giving false testimony. He is testifying to what he does not know—indeed, to what he knows to be untrue.