or any of the other such observances, for most of those festivals were introduced only after the time of the disciples. Take the Feast of the Cross: it was created by Helena of Harran, the mother of Constantine. In Constantine’s era they changed much of Christ’s religion—its doctrines and its ordinances alike—and devised the “Creed” that now constitutes their statement of faith. Not one of the prophetic books they possess articulates that creed, nor is it transmitted from any prophet or from any of the disciples who kept company with the Messiah. Rather, it was fabricated for them by a group of their leading figures—said to have been three hundred and eighteen in number.

They justified this by appealing to ambiguous phrases in the scriptures, although those same scriptures contain clear, unequivocal passages that contradict their claim, as has been explained elsewhere. The very same pattern holds for most of the regulations gathered in the volume they call the “Canons”: some of them are taken from the prophets, some from the disciples, yet many are sheer inventions, traceable to neither prophet nor disciple. Indeed, they allow their senior scholars and clergy to alter whatever rulings they find expedient and to promulgate new legislation. That is why the greater part of their law is an innovation, sanctioned by no revealed Book and instituted by no prophet.