The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-09
The Report" Of Pontius PLATE.

With an alleged certificate from Cardinal
GIBBONS, and another alleged certificate
from Monsignor MARTINELLI, the Nep
York Journal printed on Sunday an al
legged translation of a manuscript repre-
scented as having been discovered in the
Vatican Library by an alleged REV. DR..
w. D. MAHAN, an English clergyman and
photographer" This document purports to
be an account of an interview with the
Saviour and of the circumstances attending
the crucifxion, written by PoNTIUs PLATE
and by him forwarded as a report to the
Emperor TIBERIUs.
One or two forged letters from PLATE to
Caesar have been put into circulation within
the memory of the present generation, and
have created not a little excitement and
enthusiasm among the devoutly credulous.
although scholarship either has exposed the
fraud promptly, or has passed it by in con-
temptuous silence.
The present document is much more
elaborate than the others, and it carries in
almost every passage intrinsic evidence of
its character. 1t is not worth serious dis
cussion. even as ar alleged translation of a
Latin forgery of the early centuries. The
entire report" of PoNTIUs PLATE reads
more like the composition of q cheap reli-
gious novelist of the nineteenth century, or
of an audacious professor of yellow journal.
ism, than like a translation from the Latin
of any possible forgery of the second, third
or fourth or any century. The phraseology
might be inspired by the slightest &C.
%quaintance with the epistolary style of
PLINY the Younger. The incidental allu.
E-.- II -- Il
the classical dictionary. TIL historical
and philosophical reflections are essentially
modern, and after the event. Throughout
the report" there are touches which are
so crude that the effect would be grotesque
in the extreme if the theme parodied were
not one demanding all reverence.
If it is true, as asserted yesterday by a cor
respondent of the NcW York World, that
"the whole article in question is taken
verbatim, except in a very few places, from
n volume published in Philadelphia in 1887
by the Antiquarian Book Company and re-
published in lS97,"the the above remarks
apply equally to the original publication.
1t is not conceivable under any circum-
stances that the English version printed
by the journal under bright red and green
headlines as "PoNTIUs Pilates Interview
with CHRIST" and marked copyrighted in
the United States by w. r. HEARST, Nov.
o, 1897; any paper using this article or
any portion of it without first obtaining
the permission of the publisher will be
prosecuted according to law" represents
any Latin text, genuine or forged, dating
it's existence from the early centuries of
the Christian era.
In their anxiety to furnish exciting lit
erature to the peculiar public which reads
yellow newspapers, the young gentlemen
who conduct the NeU York Journal have
been imposed upon egregiously. The alter,
native superstition, decidedly unpleasant, is
that they have deliberately planned a sen.
s~ational enterprise, impious in its concep.
ton and almost blasphemous in it's execu-
ton. inasmuch as it finds material for
fake journalism in the hottest of all sacred
themes and the most sacred of human emo.
tions. We prefer to reject the latter suppo.
sition utterly, and to accept the former,
AT the same time we suggest that the ell
terprise of the journal be exercised here,
after in other directions.