The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-02
NOTED BOOK FORGERY.
Recalled by Death of Man Who Pro.
 duced Literary Fraud.


 duced Literary Fraud.
 Washington Cor. Chicago Record-Herald.
 A recent issue of that excellent paper, the Columbia CMo) Herald contains an account of the death of Rev w. D. Ma han, the author of one of the most ex- traordinary forgeries ever attempted The facts are stated as follows:
 "The death of Rev. ". D. Mahan, which , has just occurred at Boonville. directs att tention to a most remarkable literary con- troversy which involved a church in tur- moil. MT. Mahan was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister of good standing in the church. He was an interesting speak CT, with no special pretensions to scholar ship. In 1885 he left Cooper county, Mis- souri, where he had been preaching, stat ing that he was going abroad and would spend some time in Rome. Months passed, and the Boonville Advertiser printed let ters from him telling what he had seen and found in the Eternal City. Shortly after his return to Boonville he published a most curious book. It was volume of some 200 pages purporting to be transla- ton from a manuscript which he had found in the vatican library in Rome and translated into English. He gave to the book the title of "Acta Pilati' c'The Acts of Pilate'). and the manuscript. the ac- count of the finding of which was given with much circumstantial detail, purport- ed to tell of the trial of Jesus before Pi- late by writing of the time, giving an official record of the proceedings of the court.
 Then people began to wonder that this country preacher should have stumbled at the Vatican upon manuscript or such transcendent importance. Rev. Dr. James A. Quarles, then of Lexington, Mo-, now of Washington and Lee university, challenged the accuracy of the statements in the book
 "Mr. Mahan denied the charges, and asserted the truth of what he had writ ten. A church trial was called The New Lebanon presbytery, of which he was 2 member, tried the case at length. Evidence was introduced to show that MT. Mahan had never been to Rome, but that he had spent the month he was ab- sent from Missouri on farm in Illinois. The letter of the Advertiser showed that the letters that paper had printed were postmarked at a little town in Illinois. MT. Mahan claimed that they had been sent there to be remailed. The verdict of the presbytery was practically unanimous, however, against MT. Mahan. He was suspended from the ministry for two years. After the suspension he made no effort to return to the pastorate, but lived quietly at the home of his son-in-law, | make any further statement regarding the part he had taken in the preparation of the book except to say when it was told him that the literary world pronounced 1t a forgery:
 "'Wel, I have been a much deceived and much persecuted man.
 MT. Mahan's book was published In Philadelphia, and attained quite large circulation. It was generally received as a fortunate discovery of historical evil dence confirming the Scripture account or the trial and crucifixion of our Lord. Many newspapers described it as an in valuable contribution to human knowl- edge. As I remember, Dr. Mahan eX- plained in his preface that the original manuscript had been found by himself in the library of the Mosque of St Sofia Tn Constantinople. where it formed part of the remains of the archives of the Greek church handed down from the time of Constantine. Knowing that there is no library connected with the Mosque of St. Sofia and no literary archives of the Creek church. after consultation With pr. F'riedenwald, then in the congressional li- brary at Washington and now in the Uni versty of Pennsylvania, l wrote Dr. An drew D. White, then United States min ister to Turkey. Dr. White replied promptly, confirming my own recollec- tlons, and further said that no such per- l son as Rev. MT. Mahan of Boonville, Mo-. had ever been seen in ConStantinople by | any one connected with the legation or consulate or Robert college or by any of the missionaries or the representatives Of l the American board of foreign missions. l It was scarcely conceivable that an Amer l ican Protestant clergyman would visit l Constantinople without calling upon the representatives of his government or the members of his profession.
 1 'The preface to the book also stated that the manuscript had been translated by the linguists in the library of the Vat lean, and that the original manuscript l had been deposited there with the keeper of the archives
 "A letter from Father Ehrle, prefect of i the library of the Vatican, stated that Rev. w. D. Mahan was entirely unknown there. and that no person connected with | the library had ever seen or heard of the "Acta Pilati' or any such manuscript Nor had Father Ehrle ever heard of the publication.
 'T then wrote to Boonviie to ascertain something about the author of the for gerry, and complete account of the move ments and career of Rev. MT. Mahan was obtained, which confirmed the theory that his book was a fake. Nevertheless, it is almost incredible that a country preacher, with no special pretensions to scholarship. as his obituary states, should have pro duced so plausible a forgery and it would be interesting to know how 1t was done. But so far as I have been able to learn. to his very last day Dr. Mahan insisted upon the truth of his original story that the manuscript had been discovered by been translated at the Vatican in Rome"