* Bishop Talleyrand, in a letter which, he is said to have written to the Pope, after their quarrel, states that after Christianity had made some noise in the Empire, the entire absence of all testimony in regard to its pretended origin, excited the curiosity of the Roman Senate, to know what really was the foundation of the story; so they "ordered affidavits to be procured in the very centre of Palestine, in places fixed by them, which affidavits were sent to Rome, with the most conclusive evidence of the correctness of the report. These proved that Mary, who was of the tribe of Levi, and wife of the carpenter Joseph, who was of the tribe of Juda, had had an illicit intercourse with a Roman soldier, named Panther, who served in the 14th legion, stationed in Egypt, whence he was detached into Palestine. From this criminal intercourse a child was born, whom they called Arenias; and who was adopted by Joseph, according to the Roman practice, though it was contrary to the Jewish customs. With Joseph he learned the carpenter's trade; but after the death of his putative father, he abandoned his home and mother, and became a vagrant. Having met a few vagrants like himself, they all took the road to Galilee, where they lived for some time by begging. Having at last become the leader of a band of freebooters, he was arrested by the police of Jerusalem, and finally condemned to death by the general acclamation of the people." By thus instituting inquiries in the country in which he was born, the Roman Senate became acquainted with the origin of Mary's son, which, in regard to paternity, differs from the apocryphal gospel of the nativity of Mary.