Nicholas of Cusa questioned their authenticity.[332:2] Chancellor Gerson of the University of Paris, boldly asserted that the Papacy was founded on fraud.[332:3] Marsiglio of Padua[332:4] and Wiclif took the same view. Johannus Turrecrenta was skeptical about them.[332:5] Erasmus pronounced against them. The authors of the _Magdeburg Centuries_ conclusively proved in detail their fraudulent character. Calvin took the same view,[333:1] and De Moulin and Le Conte helped to establish the fact of forgery. David Blondel, a Reformed divine, made the exposure unquestionable against the attempted vindication of the Jesuit, Torres. Still since it is so difficult to separate the true from the false, their influence was perpetuated beyond this period. It was not an easy thing for an infallible Church to abandon ground once assumed. The fruits of the forgery could not be surrendered. Catholic and Protestant historians alike now agree, however, that they were for the most part fictitious. There has been a wide divergency of view as to the place, time, and authorship. A few earlier scholars[333:2] held that they originated in Rome. This is now rejected by all modern scholars, because their arrival in Rome is almost exactly known. One year Pope Nicholas I. is ignorant of them, the next he asserts their authenticity.[333:3] They were probably carried to Rome by Rathod in 864.[333:4] Many contemporaries believed that they came from Spain as the work of Isidore of Seville, but it is generally acknowledged now that they were created in the Frankish Empire because the language swarms with Gallicisms, the style, phrases, and words are of the Frankish period, and the frequent use of the correspondence of Boniface shows that the archives of Mayence were consulted. It is probable that the first collection was made at Mayence, and the later and larger collection may have been made at Rheims.