Papyrus 1571 of the Michigan Collection was bought in Cairo in 1924 in a large purchase, which was allotted to the contributing institutions by Mr. H. I. Bell of the British Museum. Many documents in the Michigan part of the purchase came from the Fayûm, but no further evidence is obtainable regarding the place of origin of this fragment. It came to us in three pieces, of which one was only partly unfolded and all were so dirty as to be rather illegible, but the papyrus was already designated as a portion of Acts and dated in the fourth century.

Toward the end of the first century the Christian church at Rome seems to have made a convert of whom it was never very proud. He was not a great man. His writings were not included in the New Testament, though they were seriously considered for it. But his book throws a flood of light on the life, the labors, the trials, the hopes, the fears of Christians at about the time when the canonical books were being selected and put together into a collection.

The general public in France is singularly uninformed on questions of religion. Persons in other respects very well educated are frequently lacking in the most elementary notions of the doctrines and history of Christianity. Men who would be ashamed if they were caught taking Virgil for a Greek poet or Demosthenes for a Roman orator, unblushingly display an astonishing ignorance about the books of the Bible, and will suppose, for example, that the New Testament was written in Hebrew, or in Syriac, or even in Arabic, and the Old Testament in Latin. On the part of the small group of scholars who occupy themselves with the history of Christianity, efforts have been made to combat this ignorance and to awaken some interest in questions which the university programs systematically ignore. Plans have been sketched, but difficulties of every kind have prevented putting them into effect. Some steps have been taken, but as yet only too few; some books of an untechnical character, capable of being understood by anyone of moderate education, have been published, but so far they have not succeeded in shaking the general indifference.