Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 176
? 176 After the close of the Turko-Russian War (1877–1878) a Russian traveller named Nicholas Notovitch, after visiting many coun- tries, finally (in 1887) reached India. In the course of one of his visits to a Buddhist convent, he learned from the chief Lama that there existed very ancient memoirs, treating the life of Jesus and of the nation of the Occident, in the archives of Lassa. On his return to Europe he arranged the notes containing the life of Jesus. With a view to their publication he submitted them for revision to Monsegneur Platon, the celebrated Archbishop of Kiev. He, though believing the importance of the discovery tried to dissuade him from giving the memoirs publicity, declaring that it would be against his own interest to do so. Why? He refused to explain. A year later he chanced to be in Rome and submitted the manuscript to a cardinal, standing high in the estimation of the Holy Father. ‘Why should you print this?’ He said: ‘Nobody will attach much importance to it, and you will create numberless enemies thereby; and if you need money I can give some com- pensation for the notes. ’ This offer he naturally refused. In parts he laid his project before Cardinal Rotelli, whom he had met in Constantinople. He also opposed the publication of the work, under the pretext that it would be premature. ‘The Church’, he added, ‘suffers too deeply from this new current of atheistic ideas: and you would only furnish new food to the detractors of the Evangelical Doctrine. ’ At last he published his book under title ‘The Unknown Life of Jesus’ 1 , adding: 1. In the British Museum I have seen two English translations of this book, which originally was published in French. One of them is by Alexina Loranger, published by Rand McNally & Co. , publishers, Chicago and New York, 1894.