The first prominent French scholar to " preach Christ from the sources " was Jacques Lefebvre of Etaples, who in 1512 published a new Latin translation of the epistles of St Paul.
While he gave full toleration to the Greek Churches, he created new Latin bishoprics at Syracuse and Girgenti and elsewhere, nominating the bishops personally, while he turned the archbishopric of Palermo into a Catholic see.
An important feature of the volume was the new Latin version, the original being placed alongside as a guarantee of the translator's good faith.
Erasmus in 1516 published the New Testament in Greek, with a new Latin version of his own; the Hebrew text of the Old Testament had been published as early as 1488.
He presently republished it (in modified form), with his remarks, at the end of a new Latin dialogue which he had meanwhile written in defence of another part of his philosophical doctrine.
