THERE IS CONVINCING EVIDENCE FROM HIGHLY CREDIBLE SOURCES THAT BRITAIN RECEIVED THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD direct from Palestine within a few years of the Crucifixion. Some of the apostles — Paul in particular — visited Britain. The antiquity of the ancient British Church, never in any degree subordinate to Rome, has been established beyond doubt. The firm Glastonbury tradition that Joseph of Arimathea and his companions formed there the first Christian community in Britain is substantially supported.
The Sonnini Manuscript, translated from the Greek by C.S. Sonnini from an original manuscript found in the archives of Constantinople, was presented to him by the Sultan Abdoul Achmet.
Sonnini was travelling in the Middle East during the reign of Louis XVI — who held the French throne from 1774 to 1793. He published his travels, in French, between those two dates and after his discovery of the manuscript. The manuscript itself was translated into English and published sometime late in 1799 and was available — at the earliest — sometime around 1800.
The manuscript was found interleaved in a copy of Sonnini’s Travels in Turkey and Greece, and purchased at the sale of the library and effects of the late Right Hon. Sir John Newport, in Ireland, whose family arms are engraved on the cover of the book. This book had been in the possession of the family for more than thirty years — along with a copy of the firman of the Sultan of Turkey, granting to CS. Sonnini permission to travel in all parts of the Ottoman dominions.