Page "Book burning" Paragraph 4

According to scholar Elaine Pagels, " In AD 367, Athanasius, the zealous bishop of Alexandria ... issued an Easter letter in which he demanded that Egyptian monks destroy all such unacceptable writings, except for those he specifically listed as ' acceptable ' even ' canonical ' — a list that constitutes the present ' New Testament '".

Although Pagels cites Athanasius's Paschal letter ( letter 39 ) for 367 AD, there is no order for monks to destroy heretical works contained in that letter.