I have done a lot of my own research on the Vindicate Salvatoris - [which i will post on line soon] but i note Stephen Anderson has picked up on an error of Smiths.

Paul Smith Gets It Wrong

In what seems to be a gift from God, Paul Smith gives me yet another example of where the hand-written text to a document can be misread which leads to incorrect translations. In his article “Vindicta Salvatoris “Tomb of Christ” Translation” at http://www.priory-of-sion.com/rlc/vindictatranslation.html, he takes issue with one of Christian Doumergue’s translations in his book La tombe perdue.  Smith transcribes the last sentence from the Vindicta Salvatoris... as “Et fecit speluncam in nomine domini nostri christi mille annos requievit in pace adjuvante domino nostro christo qui vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculorum.  This he translates into English as: “And he made a cave in the name of our Lord Christ and it has remained undisturbed for a thousand years with the help of Our Lord Christ who lives and reigns for ever and ever.”  The MS, however, actually does not read mille annos but in illo anno, and so means “in that year he (Tiberius) rested in peace...” etc.  The singular anno should have been a hint that mille was incorrect.  Smith’s translation is doubly odd because it actually makes the cave sound more interesting than it does in the correct translation.  My thanks to Peter O’Reilly for spotting this and for his extensive knowledge of Latin.