In 1716, in a letter to William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bentley announced his plan to prepare a critical edition of the New Testament. During the next four years, assisted by J. J. Wetstein, an eminent biblical critic, he collected materials for the work. In 1720 he published "Proposals for a New Edition of the Greek Testament", with examples of how he intended to proceed. By comparing the text of the Vulgate with that of the oldest Greek manuscripts, Bentley proposed to restore the Greek text as received by the church at the time of the Council of Nicaea. Bentley's lead manuscript was "Codex Alexandrinus", which he described as "the oldest and best in the world". Bentley used also manuscripts: 51, 54, 60, 113, 440, 507, and 508. John Walker worked over many manuscripts for the project, particularly in Paris with the help of the Maurists. Numerous subscribers were obtained to support publication of the work, but he never completed it.