The Two Babylons and the Pagan-Origins Genre
Its own later populariser withdrew his support after independently checking the original sources and finding them misrepresented — a rare case of a writer publicly retracting his own book after auditing its evidence.
Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons (1853); Ralph Woodrow's retraction, The Babylon Connection? (1997)
An influential 1853 book claiming Catholic ritual is disguised ancient Babylonian worship, and the whole genre of 'pagan origins' writing it founded.