The endogenous transcriptase present in purified vesicular stomatitis (VS) virions was solubilized with a Triton X-100 high-salt solution. The polymerase activity was purified on glycerol gradients and by phosphocellulose column chromatography; the viral proteins present in the active enzyme fractions were identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It was demonstrated that L protein, but not NS protein, was required for in vitro RNA synthesis on the VS viral nucleocapsid template. Solubilized L protein rebinds to the ribonucleoprotein template when the transcription complex is reconstituted, and the RNA synthesized in vitro by purified L protein hybridizes to virion RNA. Cyanogen bromide peptide fingerprints indicate that the large L protein is a unique polypeptide chain. It is concluded that the L protein functions as the transcriptase, and the nucleocapsid NS protein is not essential for in vitro RNA synthesis.