Another Letter, universally ascribed to _Syricius_, has reached our Times. It is written in a very perplexed and obscure Style; bears no Date; is not to be found either in _Dionysius Exiguus_, or any antient Code; and is addressed to _all the Orthodox dwelling in different Provinces_[1253]: which is manifestly a Mistake, since _Syricius_ desires those, to whom it is addressed, to confirm it with their Subscriptions, which cannot be understood but of _Bishops_. However, as it is received by all as genuine, I shall not take upon me to reject it as spurious. The Subject of this Letter is the Ordination of the Ministers of the Church; and the First Article is against those who pretend to pass from the Vanities of the World to the Episcopal Dignity. _Syricius_ writes, that they came often to him, attended with numerous Retinues, begging him to ordain them; but that they had never been able to prevail upon him to grant them their Request. In the Second Article he complains of the Monks, who were constantly wandering about the Country, and on whom the Bishops chose rather to confer holy Orders, and the Episcopal Dignity itself, than to relieve them with Alms. The Third and last Article forbids a Layman or Neophyte to be ordained either Deacon or Presbyter. If this Letter be genuine, _Syricius_ was the first Bishop of _Rome_ who styled himself _Pope_, as _Papebrok_ well observes[1254]; for the Title of his Letter, as transmitted to us, runs thus; _Pope Syricius to the Orthodox_, &c. The Word imports no more than Father, and it was antiently given, out of Respect, to all Bishops, as I have observed elsewhere; but I have found none before _Syricius_ who distinguished themselves with that Title. [Sidenote: Jerom _retires from_ Rome.] _Jerom_ continued at _Rome_ some Months after the Death of his great Patron _Damasus_. But, finding himself obnoxious to the _Roman_ Clergy, for the Liberty he had taken in some of his Writings to censure their effeminate and licentious Lives, and, on the other hand, not being countenanced and supported by _Syricius_, as he had been by his Predecessor, he thought it adviseable to abandon that City, and return to _Palæstine_. Some pretend, but without sufficient Authority, that _Syricius_ joined the rest in reviling and persecuting him. [Sidenote: _The Usurper_ Maximus _writs to_ Syricius.]