and Deacons should live continent, being, by their Office, daily employed in the Divine Ministry[1269]. These Canons or Decrees, say the Roman Catholic Divines, are contained in a Letter, which _Syricius_ writ to the Bishops of _Africa_, and which was read, and received as a Law, by a Council held some Years after at _Tela_, in the Province of _Byzacene_, as appears from the Acts of that Council[1270]. _Ferrandus_, Deacon of _Carthage_, in his Abridgment of the Canons, done in the Sixth Century, often quotes the Letter of _Syricius_, and takes particular Notice of the Canons that were copied from it by the Council of _Tela_. The same Letter, together with the Acts of that Council, are to be found, Word for Word, in the antient Code of the Church of _Rome_. So that, upon the Whole, we cannot question, says _Baronius_, the Authenticity of that Piece, without rendering the Authority of every other Monument of Antiquity quite precarious, and leaving Men to their own wild and groundless Conjectures. But Men of Learning have, of late Years, been too much upon their Guard to admit, without the strictest Examination, any Piece, however authentic in Appearance, that seemed to countenance the extraordinary Power and Authority claimed by the Bishop of _Rome_. And not without Reason, since they well knew what Pains had been taken to banish Truth, by suppressing or adulterating the most authentic Records, and to establish Falshood, by substituting in their room fabulous Legends, spurious Letters, and Acts of Councils that never were held. As for the Letter ascribed to _Syricius_, it has been suspected ever since Criticism took place[1271], and lately rejected, as unquestionably supposititious, by F. _Quesnel_, who, in a learned Dissertation on that Subject, proves, in my Opinion, unanswerably, not only the Letter; but the Acts of the pretended Council of _Tela_, to have been forged, and inserted, in latter Times, into the Collection of _Ferrandus_, and the _Roman_ Code[1272][N28]. ----- Footnote N28: