Note N26 — St. PETER (continued 6)

That these two Bishops should have applied to St. Ambrose, and not to Syricius, is what Baronius cannot brook; and therefore to bring in, right or wrong, the Bishop of Rome, he quotes a Passage of the Council of Toledo, where the Fathers of that Assembly, speaking of the Letter which St. Ambrose had written in favour of Symphosius and Dictinius, adds the following Words in a Parenthesis; Which Things were likewise suggested by Pope Syricius, of holy Memory[1]. But as these Words have no manner of Connection with the rest, it is manifest they have been foisted in on Purpose to bring Syricius upon the Stage; and were we to admit them as genuine, we could only conclude from thence, that Syricius too had written to the Bishops of Spain in behalf of Symphosius and Dictinius. Baronius indeed goes a great way farther; for he infers from the above-mentioned Words, that St. Ambrose acted by the Advice and Direction of Syricius; and from thence by a second Inference, which could occur to none but himself, that both Ambrose, and Simplicius, who succeeded him in the See of Milan, were the Pope’s Legates[2]. It is by such far-fetched Inferences and Deductions that he endeavours, throughout his voluminous Performance, to mislead his unwary Readers into a Belief of the Pope’s Supremacy.