Note N21 — St. PETER (continued 6)

The Jesuit Papebrok highly extols this Letter[1], but, at the same time, does not think it quite pure and genuine, because the Date, says he, has been added to it; for the other Letters of Syricius, and likewise those of his Predecessors, bear no Date. But can we conclude from thence, that they never had any? Some of the Letters of Innocent I. are dated, and some without a Date, and he admits both. The Transcribers contented themselves, for the most part, with copying the Body of the Letter, and neglected the rest. Papebrok adds, that the Date ought to have been expressed thus: Arcadio Aug. et Bautone viro clar. Conss. and not Arcadio et Bautone viris clarissimis, as it is in that Letter. But might not this Mistake be owing to the Ignorance of the Transcribers, who, finding, in the Original, only the Two Letters, V. C. which are to be met with in many antient Writings, set down viris clarissimis, instead of viro clarissimo? Papebrok must have observed the same Mistake in the Letter, which Pope Innocent I. writ to the Council of Milevum[2], and which he allows to be altogether genuine. For Slips or Oversights of this Nature, hardly avoidable, no Piece ought to be condemned, or even suspected.