FELIX the Fourth, Bishop of Rome.
AFter the Death of John, the Holy See was vacant for almost two Months, and at last Theodoric * 1.1 caus'd to be chose in his room Felix, the fourth of that Name, who continued in the Holy See until the twelfth day of October in the Year 529. There are three Letters which go under the Name of this Pope, but the two first are manifestly supposititious, being nothing but a Collection of Passages patch'd together out of the Letters of St. Innocent, St. Leo, St. Gregory, and the forged Let∣ters to St. Clement and Damasus. The third, which is addres'd to Caesarius Bishop of Arles, was some time attributed to Felix the Third, because of the Name of the Consul Boetius which is found in it, altho Caesarius was not yet Bishop under that Consulship. But F. Sirmondus has found in a Manuscript the Name of Mavortius, instead of that of Boetius; which discovers that this Letter is Felix the Fourth's, and of the Year 528. There he approves the Canon made by the Bishops of the Gauls, wherein it was forbidden to promote a Lay-man to the Priesthood, unless he were first tried.