 In the "Directa", the Pope dealt with the fact that clerics (deacons, priests, and bishops) were still living with their wives and having children, thus contravening the Council of Elvira and the First Ecumenical Council.Priests were justifying this by referring to the traditions of the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament.Siricius was emphatic that clerical continence belonged to immemorial, even apostolic, tradition.