Free English Translation
The Sentence of Pope Miltiades on the Case of Caecilian
Sententia de Caeciliani Causa
~1 min read · by Pope Miltiades
About The Sentence of Pope Miltiades on the Case of Caecilian
This brief judicial sentence records the ruling of Pope Miltiades in the case brought against Caecilian, bishop of Carthage, by the followers of Donatus. Acting on the matter referred to him by the emperor Constantine in 313 AD, Miltiades finds that Caecilian's accusers had not, by their own admission, brought a formal charge against him, and that Donatus had failed to convict him on any specific point. On these grounds he rules that Caecilian is to be maintained in full ecclesiastical communion, his standing unimpaired. Short as it is, the sentence marks the first formal verdict in the Donatist controversy that would divide North African Christianity for the next century.
By Pope Miltiades. Collected in Patrologia Latina, Volume 6.
Since it is established that Caecilianus is not accused by those who came with Donatus, according to their own profession, and since it is established that he has not been convicted by Donatus in any particular; I judge that he ought to be retained in his ecclesiastical communion with his status unimpaired.
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