Primary source · Latin
The Acts and Synodal Letter of the Council of Arles (314)
The Council of Arles; preserved in the appendix to Optatus of Milevis · 1 August AD 314
What this text is
The first council of the whole Western church, called by Constantine after the Donatists refused to accept the Roman verdict of 313 clearing Caecilian of Carthage. Twenty-two canons, a letter to Sylvester of Rome subscribed by thirty-four bishops, and a subscription list of the acta surviving separately in the sixth- or seventh-century Corbie codex — which is where the three British bishops, their presbyter and their deacon appear. Constantine attended in person; Marinus of Arles presided; Sylvester sent four legates in his place. Canon 1 fixed a single date for Pascha throughout the world, canon 8 upheld the validity of baptism given by heretics in the Trinitarian name, and canon 20 ruled that three bishops sufficed to consecrate — the ruling that vindicated Caecilian.
Public-domain translations
O. R. Vassall-Phillips, The Work of St Optatus against the Donatists (London, 1917)
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Concilia Galliae A.314–A.506, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 148, pp. 9–25Charles Munier, 1963the critical Latin text
- The Work of St Optatus against the Donatists, appendicesO. R. Vassall-Phillips, 1917English, public domain
- Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 1, p. 7Arthur West Haddan and William Stubbs, 1869the British subscriptions
Figures named in this text (39)
- Acratius
- Ambitausus
- Aristasius
- Arminius
- Avitianus
- Claudianus
- Crescens (subscriber at Arles)
- Cyriacus
- Dafnus
- Epictetus
- Eugenius the Roman legate
- Faustinus (subscriber at Arles)
- Fortunatus
- Gregory (first of the name at Arles)
- Gregory (second of the name at Arles)
- Hibernius
- Lampadius
- Liberius
- Merocles
- Natalis
- Orantalis
- Pardus
- Probatius
- Proterius
- Quintasius
- Sacerdos
- Surgentius
- Termatius
- Theodore
- Verus
- Victor
- Vitalis
- Vitus
- Vocius
- Adelphius
- Maternus of Cologne
- Marinus of Arles
- Reticius of Autun
- Caecilian of Carthage
The canons and the subscription list of the first council of the whole Western church, called by Constantine to settle the Donatist appeal against Caecilian of Carthage. The subscriptions are why this document matters to a prosopography: they name some thirty-four bishops with their cities, including three from Roman Britain — Eborius of York, Restitutus of London and Adelphius — the earliest firm evidence for an organised British church.