way the aforesaid cause may be most accurately investigated and justly decided, since it does not escape your diligence that I show such regard for the Holy Catholic Church, that I wish you, upon the whole, to leave no room for schism or division. May the power of the great God preserve you many years, most esteemed."
From the foregoing documents we must conclude, that the Donatists did not appeal to Rome, but to the Emperor; that they did not ask the arbitration of the Bishop of Rome, but of the Gallican bishops; that it was the Emperor who added of his own motion the Bishop of Rome and Mark to the three Gallican bishops whom he had chosen. Is there in all this the shadow of an argument in favour of the. sovereign authority of the Bishop of Rome? Could the choice of the place seem important? Evidently not, for there is nothing peculiar in Constantine's choosing the city whither one could most easily go from both Africa and Gaul; and this choice explains why he added Miltiades and Mark to the judges asked for by the Donatists. It would have been very improper to send bishops to Rome to judge an ecclesiastical cause, without asking the intervention of those who were at the head of the Roman Church. It is thus easy to see why Constantine named Miltiades and Mark judges in the case of the Donatists, although their intervention had not been asked.
Fifteen other Italian bishops went to Rome for this affair. The council pronounced in favor of Cæcilianus. The Bishop of Rome having been of the council, the sentence would necessarily have been regarded as final if his sovereign authority had been recognized. Such was not the case.
The Donatists complained that the Gallican bishops whom they had asked for were too few in number at Rome, and demanded a more numerous council, in which their cause should be examined with more care.
