Pope Saint Miltiades (311-314)

The first pope after the great persecution

Miltiades is elected after a trauma. Under Marcellinus, the edict of Diocletian had ordered the destruction of churches, the seizure of the Scriptures and the civic degradation of Christians.^[5] Under Marcellus I and Eusebius, the question of the fallen Christians had torn Rome apart to the point of provoking the exile of two popes under Maxentius.^[6][7]

Miltiades therefore does not receive a triumphant Church, but a Church barely breathing after persecution. Peace does not fall upon an intact institution: places of worship must be recovered, cemeteries put back into use, communities reunited, and penitents welcomed without falsifying the holiness of the Church.

An African pope facing an African crisis

The Liber Pontificalis calls him "African by nationality".^[8] The official entry of the Holy See also gives Africa as his birthplace.^[9] This detail becomes striking when we know that his great dossier comes precisely from North Africa: the contested election of Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage, and the opposition of Donatus.

It would be going too far to draw a complete psychology from this. The sources give neither his mother tongue, nor his formation, nor his African networks. But the fact remains: after Victor I, another African pope associated with a major disciplinary controversy, Miltiades belongs to this small series of Roman pastors from the African Latin world, at the very moment when Christian Africa becomes one of the great theological homes of the Church.^[10][11]

The pope of the first Christian Lateran

Tradition attaches to his pontificate the gift of the Lateran estate by Constantine to the Roman see.^[12][13] This historical fact must be distinguished from the false medieval Donation of Constantine: Miltiades does not receive the imperial West; the Roman Church rather enters into possession of a complex that will become the pontifical residence and the cathedral centre of Rome.^[14]

The symbol is considerable. Before the Constantinian basilica of Saint Peter, before Nicaea, before the great buildings of Sylvester, the Lateran becomes the place where the bishop of Rome can hold an assembly and publicly judge a crisis come from Africa. The peace of the Church is therefore not only juridical; it also becomes architectural, liturgical and institutional.

Table of the principal witnesses

Liberian Catalogue and Depositio episcoporum

The Liberian Catalogue gives Miltiades three years, six months and eight days, from the sixth day before the nones of July to the third day before the ides of January, under the consuls Volusianus and Annianus, that is January 314.^[15] The present official list of the Holy See retains 2 July 311 and 10 January 314.^[16] Johann Peter Kirsch, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, explicitly names the alternative: election on 2 July 310 or 311, death on 10 or 11 January 314 — the Liberian Catalogue giving the 3rd day before the ides of January (11 January) and the Depositio the 4th day (10 January).^[17]

The Depositio episcoporum of the Chronography of 354 notes for its part: IIII idus Ianuarias, Miltiadis, in Callisti, † 314 — the fourth day before the ides of January, Miltiades, at Callistus, 314.^[18] The place matters: Miltiades enters the Constantinian peace, but he rests in the underground memory of the persecuted Church.

The Liber Pontificalis: Africa, discipline, burial

The Liber Pontificalis presents Miltiades as African, attributes to him a longer duration according to a confused chronology, and reports two disciplinary traditions: the prohibition of fasting on Sunday or Thursday, and the sending of the Eucharistic ferment to the churches from the consecration of the bishop.^[19]

Louise Ropes Loomis notes that the consular synchronisms of this period are confused, notably because of the consuls recognised by Maxentius.^[20] As for the liturgical decisions, they may preserve the memory of ancient Roman practices, but their personal attribution to Miltiades cannot be demonstrated with certainty. The method is therefore simple: receive the tradition, but rank it.

311: the toleration of Galerius

The first turning point precedes Constantine at Rome. On 30 April 311, Galerius publishes at Nicomedia an edict of toleration that officially ends the general persecution he had supported. Eusebius preserves this text: Christians may exist anew, on condition of not disturbing public order, and they must pray for the emperors and the State.^[21]

This edict is not yet religious liberty in the sense of Milan. It resembles an armistice wrested by failure. But for the Church, it opens a decisive breach: communities can reconstitute themselves, reclaim property, reorganise liturgical life and come out of forced clandestinity.

312: the Milvian Bridge

On 28 October 312, Constantine defeats Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge and enters Rome. The Catholic Encyclopedia sums up the effect for Miltiades: the pope sees the "final victory of the Cross" through the defeat of Maxentius and the entry of Constantine into the city.^[22] Simplifications must be avoided: Constantine is not yet the model catechumen of a complete hagiography, and his Christian path remains gradual. But the political change is real.

For the Roman Church, this victory means the end of the arbitrariness of Maxentius, the very one who had exiled Marcellus I and Eusebius during the troubles linked to the lapsi, the Christians fallen under persecution.^[23][24] Miltiades becomes the first pope to deal with an imperial power favourable to Christianity.

313: Milan and the restitution of property

In 313, Constantine and Licinius agree at Milan on freedom of worship for Christians and other religions. Eusebius preserves the imperial letter ordering that the property of the Church be restored without payment: houses, gardens, places and possessions must return to the Christian communities.^[25]

At Rome, Kirsch notes that the emperor gives Miltiades the right to receive, through the prefect of the city, the ecclesiastical buildings and possessions confiscated during the persecution.^[26] This restitution is material, but also theological in act: the Church does not emerge from persecution as a tolerated private association; it recovers a public visibility.

A political place become an ecclesial place

Tradition places under Miltiades the handing over of the Lateran estate to the bishop of Rome.^[27][28] The site came from an aristocratic property passed into the imperial orbit, notably through Fausta, wife of Constantine and sister of Maxentius. After the victory of Constantine, the place becomes available for Christian use.^[29]

The importance of the Lateran comes from the fact that it is not first a martyr's tomb, unlike the Vatican or Saint Paul Outside the Walls. It becomes the house of the pastoral government of Rome. The future basilica of the Most Holy Saviour, later Saint John Lateran, will be the cathedral of the pope as bishop of Rome.^[30]

Not to be confused with the false Donation of Constantine

Historical criticism has shown that the Donation of Constantine, a medieval document attributing to the pope a massive transfer of imperial sovereignty, is a forgery composed several centuries later.^[31] This does not destroy the Lateran tradition. On the contrary, it obliges us to formulate it correctly: the Roman Church did receive property and places of worship very early; it did not receive from Constantine the mythical juridical act that the Middle Ages fabricated.

This distinction is salutary for a Catholic encyclopedia. Defending the history of the Church does not consist in sanctifying every transmitted document, but in separating the solid, the probable, the legendary and the false.

The crisis of Carthage

Donatism is born of a very concrete wound. In Africa, after the persecution of Diocletian, the election of Caecilianus as bishop of Carthage is contested. His adversaries maintain notably that his consecrator, Felix of Aptunga, had been a traditor, that is guilty of having handed over the Scriptures during the persecution.^[32]

An African council led by Secundus of Tigisis condemns Caecilianus and installs Majorinus; then Donatus becomes the head of the separate party.^[33] The question is therefore not an administrative quarrel: it touches the holiness of the Church, the validity of ministry, the possibility of remaining in communion with sinners, and the temptation to create a Church of the pure.

The letter of Constantine to Miltiades

The adversaries of Caecilianus carry the matter to Constantine. The emperor does not decide himself at first: he writes to Miltiades, bishop of Rome, and to Marcus, sending them the dossier transmitted by Anulinus. He orders that Caecilianus come to Rome with ten accusing bishops and ten bishops chosen for his defence, so that the matter be heard before Miltiades and three bishops of Gaul: Reticius, Maternus and Marinus.^[34]

"Let this matter be decided there, in your presence and in that of Reticius, Maternus and Marinus, your colleagues, in the manner you shall know to be in conformity with the most holy law." — Constantine, letter to Miltiades and Marcus^[35]

The fact is capital for the history of the Roman primacy. The emperor does not merely convene any commission; he places the judgment at Rome, with the bishop of Rome, together with associated bishops. Primacy appears here as a judicial service of communion, not as a solitary power detached from the episcopate.

The Roman synod of 2 October 313

The synod meets at Rome on 2 October 313 and deliberates for three days; the closing on 4 October, sometimes given, is an inference from this duration, not a date attested by Kirsch.^[36] Optatus of Milevis, in the Vassall-Phillips translation (1917), reports that nineteen bishops sit — the Catholic Encyclopedia, on the same dossier, counts eighteen assembled at the Lateran under the presidency of Miltiades; the gap comes from the editions and the mode of counting.^[37] The case of Donatus and that of Caecilianus are examined, and the witnesses of Donatus can establish nothing against Caecilianus. Caecilianus is declared innocent; Donatus is condemned notably for having rebaptised and imposed penance on fallen bishops, practices foreign to Catholic discipline.^[38]

"I judge that Caecilianus, as he deserves, remains in the communion of the Church, keeping his rank intact." — Adapted English summary of the council's sentence, after Optatus, I, 24^[39]

The decision is not a mere party victory. Augustine, nearly a century later, will praise precisely the quality of the judgment of Miltiades: he does not crush all adversaries indiscriminately; he condemns above all Donatus as the principal cause of the trouble, and he provides solutions of communion for the others, including where two rival bishops existed.^[40]

Why Donatism is so grave

Donatism turns a true demand for holiness into a rupture against catholicity. It starts from a real scandal: Christians handed over the sacred books, certain pastors are suspect. But it draws a false conclusion from it: the visible Church would be soiled by the presence of sinners, and the sacraments would depend on the purity of the minister.

The Catholic answer, carried by Miltiades then developed by Augustine, holds truth and mercy together. It is not a matter of denying the faults of the traditores, those who had handed over the Scriptures during the persecution. It is a matter of refusing that the fault of a minister destroy the action of Christ, or that the search for a pure Church produce a rival altar.

Augustine: Miltiades, judge of peace

The Letter 43 of Saint Augustine is one of the strongest texts on Miltiades. Augustine answers the Donatists who contest the right of the bishop of Rome and his colleagues to judge the matter. He recalls that the Donatists themselves brought the matter to the emperor, and that the emperor entrusted it to bishops.^[41]

Then he lingers over the sentence of Miltiades:

"What a decision was finally pronounced by the blessed Melchiades himself; how equitable, how complete, how prudent, and how fitted to make peace!" — Saint Augustine, Letter 43^[42]

Augustine goes so far as to call him an "excellent man", a "son of Christian peace" and a "father of the Christian people".^[43] This portrait is not sentimental. It says exactly the grace of Miltiades: he was neither lax nor violent; he sought a justice capable of restoring peace.

A primacy exercised with bishops

The synod of 313 shows a very ancient Catholic balance. Miltiades occupies the central place of the judgment, but he does not judge alone. Constantine adjoins to him bishops of Gaul; the synod more broadly gathers bishops; the decision is ecclesial.^[44][45]

This structure answers two caricatures. It refutes the idea of a purely honorary Rome, incapable of judging a crisis outside its territory. It also refutes the image of an isolated primacy absorbing the episcopate. Rome serves unity with the bishops, and the bishops find at Rome a place of judgment for a crisis that goes beyond Africa.

The first dossier between Christian empire and Church

Miltiades is also placed before a dangerous novelty: a favourable emperor intervenes in an ecclesial matter. Constantine wants the religious peace of his provinces; he writes in Christian language and speaks of the "legitimate and most holy Catholic Church".^[46] But he remains emperor, not bishop.

The Catholic answer does not consist in refusing all civil help. Confiscated property must be returned; the movements of bishops may be facilitated; public order counts. But the doctrinal and sacramental matter is referred to the bishops. Miltiades thus inaugurates a problem that will run through all Christian history: how to receive the help of power without surrendering to it the interior government of the Church?

A decision confirmed but contested

The Donatists do not accept the judgment. Constantine then convenes the council of Arles for 1 August 314, but Miltiades dies in January of the same year; it is his successor Sylvester who receives the sequel of the dossier.^[47][48] Arles will confirm the anti-Donatist line and formulate notably that ordination received from a traditor — a minister having handed over the Scriptures — is not invalid for that reason alone.^[49]

The death of Miltiades before Arles does not diminish his role. He rendered the first Roman judgment. The schism will continue for centuries, but the Catholic line is already laid down: not to rebaptise, not to create a rival altar, not to confuse the holiness of the Church with the absolute purity of all its ministers.

Sunday and the Eucharistic ferment

The Liber Pontificalis affirms that Miltiades forbade the faithful to fast on Sunday or Thursday, because the pagans observed these days as sacred fasts.^[50] Even if the personal attribution remains uncertain, the logic is profoundly Catholic: Sunday is not a day of sadness, but the day of the risen Lord.

The same notice says that Miltiades ordered the sending of the consecrated offerings to the churches from the consecration of the bishop; they are called the "ferment".^[51] This practice of the fermentum, known in the ancient Roman liturgy, signifies the communion between the bishop and the urban titles. It suits Miltiades spiritually, pope of restored unity, even if historical prudence obliges us not to turn it into a certain contemporary decree.

A death as confessor, not a proven martyrdom

Miltiades dies on 10 January 314 at Rome.^[52][53] Certain traditions have called him martyr. The Hieronymian Martyrology, compiled in the second half of the 5th century, already celebrated him on 10 January; the present Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 10 January, the day of his death, under the name "Miltiades" and without the qualifier of martyr — the 1969 reform of the calendar having removed his memory of 10 December from the general calendar to leave it to particular calendars; from the 13th century to 1969, his feast stood on 10 December under the name "Melchiades", with the erroneous qualifier of "martyr".^[54] Modern criticism is more sober: the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that there is no proof of martyrdom.^[55]

This nuance does not diminish his sanctity. Many popes of antiquity are saints without their death being bloody. Miltiades suffered the time of persecution, governed the exit from crisis, defended Catholic peace and carried the first answer to the African schism. It is a sanctity of pastor, not of spectacular narrative.

Callistus and the continuity of the catacombs

The Liber Pontificalis and the Depositio episcoporum place his burial in the catacomb of Callistus, on the Appian Way.^[56][57] The place is theologically eloquent. Miltiades enters the Constantinian peace, but he rests in the underground memory of the persecuted Church.

There is no rupture between the catacombs and the Lateran. The same Christians who had prayed in the cemeteries will soon gather in the basilicas. Miltiades holds this passage: the body of the Church comes out of the earth, but it does not deny its martyrs.

A saint for exits from crisis

Miltiades is a particularly timely saint for periods when the Church comes out of a trial. After a persecution, the temptations are known: settling scores, denying wounds, building a party purity, rejoicing too quickly at political favour, or confusing the help of power with the mission of the Church.

The greatness of Miltiades is to have chosen another way: receiving restored property without becoming a courtier; judging Donatus without humiliating all his partisans; upholding Caecilianus without denying the gravity of the traditores, those who had handed over the Scriptures; entering the Lateran without forgetting Callistus.

"Clemency has not wronged justice, nor has justice been at variance with clemency." — Saint Augustine, Letter 43, on the judgment of Miltiades^[58]

The surest facts

The synthesis in one formula

Saint Miltiades is the African pope of the first Constantinian peace. In less than three years, he sees the Church come out of persecution, recover its property, enter the orbit of the Lateran, and confront the first great African schism born of the wounds of Diocletian. His sanctity is not that of a great doctor whose treatises would have come down to us; it is that of a judge of peace who holds justice and clemency together at the moment when the Church could have fractured.

• Pope Saint Marcellinus (296-304) — pope of the great persecution of Diocletian and of the contested dossier of the traditores (those who had handed over the Scriptures).
• Pope Saint Marcellus I (308-309) — pope of the Roman recovery and of the welcome of the lapsi, the Christians fallen under persecution.
• Pope Saint Eusebius (309) — immediate predecessor of Miltiades, died exiled in Sicily.
• Pope Saint Sylvester I — successor of Miltiades, pope of the long Constantinian age.
• Donatism — African schism born around the traditores — those who had handed over the Scriptures —, the purity of the Church and rebaptism.
• The Basilica of the Lateran — cathedral of Rome and historic centre of pontifical government.