Letters (Epistulae)

and Samaria and to the ends of the earth," the Son of God said with His own mouth. Caecilian, bishop of the church of Carthage, is accused by human disputes; the Church of Christ, established in all nations, is commended by divine voices. Piety itself, truth, and love do not permit us to accept against Caecilian the testimony of those men whom we do not see in the Church, to which God Himself bears witness; for those who do not follow divine testimonies have lost the weight of human testimony.

II 6 I add that they themselves sent the case of Caecilian to the judgment of the Emperor Constantine by accusing him; indeed, they brought Caecilian himself, after episcopal judgments where they could not crush him, to the examination of the aforementioned emperor by their most persistent persecutions. And what they now criticize in us, in order to deceive the inexperienced, saying that Christians ought not to ask anything of Christian emperors against the enemies of Christ, they themselves did first. This, even in the conlatio conference which we held together at Carthage, they did not dare to deny; indeed, they even dared to boast that their elders had criminally pursued Caecilian before the emperor, adding furthermore the lie that they had conquered him there and caused him to be condemned. How, therefore, are they not persecutors, who, when they persecuted Caecilian by accusing him and were defeated by him, wished to arrogate to themselves a false glory by a most shameless lie, not only not thinking it a fault but even boasting of it for their own praise, if they could prove that Caecilian was condemned by their elders accusing him? However, as to how they were defeated in that same conference in every way, because the proceedings are very long and you are occupied with other matters necessary for the Roman peace, it may perhaps be possible for the summary of them to be read to you...

Historical context: The conference (conlatio) mentioned refers to the 411 AD meeting between Catholic and Donatist bishops convened by the Emperor Honorius.