diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index aade3e7a..3b28d901 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ### 2018-07-27 2.0.9 @sonofmun
+
  - Removed a random print statement that had been used for debugging empty references
 
 ### 2018-06-25 2.0.8 @sonofmun
diff --git a/MyCapytain/errors.py b/MyCapytain/errors.py
index 4a5b3e33..82bf5389 100644
--- a/MyCapytain/errors.py
+++ b/MyCapytain/errors.py
@@ -66,7 +66,12 @@ class EmptyReference(SyntaxWarning, MyCapytainException):
     """ Error generated when a duplicate is found in Reference
     """
 
-
+    
 class CitationDepthError(UnknownObjectError, MyCapytainException):
     """ Error generated when the depth of a requested citation is deeper than the citation scheme of the text
     """
+
+
+class MissingRefsDecl(Exception, MyCapytainException):
+    """ A text has no properly encoded refsDecl
+    """
diff --git a/MyCapytain/resources/texts/local/capitains/cts.py b/MyCapytain/resources/texts/local/capitains/cts.py
index f870d077..eeb62e21 100644
--- a/MyCapytain/resources/texts/local/capitains/cts.py
+++ b/MyCapytain/resources/texts/local/capitains/cts.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 import warnings
 
-from MyCapytain.errors import DuplicateReference, MissingAttribute, RefsDeclError, EmptyReference, CitationDepthError
+from MyCapytain.errors import DuplicateReference, MissingAttribute, RefsDeclError, EmptyReference, CitationDepthError, MissingRefsDecl
 from MyCapytain.common.utils import copyNode, passageLoop, normalizeXpath
 from MyCapytain.common.constants import XPATH_NAMESPACES, RDF_NAMESPACES
 from MyCapytain.common.reference import URN, Citation, Reference
@@ -454,6 +454,8 @@ def __findCRefPattern(self, xml):
             citation = xml.xpath("//tei:refsDecl[@n='CTS']", namespaces=XPATH_NAMESPACES)
             if len(citation):
                 self.citation = Citation.ingest(resource=citation[0], xpath=".//tei:cRefPattern")
+            else:
+                raise MissingRefsDecl("No reference declaration (refsDecl) found.")
 
     def test(self):
         """ Parse the object and generate the children
diff --git a/tests/resources/texts/local/commonTests.py b/tests/resources/texts/local/commonTests.py
index ee8018c8..98c3fbac 100644
--- a/tests/resources/texts/local/commonTests.py
+++ b/tests/resources/texts/local/commonTests.py
@@ -247,10 +247,8 @@ def test_complex_reffs(self):
 
     def test_xml_no_refs_Decl(self):
         """ Test the result of parsing when there is no citation """
-        text = self.parse("tests/testing_data/texts/refsDeclButNoCTS.xml")
-        self.assertEqual(
-            text.citation.isEmpty(), True, "There should be no citation"
-        )
+        with self.assertRaises(MyCapytain.errors.MissingRefsDecl):
+            self.parse("tests/testing_data/texts/refsDeclButNoCTS.xml")
 
     def test_xml_with_xml_id(self):
         """ Test that xml:id is Citation xpath works fine in passage retriaval """