The unique value of the Sententiae LXXXVII episcoporum, as von Soden pointed out as early as 1909, was that it was the earliest of that rare document, the protocol, in which each episcopal opinion was summarised without however recording interventions, objections and further arguments (pp. 28–9). Usual communication between the Churches on the outcomes of councils was in the form of synodical letters recording judgements and conclusions of the whole, but not the specific contribution of each bishop. Batiffol located the form of the procedure witnessed in the protocol in that of the Roman senate (p. 34). Bernardini focuses not upon the themes of the council, the particular doctrinal views on baptism of the participants and suchlike but upon the council itself and its global outcome as it was to affect the participants in their historical context. He proposes accordingly to examine a series of successive text echoes of the opinions expressed (pp. 62–3). For Cyprian a bishop ordained within the Catholic Church cannot dispense the Church's gifts if he leaves the Church: even in his case his baptising outside the Church cannot be valid (pp. 80–1). There is no issue of his act being efficacious ex opere operato, as would later be argued. Bernardini's analysis of ep. lxxiii (to Jubaianus) in the light of associated letters and the anonymous De rebaptismate enables him to reconstruct several variant themes in different arguments that in different ways favour the case of his opponents (pp. 99–102). He then provides the text and translation of the Sententiae themselves, with a useful commentary (pp. 223–373.) As von Soden originally pointed out, Cyprian's letters were collected and arranged according to themes, according to the manuscript. Thus the reception of the Sententiae was influenced by its appearing in the group of letters, appearing between epps lxxiii, lxxi, lxx, and lxxiv and xlix. Mercati morever noted that, in a Paris manuscript (C), Tours (T) and Verona (V) a scribe in Carthage and close in time to the events, had noted the tituli gloriosi of ‘confessor’ or ‘martyr’ or both against the names of bishops appearing in the Sententiae (pp. 385–8). Augustine was important for the reception of Cyprian's image. The former could reconcile Cyprian's baptismal theology with that of Rome by insisting that the sacraments were valid outside the Catholic Church though they were not efficacious (pp. 390–1). Bernardini then continues to find traces of the influence, albeit negative, throughout later collections of canons, Severus of Antioch etc. (pp. 392–431). His conclusion is that in their opinions the bishops were in concord and followed Cyprian's line but that those opinions were nevertheless not simply echoes of one another. In some responses a genuine attempt had been made to differentiate between heretics that needed (re)baptism and schismatics who did not. The proof texts from Scripture were often different or differently interpreted (pp. 345–6). Bernardini's contribution to the study of Cyprian's role in instigating the conciliar movement is an important one, particularly in his quest for echoes of the Sententiae subsequent to the premature closure of the argument with Stephen resulting from Valerian's persecution. But there are features of the post-Valerian ecclesiastical situation that he fails to mention. Such echoes are found in non-Roman sources, and in the addition of the tituli gloriosi in the manuscript tradition. But he omits important indications of a Roman tradition after Stephen that was intentionally irenic towards Cyprian. There is the famous baptistery of Presbyter Felix at Cape Bon inscribed to ‘beatissimo Cypriano episcopo, antiste (antistiti) cum episcopo Adelfio huisce unitatis’. That theme is continued at Rome in the seventh-century addition in the cemetery of Lucina of a fresco to the monument of Damasus incorporating the grave of Cornelius. The fresco juxtaposes in its two sections Cornelius and Cyprian on one side and Xystus iii and Optatus, a North African bishop, on the other. The message is of the unity of both Rome and North Africa against schism and with acknowledgement of Cyprian's role in such a unity. There is here the conclusion of a trajectory that begins with the Chronographer of 354 where most of the occasional biographical additions to the succession of episcopal names and dates have reference to a schism healed. If the entry for Pius may be obscure on this point that for Pontianus is quite explicit: Hippolytus presbyter was not the only presbyter to suffer martyrdom under Maximus but that he should be singled out alongside Pontianus episcopus indicates a coded message concerning the reconciliation of their two groups. The entries for Fabian and Cornelius refer specifically to Novatus' ordination extram ecclesiam of Novatian at Rome and of Nicostratus in Africa. Reference is also made here to those confessors who separated from the Church under Fabian but returned under Cornelius. The presence of a Roman narrative of this kind, seeking reconciliation, is indicative of a positive desire on the part of Stephen's successors to put behind them the (re)baptismal controversy. But that is another story for another book.