Un solo battesimo una sola chiesa: Il concilio di Cartagine del settembre 256. By PAOLO BERNARDINI.

Abstract

Paolo Bernardini has produced a remarkably full, indeed encyclopaedic, study of the council held at Carthage in September 256. He begins with a deep history of research, in which older studies, e.g. Benson, are taken seriously. All aspects are covered. The procedure and its debt to Roman senatorial and local government bodies are weighed up, and the practice of consultation in the churches, informal (consilium) as well as formal (concilium). A great deal of attention is paid to reconstructing the events of 255–8, and especially the movements of persons and documents between Carthage, Cappadocia, and Rome in 256. Important documents, like the letter to Jubaianus and De rebaptismate are expounded in some detail. The body of the work is a commentary upon the Sentences (English perhaps more naturally ‘Verdicts’) themselves. The Latin text is that established by Diercks with slightest variants, accompanied by a helpful Italian version. Shorter verdicts are sometimes grouped in twos or threes, but most are considered alone. There follows a consideration of the reception of the work. In the west this is dominated by Augustine’s problems with Donatism and the need to reconcile Cyprian’s position with later Catholic judgements. In the east it becomes part of the canonical tradition, already known to the fourth-century fathers in a Greek version with a life of its own, presumably deriving from Firmilian’s copy. Due consideration is given to the interpretations in Severus of Antioch and the Nestorian Catholicos Timothy I, both concerned with the reconciliation of dissidents, and to the Arabic, Ethiopic, and Armenian versions. The conclusion at the end is well worth reading by any without the time to study the whole. An appendix gives a prosopography of the 86 bishops who participated in the council, with data of the occurrence of their names in Cyprian’s letters and any other sources, and a map showing the location of their sees so far as is known. A second appendix lists the scriptural quotations, and all the other early patristic uses of the same texts. There is a full bibliography and indexes of councils mentioned, Roman law, biblical and other sources, manuscripts, and ancient and modern authors (not user-friendly: mechanical and unarticulated). This is a fine, comprehensive study, relevant to a great many fields in history and theology, and quite indispensable for some.