The persecutions under the emperor Decius divided the churches and had lasting consequences for the way the church was perceived and organised. The curing of sinful members by repentance is urged upon the churches in the figurative revelation to Hermas in the mid-second century. Where restoration was permitted, it involved penitential behaviour such as fasting, almsgiving and attendance for prayer among the catechumens for a matter of years before final restoration. This chapter outlines Cyprian's ecclesiology that was apparent: whatever privilege God might grant to confessors, the fundamental structure of the church rested in the duly appointed bishops, in whom final authority was vested. Cyprian had made clear his view that a bishop who committed idolatry or schism ceased to be a priest. The dispute between Stephen, a new bishop of Rome, and Cyprian concerned whether baptised in heresy and schism, including Novatianism, are to be treated as already baptised, or subjected to the church's baptism.