Wow, THAT'S Explicit... and so early too
...The theme of this week turns out to be the issue of Prot conversion to Roman Catholicism... thus, a tidbit picked up this morning in my course on History of Doctrine:
"Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; we do this, I say, by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also by pointing out the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority -- that is, the faithful everywhere -- inasmuch as the Apostolic Tradition has been preserved continuously by those who are everywhere."
Irenaus, Against the Heretics, Book III, Chapter 3, ca A.D. 115.
More here.
posted by MM at 3:12 PM
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