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BELOW ARE SOME QUOTES BY CHURCH FATHERS WHICH SHED LIGHT ON HOW THE EARLY CHRISTIANS VIEWED THE CHURCH

ST. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE….A.D. 251 ON THE CHAIR OF PETER

"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ He says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys to the kingdom of heaven: and whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven.’ | first edition | And again He says to him after His resurrection: ‘Feed my sheep.’ On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His Own Authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair.’" [The Unity of the Catholic Church, qtd in Jurgens 555-556]

ST CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE....A.D. 251 on HOLDING TO THE UNITY OF PETER:

"If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

ST. IRENAEUS (C. 200 A.D.) ON AN AUTHORITATIVE CHURCH

“….the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although she is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it, as if she occupied but one house. She likewise believes these things just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth.” (St. Irenaeus….”Against Heresies 1, 10, 2)

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA (4^th c) ON AN AUTHORITATIVE CHURCH

“But the brightness of the Catholic Church proceeded to increase in greatness, for it ever held to the same points in the same way, and radiated forth to all the race of Greeks and barbarians the reverent, sincere, and free nature, and sobriety and purity of the divine teaching as to conduct and though.” (Eusebius…”Eccesiastical History 4, 7, 13…)

ST. HILLARY (4^th c)

“In the Scriptures our people are shown to be made one; so that just as many grains collected into one and ground and mingled together, make one loaf, so in Christ, who is the heavenly Bread, we know there is one body, in which our whole company is joined and united.” (Treatise 62, 13)

TERTULLIAN (197 A.D.) on UNITY OF THE CHURCH

“We are a society with a single religious feeling , a single unity of discipline, a single bond of hope.” (“Apology 39,1 )

ST. CYPRIAN (c. 250 A.D.) : CHURCH IS ONE BODY, CANNOT BE DIVIDED

“God is one and Christ is one, and one is His Church, and the faith is one, and His people welded together by the glue of concord into a solid unity of body. Unity cannot be rent asunder, nor can the one body of the Church, through the division of its structure, be divided into separate pieces.” (“On the Unity of the Church”)

ST. IGNATIUS (110 A.D.) ON THE REAL PRESENCE IN THE EUCHARIST

“[heretics] abstain from Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ….” (St. Ignatius….“Letter to Smyrnaeans” 6, 2)

ST. JUSTIN MARTYR (150 A.D.) ON THE EUCHARIST

“….not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these, but…as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and bythe change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the Flesh and Blood of that incarnated Jesus.” ( St. Justin Martyr…“First Apology” 66, 20)

ST. IRENAEUS OF LYONS (195 A.D.)

“He [Jesus] has declared the cup, a part of his creation, to be His own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, He has established as His own Body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.” (“Against Heresies” 5, 2, 2)

ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (350 A.D.)

“He himself, therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is My Body,’ who will dare any longer to doubt? And when He Himself has affirmed and said, “This is My Blood,’ who can ever hesitate and say it is not His Blood?” (St. Cyril….“Catechetical Lectures: Mystagogic 4, 22, 1)

ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM ON THE EUCHARIST

“Do not therefore regard the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ.” (Catechetical Lectures: Mystagogic 4, 22, 1)

ST. ATHANASIUS (360 A.D.) ON APOSTOLIC TRADITION

“let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian…..” (“Four Letters to Serapion of Thmius 1, 28)

ORIGEN (c. 230 A.D.) ON APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION AND TRADITION

“The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the Apostles and remains in the Churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition.” (Origen….“Fundamental Doctrines” 1, preface 2)

ST. HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME (C 215 A.D.) ON INFANT BAPTISM

“Baptize first the children; and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them.” (St. Hippolytus….“The Apostolic Tradition” 21)

ORIGEN….ON INFANT BAPTISM AS APOSTOLIC TRADITION

“the Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism also to infants.” (Origen….”Commentary on Romans” 5, 9)

ON INFANT BAPTISM

In 252 A.D., the council of Carthage condemned the opinion that infants must wait until the eighth day after birth to be baptized, as was the case with circumcision. (St. Cyprian of Carthage, in his Epistle 64, 59, 2, wrote: "that baptism of children need not be deferred until the eighth day after birth as some maintained, but might be administered as soon as possible" (Cyprian, Epistle 64 (59) 2).

St. Clement of Alexandria ON PETER (between A.D. 190 and 210)

"Nor does the kingdom of heaven belong to the sleeping and the lazy; rather, the violent take it by force. On hearing these words, the blessed Peter, the chosen, the pre-eminent, the first among the disciples, for whom alone with Himself the Savior paid the tribute, quickly grasped and understood their meaning." [Who is the Rich Man That is Saved? qtd in Jurgens 436]

ORIGEN…A.D. 244 Origen: SPEAKING ABOUT PETER

"Look at the great foundation of the Church, that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ built the Church! And what does the Lord say to him? ‘O you of little faith,’ He says, ‘why did you doubt!’ (Matt. 14:31)" [Homilies on Exodus, qtd in Jurgens 489]

ST. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE….A.D. 254…CHURCH BUILT ON PETER

"You have written also that on my account the Church now has a portion of itself in a state of dispersion. In truth, the whole people of the Church are collected together and made one and joined to each other in an indivisible harmony. They alone have remained outside who, were they within, would have to be ejected. And the Lord too, in the Gospel, when the disciples abandoned Him while He was speaking, turned to the twelve and said, ‘And do you too wish to go away?’ Peter answered Him saying, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life: and we believe that you are the Son of the Living God.’
There speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church.’" [Letter of Cyprian to Florentius Pupianus, qtd in Jurgens 587

St. Ephraim….A.D. 306 / 373…….CHURCH BUILT ON PETER

"Simon, My follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because on you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on earth a Church for Me. If they should wish to build what is false, you the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which My teaching flows, you are the chief of My disciples. Through you will I give drink to all peoples. Yours is that life-giving sweetness which I dispense. I have chosen you to be, as it were, the first-born in My Institution, and so that, as the heir, you may be executor of my treasures. I have given you the keys of My kingdom. Behold, I have given you authority over all My treasures!" [Homilies, qtd in Jurgens 706]

ORIGEN….A.D. 226 – 232 et postea

"Peter, upon whom is built the Church of Christ, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, left only one Epistle of acknowledged genuinity. Let us concede also a second which, however, is doubtful." [Commentaries on John, qtd in Jurgens 479a

(According to Catholic author Scott Windsor, “This was a comment on the epistles of St. Peter, which later were both confirmed as genuine. As a side note, this discredits those who adhere to sola scriptura as well, since here, two centuries after Christ, they are still debating which books belong to the Canon of Sacred Scripture).

TERTULIAN…..A.D. 220

"…that the power of binding and loosing has thereby been handed on to you, that is to every church akin to Peter? What kind of man are you, subverting and changing what was the manifest intent of the Lord when He conferred this personally upon Peter? On you, He says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church; and whatever you shall have bound or you shall have loosed, not what they shall have bound or they shall have loosed. " [Modesty, qtd in Jurgens 387]

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