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On Apostolic Tradition – Tertullian Of Carthage
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Words Of The Early Church Fathers – Hippolytus – Old Testament Canon – Deuterocanonicals – Daniel
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“What is narrated here [in the story of Susannah] happened at a later time, although it is placed at the front of the book [of Daniel], for it was a custom with the writers to narrate many things in an inverted order in their writings. . . . [W]e ought to give heed, beloved, fearing lest anyone be overtaken in any transgression and risk the loss of his soul, knowing as we do that God is the judge of all and the Word himself is the eye which nothing that is done in the world escapes. Therefore, always watchful in heart and pure in life, let us imitate Susannah”
Hippolytus, Commentary on Daniel 13, [A.D. 204]
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – Clement Of Rome – Old Testament Canon –
Deuterocanonicals – Wisdom
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‘Who shall say to him, “What have you done?” or who shall resist the power of his strength?’
Clement Of Rome, [quoting Wis. 12:12]” (Letter to the Corinthians 27:5 [ca. A.D. 80]).
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Irenaeus – Apostolic Tradition (2)
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It is possible, then, for every Church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times – men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about.
But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the Churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, that Church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the Apostles.
For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition.
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3, 3, 1-2, c. AD 190
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Irenaeus – Apostolic Tradition
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“As I said before, 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. For, while the languages of the world are diverse, nevertheless, the authority of the tradition is one and the same
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1:10:2 [A.D. 189].
Words Of The Early church Fathers – Origen – Infant Baptism
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The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine sacraments, knew there is in everyone innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit.Origen, (Commentaries on Romans 5:9 [A.D. 248]).
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Augustine – Purgatory
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Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment.
St. Augustine, (The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]).
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Ignatius Of Antioch – Unity, Eucharist
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“Take care, then who belong to God and to Jesus Christ – they are with the bishop. And those who repent and come to the unity of the Church – they too shall be of God, and will be living according to Jesus Christ. Do not err, my brethren: if anyone follow a schismatic, he will not inherit the Kingdom of God. If any man walk about with strange doctrine, he cannot lie down with the passion. Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: for there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons.”
Ignatius Of Antioch -Epistle to the Philadelphians, 3:2-4:1, 110 A.D.
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Basil the Great – Authority Of Apostolic Tradition
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Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us “in mystery” by the tradition of the Apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will contradict; – no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in these matters…
St. Basil The Great, On the Holy Spirit 27 [A.D. 375]
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Augustine Of Hippo – The Permanency Of Baptism
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In the treatise above mentioned, it has already been said that the grace of baptism can be conferred outside the Catholic communion, just as it can be also there retained. But no one of the Donatists themselves denies that even apostates retain the grace of baptism; for when they return within the pale of the Church, and are converted through repentance, it is never given to them a second time, and so it is ruled that it never could have been lost. So those, too, who in the sacrilege of schism depart from the communion of the Church, certainly retain the grace of baptism, which they received before their departure, seeing that, in case of their return, it is not again conferred on them whence it is proved, that what they had received while within the unity of the Church, they could not have lost in their separation.
St. Augustine Of Hippo, On Baptism, Against The Donatists (Book 1), c A.D. 400
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Cyprian Of Carthage – The Primacy Of The Chair Of Peter
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“The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ He says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’…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. So too, all are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?”
St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Unity of the Catholic Church, 1st edition, A.D. 251
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Justin Martyr – Eucharist
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“For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology, 66 (A.D. 110-165)
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – St. Ignatius of Antioch – Eucharist
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“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again”
Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to Smyrnaeans, 7,1 (c.A.D. 110), in ANF, I:89
Words Of The Early Church Fathers – Clement Of Rome – Apostolic Succession
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“Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry.”
St. Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians, 44:1-2, c. AD 80
From The Early Church Fathers I Never Saw by Marcus Grodi
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The Catholic Me 