29:
THE QUESTION WAS:
In
the year 80 A.D., Pope St. Clement of Rome, who was ordained by St. Peter, said
the apostles made what provisions for when a bishop should die:
a.
dead
bishops should be succeeded by other approved men
b.
Direct successors
would not be needed once the Bible was written
THE ANSWER IS…….. A…bishops should be
succeeded by other approved men
Full quote: “ Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached,
and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be
bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops
and deacons had been written about a long time earlier....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 further
provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry." (Pope Clement, Letter to the Corinthians,
42:4-5,44:1-3).
In the Early Church, the fact that the bishops of the
Church must be direct successors of apostles, was universally held by
Christians.
In 189 A.D., St. Irenaeus wrote “….we are in a position to
enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their
successors down to our own times …..” (Against Heresies 3:31)
In 189 A.D., St. Irenaeus also wrote: “…..by pointing out
here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church
known to all, founded and organized at Rome…..” (Against Heresies 3:3:3)
In 253 A.D., St. Cyprian of Carthage wirtes that the
heretic Novatian is not a real bishop because he was not ordained by a successor
to an apostle. He says Novatian
ordained himself because he hates Apostolic Tradition. “Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he
be reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the
evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not
been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any
way.” (St. Cyprian of Carthage, Letter 75, To Magnus, On Baptizing the Novatians 3)
In 396 A.D., St. Jerome wrote: “Far be it from me to speak
adversely of any of these clergy who, in succession from the apostles, confect
by their sacred word the Body of Christ and through whose efforts, also it is
that we are Christians” (Epistle 14, To Heliodorus, Monk 8)
Quotes compiled from the book “Why is That in Tradition?”
by Patrick Madrid
For further quotes by Church Fathers on Apostolic
Succession, see
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01648b.htm
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/a11.htm
(Authority in Early Church)
Back to StillCatholic.com
Quick Links on the Early
Church: Church Fathers, Life of St. Augustine, St. Irenaeus (Bishop of Lyons),
Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pelagianism, The Confessions by St.
Augustine, The City of God
by St. Augustine, the Martyrdom
of Polycarp, Epistle to St.
Polycarp, St. Basil the
Great, St. Cyril of
Jerusalem, St. Cyprian of
Carthage, St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Barnabas, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, Eusebius, The Faith of
the Early Church Fathers book, Did the Church Fathers
Believe in Sola Scriptura? Foundations of
Protestantism, Still Catholic