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"Our Lord, whose precepts and admonitions we ought to observe, when settling the honor of a bishop, and the nature of his Church."

Ep. xxvii. Lapsis.
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"This is, and ought to be our special study, to seek to secure, as far as in us lies, the unity delivered by the Lord, and through the Apostles to us their successors, and, as far as we are able, to gather into the Church the straying and wandering sheep which the perverse, factiousness, and heretical efforts of certain persons have separated from the mother."

Ep. xlii. ad Cornelium, p. 128.
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"Deacons ought to bear in mind that the Apostles, that is bishops and prelates, the Lord chose; but that the Apostles, after the Lord's Ascension into Heaven, appointed to themselves deacons, as ministers to their episcopacy and to the Church.

And if we may attempt anything against God, who makes bishops, deacons too may against us, who make them deacons. . . . These, to please themselves, to contemn with swelling pride him who is set over them, are the beginnings of heretics, and these the rise and essays of evil-minded schismatics.

In this way do men withdraw from the Church, in this way is a profane altar set up without; in this way do men rebel against the peace of Christ, and against the ordinance and unity of God."

Ep. lxv. ad Rogatianum,p. 243.
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Neither do I boast of these things, but produce them with sorrow, since you set yourself up as the judge of God and of Christ, who says to the Apostles, and thereby to all prelates, who succeed to the Apostles by vicarious ordination: "He that heareth you, heareth me." etc. (St. Luke 10:16)

For, hence have schisms and heresies taken their rise, when the bishop, who is one and presides over a church, is by the proud presumption of individuals contemned, and the man honored by God as worthy, is by men judged unworthy."

Ep, lxix. ad Fl. Papianum,p. 263.
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But what is his error, and how great his blindness, who says that the remission of sins can be given in the synagogues of the heretics, and who does not remain on the foundation of the one Church which was founded upon the rock by Christ can be learned from this, which Christ said to Peter alone: "Whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in Heaven;" and by this, again in the Gospel, when Christ breathed upon the Apostles alone, saying to them; "Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive any man his sins, they shall be forgiven; and if you retain any mans sins, they shall be retained." Therefore, the power of forgiving sins was given to the Apostles and to the Churches which these men, sent by Christ, established; and to the bishops who succeeded them by being ordained in their place.

Letter to Cyprian 75:16 [A.D. 255-256].

"The power of remitting sins was given to the Apostles, and to the churches which they, sent forth by Christ, founded, and to the bishops who, by vicarious ordination, have succeeded to them. But the enemies of the one Catholic Church, in which we are; and they who are against us, who have succeeded to the Apostles, claiming to themselves against us unlawful priesthoods, and setting up profane altars, what else are they but Core, Dathan, and Abiron, guilty of the same sacrilege, and are destined to the same punishment as they who agree with them, as even their partners and supporters perish by the same death."

Inter Ep. S. Cypriani, Ep. Ixxv. p. 307.
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"Having undertaken to commit to writing the successions from the holy Apostles, together with the series of events which have happened from our Saviour to our days, as also the many and great events which ecclesiastical history has recorded, and to name those who especially in the most celebrated churches have laudably acted and ruled. . . . . . I shall begin from the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

[Eusebius then enumerates the succession of the Apostles from the beginning to the present day, noticing throughout his history the apostolical succession in the sees of the principal churches.]

Eccles. Hist. Lib. 1, c. 1, pp. 1, 2.
See Lib. ii. c. 24; Lib. iii. c. 2, 3, and passim.
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"And I will establish his seed for evermore, and his throne as the days of Heaven."
(Psalm 88:30)

What are we to understand by the seed of Christ, but the churches established by Him throughout the whole universe, and they who amongst all nations have been regenerated unto Him? But His throne is that which has been constituted in His Church, throughout the whole universe, by means of the prelates who are by succession from Him. A throne which He says endures as the days of Heaven. Not like to the regal throne of the Jews, which, having endured for a while, passed away; but the throne here foretold, by means of the above-named prelates of the Church, endures and is preserved, even as the days of Heaven. And if it should ever happen that the people, and the sons of him who is prophesied of, I mean his successors, should act sinfully, He says that they should indeed suffer a reverse through persecutions, but that never should they be cast from their thrones, nor be deprived of the mercy of God. . . . And as it was needful not to think that such promises are announced in simple and bare words, he resumes, and repeats the declaration, sealing with an oath what had been said, in confirmation of the promises. Therefore, says He, "Once have I sworn by my holiness; I will not lie unto David, his seed endures for ever, and his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in Heaven." (verse 36, 38). God cannot lie, even though He make a promise without an oath. But as it was needful that, speaking to men, He should accommodate Himself to human ways, even as men swear and appeal to God as a witness to give credit to their own words, so, also, He says that He has sworn, and will not be false to His oath, that, as the divine Apostle says, "By two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest comfort." (Hebrews 6:16) But what does this oath contain? His seed, He says, endures for ever. This first: and this, the first promise, is concerning the seed, of which He had already said, "I will establish his seed for evermore. He pointed out the succession of Christ. But the second promise is concerning the afore-named throne. Therefore does He say, "And his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfect for ever." He says, then, that the seed, that is, the disseminated word of Christ, or His people, and the Church, shall never be corrupted, nor fail: and that the throne would endure for evermore, or, according to Symmachus, as the moon remain firm for ever. Thus also shall be the ecclesiastical throne of Christ. Does the preceding phrase, "once have I sworn by my holy one, and what is subjoined, his seed endureth for ever", prophesy that the seed of His holy one shall be victorious for ever ... so as that the seed of the holy one of God, to wit of the only-begotten of God, is the doctrine which He sowed upon earth, He himself being the sower of it, according to that parable, spoken by Him, in which He says: The sower went out to sow his seed, and the rest (Luke 8:5)? . . . The event by facts confirming the truth of the word. For we see with our own eyes, the horn of David, that is the seed, and the succession of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, yea, also the heavenly seed of the evangelic doctrine of the holy one of God, His only-begotten word, that was cast upon the earth, enduring through ages; and, indeed, we also be hold His throne established in the Church throughout the whole universe, in all nations, cities, villages, and places, filling the universal world."

Comm.in Ps. 87. T. 1, Nov. Collect. (Montfaucon) pp. 572-574, 576.
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"In what concerns the faith, they (the fathers at the council of Nicea) wrote not, "It has seemed good", but, "Thus believes the Catholic Church", and at once confessed how they believed, thereby to show that their sentiment was not novel, but apostolical, and that what they wrote down, is not a discovery of their own, but the same as the Apostles had taught."

De Synodis, n. 5, t. i. p. 575.
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"And he set up two pillars in the porch of the temple." (1 Kings 7:21) The two pillars signify the two worlds, the visible and the invisible: both support that dwelling-place of all nations, the Church of Christ, the spirits, to wit, that are sent to minister, and the prophets and Apostles, and their successors, constituted, by divine appointment, unto the government of the Church."

T. i. .p. 2, Comm. in 1 (3) Regn. p. 459.
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"Let us praise Him who preserves their traditions; Him who ordered the ark to be built; who constructed the temple of the Jews: and He who effected all these things, established the holy Church. Now He who ordains the propagation of life, and the succession of all events; He it is who was the author of that perfectly-ordered succession of prophets and of Apostles, and He will preserve it from age to age evermore."

T. ii. Syr. Serm. xxiv. adv. Hæres. pp. 494-5.
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The synodical epistle of this council, which was held in A.D. 358, stated:

"We, therefore, beseech you, most honored lords, and fellow-ministers, praying you that your delight be in the faith transmitted by the fathers, and that you would signify that you think harmoniously with what we have believed; that so they who presume to introduce this ungodliness, being fully certified that, having received the faith as an inheritance, from the times of the Apostles, through the fathers who have been in the period intermediate between those and our days, we guard it; and either filled with shame, they will be corrected, or persevering in their error, they will be proscribed from the Church."

Epis. Synod, op. Baluz. Nov. Collect. Concil, p. 37.
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"For there are from that one Church of the Apostles . . . many churches and many tents, but in those many there is the same resting-place of God."

Comm. in Ps. cxxxi. n. 14, p. 509.
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"We think that we may meet with the approval of all Catholics thus: that it behooves us not to recede from the received creed (at Nicea) which, after being examined by all of us, we have in all its parts approved: and that we shall not recede from the faith, which we have received through the prophets, — the Holy Spirit teaching from God the Father through Christ our Lord, — and in the gospels, and in all the Apostles, as once laid it continues even to this day, through the tradition of the fathers, according to a succession from the Apostles, even to the discussion had at Nicea against the heresy which had, at that period, sprung up."

Ex. op. Hist. Fragm. vii. (Defin. Cathol. in Concil. Arim.) n. 3, t. ii. p. 684.
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"Cease, Constantius, to persecute the house of God. . . . Proclaim thyself a Christian; execrate with us the mob of Arians brought together by the devil's trickery; believe as we believe, we, who are, by succession from the blessed Apostles, bishops; confess as we and they have confessed, the only Son of God, and thus shalt thou obtain forgiveness for thy numerous crimes."

Pro S. Athan. l. i. n. 33 (op. Galland, t. vi. p. 169).
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"Thus, and for these reasons, with the suffrage of all the people, not after the wicked fashion that lately has prevailed, not by bloodshed and tyranny, but both in an apostolic and spiritual manner, he (St. Athanasius) is elevated to the throne of Mark, the successor no less of his piety than of the government of his see; for in the latter he is one of many that have succeeded him, whilst in the former he is his immediate successor, and this is in truth a derived succession. For here is oneness of faith and oneness of throne."

T. 1, Oral. xxi. in S. Athanas. p. 377.
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"As long as we are branches abiding in the vine, bringing forth befitting fruits to Christ, we have God for the husbandman. But if we separate from that life-giving root, the faith in Christ, being dried up, we are cast out and burnt; and the edifice of our doctrine, if our lives be not what they should, is overthrown. For, if we abide not on the foundation of the Apostles, (thus) building up what is commendable, we rush headlong down as not having a foundation, and great is our destruction."

T. 1, P. ii. Comment in Esai. c. 1, n. 19, p. 554.
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"Not without cause in the midst of the many narrow seas of this world, does the Church of the Lord rest immovable, as being built upon the apostolic rock, and continue with an unshaken foundation against the assaults of the raging ocean. It is washed, but not moved, by the waves; and though the elements of the world are often dashed and repelled with loud uproar, yet has it a most secure harbor of safety wherein to receive the distressed."

T. ii. Ep. ii. Constantio, n. 1, p. 755.
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"There is also a heresy called the apocryphal, or the secret, which receives only the prophets and the Apostles, and not the canonical writings, to wit the law and the prophets, both the Old and the New Testament. . . . It has been ordained by the Apostles and their successors, that nothing be read in the Catholic Church, except the law, and the prophets, and the gospels..

De Hæres, n. 60, Galland. t. vii. p. 494.
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"There came unto us a certain Marcellina, who had been led astray by these heretics (the Carpocratians), and she corrupted the faith of many during the days of that Anicetus, bishop of Rome, who succeeded Pius and his predecessors. For, in Rome, Peter and Paul were the first both Apostles and bishops; then came Linus, then Cletus, then Clement, the contemporary of Peter and Paul, of whom Paul makes mention in his epistle to the Romans (Philippians?) And let no one wonder that, though he was the contemporary of Peter and Paul, for he lived at the same time with them, others received that episcopate from the Apostles. Whether it was that while the Apostles were still living he received the imposition of hands as a bishop (of the episcopate) from Peter, and having declined that office he remained unengaged ... or whether, after the succession of the Apostles, he was appointed by bishop Cletus, we do not clearly know. . . . However the succession of the bishops in Rome was in the following order. Peter and Paul, and Cletus, Clement, Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, the same named by me above as in the list. And let no one wonder that we have gone through each of these matters; for by means of these the manifest (truth) is for ever pointed out."

T. 1, adv. Hæres (27) p. 107.
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"Hence too they all confer one name upon the Church, not their own, but that of their Lord Jesus Christ, beginning at Antioch, to be called Christians, which is the alone Catholic Church, having naught else but Christ's (name), which is the Church of Christians; not the Church of Christs, but of Christians; He being one, and they, from that one, being called Christians. Besides this Church, and her preachers, all others are not of the same character, being known by means of the name added to them of Manichseans, and Simonians, and Valentinians, and Ebionites, of which class thou too, Marcion, art one; and they who have been led astray by thee are called by thy name, who hast preached thyself, and not Christ."

Adv. Hæres. (42) pp. 366-7.
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"Jesus therefore summoned His ministers, the Apostles, to wit, and their successors who are in every church, and says to them: "Fill these waterpots with water", that is, Baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

Hom. ix. In illud nuptice factce sunt, p. 957, t. v. Bill. Max. PP.
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"Whosoever thou art that raised the subject of new dogmas, I beseech thee spare the ears of Romans; spare that faith which was commended by an Apostle's voice. Why, at the expiration of four hundred years, to you attempt to teach us what we before knew not? Why bring forward what Peter and Paul would not make known? Until this day the Christian world was without this doctrine (or, the world was Christian without this doctrine). I will retain as an old man that faith wherein I was as a boy regenerated."

T. 1, Ep. Ixxxiv. ad Pammach. et Ocean, n. 9, col. 526-7.
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"I will lay before you a brief and plain sentiment of my mind; we are to abide in that Church, which, founded by the Apostles, endures even unto this day. Whenever you hear those who are said to be Christ's, named, not after the Lord Jesus Christ, but after some one else, as for example, Marcionites, Valentinians, men of the mountain, or of the plain, know that it is not Christ's Church, but the synagogue of antichrist. For from this very fact they were instituted at a later period, they are evidence of what the Apostles foretold were they would be. (Galatians 1:8) Nor let them feel satisfied with themselves, if they seem to themselves to affirm what they say from portions of the Scriptures, since even the devil spoke some things out of the Scriptures; and the Scriptures do not consist in being read, but in being understood."

T. ii. adv. Luciferi. n. 27, col. 202.
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