Chapter III.—A refutation of the heretics, from the fact that, in the various
Churches, a perpetual succession of bishops was kept up.
1. It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth,
to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world;
and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in
the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those
who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about. For if the
apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they were in the habit of imparting to “the
perfect” apart and privily from the rest, they would have delivered them especially to those
to whom they were also committing the Churches themselves. For they were desirous that
these men should be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving
behind as their successors, delivering up their own place of government to these men; which
men, if they discharged their functions honestly, would be a great boon [to the Church],
but if they should fall away, the direst calamity.
2. 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,
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on account of its pre-eminent authority,665 that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as
the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist
everywhere.
665 The Latin text of this difficult but important clause is, “Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potiorem prin-
cipalitatem necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam.” Both the text and meaning have here given rise to much
discussion. It is impossible to say with certainty of what words in the Greek original “potiorem principalitatem”
may be the translation. We are far from sure that the rendering given above is correct, but we have been unable
to think of anything better. [A most extraordinary confession. It would be hard to find a worse; but take the
following from a candid Roman Catholic, which is better and more literal: “For to this Church, on account of
more potent principality, it is necessary that every Church (that is, those who are on every side faithful) resort;
in which Church ever, by those who are on every side, has been preserved that tradition which is from the apostles.”
(Berington and Kirk, vol. i. p. 252.) Here it is obvious that the faith was kept at Rome, by those who resort there
from all quarters. She was a mirror of the Catholic World, owing here orthodoxy to them; not the Sun, dispensing
her own light to others, but the glass bringing their rays into a focus. See note at end of book iii.] A discussion
of the subject may be seen in chap. xii. of Dr. Wordsworth’s St. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome.
Chapter III.—A refutation of the heretics, from the fact that, in the various Churches, a perpetual succession of bishops was kept up.
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Chapter III.—A refutation of the heretics, from the fact that, in the various…