A couple of weeks ago, a lady named Monica raised several objections to the Catholic treatment of the Blessed Mother.

I have been writing a series of responses to these objections and this will be my final post in reply, at least for the time-being.

At the end of her comments, Monica asserted that the Catholic Church was founded by the Emperor Constantine around AD 300.

In my previous post, I pointed out some of the problems with Monica’s theory that Constantine started the Catholic Church, but now I would like to do something a little different. In this post I would like to set forth the positive historical case for the presence of Catholicism in the generations prior to Constantine:

Part #1: The Church

1. The Church is Catholic

2. The Church has a three-fold structure of leadership

3. There is unity through episcopal authority and schism is evil

4. Sacred Tradition is authoritative

5. Worship is liturgical

6. There is Apostolic Succession

7. Peter has Primacy

Part #2: Salvation & Sacraments

1. The Eucharist is a Sacrifice

2. Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist

3. The Eucharist is taken to the sick

4. Infants are to be baptized

5. Baptism actually washes away sin

6. Priests forgive sins

7. Works are involved in salvation

Part #3: The Saints and Our Lady

1. Prayers are said for the dead

2. There is purgation after death

3. Relics are venerated and Saints are celebrated

4. Mary is the New Eve

5. Mary was a perpetual virgin

6. Mary is the Mother of God

7. Prayers are made and songs are sung to Mary

I will demonstrate early Christian belief in these doctrines by looking at primary sources alone, restricting myself to writings produced prior to Monica’s proposed date of AD 300.

Part #1: The Church

Let’s first look at how the earliest Christians understood the nature of the Church, her identity, her leadership and her worship…

1. The Church is Catholic

Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church – Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans (c. AD 103)

2. The Church has a three-fold structure of leadership

See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. – Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans (c. AD 103)

3. There is unity through episcopal authority and schism is evil

…so that you obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but [which means] that we should live for ever in Jesus Christ – Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians (c. AD 103)

For where there is division and wrath, God does not dwell. To all them that repent, the Lord grants forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity of God, and to communion with the bishop

– Ignatius of Antioch to the Philadelphians (c. AD 103)

4. Sacred Tradition is authoritative

Suppose there arises a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the apostles held constant intercourse, and learn from them what is certain and clear regarding the present question? For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary to follow the course of the Tradition that they handed down to those to whom they committed the churches?

– Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (c. AD 180)

5. Worship is liturgical

You can read some of the early liturgies of the Church in the Didache (c. AD 50-100) and in Apostolic Tradition (c. AD 215)

6. There is Apostolic Succession

…that tradition derived from the apostles, of the…universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul… 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, on account of its preeminent authority…

…The blessed apostles… committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate [of Rome]… To him succeeded Anacletus… Clement… Evaristus… Alexander… Sixtus… Telephorus… Hyginus… Anicetus… Soter…[and] Eleutherius does now…hold the inheritance of the episcopate.

… this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth.

– Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (c. AD 180)

7. Peter has Primacy

The Lord says to Peter: “…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 [cathedra], 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 [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] 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 [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church? – St. Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church 4 (A.D. 251)

Part #2: Salvation & Sacraments

Next, let’s examine what the first Christians believed about salvation and the Sacraments, focussing particularly on the Eucharist and Baptism…

1. The Eucharist is a Sacrifice

On [Sunday], assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure… For here we have the saying of the Lord: ‘In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice…’ – The Didache (c. AD 50-100)

2. Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist

[The Gnostics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it [would be] better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again

– Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans (c. AD 103)

3. The Eucharist is taken to the sick

The deacons carry a portion [of the Eucharist] to those who are absent – Justin Martyr (c. AD 150)

4. Infants are to be baptized

The children shall be baptized first. All the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or someone else from the family. – Hippolytus of Rome, Apostolic Tradition 21 (c. AD 215)

5. Baptism actually washes away sin

The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit

– Origen, Commentaries on Romans 5:9 (c. AD 248)

6. Priests forgive sins

[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new bishop should pray:] God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . pour forth now that power which comes from you, from your Royal Spirit, …and grant this your servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate… to offer to you the gifts of your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command – Hippolytus of Rome, Apostolic Tradition (c. AD 215)

7. Works are involved in salvation

When you can do good, defer it not, because “alms delivers from death”

– Polycarp to the Philippians, quoting Tobit (c. AD 130)

Part #3: The Saints and Our Lady

Finally, how did the successors to the Apostles understand those Christians who had gone before them, marked with the sign of faith?

1. Prayers are said for the dead

The faithful widow prays for the soul of her husband, and begs for him in the interim repose, and participation in the first resurrection, and offers prayers on the anniversary of his death

– Tutullian, Monogamy, (c. AD 213)

2. There is purgation after death

If a man departs this life with lighter faults, he is condemned to fire which burns away the lighter materials, and prepares the soul for the kingdom of God, where nothing defiled may enter. For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones; but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God… It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God… is called a cleansing fire. But this fire does not consume the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works. – Origen, Homilies on Jeremias (AD 185-232)

3. Relics are venerated and Saints are celebrated

[After his execution and burning], we collected Polycarp’s bones, being more precious than the most exquisite jewels and more purified than gold, we interred them in a fitting place. There the Lord will permit us, as far as possible, to assemble in rapturous joy and celebrate his martyrdom – his birthday – both in order to commemorate the heroes that have gone before, and to train the heroes yet to come…

– Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. AD 155)

4. Mary is the New Eve

For just as the former [Eve] was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed His word; so did the latter [Mary], by an angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she should sustain God, being obedient to His word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience.

Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith – Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (c. AD 180)

5. Mary was a perpetual virgin

The Book [the Protoevangelium] of James [records] that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end… I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first fruit among men of the purity which consists in [perpetual] chastity, and Mary was among women. For it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first fruit of virginity

– Origen, Commentary on Matthew 2:17 (c. AD 248)

6. Mary is the Mother of God

For Luke, in the inspired Gospel narratives, delivers a testimony not to Joseph only, but also to Mary, the Mother of God… It is our duty to present to God, like sacrifices, all the festivals and hymnal celebrations; and first of all, [the feast of] the Annunciation to the holy Mother of God, to wit, the salutation made to her by the angel, “Hail, full of grace!” – Gregory the wonderworker, Four Homilies (AD 262)

7. Prayers are made and songs are sung to Mary

Beneath your compassion we take refuge, Theotokos [God bearer]!

Our prayers, do not despise our petitions in time of trouble,

but rescue us from dangers, only pure, only blessed one. – Early Christian Hymn (c. AD 250)

The Challenge

I could produce many, many more primary source extracts to further demonstrate the presence of these and other Catholic doctrines at the very dawn of Christianity. However, for sake of brevity, those given above should suffice. So, rather than giving yet more quotations, I would like to challenge Monica and the other readers:

1. Can you affirm all the statements from these (pre-Constantine) Christians?

If you don’t recognize your own Faith in the words of men such as Ignatius and Justin, can you really be so sure that your faith is apostolic?

2. Is the Faith expressed in the quotations above recognizable as the Catholicism?

If not, might it be time to reconsider what you have been told about history? There is approximately a 1,400 year gap between the death of the last apostle and the beginning of the Reformation. So, if you don’t hold the same Faith as theologians such as Hippolytus and Polycarp…

3. …can you identify anyone between the Apostles and the Reformation who held the same doctrines which you yourself hold?

If not, how do you explain that your version of Christianity finds no place in antiquity? Might it be time to consider afresh the substance behind the claims of the Catholic Church?

Conclusion

I’d like to close this final post with a quotation from John Henry Newman, a former Protestant minister whose conversion was brought about in no small part by studying history and reading the writings of the Early Church Fathers:

“The Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever there were a safe truth it is this, and Protestantism has ever felt it so; to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant”

– John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine

Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

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