The rule of truth and the succession: does the apostolic tradition in the churches, Rome's pre-eminently, settle what Scripture means?

Irenaeus of Lyons, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Irenaeus of Lyons answers

It settles it as a witness settles a fact, and the question is one I put to the heretics in just this form. When they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn and accuse the Scriptures, saying they are ambiguous and that the truth cannot be drawn from them by those who do not know the tradition, for it was delivered by the living voice and not by writings.¹

Mark what follows. When we then refer them to the tradition that comes from the apostles and is kept in the churches by the succession of presbyters, they object to tradition, saying they are wiser than the presbyters and even than the apostles.² So they consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition. They want the truth to reside now in Valentinus, now in Marcion, now in Cerinthus, each preaching himself.¹

Therefore I do not set tradition above Scripture or beside it. I ask where the apostles' teaching can be found now, and the answer is plain: where they left it. If the apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they imparted to the perfect apart from the rest, they would have delivered them above all to the men to whom they committed the churches themselves.³

No such mystery was ever delivered to Linus, or Anacletus, or Clement, or any in the line down to Eleutherius, who now holds the episcopate in the twelfth place from the apostles.⁴ This succession is the proof that one and the same life-giving faith has been kept in the Church from the apostles until now.⁴ Rome is the plainest case, and I name it because it would be tedious to reckon up the succession of every church.

It is the very great, very ancient, universally known Church, founded and organized by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, and its faith comes down to us through the succession of its bishops.³ It is necessary that every church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre-eminent authority, since the apostolic tradition has been preserved continuously there by the faithful who come from everywhere.³

Clement, who had seen the apostles and had their preaching still echoing in his ears, wrote to the Corinthians when dissension arose among them, and what he declared as the tradition lately received was the one God, Maker of heaven and earth, who called Abraham, spoke with Moses, sent the prophets.⁵ That letter is older than the men now conjuring another god beyond the Creator.⁵

I keep Rome beside Smyrna and Ephesus, so that no one takes one church for the whole. Polycarp, whom I saw in my youth, was appointed bishop in Smyrna by apostles and always taught what he had learned from them, and the Asiatic churches bear the same witness.⁶ The church of Ephesus, founded by Paul, with John abiding there until Trajan, is a true witness of the apostles' tradition.⁶

Nor is the succession a pedigree that guarantees itself. We must obey the presbyters who have the succession and with it the certain gift of truth, but those who are thought presbyters and serve their own lusts, puffed up with the chief seat, the Word will convict, for he looks on the heart.⁷ The test is the one faith publicly taught: one God, Creator of heaven and earth, announced by the law and the prophets, and one Christ the Son of God. Whoever agrees not to this despises the companions of the Lord, and Christ himself, and the Father.⁸

The position in brief

The apostles preached what they had learned, then wrote it, then handed the churches to men whose successors can be named; the faith the Church received at baptism, the rule of truth, is one in Germany, Spain, Gaul, the East, Egypt and Libya, like the sun. A heretic who claims a secret tradition from the apostles must explain why the apostles kept it from the very men they made bishops.

The churches that have the succession have the Scriptures and their sense; Rome, founded by Peter and Paul and known everywhere, is the plainest case, and agreement with its faith is necessary because the tradition has been kept there without a break.⁹¹⁰

Sources

1. they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition.

   Against Heresies, Book III

2. when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles

   Against Heresies, Book III

3. 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.

   Against Heresies, Book III

4. Eleutherius does now, in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the inheritance of the episcopate. In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us.

   Against Heresies, Book III

5. the Church in Rome despatched a most powerful letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith, and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the apostles, proclaiming the one God, omnipotent, the Maker of heaven and earth

   Against Heresies, Book III

6. Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna

   Against Heresies, Book III

7. it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church,--those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth

   Against Heresies, Book IV

8. These have all declared to us that there is one God, Creator of heaven and earth, announced by the law and the prophets; and one Christ the Son of God. If any one do not agree to these truths, he despises the companions of the Lord

   Against Heresies, Book III

9. Such are the adversaries with whom we have to deal, my very dear friend, endeavouring like slippery serpents to escape at all points. Wherefore they must be opposed at all points, if perchance, by cutting off their retreat, we may succeed in turning them back to the truth.

   Against Heresies, Book III

10. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre-eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere. 3. The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate.

    Against Heresies, Book III

Where the argument is made

• Against Heresies I.10 on the one faith of the Church dispersed through the world
• III.1-5 on the apostles' preaching, the written Gospels and the tradition kept in the churches by succession of bishops, including III.3.2 on the Roman church with which every church must agree "on account of its pre-eminent authority"
• III.4 on the barbarians who believe without paper and ink
• III.24.1, "where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God"
• II.27-28 on the rule of truth and the limits of enquiry
• IV.26 on the presbyters who hold the succession and those who do not
• IV.33.8 on the true knowledge

How the argument was received

The first statement of the Catholic principle of tradition and succession, claimed by every side since and pressed hardest on one sentence about Rome whose Greek is lost.