Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Concerning the tradition of the Apostles, and the succession of bishops in the churches from the Apostles.
The tradition of the Apostles, then, made manifest throughout the whole world, can be clearly seen in every church by all who wish to see the truth; and we are able to enumerate those who were instituted bishops in the churches by the Apostles, and their successions down to our own time, who taught and knew nothing of the kind these people rave about. For if the Apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they taught to the perfect separately and secretly from the rest, they would have handed these down above all to those to whom they were entrusting the very churches. For they wished those whom they were leaving as their successors, handing over to them their own place of teaching, to be very perfect and blameless in everything; since, if these acted rightly, it would be of great benefit, but if they fell, the greatest calamity. But since it would be a very long task, in a volume such as this, to enumerate the successions of all the churches, we shall point to the tradition which the very great, most ancient, and universally known Church, founded and set in place at Rome by the pair of most illustrious Apostles, Peter and Paul, holds from the Apostles, together with the faith proclaimed to mankind, which has reached us through the successive line of bishops; and by this we confound all those who in whatever way, whether through self-pleasing or vainglory, or through blindness and evil opinion, gather otherwise than they ought. For with this church, because of its more powerful preeminence, every church must agree — that is, the faithful everywhere — in which church the tradition that is from the Apostles has always been preserved by those who are everywhere.
The blessed Apostles, once they had established and reared up the Church, entrusted the episcopal ministry to Linus. Paul mentions this Linus in his letters to Timothy. Anacletus followed him; and next, occupying the third rank counting from the Apostles, Clement received the episcopate by lot — a man who had himself beheld the Apostles and spoken with them, still carrying their preaching fresh in his ears and their handed-down teaching fresh before his eyes — not alone, for many still survived at that time who had been taught by the Apostles. Under this Clement, then, when no small dissension arose among the brothers at Corinth, the church at Rome wrote a very powerful letter to the Corinthians, bringing them together in peace, renewing their faith, and announcing the tradition which it had recently received from the Apostles, declaring one almighty God, fashioner of heaven and earth, shaper of humankind, who sent the flood and summoned Abraham, who brought his people forth out of Egyptian territory, who conversed with Moses, who gave the law and dispatched the prophets, who made ready fire for the devil together with his angels. Anyone who wishes may learn from this very writing that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed by the churches, and may understand the apostolic tradition of the Church, since this letter is older than those who now falsely teach and fabricate another God above the Demiurge and maker of all these things that exist. Euarestus succeeded this Clement, and Alexander succeeded Euarestus; then Sixtus was appointed, the sixth from the Apostles, and after him Telesphorus, who also won a most glorious martyrdom; then Hyginus, then Pius, after whom came Anicetus. When Anicetus had been succeeded by Soter, Eleutherius now holds the episcopate in the twelfth place from the Apostles. By this order and succession, the tradition that is in the Church from the Apostles, and the proclamation of the truth, have reached us. And this stands as the fullest possible proof that a single, identical, life-bestowing faith has been kept safe within the Church, running from the Apostles up to our own day, and passed on faithfully.
And Polycarp too received not only instruction from the Apostles, and spoke with many people who had beheld the Lord, but was also placed as bishop by the Apostles over the church in Smyrna, in Asia; and we ourselves saw him in our early youth, for he lived a long time and departed this life at a very great age by a most glorious and noble martyrdom, having consistently taught what he himself learned at the feet of the Apostles, teachings which he in turn passed on to the Church, and which alone hold true. All the churches throughout Asia testify to this, as do his successors in office right up to today, he being a far more authoritative and reliable witness to the truth than Valentinus, Marcion, and the rest of those holding twisted views. Indeed, when he traveled to Rome under Anicetus, he brought many of the heretics mentioned above back to God's Church, declaring that this single truth was what he had gotten from the Apostles, which he likewise passed on to the Church. There are, moreover, those who heard him tell how John, that disciple of the Lord, once went to wash at Ephesus, and on noticing Cerinthus within, dashed back out of the bath-house unwashed, exclaiming: Let us get away, in case the bath-house itself collapses, seeing that Cerinthus, that foe of the truth, is inside it. And Polycarp himself, when Marcion once met him and said, Do you know us? replied, I know you, the firstborn of Satan. Such was the caution the Apostles and their disciples had, not even to converse in word with any who adulterated the truth, as Paul also said: A heretical man, after a first and second admonition, avoid, knowing that such a one is perverted and stands self-condemned. There is likewise an outstanding letter from Polycarp addressed to the Philippians, and from it those willing to attend and concerned for their own deliverance can learn both the shape of his faith and the proclamation of the truth. Moreover the church at Ephesus, which Paul founded and where John stayed among the believers until Trajan's time, likewise stands as a genuine witness to the tradition handed down from the Apostles.