Apostles And Tradition

Traditionem itaque Apostolorum in toto mundo manifestatam, in omni Ecclesia adest perspicere omnibus qui vera velint videre, et habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in ecclesiis, et successiones eorum usque ad nos, qui nihil tale docuerunt, neque cognoverunt, quale ab his deliratur. Etenim si recondita mysteria scissent Apostoli, quae seorsim et latenter ab reliquis perfectos docebant, his vel maxime traderent ea quibus etiam ipsas ecclesias committebant. Valde enim perfectos et irreprehensibiles in omnibus eos volebant esse, quos et successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes: quibus emendate agentibus fieret magna utilitas, lapsis autem summa calamitas. Sed quoniam valde longum est, in hoc tali volumine omnium ecclesiarum enumerare successiones, maximae, et antiquissimae, et omnibus cognitae, a gloriosissimis duobus apostolis Petro et Paulo Romae fundatae et constitutae ecclesiae, eam quam habet ab Apostolis traditionem, et annuntiatam hominibus fidem, per successiones Episcoporum pervenientem usque ad nos indicantes, confundimus omnes eos, qui quoquo modo, vel per sibiplacentiam malam, vel vanam gloriam, vel per caecitatem et malam sententiam, praeterquam oportet colligunt. Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam, hoc est, eos qui sunt undique fideles, in qua semper ab his, qui sunt undique, conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis traditio. Sanctus Irenaeus Lugdunensis, Adversus Haereses, Liber III, Caput III Source: Migne PG 7.848a-849a

The tradition of the Apostles manifested throughout the whole world is within the power of everyone in every Church to contemplate clearly who may wish to see the truth, and we are in a position to reckon up those who were instituted bishops in the Churches by the Apostle and the succession of these men to our own times, who neither taught nor did they know anything of what these men rave about. If the Apostles had known hidden mysteries which they taught to the perfect apart from the rest, they would have certainly delivered these things to those whom they were committing the Churches. For they wished these men should be perfect and blameless in everything, these whom they were leaving behind as successors, and to whom they were handing over their own place of headship, which if such men acted well it would be a great boon, but if they fell the greatest calamity. But because it would be a very lengthy exercise in such a volume as this to enumerate the successions of all the Churches, we point at the very great and very ancient and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, which has its tradition from the Apostles, and the faith preached to men which comes down to us by the successions of the Apostles, to confute all those, who in whatever way, by evil self pleasing, or vainglory, or blind and wicked opinion, gather together. For with this Church, because of its preeminent authority, it is necessary that every church should agree, that is, with those who are faithful in every way, by which in these who are faithful in every way has been preserved the tradition that is from the Apostles. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 3