FATHERS.
If the reader will look back to the passages already adduced to prove the other marks of the Church, he will see that many of them, in express words, speak of its Catholicity. A few more authorities, though not necessary, shall suffice.
CENT. I.
ST. POLYCARP,[1] G. C. The Church of Smyrna, after the death of Polycarp their bishop, wrote a letter the faithful of Philomelia and “of the holy Catholic Church,” wherein they give an account of all that had happened to him, and say, “After he had finished his prayer, in which he made mention of all those with whom he had ever had any connection, and of the whole Catholic Church diffused throughout the world,” &c. Apud Euseb. L. iv. c. xv. p. 162, 165.
CENT. II.
St. IRENÆUS, L. C. “The Church, spread through the whole world, to the boundaries of the earth, received the faith from the Apostles and their disciples.” Adv. Hæres. L. i. c. X. p. 48.—“Having received this faith, though thus extended, the Church preserves it with great care.” Ibid. c. iii. p. 49. .
TERTULLIAN, L. C. “We are but of yesterday ; but we fill your cities, your islands, your castles, your towns, your
- ↑ He was one of the most illustrious of the Apostolic Fathers, and the disciple of St. John, by whom he was appointed Bishop of Smyrna, in Asia Minor, about the year 96, and governed that See about seventy years ; suffering martyrdom in 167. We have an abridgment of his Acts in Eusebius.
