in the third place, Clement. To Clement succeeded Evaristus, to him Alexander; and then Sixtus, who was followed by Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, and Anicetus. But Soter having succeeded Anicetus, Eleutherius, the twelfth from the Apostles, now governs the Church.” Adv. Hær. L. iii. c. iii.p. 175.
TERTULLIAN, L. C. “ Let them (the heretics) produce the origin of their Churches; the regular succession of their Bishops. Smyrna has her Polycarp, appointed by St. John: Rome her Clement, ordained by St. Peter: and so the other Churches.—Run through the Apostolic Churches, in which the chairs, wherein the Apostles sat, are now filled.--Achaia is at hand: so is Corinth. If you are not remote from Macedonia, you have before you Philippi and Thessalonica. Pass into Asia : there is Ephesus. In Italy, Rome: an authority to which we can readily appeal. Happy Church! which the great Apostles fully impregnated with all their doctrine, and with their blood.” De Præsc. c. xxxii. xxxvi. p. 337-8.
CENT. III.
St. CYPRIAN, L. C. Writing to Cornelius, who then sat in the chair of St. Peter, he states the improper conduct of certain schismatics, who had gone from Africa to Rome, and says:
“ After these attempts, having chosen a Bishop for themselves, they dare to sail, and to carry letters from schismatics and profane men to the chair of Peter, and to the principal Church, whence the sacerdotal Unity took its rise; not reflecting, that the members of that Church are Romans, (whose Faith was praised by Paul) to whom perfidy can have no access.” Ep. lv. p. 86.
