The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"70 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.the struggle of two contestants for the Presidencycould invalidate the title of the recognized chiefMagistrate.It was by pursuing this line of argument thatthe early Fathers demonstrated the Apostolicity ofthe Catholic Church, and refuted the pretensions ofcotemporary sectaries. St. Irenseus, Tertullian, andSt. Augustine give catalogues of the Bishops ofRome who flourished up to their respective times,with whom it was their happiness to be in communion, and fhen they challenged their opponentsto trace their lineage to the Apostolic See. "Letthem," says Tertullian, in the second century, produce the origin of their church. Let them exhibitthe succession of their Bishops, so that the first ofthem may appear to have been ordained by anApostle, or by an apostolic man who was in communionwith the Apostles"1And if the Fathers of the fifth century consideredit a powerful argument in their favor that theycould refer to an uninterrupted line of fifty Bishops who occupied the See of Rome, how muchstronger is the argument to us who can now exhibit five times that number of Roman Pontiffswho have sat in the chair of Peter! I would affectionately repeat to my separated brethren whatAugustine said to the Donatists of his time " : Cometo us, brethren, if you wish to be engrafted in thevine. We are afflicted in beholding you lying cut1 Lib. de Praescrip., c. 32.