custoditur, provocamus eos,
etc." III. 3. 1: "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 ... valde enim
perfectos in omnibus eos volebant esse, quos et successores
relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes ... traditio
Romanae ecclesiae, quam habet ab apostolis, et annuntiata hominibus fides
per successiones episcoporum perveniens usque ad nos." III. 3. 4, 4. 1:
"Si de aliqua modica qusestione disceptatio esset, nonne oporteret in
antiquissimas recurrere ecclesias, in quibus apostoli conversati sunt
... quid autem si neque apostoli quidem scripturas reliquissent nobis,
nonne oportebat ordinem sequi traditionis, quam tradiderunt iis, quibus
committebant ecclesias?" IV. 33. 8: "Character corporis Christi secundum
successiones episcoporum, quibus apostoli eam quae in unoquoque loco est
ecclesiam tradiderunt, quae pervenit usque ad nos, etc." V. 20.1: "Omnes
enim ii valde posteriores sunt quam episcopi, quibus apostoli
tradiderunt ecclesias." IV. 26. 2: "Quapropter eis, qui in ecclesia
sunt, presbyteris obaudire oportet, his qui successionem habent ab
apostolis; qui cum episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum
secundum placitum patris acceperunt." IV. 26. 5: "Ubi igitur charismata
domini posita sunt, ibi discere oportet veritatem, apud quos est ea quae
est ab apostolis ecclesiae successio." The declaration in Luke X. 16 was
already applied by Irenaeus (III. praef.) to the successors of the
Apostles.]

[Footnote 135: For details on this point see my edition of the Didache,
Proleg., p. 140. As the _regula fidei_ has its preparatory stages in the
baptismal confession, and the New Testament in the collection of
writings read in the Churches, so the theory that the bishops receive
and guarantee the apostolic heritage of truth has its preparatory stage
in the old idea that God has bestowed on the Church Apostles, prophets,
and teachers, who always communicate his word in its full purity. The
functions of these persons devolved by historical development upon the
bishop; but at the same time it became more and more a settled
conviction that no one in this latter period could be compared with the
Apostles. The only true Christianity, however, was that which was
apostolic and which could prove itself to be so. The natur