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What Did the Early Church Fathers Believe — Were They Catholic or Protestant?

The Short Answer

The Church Fathers are the Christian writers of the first centuries, some of whom knew the apostles or their immediate successors. They were not infallible, and they sometimes disagreed. But on the Eucharist, the authority of the Church, the place of the Bishop of Rome, the honour given to Mary and the forgiveness of sins through the Church’s ministers, what they wrote is recognisably Catholic. This is not a sectarian boast; it is a matter of record, and many Protestant historians acknowledge it.

The Witnesses

The Fathers are the closest witnesses we have to what the earliest Christians actually believed. They received the faith from the apostles or from those the apostles taught, and they shaped its expression in theology, worship and practice.

This article lets them speak for themselves, quoting standard nineteenth-century translations that you can check in full under Sources.

What the Church Does and Does Not Claim

The Church does not claim:

The Church does claim that the faith she teaches today is the same faith the Fathers received from the apostles and handed on.

On the Eucharist

The earliest Fathers speak of the Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Christ.

St Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107), a bishop who had known the apostles’ generation, warned against heretics who “abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7).

St Justin Martyr (c. 155) explained to the Roman emperor: “For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but … we have been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word … is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh” (First Apology 66).

St Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 180) argued against the Gnostics, who despised the material world, by appealing to the Eucharist: Christ took bread and wine, created things, and declared them His Body and Blood (Against Heresies IV.18.5, V.2.2).

St Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 350) taught the newly baptised: “Consider therefore the Bread and the Wine not as bare elements, for they are, according to the Lord’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ” (Catechetical Lecture 22.6).

A purely symbolic understanding of the Eucharist was not taught by any of the early Fathers. When, much later, Berengar of Tours (eleventh century) denied that the bread and wine are changed, his view was rejected as a departure from the Church’s faith, and he recanted. (For the full case, see Isn’t Communion Just a Symbol?)

On the Authority of the Church

The Fathers consistently teach that Scripture is to be read within the faith handed down in the churches founded by the apostles.

St Irenaeus (c. 180) wrote: “It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world” (Against Heresies III.3.1). He argued that the true teaching is found in the churches that can trace their bishops back to the apostles.

Tertullian (c. 200) argued that heretics could not simply appeal to Scripture against the Church: “wherever it shall be manifest that the true Christian rule and faith shall be, there will likewise be the true Scriptures and expositions thereof, and all the Christian traditions” (The Prescription Against Heretics 19).

St Augustine (c. 397) wrote: “For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church” (Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 5). This is not blind obedience; it is the recognition that the Gospel comes to us through the Church. (For more, see Isn’t the Bible Alone Enough?)

On the Bishop of Rome

The Fathers recognised the Bishop of Rome as holding a special place among the bishops, though the way that place was understood and exercised developed over time.

St Clement of Rome (c. 96), writing on behalf of the Roman Church, intervened in a dispute in Corinth, calling the Corinthians to restore their rightful leaders. His letter was still being read in the Corinthian church decades later.

St Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107) addressed the Roman Church as the one “which presides over love” (Letter to the Romans, greeting).

St Irenaeus (c. 180) wrote: “For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority” (Against Heresies III.3.2), and listed Rome’s bishops in succession from Peter and Paul.

St Cyprian of Carthage (c. 251) called Rome “the throne of Peter, and the chief church whence priestly unity takes its source” (Letter 54.14).

The fully developed papacy of later centuries is not present in these texts in its mature form. But the seed is clearly there: a recognised primacy of the Roman Church, grounded in Peter. (See Where Is the Papacy in the Bible?)

On Mary

The Fathers honoured Mary in ways that go well beyond what most Protestant traditions are comfortable with.

St Justin Martyr (c. 155) drew a parallel between Eve and Mary: Eve’s disobedience brought death; Mary’s obedience brought the Saviour into the world (Dialogue with Trypho 100). This Eve–Mary parallel became a standard theme.

St Irenaeus (c. 180) developed it further: “And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary” (Against Heresies III.22.4).

St Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373) praised Mary’s purity in the highest terms in his hymns.

St Augustine (c. 415), arguing that all human beings are sinners, made one exception: “We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord” (On Nature and Grace 36).

These are not yet the Marian dogmas defined in later centuries, but they point clearly in their direction. (See Do Catholics Worship Mary?)

On Confession

The forgiveness of sins through the Church’s ministers is attested from the earliest period.

The Didache (c. 100) instructs: “In the church you shall acknowledge your transgressions” (4), and tells Christians to break bread on the Lord’s day “after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure” (14).

Origen (c. 240) spoke of revealing one’s sin to a priest of the Lord, who serves as a physician of the soul (Homilies on the Psalms 37).

St Cyprian (c. 251) urged “that each one should confess his own sin, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession may be received, while the satisfaction and remission made by the priests are pleasing to the Lord” (On the Lapsed 29).

St Ambrose (c. 390), answering those who denied that the Church could forgive grave sins, wrote that “the Lord willed that the power of binding and of loosing should be alike,” and that “this power has been entrusted to priests alone” (Concerning Repentance I.2.7).

The outward form of Confession developed over the centuries, from public penance to private confession. But the conviction that sins are forgiven through the ministry Christ gave His Church runs from the beginning. (See Why Confess to a Priest Instead of Directly to God?)

Common Objections

”You are picking the quotations that suit you.”

It is a fair challenge, and the best answer is to read the Fathers in full. The links under Sources lead to complete texts. The quotations above are typical, not exceptional: the same convictions run through writers of different regions, languages and centuries.

”The Fathers also said things Catholics don’t believe.”

Some did. Origen speculated that all souls, even the devil, might eventually be saved; Tertullian later left the Church. That is why the Church does not treat any single Father as infallible. What carries weight is their common witness, the faith “believed everywhere, always, by all,” as St Vincent of Lérins put it. And that common witness looks Catholic.

What This Means

The evidence of the Fathers does not prove that the Catholic Church is right about everything, and they did not answer every later question. But it shows that the beliefs most characteristic of Catholicism, the Real Presence, the authority of the Church, the primacy of Rome, the honour given to Mary and the sacrament of Confession, are not medieval inventions. They appear, in recognisable form, in the writings of men who lived within a few generations of the apostles.

If you want to know what the earliest Christians believed, read the Fathers. Many who have done so, including the nineteenth-century Anglican scholar John Henry Newman, found that the faith they professed looks, in its essentials, very much like the faith professed in every Catholic parish today.

This article follows the method St Robert Bellarmine used in his Controversies*: state the question fairly, clear away misunderstandings, make the case, then answer each objection. Bellarmine’s own Controversies quote the Fathers on every disputed point. See How We Answer Objections.*

Sources