Today is the feast of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the most important early Christian writers. He was an apologist for the faith and wrote a famous work called “Against Heresies”.
This lengthy work is very early and so many apologists of modern confession positions (Catholics & Protestants) use it to prove their own system. Just look at one section. In Book III, Chapter 2, Pt. 1, Irenaeus asserts concerning heretic:
“When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce… And this wisdom each one of them alleges to be the fiction of his own inventing, forsooth; so that, according to their idea, the truth properly resides at one time in Valentinus, at another in Marcion, at another in Cerinthus, then afterwards in Basiledes, or has even been indifferently in any other opponent, who could speak nothing pertaining to salvation. For every one of these men, being altogether of a perverse disposition, depraving the system of truth, is not ashamed to preach himself.”
This passage could easily be used by Christians of the Reformation churches to say Aha! SEE! to place human tradition above the scriptures is to violate and deny the truth of the Bible. These men were heretical according to Irenaeus because they didn’t believe the truth was delivered by written documents. In the same way Roman Catholic apologists tend to quote the next paragraph without even mentioning the previous one:
“But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For [they maintain] that the apostles intermingled the things of the law with the words of the Saviour; and that not the apostles alone, but even the Lord Himself, spoke as at one time from the Demiurge, at another from the intermediate place, and yet again from the Pleroma, but that they themselves, indubitably, unsulliedly, and purely, have knowledge of the hidden mystery: this is, indeed, to blaspheme their Creator after a most impudent manner! It comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition.”
In the early church, churches had their orthodoxy established by who founded them. So some were begun by the disciples of various apostles. These men would then say they learned their Christianity from so and so, who learned it from St. John – the beloved disciple of Jesus. Thus tradition – what was passed on – served to measure orthodoxy. This most Protestants (excluding Lutherans and Anglicans) are not so excited about.
By admitting that the Pope can interpret the scriptures as he likes because he possesses some secret link and hidden tradition going back to Sts. Peter and Paul, is I think, not at all what Irenaeus’ line of argument was herein. It was rather the point that the revelation was entrusted to the apostles, and the closer we can get to them, primarily in the scriptures, but also in apostolic tradition, the better. It was far from any evolutionary view where the Church could declare anything it pleased because it was in apostolic succession, on the contrary, most of the heretics Irenaeus cites were churchmen in the succession likewise, it is merely an aid, not any promise of infallibility.
Similarly, those who would assert doctrines at odds with those of the early Christians would be guilty of affirming their own secret traditions, or special knowledge which resides in them and not the historic tradition of the church, and should be warned against.
Thus at least, by my reckoning, is one of the contributions of St. Irenaeus of Lyons. (I was also horrified to hear his tomb and remains were desecrated by Calvin’s followers, the French Huguenots in 1562)