Apologetics Perhaps the most famous quote by any Roman Catholic apologist is the one stated by Cardinal John Henry Newman: There is a general view among Roman Catholics that all evidence points to Roman Catholicism. Their church teaches them that their church has an unbroken “apostolic succession” that goes back all …

Ambrose of Milan While we have seen a number of writers altering the ancient liturgy—Cyril in 350, Serapion in 353, Apostolic Constitutions in 375, Chrysostom in 400—it is Ambrose writing in 389 that is most blatant in embracing the doctrinal innovations of the newly risen Roman Catholic Church. Ambrose joins …

John Chrysostom (347-407) John Chrysostom was an extremely prodigious writer, composing around 700 sermons, 250 letters, and a number of other works, including biblical commentaries. He wrote all of his works during the transitional period during the rise of Roman Catholicism. His writings reflect the changes in the development of …

Serapion of Thmuis There is not a lot to discuss with Serapion, so I’ll quote this large portion from his Sacramentary, which dated to around 353AD. But there is another popular version of this floating around: This is clearly a different translation, but notice that the part in bold exists …

Basil of Caesarea (330-378) Recall in Part 25: Gregory Nazianzus, that Basil attended the funeral of Gregory Nazianzus (the Elder). That eulogy was given by Gregory (the Younger). Basil and Gregory were friends. Given that Gregory (the Younger) agreed with the doctrinal views of Gregory (the Elder) and that Basil …

Interlude This series is, in part, a response to FishEaters, who was raised up as a credible expert on the Roman Catholic Eucharist: I had, for a while, wanted to respond to FishEaters’ “The Eucharist,” but we needed to set up the ground work of this series before we could attempt …

Lactantius (250-325) Many times throughout this series—The Didache, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Aphrahat, Athanasius, Eusebius—we have noted that the ancient church viewed the thanksgiving—eucharist—as the sacrificial fulfillment of Malachi 1:11. Let’s see how Lactantius handles this theme. Here Lactantius shows how familiar he is with Malachi’s prophecy. He noted …

Gregory Nazianzus There are two Gregory Nazianzus, the younger (329-390) and his father the elder (276-374). The following oration was delivered by the son when his father died. It is a funeral oration and eulogy. We begin with Gregory the Elder’s wife Nonna, who had a great and sincere concern …

Cyril of Jerusalem Let’s start with FishEaters’ first quotation. As we’ve done on a number of occasions throughout this series, let’s just complete the sentence: FishEaters gave this citation to make it appear as if Cyril is arguing for transubstantiation. In reality, he was comparing the holy and profane invocations. …

Gregory of Nyssa In Part 18: Athansius of Alexandria we saw how in 373, the church in Alexandria still held to the ancient liturgy, clearly separating the (1-3) sacrifice of thanksgiving from the (4-5) celebration of the Lord’s Supper. But in Part 19: Ephraim the Syrian, we saw how in that same year, 373, in …