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Catholicism

What the Early Church Fathers Really Said About Scripture, Images, and the Pope

9 min read Updated 3 October 2026 By The Christian King

Many people say that Protestant beliefs started in the 1500s with Martin Luther. They say the early church looked like the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church of today.

But when we read what the early Christian writers actually said, the picture is more mixed. On some big questions, the early church sounds a lot like Protestants.

This article looks at three of those questions:

  1. Is the Bible the highest authority?
  2. Did the early church use images in worship?
  3. Did the early church believe one bishop ruled over the whole church?

We are not saying Catholics or Orthodox Christians are not Christians. We are showing that Protestant beliefs have real roots in the early church.

1. The Bible Was the Final Test

The early church leaders did not see the Bible as one voice among many. They treated it as the final test of what is true. If a teaching could not be shown from Scripture, they did not trust it. Not even if a famous teacher said it.

Cyril of Jerusalem (around AD 350) taught new believers. He told them not to trust even him unless he could prove it from the Bible:

"Even to me, who tell you these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures."

Catechetical Lectures 4.17

Athanasius (around AD 330), the great defender of the Trinity, wrote:

"The sacred and inspired Scriptures are sufficient to declare the truth."

Against the Heathen 1

Hippolytus of Rome (around AD 200) said we learn about God from the Scriptures "and from no other source":

"Whatever things, then, the Holy Scriptures declare, at these let us look; and whatsoever things they teach, these let us learn."

Against Noetus 9

Gregory of Nyssa (around AD 380) said:

"We make the Holy Scriptures the rule and the measure of every tenet."

On the Soul and the Resurrection

Augustine (around AD 400) said only the Bible is free from error. Every other writer can be wrong, including himself:

"I have learned to yield this respect and honour only to the canonical books of Scripture: of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error."

Letter 82, to Jerome

In another letter he said we may reject things in the writings of even great Christian teachers if they disagree with the truth. He asked his readers to treat his own books the same way. (Letter 148)

Dionysius of Alexandria (around AD 250) described a church debate. When the Bible proved the other side right, his group changed its mind:

"We accepted whatever was established by the proofs and teachings of the Holy Scriptures."

Quoted in Eusebius, Church History 7.24

What this shows

The early church did respect its teachers and its traditions. But again and again, its greatest leaders said the Bible is the highest authority. It is the measure for every teaching. Protestants believe exactly this.

2. The Early Church Was Careful About Images in Worship

Today, icons are a central part of Orthodox worship. Statues and pictures are common in Catholic churches. But many early Christians were worried about images in worship.

The Synod of Elvira in Spain (around AD 305) was a meeting of church leaders. It made this rule:

"It has seemed good that images should not be in churches, so that what is venerated and worshiped not be painted on the walls."

Canon 36

This is one of the earliest church rules about images. Scholars debate exactly why it was made. Some say it banned images in principle. Others say it only banned wall paintings that pagans could damage. Either way, it shows church leaders did not want images on church walls.

Eusebius of Caesarea (around AD 325) was the first great church historian. The emperor's sister, Constantia, asked him for a picture of Christ. He refused and rebuked her. He said Christ's glory cannot be captured in a picture, and that the second commandment forbids making such likenesses. (Letter to Constantia. The letter survives only in later quotations, but most scholars accept it as genuine.)

Epiphanius of Salamis (around AD 390) wrote about going into a church in the village of Anablatha. He found a curtain there with an image of Christ or a saint on it. He tore it down:

"Being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder."

Letter to John of Jerusalem, kept in Jerome's Letter 51.9

Irenaeus (around AD 180) wrote about a group of false teachers called the Carpocratians. One sign of their error was that they kept images of Christ. They crowned these images and set them up next to images of pagan philosophers. They had "other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles" (pagans). (Against Heresies 1.25.6)

What this shows

Not every early Christian felt the same way about images. Some early Christian art does exist, like paintings in the catacombs. But the strong practice of honoring icons in church did not come from the very beginning. It was debated for centuries. It was finally made official at a council in AD 787. Many early leaders would have been very uncomfortable with it.

3. No Bishop Ruled Over the Whole Church

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Pope, the bishop of Rome, has authority over the whole church everywhere. This was officially defined at the First Vatican Council in 1870. But the early church did not act as if this were true.

Bishops stood up to Rome

Polycrates of Ephesus (around AD 190). Victor, the bishop of Rome, tried to force all churches to celebrate Easter on the same day as Rome. He threatened to cut off the churches of Asia. Polycrates refused:

"I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said 'We ought to obey God rather than man.'"

Quoted in Eusebius, Church History 5.24

Victor then tried to cut off all the churches of Asia. But Eusebius says, "This did not please all the bishops." Their letters were "sharply rebuking Victor." Irenaeus also wrote to Victor and urged him not to cut off whole churches over this. (Church History 5.24)

Cyprian of Carthage (AD 256) led a council of 87 bishops in North Africa. They disagreed with Stephen, the bishop of Rome. Cyprian opened the meeting by saying:

"For neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience."

Seventh Council of Carthage

Firmilian of Caesarea, a bishop in Asia Minor, wrote to Cyprian at the same time. He sharply criticized Stephen of Rome and called his actions "open and manifest folly." (Letter 74 in Cyprian's letters)

These men were respected leaders. They did not believe the bishop of Rome could give them orders.

All bishops were equal

Jerome (around AD 400) is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church. He wrote:

"Wherever there is a bishop, whether it be at Rome or at Engubium, whether it be at Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it be at Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one and his priesthood is one... All alike are successors of the apostles."

Letter 146

In the same letter, Jerome said that at first "elders" (presbyters) and "bishops" were the same office. Later, one elder was chosen to lead the others:

"When subsequently one presbyter was chosen to preside over the rest, this was done to remedy schism."

Letter 146

Even a pope rejected the title "universal bishop"

Gregory the Great was bishop of Rome from AD 590 to 604. John, the bishop of Constantinople, took the title "Ecumenical Patriarch," which means "universal" patriarch. Gregory strongly objected:

"Now I confidently say that whosoever calls himself, or desires to be called, Universal Priest, is in his elation the precursor of Antichrist."

Letter 7.33

To be fair, Gregory still believed Rome held a special place of honor. But he rejected the idea that any one bishop is the "universal" bishop over all the others. That is very close to what Rome later claimed for itself.

The great councils treated Rome as one leading church among others

The Council of Nicaea (AD 325) said the bishop of Alexandria should have authority over his own region, "since the like is customary for the Bishop of Rome also." (Canon 6) Rome's authority was treated as a regional custom, not a rule over the whole world.

4. "On This Rock": How the Fathers Read Matthew 16

Jesus said to Peter, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Today this verse is often used to support the papacy. But many early leaders read it differently. They often said the "rock" was Peter's faith, or Christ Himself.

Hilary of Poitiers (around AD 360):

"This faith it is which is the foundation of the Church; through this faith the gates of hell cannot prevail against her."

On the Trinity 6.37

Ambrose of Milan (around AD 380):

"Faith, then, is the foundation of the Church, for it was not said of Peter's flesh, but of his faith, that 'the gates of death shall not prevail against it.'"

On the Incarnation 5.34

Augustine said he often explained the verse to mean the Church is built on Christ, the one Peter confessed:

"For, 'Thou art Peter' and not 'Thou art the rock' was said to him. But 'the rock was Christ.'"

Retractations 1.21

Origen (around AD 240) taught that every true believer who confesses Christ like Peter did becomes a "rock," and the promises given to Peter belong to all such believers. (Commentary on Matthew 12.10–11)

What this shows

The early church leaders did honor Peter as a great apostle. But when they explained Matthew 16, they did not say it meant the bishop of Rome rules the church. Many said the rock is the faith that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." Every true Christian shares that faith.

A Fair Word

It is important to be honest. The early church does not match any modern church perfectly, and that includes Protestant churches. The early Fathers also taught things that many Protestants do not hold, such as bishops leading every church and a high view of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

But that is exactly the point. The early church was not simply "Roman Catholic" or "Eastern Orthodox" as they are today. On key questions, the Fathers stand much closer to Protestant beliefs than many people think:

Protestants are not inventing something new when they hold these beliefs. They are standing on ground the early church stood on.

Sources

Most quotes are from the standard English translations in Ante-Nicene Fathers and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Schaff and Roberts/Donaldson). The Elvira canon and Augustine's Retractations are from modern translations, and the Ambrose quote is translated from the Latin (De incarnationis dominicae sacramento 5.34), because those works are not in these sets. These are free to read at ccel.org and newadvent.org/fathers.