such, it also provides a guide to reading the canonical Gospels:
This is the truth that readers are to find in those complex texts.• In addition to canon and creed, Irenaeus asserts the historical
priority of an “apostolic succession” of bishops, whom, he argues,
read only these books and believed these things from the time of
Jesus until the present.
o The notion of the bishops as the successors of the apostles is
found already in Clement of Rome, but Irenaeus argues it more
fully, with specific attention to the bishops of Rome from the
time of Peter down to the present bishop.
o This institutional argument directly opposes the Gnostic position
concerning secret teachings, secret teachers, and secret books.• The principle of episcopal leadership is displayed in the so-called
Quartodecimans (Easter) controversy in which Irenaeus was
involved. It is narrated by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History (1:
502–513).
o Bishops of Asia celebrated Easter on 14th Nisan, the date of the
Jewish Passover; bishops in the West, however, celebrated it on
the Sunday after Passover.
o The difference in practice generated a series of regional councils
seeking resolution; these councils agreed with the Western
(Roman) position. When the Asian bishops persisted in their
practice, which they traced back to the apostle John, Pope Victor
I of Rome tried to excommunicate the Asian churches.o Irenaeus and others argued that agreement in faith was
compatible with diversity in liturgical practice. They advocated
maintaining difference in liturgical practice as long as the
understanding of Easter was the same, which it was.o Like other contentious issues, this one would persist as an
irritant and be resolved only by ecumenical councils in the
4 th century.