Page "Apostolic succession" Paragraph 12

Hegesippus ( 180?

) and Irenaeus ( 180 ) introduce explicitly the idea of the bishop's succession in office as a guarantee of the truth of what he preached in that it could be traced back to the apostles.

and they produced succession lists to back this up.

That this succession depended on the fact of ordination to a vacant see and the status of those who administered the ordination is seldom commented on.

Woollcombe also states that no one questioned the apostolicity of the See of Alexandria despite the fact that its Popes were consecrated by the college of presbyters up till the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325.

Irenaeus also refers to a succession of presbyters who preserve the tradition " which originates from the apostles ".

and later goes on to speak of their having " an infallible gift of truth " veritatis certum.

Jay comments that this is sometimes seen as an early reference to the idea of the transmission of grace through the apostolic succession which in later centuries was understood as being specifically transmitted through the laying on of hands by a bishop within the apostolic succession ( the " pipeline theory ").

He warns that this is open to the grave objection that it makes grace a ( quasi ) material commodity and represents an almost mechanical method of imparting what is by definition a free gift.

He adds that the idea cannot be squeezed out of Irenaeus ' words.