Early Church Fathers

The Early Church was the Catholic Church. After reading the writings of the early fathers there is no other conclusion that one can come to. Teachings that are said to be later additions, and thus man made, are found in the writings of the fathers. As Cardinal Newman once said: “To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.” Cardinal Newman was a Protestant and a leader in the Oxford movement. His investigations into the early church are what led him to convert to Catholicism. He rejected the idea that Christ had abandoned the Church for 1500 years. And if Protestant claims are correct, that is exactly what it would have meant.