Safe Haven

As poor Timothy is about to discover in the comments on the previous post, I'm long-winded, and possibly insane. I need to explain some more; what is it about the patristic writings that leads people to be non-Protestant, oftentimes? Well, on the one hand, you could look at the data and say, "There was a gradual corruption of the apostolic witness, corrected by the Reformers." It had always been their contention that the church fathers vindicated their positions, in fact. In other words, their defense against the charge of schism had been that the body laying the charges was no church at all, and was itself out of accord with Scripture and these early witnesses. The problem is that there are tons of affinities with the fathers and the medieval Catholic Church that drew the Reformers' ire, and also between that Church and the Catholic Church today. These continuities of themselves say nothing; however, if Scripture and Tradition are illegitimate means of the transmissi...