Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.3.1
The apostolic plan stands revealed throughout the whole world; it is present for all who wish to see the truth to behold in every church. We can enumerate those whom the apostles instituted as bishops in the churches, along with their successions down to us — men who taught nothing of the kind, nor knew it, the very thing these people rave about.
If the apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they taught separately and secretly to the perfect, they would have handed them over especially to those to whom they also entrusted the churches themselves. They wanted those they left as successors to be very strong and irreproachable in all things, so that by handing over their own place of teaching great benefit would come to those who act rightly, but the greatest calamity to those who fall away.
Since it would be far too long to enumerate the successions of all the churches in a volume of this kind, we point to the greatest, most ancient, and universally known church, founded and established at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul. We set forth the tradition it has from the apostles and the faith proclaimed to humanity, coming down through the successions of bishops to us. By this we confound all those who, in any way — whether through evil self-pleasing, empty glory, blindness, or bad judgment — gather otherwise than is fitting.
For to this church, because of its more powerful principality, every church must convene — that is, the faithful from everywhere — in which the tradition from the apostles has always been preserved by those from everywhere.
Latin
Trapirionem itaque Apostolorum in toto mundo manifestatam, in omni Ecclesia adest perspicere omnibus qui vera velint videre, et habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in ecclesiis, et successiones eorum usque ad nos, qui nihil tale docuerunt, neque cognoverunt, quale ab his deliratur. Etenim si recondita mysteria scissent Apostoli, que seorsim et latenter ab reliquis perfectos docebant, his vel maxime traderent ea quibus etiam ipsas ecclesias committebant. Valde enim fectos et irreprehensibiles in omnibus eos volebant esse, quos et successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradenemendate agentibus fieret magna utilitas, lapsis autem summa calamitas, Sed quoniam valde longum est, in hoe tali volumine omnium ecclesiarum enumerare successiones, maximz, et antiquissimz, et omnibus cognitz, a gloriosissimis duobus Apostolis ? Petro et Paulo Rome fundatz et constitute ecclesiz, eam quam habet ab Apostolis traditionem, et annuntiatam hominibus fidem, per successiones Episcoporum pervenientem .usque ad nos indicantes, confundimus omnes eos, qui quoquo modo vel per sibiplacentiam malam, vel vanam gloriam, vel per cecitatem et malam sententiam, preeterquam oportet colligunt. Ad hane enim ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem Sconvenire Ecclesiam, hoc est, eos qui sunt undique fideles, in qua semper ab his, qui sunt undique, conservata est ea que est ab Apostolis traditio. pena.