St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, was a disciple of St. Polycarp, himself the disciple of John the Evangelist and the bishop of Smyrna.
The following quotes are from the writings of St. Irenaeus:
“For they [the Apostles] were desirous that these men should be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving behind as their successors, delivering up their own place of government to these men; which men, if they discharged their functions honestly, would be a great boon [to the Church], but if they should fall away, the direst calamity.” (Against Heresies 3, 3, 1 [A.D. 189])
“But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the succession of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. With that church, because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition” (Against Heresies 3, 3, 2 [A.D. 189]).
“Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church, — those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain [sure] gift of truth [charisma veritatis certum], according to the good pleasure of the Father” (Against Heresies 4, 26, 2 [A.D. 189]).
