The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained, no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error.
As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. St. Irenaeus, chosen by God to oppose to the Gnostic arguments of his own powerful logic, and to re-establish, in opposition thereunto, the true sense of Holy Scripture, excelled most of all when, in the face of a thousand sects bearing on their brow the visible mark of the 'father of discord and lies', he pointed to the Church maintaining as sacred throughout the universe the whole of Tradition, just as received from the Apostles. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics.
After he had preached that all were obligated to come to the True Faith, he was crowned with martyrdom, together with an almost countless multitude whom he had himself brought over to the knowledge and practice of the True Faith; he passed away unto heaven in the year of 202 AD. This was during the reign of Septimius Severius Augustus, who commanded that all those who persisted in the practice of the Christian religion should be condemned to the most cruel torments and death.
A group of Christians in Asia Minor had been excommunicated by Pope Victor I because of their refusal to accept the Western church’s date for celebrating Easter. Irenaeus, the “lover of peace” as his name indicates, interceded with the pope to lift the ban, indicating that this was not an essential matter and that these people were merely following an old tradition, one that men such as Saint Polycarp (February 23) and Pope Anicetus had not seen as divisive. The pope responded favorably and the rift was healed. Some one hundred years later, the Western practice was voluntarily adopted.
A deep and genuine concern for other people will remind us that the discovery of truth is not to be a victory for some and a defeat for others. Unless all can claim a share in that victory, truth itself will continue to be rejected by the losers, because it will be regarded as inseparable from the yoke of defeat. And so, confrontation, controversy and the like might yield to a genuine united search for God's truth and how it can best be served.
“So unbridled is their madness, that they declare they have in their power all things which are irreligious and impious, and are at liberty to practice them; for they maintain that things are evil or good, simply in virtue of human opinion. They deem it necessary, therefore, that by means of transmigration from body to body, souls should have experience of every kind of life as well as every kind of action (unless, indeed, by a single incarnation, one may be able to prevent any need for others, by once for all, and with equal completeness, doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, which we must not even conceive in our thoughts, nor think credible, if any such thing is mooted among those persons who are our fellow-citizens), in order that, as their writings express it, their souls, having made trial of every kind of life, may, at their departure, not be wanting in any particular. It is necessary to insist upon this, lest, on account of some one thing being still wanting to their deliverance, they should be compelled once more to become incarnate.”
Irenaeus, Against Heresies (a worthwhile read), 1.25.4
Quotes from St. Irenaeus
"The very fashioning of the world shows forth Him who founded it; its formation hints at Him who made it; the world declares Him who so arranged it. And this tradition the Church throughout the world has received from the Apostles."--St. Irenaeus
"The Church sown throughout the world, spread even to the bounds of the earth, received both from the Apostles and from their disciples that faith which believes in the Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and Ascension into heaven--in His flesh--of Jesus Christ our Lord."--St. Irenaeus
On the Unchangable Teachings of the Catholic Faith"The Church sown throughout the world, spread even to the bounds of the earth, received both from the Apostles and from their disciples that faith which believes in the Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and Ascension into heaven--in His flesh--of Jesus Christ our Lord."--St. Irenaeus
"For the Church of Christ, watchful guardian that she is, and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, never changes anything, never diminishes anything, never adds anything to them; but with all diligence she treats the ancient documents faithfully and wisely; if they really are of ancient origin and if the faith of the Fathers has transmitted them, she strives to investigate and explain them in such a way that the ancient dogmas of heavenly doctrine will be made evident and clear, but will retain their full, integral, and proper nature, and will grow only within their own genus - that is, within the same dogma, in the same sense and the same meaning." (Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854 A.D.)
These quotes could be in effect for these days when everyone seems to know the truth about everything, excepting the real Truth.
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