What the Early Church Believed: The Meaning of "Catholic"

The term's meaning

The first surviving use of "Catholic" for the Church is in the letters of Ignatius in the early second century. At that time or soon after, it referred to a single, visible communion separate from others. The word appears in the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian creeds. Many Protestants claim it for themselves but give it a meaning unsupported by history.

Protestant historian J. N. D. Kelly writes that by the latter half of the second century at the latest, "Catholic" suggested the true Church as distinct from heretical congregations, and that the Fathers meant the visible society, with little or no notion of a later visible/invisible distinction. Those who recite the creeds while inserting another meaning are reinterpreting them by modern preference, as a liberal scholar does with uncomfortable Scripture. The creeds' meaning is set by their historical context, shown below.

The witness of the early Church

• Ignatius of Antioch (110): wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church; a valid Eucharist is celebrated by the bishop or one he ordains.
• The Martyrdom of Polycarp (155) calls Polycarp bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna.
• The Muratorian Canon (177) distinguishes letters received by the Catholic Church from forgeries.
• Tertullian (200) says Marcion and Valentinus first believed the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Rome until they were expelled.
• Cyprian (253): the Church, one and catholic, is not divided; whoever is not with the bishop is not in the Church.
• The Council of Nicaea I (325) says "the Catholic Church anathematizes" the Arians and regulates the reception of Novatians into the Catholic Church.
• Cyril of Jerusalem (350) explains the Church is called catholic because it spans the world, teaches every doctrine universally, brings every race to godliness and heals every sin; travelers should ask not merely for "the church" but for the Catholic Church.
• The Apostles' Creed (360 version) and Council of Constantinople I (381) confess the holy catholic Church; Constantinople regulates receiving heretics into it.
• Augustine (390–397): even the Church's enemies call her Catholic; neither heretics nor schismatics belong to her; he would not believe the gospel without the authority of the Catholic Church; the succession from Peter (John 21:15-17) and the very name Catholic keep him in her.
• Vincent of Lerins (434): to remain in the Catholic faith one must rely on Scripture and on the tradition of the Catholic Church, since people interpret Scripture in many ways.
• The Council of Chalcedon (451) requires children baptized among heretics to be brought into communion with the Catholic Church.