Quotes About Early Church Traditions

Quotes about traditions of the early Church. You can decide whether they came from the apostles, as the early church often claimed.

Rainbow over Jackson, Tn

Tertullian, c. A.D. 200

We count fasting or kneeling in worship on the Lord’s day to be unlawful. [ed. note: Jesus rose on the Lord's day, so it was for rejoicing only.] We rejoice in the same privilege also from Passover to Pentecost. We feel pained should any wine or bread, even though our own, be cast upon the ground.  At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign [i.e., of the cross]. If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scriptural injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer. You will perceive that reason will support tradition, custom, and faith, or you will learn from someone else who knows. Meanwhile, you will believe that there is some reasoning [behind these traditions] to which submission is due. (De Corona 3)