The three popes who reigned during this period all had to deal with serious divisions within the Church, especially over questions of how the Church should treat fallen-away Catholics who wished to return, as well as those who had been baptized by heretics and now wished to join themselves to the true Church. An important participant in these controversies, was St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who supported the positions of Pope Sts. Cornelius and Lucius, but clashed with the third, Pope St. Stephen.

This episode covers popes #21-23: Sts. Cornelius, Lucius I, and Stephen I.

Article: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/popes-lost-sheep/

Links

Related Way of the Fathers episodes:

• Novatian, Pt. 1 https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/48-novatian-good-bad-ugly-pt-1-good/
• Novatian, Pt. 2 https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/49-novatian-part-2-bad-and-ugly/
• Pope St. Stephen and the Sacraments https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-st-stephen-and-sacraments/
• Rebaptism and the Donatist heresy https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/410-heresies-rebaptism-and-donatists/
• St. Cyprian of Carthage https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-18-short-happy-life-cyprian-carthage/

Fr. Ray Ryland, "Will the Real St. Cyprian Please Stand?" https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/will-the-real-st-cyprian-please-stand

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The first four of the six popes covered in this installment found themselves in conflict with a priest named Hippolytus, the most brilliant intellectual of the Roman Church at the time. Hippolytus would become the first antipope in the history of the Church, plaguing three successive papacies with his schism. Yet his story has a happy and even poetic ending.

This episode covers popes #15-#20: Sts. Zephyrinus, Callistus I, Urban I, Pontian, Anterus, and Fabian.

Article https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/first-antipope/

Modalism https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/47-heresies-modalism-god-as-monad-with-three-names/

St. Hippolytus of Rome https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-17the-long-strange-trip-hippolytus-rome/

Leo XIII's encyclical on marriage https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/leo-xiii-on-what-marriage-owes-to-church/

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Little is known about many of the popes of the second century. Several of them were martyrs. They had to deal with different heresies that made their way to Rome, and there was also a controversy over the correct date of Easter.

This episode covers popes #5-#14: Sts. Evaristus, Alexander I, Sixtus I, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius I, Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherius, and Victor I.

Article: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ten-popes-second-century/

Way of the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/way-fathers/

Way of the Fathers on St. Irenaeus of Lyons (an important source about the early popes) https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/

Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/audiobooks/

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The first three popes after St. Peter likely knew the Prince of the Apostles personally and may even have been hand-selected by him. We know little of Sts. Linus and Cletus, but the first writing we possess by a pope after St. Peter himself is a precious letter by Pope St. Clement I to the Church of Corinth.

Article: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/popes-apostolic-era-lives-popes-2/

Audiobooks of Pope St. Clement's letters:

Letter to the Corinthians https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-clement-rome-letter-to-corinthians/

Apocryphal Second Letter https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/so-called-second-letter-st-clement/

More about St. Clement's Letter on Way of the Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/clement-rome-earliest-christian-author-after-apostles/

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One must beware a rabbit hole.

Article: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/lives-popes-part-one-infinity/

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