It is significant that Tertullian, immediately after opposing heretics on the grounds that they lack apostolic succession, adds, “But should they even effect the contrivance, they will not advance a step. For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for its author neither an apostle nor an apostolic man.”22 In other words, Tertullian reasons that even if the heretics had apostolic succession, it wouldn’t matter, because their doctrine was not apostolic. This resonates with the later Protestant instinct to
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