Secretly, Protestants all know they have absolutely no Biblical or historical foundation.
Take a bow.
Show me a Bibical foundation for “every man his own Pope” and I might grant you that. But there is absolutely no foundation for the basis of all forms of Protestantism, which is that each individual has to build his own “church” based on hints that he believes he has found in Scripture. On the other hand, there’s lots and lots of evidence that Christ founded the Church to keep his teaching pure and unified and not subject to individual whims or situations, as well as to transmit this ongoing contact with him through the Sacraments (which can only be authentically dispensed through the Church as traced back to the Apostles).
Every bishop when he is consecrated receives his “episcopal pedigree,” which is a statement that he was consecrated by Bishop A, who was consecrated by Bishop B, who was consecrated by Bishop C, etc. The records were destroyed in the 16th century when the French (I believe it was) burned the Vatican, but theoretically the records of a bishop should go back to the Apostle who was the one from whom that line of bishops comes. I believe some of the Eastern Churches have at least some idea of who the Apostle from whom some of their bishops are descended. And that goes right back to the Gospel and Epistle accounts themselves.