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........., as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time,— a man who was of much greater weight, and a more steadfast witness of truth, than Valentinus, and Marcion, and the rest of the heretics. He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles—that, namely, which is handed down by the Church.

Once again, we see Irenaeus emphasizing the importance of apostolic succession and tradition; no........not the "traditions of men", but that which is handed down by the Church. It is the Church which safeguards the truth due to its unbroken continuity with the apostles, whose successors in Rome, Irenaeus goes to the trouble of listing.

We see here the model of the present day Catholic Church as Irenaeus writes;

".......that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority.....

Now when Polycarp entered into the arena there came a voice from heaven: “Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.” And no one saw the speaker, but our friends who were there heard the voice. And next he was brought forward, and there was a great uproar of those who heard that Polycarp had been arrested. 2 Therefore when he was brought forward the Pro-Consul asked him if he were Polycarp, and when he admitted it he tried to persuade him to deny, saying: “Respect your age,” and so forth, as they are accustomed to say: “Swear by the genius of Caesar, repent, say: `Away with the Atheists’”; but Polycarp, with a stern countenance looked on all the crowd of lawless heathen in the arena, and waving his hand at them, he groaned and looked up to heaven and said: “Away with the Atheists.” 3 But when the Pro-Consul pressed him and said: “Take the oath and I let you go, revile Christ,” Polycarp said: “For eighty and six years have I been his servant, and he has done me no wrong, and how can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

not the "traditions of men", but that which is handed down by the Church.

I understand what you are saying but here is the problem ... you implicitly assume that because the Church handed down the traditions, they cannot be traditions of men ... BY DEFINITION.

No doubt the Sadducees thought what they handed down through the Synagogue was NOT the traditions of men, yet Christ rebuked their traditions as just that ... why? Because those traditions nullified the written Word of God.

So far, the only argument brought forward by Catholics that their traditions dont nullify the Word of God is that these traditions are not the traditions of men ... because they were handed down by the RCC. We had 1200+ postings over the past day on the topic of Mary being sinless. The only evidence that has been presented supporting this tradition has been typological fantasies, faulty exegetical interpretations (like "all" doesnt mean all in Rom. 3:23 because Christ is not excluded), and appeals to some church father.

The Biblical evidence so far is on the side of the traditions of the RCC being man-made ... at least some of them. Some of your traditions seem to me to be merely a matter of conscience; like not eating meat on Friday; and are no big deal. But others go well beyond simple matter of conscience and move into doctrinal issues that distort the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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