Is it hubris, vanity, arrogance, or that smugness thing you mentioned that would compel anyone to claim for themselves the gifts of the early fathers?
I've never had the opportunity to speak directly with anyone who believed in their own infallibility with respect to interpretation before so please humor me. Assuming, for argument's sake, that you do have the gift of inerrance and infallibility, besides "Rome" which denominations do you personally differ with on any points of interpretation and doctrine? Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli were not in complete agreement, which was right? You differ with many of your fellow Protestants in this forum, which are wrong?
Is this gift exclusive to you or are there others who have the gift?
Tsk, tsk. None of the above.
I've never had the opportunity to speak directly with anyone who believed in their own infallibility with respect to interpretation
Your error is in thinking people think they're infallible. Infallibility isn't left to individuals including the Pope. The church fathers subscribed infallibility ONLY to the scriptures. Every other writing is subject to error. However, it is the Pope who put into church doctrine that he is infallible-something even the Orthodox laugh at.
The fact is the church fathers tells us what is infallible. That doesn't make the writings infallible. The writings were infallible BEFORE the father told us so. The fathers simply confirm it to be so and they tell us that by saying the scriptures were "given to us by God".
Anything within the scripture is the word of God and is profitable for teaching and reproof. The same cannot be said about the teachings of the Church. Most of the scriptures are very clear. People just don't wish to see their reflection in it. It's not pretty.