Tis a little known fact that over 95% of the Catholic bishops trace their lineage back to one man, the 16th century Cardinal Scipione Rebiba. Makes him a kind of sacramental Adam.
I checked out the lineage of the bishop who ordained me and in that line are included seven Popes.
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Referencing Gnosticism yesterday, it's a funny thing about a lot of the contemporary little Gnostic groups that most of them tend to value apostolic succession very highly and go to great lengths to provide proof of their lineages. From the point of view of the Apostolic Churches --Catholic and Orthodox/Oriental-- their ordinations are no more valid than Mormon baptisms because the intention and the content deviate so strongly from the traditional meanings. Hell, for Catholics, even the Anglicans broke the chain by their Protestantism.
And of course one of the earliest witnesses to the hierarchical-dogmatic-sacramental shape that the orthodox Church took was St Irenaeus, whose writings attack "the so-called Gnostics."
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