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“If any one expects to find in this period [100-325], or in any of the church fathers, Augustin himself not excepted, the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone, . . . he will be greatly disappointed . . . Paul’s doctrine of justification, except perhaps in Clement of Rome, who joins it with the doctrine of James, is left very much out of view, and awaits the age of the Reformation to be more thoroughly established and understood.”

Are you saying that the second century church fathers rejected Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith or just ignored it. Paul is pretty unambiguous on this count. Seems to me that relying on tradition instead of the writings of a apostle explicitly chosen by our Lord is a pretty slim reed to stand on. Or am I misunderstanding your argument?

What you quoted there, from the bottom of the post, is a quote from Philip Schaff's book, History of the Christian Church, Vol. II (see reference above in the post).

Philip Schaff (1819-1893), according to Wikipedia, was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and a historian of the Christian church, who, after his education, lived and taught in the United States.

So what's interesting about the quote here is that, as a Protestant, He says that the Church Fathers did not acknowledge the doctrine of sola fide. That idea did not come along until later, with the Reformation.

Catholics also reject the doctrine of Sola Fide, but not because they reject St. Paul's letters. They Church and early Church Fathers interpret Paul's letters differently than the Protestant Reformers.

The Catholic view of Paul's soteriology can be summarized as follows, taken from O. Gregory Stevens, The Life of Grace:

"Our life of grace is a life in Christ in the Church. We live to Christ by a life in the society of the faithful people of God which is Christ's body. This of course does not mean that the individual and the person is to be obscured by the social. It does mean, however, that all our life as Christians is a life lived as members of the society which is Christ's body. Christ without the Church is "incomplete." Paul sees Christ as a "collective person" which is the fullness of the Church united as members of the body of which he is the head. The principle of union of all in Christ is the common sharing of the life of Christ (at least by faith). The Church is not the body of the Father but of Chirst, in which all things are created (Col 1,16); as head of the body Christ is distinct from it, though he is also united with it. The body is united in the Spirit, its soul and source of union and unity. The Church is the continuance of the incarnation; it is the body of all who love Christ and live in him. We may recognize in the life of grace a divine force which unites us to the body of Christ existing here and now in the world as the Church. The Church is the locus, the setting, the mystical body, in which the Father vivifies us by uniting us to the life of His Son, in the vital efficacy of the Spirit. Our salvation, our life in the world, our final destiny is worked out by union with Christ, living in his body, his Church." (p. 38)