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FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE CHURCH FATHERS, who witnessed and participated in, and knew the apostles and their successors, SHOW THE EXACT OPPOSITE, the SACRED TRADITIONS were well accepted and considered entirely in line with the Christian faith...

For the most part.....here is what the early church fathers brought us.

Clement: [Epistle to the Corinthians] "The high priest has been given his own special services, the priests have been assigned their own place, and the Levites have their special ministrations enjoined on them. The layman is bound by the ordinances of the laity." A.D. 95

Ignatius: [To the Ephesians] "Your REVEREND presbytery is tuned to the Bishop as strings to a lyre...Let us be careful not to resist the Bishop, that through our submission to the Bishop we may belong to God...We should regard the Bishop as the Lord Himself..." A.D. 110

Tertullian: [Roman of Carthage] "The supreme priest (that is the Bishop) has the right of conferring baptism: after him the presbyters and deacons, but only with the Bishop's authority. Otherwise the laity also have the right...how much more is the discipline of reverence and humility incumbent upon laymen (since it also befits their superiors)...It would be idle for us to suppose that what is forbidden to PRIESTS is allowed to the laity. The distinction between the order of clergy and the people has been established by the authority of the Church." A.D. 200

Cyprian: [Bishop of Carthage]"If Christ Jesus our Lord and God is Himself the High Priest of God the Father, and first offered Himself as a sacrifice to the Father, and commanded this to be done in remembrance of Himself, then assuredly the priest acts truly in Christ's place when he reproduces what Christ did, and he then offers a true and complete sacrifice to God the Father, if he begins to offer as he sees Christ Himself has offered." A.D. 250

So.....from the original concept of a local church being led by elders in a short 250 years this is what the church fathers brought us. A huge priesthood now doing a sacrificial mass with a centralized head......that eventually became infallible.

[Hebrews 7:11-12] If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Whereas Out Saviour's atoning sacrifice eliminated the priesthood.....the fathers in a short 250 years gave us back exactly what Our Lord's actions had done away with!