I like how you narrowed it down to the 1st century... interesting. I assume you’ve read the student of John (the apostle), called Ignatius of Antioch (writing around 107-110 AD)? His letter to the Smyrneans re: docetists If not, if I give you a link, will you read it?
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm
If you need it in Greek or with commentaries from Lightfoot and others, let me know. There are also his other letters you may want to check out as well. You may run across Justin Martyr, Cyril of Jerusalem and others along the way.
Mail me when you get a chance.
Pride is a killer, I know. Pray for me as I pray for you.
God bless.
I own and read the entire Anti-Nicene set...and when these godly men write, their latin reference to “catholic” is always meant to mean “universal”: not catholic church. Suppose their words were correctly translated “universal”, then I suppose the catholic church would call themselves the universal church...