[JHavard]

Church accrued the name "Catholic" (catolikos) in response to many other people claiming to be Christians. It became necessary to differentiate orthodox Christianity from the various sects and heresies that were (and have been since her founding in 33AD) springing up. It means "universal."

P2BA, where did you find this bit of history, I just checked the Catholic Encyclopedia, and the earliest date they give for the words "Catholic Church" are around 110AD, and they had to use the epistles of Ignatius to find it then.

Ignatius was credited with 15 epistles, of which 8 of them were obvious frauds, and the seven that were left were known to have interpolations in them, which would probably explain why this strange phrase turned up where it did.

If memory serves me right, these epistles didn't show up until the 1700's, which allowed plenty of time for changing.

[OLD REGGIE]

Now you've gone and stirred the pot again. I was thinking Proud2BAmerican was giving me good information. Of course I knew he made a minor error when he said "Catholic=universal". I just assumed he meant "catholic".

Note to Proud2BAmerican:

Catholic (noun)

catholic (adjective)

[Proud2BAmerican]

Here's one place it's described:

Early Church historian J. N. D. Kelly, a Protestant, writes: "As regards 'Catholic' . . . in the latter half of the second century at latest, we find it conveying the suggestion that the Catholic is the true Church as distinct from heretical congregations (cf., e.g., Muratorian Canon). . . . What these early fathers were envisaging was almost always the empirical, visible society; they had little or no inkling of the distinction which was later to become important between a visible and an invisible Church" (Early Christian Doctrines, pg.190).

[dadwags]

#3312
JH, Where do you get the info about Ignatius's Epistles ? Who says which are real and which are frauds ? Is there a website containing this critique ?
Inquiring minds want to know .