In the early Church, of course there was an oral tradition. St. Paul even talks about it, repeatedly, mentioning letters which were not part of the Bible and oral teachings he and others had given on earlier occasions. St. Peter was a very active teacher, as noted in Acts, but most of what he taught was not written down. And we know that all the Apostles evangelized and taught, but much of their material was not written down until much later.
Until the Canon was established by the early Church, miscellaneous writings (e.g. the Didache) and oral traditions were coexisting, just as written and oral traditions coexisted in Britain and the U.S. in relatively recent times. The early church fathers synthesized written and oral tradition and wrote it all down. So over time, the transmission from the Apostles ceased to be partly oral and became written only.
Just as Homer moved from the oral to written tradition as soon as the accepted version was written down.
Fair enough. But Homer has not experienced a development in its tradition. Oral tradition is a way of communicating history forward and would be a bit incongruent with a "development" like we see in the "development of doctrine" in Catholic tradition.
God does work in mysterious ways.
The anti-Catholic bigotry that started all of this has led me and some others to some wonderful readings to refresh and renew our faith.
I was in need.