that one can be sure of the truth only if one is in fellowship with the leaders who have been appointed to defend it. His insistence on the authority of the bishops as a group rather than on the bishop of Rome as sole head of the church often has been used as an argument against papal primacy. In a controversial passage in Against Heresies, Irenaeus speaks of Rome as the place where the churches gather and attest their unity, but not the place to which they submit. No one of Irenaeus’ generation