Church Fathers: All Bishops are Successors of Peter

 

1. St. John Chrysostom

"But since I have mentioned Peter, I have perceived a fifth crown woven from him, and this is that this man succeeded to the office after him. For just as any one taking a great stone from a foundation hastens by all means to introduce an equivalent to it, lest he should shake the whole building, and make it more unsound, so, accordingly, when Peter was about to depart from here, the grace of the Spirit introduced another teacher equivalent to Peter, so that the building already completed should not be made more unsound by the insignificance of the successor" (Homilies on Ignatius, Chapter 4)

2. Theodoret of Cyrus

"Dioscorus, however, refuses to abide by these decisions; he is turning the see of the blessed Mark (Alexandria) upside down; and these things he does though he perfectly well knows that the Antiochene metropolis possesses the throne of the great Peter, who was teacher of the blessed Mark, and first and coryphæus of the chorus of the apostles" (Letter 86)

3. Aphraates (Syriac Church Father)

"The good shepherd giveth himself for the sake of his sheep (John 10:11). And again He said:—I have other sheep and I must bring them also hither. And the whole flock shall be one, and one shepherd, and My Father because of this loveth Me; that I give Myself for the sake of the sheep (John 10:16-17). And again He said;—I am the door of the sheep. Every one that entereth by Me shall live and shall go in and go out and find pasture (John 10:9). O ye pastors, be ye made like unto that diligent pastor, the chief of the whole flock, who cared so greatly for his flock. He brought nigh those that were afar off. He brought back the wanderers. He visited the sick. He strengthened the weak. He bound up the broken. He guarded the fatlings. He gave himself up for the sake of the sheep. He chose and instructed excellent leaders, and committed the sheep into their hands, and gave them authority over all his flock. For He said to Simon Cephas:—Feed My sheep and My lambs and My ewes (John 21:15-17). So Simon fed His sheep; and he fulfilled his time and handed over the flock to you, and departed. Do ye also feed and guide them well. For the pastor who cares for his sheep engages in no other pursuit along with that. He does not make a vineyard, nor plant gardens, nor does he fall into the troubles of this world. Never have we seen a pastor who left his sheep in the wilderness and became a merchant, or one who left his flock to wander and became a husbandman. But if he deserts his flock and does these things he thereby hands over his flock to the wolves" (Demonstration 10)

4. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite 

"And to the one enlightened by the sacred revelation of the all-holy Father it is said in Scripture, ‘whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Thus [Peter] himself and all the hierarchs like him have had the judgment of the Father revealed to them, and, being themselves men who provide revelation and explanation, they have the task of admitting the friends of God and of keeping away the ungodly" (Celestial Hierarchy 7:7)