This fundamentalist canard is as pathetic as it is disingenuous. Here are some typical quotes from the fathers.
We must recieve the traditions and the orthodox teaching from the Fathers, unless we wish to become illigimate sons.
[St. Athanasius, *De Synodis 47]
But what is also to the point, let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this; he is neither nor any longer ought to be called a Christian.
[St. Athanasius, *Letter to Serapion of Thumis #4, 1, 28]
We are content with the fact that this [Arianism] is not the teaching of the Catholic Church, nor did the fathers hold this.
[St. Athanasius, *Letter 59,3]
But our faith is right, and starts from the teaching of the Apostles and tradition of the fathers, being confirmed both by the New Testament and the Old.
[St. Athanasius, *Letter 60,6]
The word of the Lord which came form the Ecumenical Council at Nicea remains forever.
[St. Athanasius, *Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa, 2]
When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn around and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and assert that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For they allege that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but viva voce.
But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, and which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For they maintain that the apostles intermingled the things of the law with the words of the Saviour; . . . It comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition.
[St. Irenaeus of Lyons, *Adversus Haereses, III, 2, 1-2]
Of the dogmas and kerygmas preserved in the Church, some we possess from written teaching and others we receive from the tradition of the Apostles, handed on to us in mystery. In respect to piety both are of the same force. No one will contradict any of these, no one, at any rate, who is even moderately versed in matters ecclesiastical. Indeed were we to try to reject unwritten customs as having no great authority, we would unwittingly injure the Gospel in its vitals; or rather, we would reduce kerygma to a mere term.
[St. Basil the Great, *The Holy Spirit, 27, 66]
For I hold it apostolic to abide also by the unwritten traditions.
[St. Basil the Great, *The Holy Spirit, 29, 71]
It is needful also to make use of Tradition, for not everything can be gotten from Sacred Scripture. The holy Apostles handed down some things in the Scriptures, other things in Tradition.
[St. Epiphanius of Salamis, *Against All Heresies 61, 6]
It suffices for proof of our statement that we have a tradition coming down from the fathers, an inheritance as it were, by succession from the apostles through the saints who came after them.
[St. Gregory Nazianzen, *Against Eunomius 4, 6 on Christ’s nature).
Well, the Divine books are full of such instruction for our guidance; and besides that many of the Saints cast the refulgence of their own lives, like lamps, upon the path for those who are "walking with God. But each may gather in abundance for himself suggestions towards this end out of either Covenant in the inspired writings; the Prophets and the Law are full of them; and also the Gospel and the Traditions of the Apostles.
[St. Gregory of Nyssa, *On Virginity, XI]
And let no one interrupt me, by saying that what we confess should also be confirmed by constructive reasoning: for it is enough for proof of our statement, that the tradition has come down to us from our fathers, handled on, like some inheritance, by succession from the apostles and the saints who came after them. They, on the other hand, who change their doctrines to this novelty, would need the support of arguments in abundance, if they were about to bring over to their views, not men light as dust, and unstable, but men of weight and steadiness: but so long as their statement is advanced without being established, and without being proved, who is so foolish and so brutish as to account the teaching of the evangelists and apostles, and of those who have successively shone like lights in the churches, of less force than this undemonstrated nonsense?
[St. Gregory of Nyssa, *Against Eunomius, III, 6]
The question [regarding the Holy Trinity] is, as I said, very difficult to deal with: yet, if we should be able to find anything that may give support to the uncertainty of our mind, so that it may no longer totter and waver in this monstrous dilemma, it would be well: on the other hand, even if our reasoning be found unequal to the problem, we must keep forever, firm and unmoved, the tradition which we received by succession from the fathers, and seek from the Lord the reason which is the advocate of our faith: and if this be found by any of those endowed with grace, we must give thanks to Him who bestowed the grace; but if not, we shall none the less, on those points which have been determined, hold our faith unchangeably.
[St. Gregory of Nyssa, *To Ablabius]
But in regard to those observances which we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are given to understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either by the Apostles themselves or by plenary councils, the authority of which is quite vital in the Church.
[St. Augustine of Hippo, *Letter 54, 1, 1] to Januarius
We may answer, that what is here written, was sufficient for those who would attend, and that the sacred writers ever addressed themsleves to the matter of immediate importance, whatever it might be at that time: it was no object with them to be writers of books: in fact, there are many things which have been delivered by unwritten tradition.
[St. John Chrysostom, *Homilies on Acts 1,1]
I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively of very many men eminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what sure and so to speak universal rule I may be able to distinguish the truth of Catholic faith from the falsehood of heretical depravity; and I have always, and in almost every instance, received an answer to this effect: That whether I or anyone else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the snares of heretics as they rise, and to continue sound and complete in the Catholic faith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways; first, by the authority of the Divine Law, and then, by the Tradition of the Catholic Church. . . . Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense “Catholic,” which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent.
[St. Vincent of Lérins, *Commonitory 2, 4-6]
If you should find someone who does not yet believe in the Gospel, what should you answer him when he says: “I do not believe?” Indeed, I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not influence me to do so.
[St. Augustine of Hippo, *Against the Letter of Mani Called “The Foundation”, 5, 6]
I believe that this practice [of infant baptism] comes from apostolic tradition, just as so many other practices not found in their writtings nor in the councils of their successors, but which, because they are kept by the whole church everywhere, are are believed to be commended and handed down by the Apostles themselves.
[St. Augustine of Hippo, *De Baptismo, 2, 7, 12] re infant baptism
The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned, nor is it to be regarded in any way as superfluous, nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything but Apostolic.
[St. Augustine of Hippo, *De Genesi ad litteram, 10, 23, 39]
The Fathers taught the church that which they learned in the church.
[St. Augustine of Hippo, *Contra Iulianum, 1, 117]
Holy and blessed priests, widely reknowned for their diligence and divine eloquence, Ireneaus, Cyprian, . . . Hilary, . . . Ambrose, . . .Gregory, . . . Basil, . . .Jerome . . . . What they found in the Church, they kept; what they learned, they taught; what they received from the fathers, they handed on to the sons.
[St. Augustine of Hippo, *Contra Iulianum, 2, 10, 33-34]
The whole world judges securely that they are not good who separate themselves from the whole world.
[St. Augustine, *Contra Parmeniani, III, iv, 24] securus judicat orbis terrarum
It is obvious; the faith allows it; the Catholic Church approves; it is true.
[St. Augustine, *Sermon 117,6]
