Early Church Fathers a Myth?

[Novocastrian]

I am looking for help in obtaining any proof from secular sources of the actual existence of some of the early Church Fathers. A fundamentalist I am dealing with is demanding proof of Ignatius of Antioch’s, Origen’s, and others’ existence from secular sources because he won’t believe “papists.” He believes the fathers were invented out of whole cloth by the Church.

Just point out that if they’re papist forgeries then they’re really bad ones. Ignatius’s letter to the Romans doesn’t even mention a/the Pope. Surely such a forgery would.