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As the names Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, and John Chrysostom suggest, the middle centuries of the first millennium, the era of the Church Fathers, were the golden age of the Catholic episcopate. The Catholic Church recognizes 35 men and women as exemplary teachers; 14 of them -- 40 percent of the entire roster of the "Doctors of the Church" -- were bishops who lived in that epoch. Theirs were not tranquil times. But even as these brave shepherds battled heresies within the Church and overbe...

3 . 10 . 21 As the names Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, and John Chrysostom suggest, the middle centuries of the first millennium, the era of the Church Fathers, were the golden age of the Catholic episcopate. The Catholic Church recognizes 35 men and women as exemplary teachers; 14 of them—40 percent of the entire roster of the “Doctors of the Church”—were bishops who lived in that epoch. Theirs were not tranquil times. But even as these brave shepherds battled heresies within the Chu...