In one of the dumbest things ever said about the patristics, I present to you the following from a Protestant apologist who argues that baptismal regeneration only arose during the time of John Chrysostom (347-407):
Chrysostom,
with whom the greater part of expounders agree, makes the word Water [in John 3] refer
to baptism. The meaning would then be, that by baptism we enter into the
kingdom of God, because in baptism we are generated by the Spirit of God. Hence
arose the belief of the absolute necessity of baptism, in order to the hope
of eternal life. (Timothy A. Williams, Sola Scriptura: The Protestant
Doctrine of Scripture [Lulu Books, 2013], 53, emphasis in bold added, comment in square brackets added for clarification)