-- A. The properties of Scripture in general.
4. PROPERTIES OF SCRIPTURE.
A. The properties of Scripture in general.
1. The doctrine of the affectiones S. Scr. has developed entirely out of the struggle against Rome and Anabaptism. In the confession of the inspiration and authority of Scripture there was agreement, but otherwise in the locus de S. Scr. there was great difference between Rome and the Reformation. The relationship in which Rome had placed Scripture and the church was fundamentally changed in the Reformation. For the Fathers of the Church and the scholastics,
Scripture, at least in theory, still stood far above the Church and tradition; it rested in itself, was αυτοπιστος and for the Church and theology the norma normans. Augustine said, scriptura canonica certis suis terminis continetur, with Harnack, D. G. II 85, and reasoned Conf. 6.5, 11.3 so, as if the truth of Holy Scripture depended only on itself. Bonaventura, de sept. don. n. 3743, quoted in the Breviloquium ed. Freiburg 1881 p. 370, declares: ecclesia enim fundata est super eloquia Sacrae Scripturae, quae si deficiant, deficit intellectus Cum enim ecclesia fundata sit in Sacra Scriptura, qui nescit eam, nescit ecclesiam regere. More such testimonies are cited by Gerhard, Loci theol. I cap. 3 § 45, 46 cited from Salvianus, Biel, Cajetanus, Hosius,
Valentia etc. Canisius says in his Summa doctrinae Christ., in cap. de praeceptis ecclesiae § 16: Proinde sicut scripturae propter testimonium Divini Spiritus in illa loquentis credimus, adhaeremus ac tribuimus maximam auctoritatem, sic ecclesiae fidem, reverentiam obedientiamque debemus. And also Bellarminus, de
Verbo Dei, lib. 1 cap. 2 still declares: Sacris Scripturis, quae propheticis et apostolicis litteris continentur, nihil est notius, nihil certius, ut stultissimum esse necesse sit qui illis fidem habendam esse negat. All were of the opinion, that the Scriptures were sufficiently from and by She does not depend on the Church, but
conversely the Church on her; the Church with her tradition may be regula fidei, fundamentum fidei she is not yet. That is the Scriptures alone.
But the church with its office and tradition began to occupy an increasingly independent place with Rome and to acquire authority alongside the Holy Scriptures. The relationship of both was not defined at first, but soon demanded better regulation. And as the church grew in power and complacency, the authority was more and more shifted from Scripture to the church. Various moments in history indicate the process by which the church rose from the place below, to that beside, and finally also to that above the Scriptures.
The question of which of the two, the Scriptures or the church,' had the precedence, was clearly and consciously posed first in the time of the Reformation councils. In spite of the opposition of Gerson, d'Ailly, and especially Nicholas of Clémange, Rev. 3 : 247, it was decided in favor of the church. Trent sanctioned this against the Reformation. In the battle against Gallicanism the question was further discussed, and in the Vatican Council of 1870 it was resolved in such a way that the Church was declared infallible. The subject of this infallibility, however, is not the ecclesia audiens, nor the ecclesia docens, nor the bishops assembled in council, but specifically the Pope. And this one again not as a private person, nor as Bishop of Rome or Patriarch of the West, but as Supreme Pastor of the entire
Church. Although he possesses this infallibility as head of the Church and not separately from her, he does not possess it through and with her, but above and in distinction from her. Even bishops and councils share this infallibility, not separately from, but only in unity with and submission to the Pope. He is above all, and makes only the Church, tradition, councils, and canons infallible. Councils without a pope can and have erred, Bellarminus, de Conc. et Eccl. II c. 10-11.
The whole church, both docens and audiens, is only infallible una cum et sub Romano pontifice, Jansen, Theol. I 506. With this the whole relationship of church and Scripture is reversed. The Church, or more concretely the Pope, takes precedence and stands above
Scripture. Lbi papa, ibi ecclesia, Jansen, I 511. The infallibility of the
pope makes that of the church, the bishops and councils, and likewise that of the Scriptures unnecessary.
The most important points of Scripture between Rome and the Reformation exist. They concern mainly the necessity of the Holy
Scriptures, the apocrypha of the O.
2. From this Roman conception of the relationship between Scripture and the church flow all the differences which in the doctrine of the Test, the editio Vulgata, the prohibition of the Bible, the interpretation of Scripture and tradition. Formally, the change in the relationship between Scripture and the church is most evident in that the newer Roman theologians treat the teaching of the church in the pars formalis of dogmatics. The church belongs to the principia fidei. Like Scripture at the Reformation, the church, the magisterium, or rather the pope is the formal principle, the fundamentum fidei in Romanism, Jansen, I 829.
Against this, the Reformers placed the doctrine of the specifics of Scripture. It was entirely polemical in character, but because of that it was also essentially fixed from the beginning, Heppe, Dogm. d. deutschen Prot. I 207-257. Gradually it was also incorporated more or less systematically and methodically into the dogmatics, not yet with Zwingli, Calvin, Melanchton, etc., but already with Musculus,
Loci Comm. 1567 p. 374 sq. Zanchius, de S. Script. Op. VIII 319 sq.
Polanus, Synt. Theol. 17 sq. Junius, Theses Theol. Op. I 1594 sq. etc., and in the Lutheran church by Gerhard, Quenstedt, Calovius, Hollaz, etc. But in the treatment there was difference. Sometimes all kinds of historical and critical material was discussed; the dogmatics took up almost the whole of the "Introduction", the canonical generalis and specialis. Also the number and the division of the characteristics were given unevenly. Authority, usefulness, necessity, truth, clarity, sufficiency, origin, distribution, content, apocrypha, council, church, tradition, editio authentica, translations, interpretation, proofs, testimonium Sp. S'., all this and much more was brought up in the teaching of Scripture and its properties. Gradually the subject