Controversy stated: first external rule — Scripture, or present pastors?
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From all this the controversy between us and the Roman Church's doctors is plain enough.Is Scripture the first rule of faith and the first external principle of faith — so that no other principle can prove it, and it does not borrow its authority from elsewhere?
Or is the Church's doctrine and testimony the principle and rule of faith, better known and clearer to us than Scripture itself, and the means by which Scripture must be proved so that believers may publicly settle its standing?We assert the former.The Pontificii assert the latter — and by "Church," as already said, they mean the present pastors, above all the Roman Pontiff.
Latin
XXVI. Ex quibus satis liquere putamus quaenam hic nobis intercedat cum Ecclesiae Romanae Doctoribus controversia. Nempe haec, utrum Scriptura sit prima fidei regula, et primum fidei principium externum, quod proinde alio nullo principio probari possit, nec aliunde suam mutuetur authoritatem. An vero Ecclesiae doctrina et testimonium sit principium et regula fidei, Scriptura ipsa quoad nos notior et evidentior, et qua Scripturam probari necesse sit, ut publice de ea apud fideles constet: Prius nos asserimus: Posterius Pontificii, qui per Ecclesiam, ut modo dictum est, intelligunt praesentis Ecclesiae Pastores, et praecipue Pontificem Romanum.