“Vainly then do they run about with the pretext that they have demanded Councils for the faith's sake; for divine Scripture is sufficient above all things”

St. Athanasius, De Synodis (ca. 359 A.D.)

“But that they who are at Rome do not observe those things in all cases which are handed down from the beginning, and vainly pretend the authority of the apostles; any one may know”

(Firmilian (c. 200- 268) to Cyprian, Epistles of Cyprian, Epistle 74, Section 6)

"Thus, and for these reasons, by the vote of the whole people, not in the evil fashion which has since prevailed, nor by means of bloodshed and oppression, but in an apostolic and spiritual manner, he is led up to the throne of Saint Mark, to succeed him in piety, no less than in office; in the latter indeed at a great distance from him, in the former, which is the genuine right of succession, following him closely. For unity in doctrine deserves unity in office; and a rival teacher sets up a rival throne; the one is a successor in reality, the other but in name. For it is not the intruder, but he whose rights are intruded upon, who is the successor, not the lawbreaker, but the lawfully appointed, not the man of contrary opinions, but the man of the same faith; if this is not what we mean by successor, he succeeds in the same sense as disease to health, darkness to light, storm to calm, and frenzy to sound sense”

(Gregory of Nazianzus (329 AD - 390), Oration 21, Chapter 8, on Athanasius).

“Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures”

(Irenaeus (c. 130 - c. 202 AD), Against Heresies, Book 1, Chapter 8, Section 1).

“We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith. For it is unlawful to assert that they preached before they possessed ‘perfect knowledge,’ as some do even venture to say, boasting themselves as improvers of the apostles”

(Irenaeus (c. 130 - c. 202 AD), Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 1, Section 1).

“When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce”

(Irenaeus (c. 130 - c. 202 AD), Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 2, Section 1).

“But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves”

(Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 AD - c. 215 AD), Stromata, 7.16).

“And why should I, a man of limited memory, suggest anything further? Why recall anything more from the Scriptures? As if either the voice of the Holy Spirit were not sufficient; or else any further deliberation were needful, whether the Lord cursed and condemned by priority the artificers of those things, of which He curses and condemns the worshippers”

(Tertullian (160 AD - 240 AD), On Idolatry, Chapter 4).

“If it is nowhere written, then let it fear the woe which impends on all who add to or take away from the written word”

(Tertullian (160 AD - 240 AD),, Against Hermogenes, Chapter 22).

“There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source. . . . So all of us who wish to practice piety will be unable to learn its practice from any other quarter than the oracles of God. Whatever things, then, the Holy Scriptures declare, at these let us look; and whatever things they teach, these let us learn”

(Hippolytus (c. 170 - c. 235 AD), Against Noetus, Chapter 9).

“For if in the sacrifice which Christ offered none is to be followed but Christ, assuredly it behooves us to obey and do that which Christ did, and what He commanded to be done, since He Himself says in the Gospel, ‘If ye do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you not servants, but friends.’ And that Christ alone ought to be heard, the Father also testifies from heaven, saying, ‘This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.’ Wherefore, if Christ alone must be heard, we ought not to give heed to what another before us may have thought was to be done, but what Christ, who is before all, first did. Neither is it becoming to follow the practice of man, but the truth of God; since God speaks by Isaiah the prophet, and says, ‘In vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.’ And again the Lord in the Gospel repeats this same saying, and says, ‘Ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.’ Moreover, in another place He establishes it, saying, ‘Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.’ But if we may not break even the least of the Lord’s commandments, how much rather is it forbidden to infringe such important ones, so great, so pertaining to the very sacrament of our Lord’s passion and our own redemption, or to change it by human tradition into anything else than what was divinely appointed!”

(Cyprian (c. 210 - 258), Epistle 62, Chapter 14).

“Vainly then do they run about with the pretext that they have demanded Councils for the faith’s sake; for divine Scripture is sufficient above all things; but if a Council be needed on the point, there are the proceedings of the Fathers, for the Nicene Bishops did not neglect this matter, but stated the doctrine so exactly, that persons reading their words honestly, cannot but be reminded by them of the religion towards Christ announced in divine Scripture”

(Athanasius (c. 296 - 373), De Synodis, Chapter 6).

“These are fountains of salvation, that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain. In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these. For concerning these the Lord put to shame the Sadducees, and said, ‘Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.’ And He reproved the Jews, saying, ‘Search the Scriptures, for these are they that testify of Me’”

(Athanasius (c. 296 - 373), 39th Festal Letter).

“The hear­ers taught in the Scrip­tures ought to test what is said by teach­ers and accept that which agrees with the Scrip­tures but reject that which is for­eign”

(Basil of Caesarea (330 - 378), Moralia, Chapter 72).

“Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the word of God, in favour of that side will be cast the vote of truth”

(Basil of Caesarea (330 - 378), Letter 189, Section 3).

“Enjoying as you do the consolation of the Holy Scriptures, you stand in need neither of my assistance nor of that of anybody else to help you to comprehend your duty. You have the all-sufficient counsel and guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead you to what is right”

(Basil of Caesarea (330 - 378), Letter 283).

“Have thou ever in your mind this seal, which for the present has been lightly touched in my discourse, by way of summary, but shall be stated, should the Lord permit, to the best of my power with the proof from the Scriptures. For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell you these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures”

(Cyril of Jerusalem (313 AD - 386), Catechetical Lectures, Lecture 4, Chapter 17).

“Now mind not my argumentations, for perhaps you may be misled but unless thou receive testimony of the Prophets on each matter, believe not what I say: unless thou learn from the Holy Scriptures concerning the Virgin, and the place, the time, and the manner, receive not testimony from man. For one who at present thus teaches may possibly be suspected: but what man of sense will suspect one that prophesied a thousand and more years beforehand? If then you seek the cause of Christ’s coming, go back to the first book of the Scriptures”

(Cyril of Jerusalem (313 AD - 386), Catechetical Lectures, Lecture 12, Chapter 5).

“But for us the sufficient demonstration of the soul’s immortality is the teaching of Holy Scripture, which is self-authenticating because [it is] inspired of God”

(Nemesius of Emesa, On the Nature of Man, Chapter 2, Of the Soul).

“We are not entitled to such licence, I mean that of affirming what we please; we make the Holy Scriptures the rule and the measure of every tenet; we necessarily fix our eyes upon that, and approve that alone which may be made to harmonize with the intention of those writings”

(Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 - c. 394), On the Soul and the Resurrection).

“For how can we adopt those things which we do not find in the holy Scriptures?”

(Ambrose (c. 339 - 397), On the Duties of the Clergy, 1.23.102).

“Wherefore I exhort and entreat you all, disregard what this man and that man thinks about these things, and inquire from the Scriptures all these things; and having learned what are the true riches, let us pursue after them that we may obtain also the eternal good things”

(John Chrysostom (c. 347 - 407 AD), Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily 13).

“But as we do not deny what is written, so we do reject what is not written”

(Jerome (c. 342 - 420), Against Helvidius, Chapter 21).

“What more shall I teach you than what we read in the apostles? For Holy Scripture fixes the rule for our doctrine, lest we dare be wiser than we ought. Therefore I should not teach you anything else except to expound to you the words of the Teacher”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Of the Good of Widowhood, Chapter 2).

“It is to the canonical Scriptures alone that I am bound to yield such implicit subjection as to follow their teaching, without admitting the slightest suspicion that in them any mistake or any statement intended to mislead could find a place”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Letter 82.3.24).

Alternate translation:

“I have learnt to ascribe to those books which are of canonical rank, and only to them, such reverence and honor, that I firmly believe that no single error due to the author is found in any of them”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Letter 82.3, in CSEL 33:354).

“For the reasonings of any men whatsoever, even though they be Catholics, and of high reputation, are not to be treated by us in the same way as the canonical Scriptures are treated. We are at liberty, without doing any violence to the respect which these men deserve, to condemn and reject anything in their writings, if perchance we shall find that they have entertained opinions differing from that which others or we ourselves have, by the divine help, discovered to be the truth. I deal thus with the writings of others, and I wish my intelligent readers to deal thus with mine”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Letter 148.15).

“You are wont, indeed, to bring up against us the letters of Cyprian, his opinion, his Council; why do ye claim the authority of Cyprian for your schism, and reject his example when it makes for the peace of the Church? But who can fail to be aware that the sacred canon of Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament, is confined within its own limits, and that it stands so absolutely in a superior position to all later letters of the bishops, that about it we can hold no manner of doubt or disputation whether what is confessedly contained in it is right and true; but that all the letters of bishops which have been written, or are being written, since the closing of the canon, are liable to be refuted if there be anything contained in them which strays from the the truth, either by the discourse of some one who happens to be wiser in the matter than themselves, or by the weightier authority and more learned experience of other bishops, by the authority of Councils; and further, that the Councils themselves, which are held in the several districts and provinces, must yield, beyond all possibility of doubt, to the authority of plenary Councils which are formed for the whole Christian world; and that even of the plenary Councils, the earlier are often corrected by those which follow them, when, by some actual experiment, things are brought to light which were before concealed, and that is known which previously lay hid, and this without any whirlwind of sacrilegious pride, without any puffing of the neck through arrogance, without any strife of envious hatred, simply with holy humility, catholic peace, and Christian charity?”

(Augustine (354 - 430), On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Book 2, Chapter 3).

“Especially as in writings of such authors I feel myself free to use my own judgment (owing unhesitating assent to nothing but the canonical Scriptures), whilst in fact there is not a passage which he has quoted from the works of this anonymous author that disturbs me”

(Augustine (354 - 430), On Nature and Grace, Chapter 71).

“As regards our writings, which are not a rule of faith or practice, but only a help to edification, we may suppose that they contain some things falling short of the truth in obscure and recondite matters, and that these mistakes may or may not be corrected in subsequent treatises. . . . Such writings are read with the right of judgment, and without any obligation to believe. In order to leave room for such profitable discussions of difficult questions, there is a distinct boundary line separating all productions subsequent to apostolic times from the authoritative canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. . . . In the innumerable books that have been written latterly we may sometimes find the same truth as in Scripture, but there is not the same authority. Scripture has a sacredness peculiar to itself. In other books the reader may form his own opinion, and perhaps, from not understanding the writer, may differ from him, and may pronounce in favor of what pleases him, or against what he dislikes. In such cases, a man is at liberty to withhold his belief, unless there is some clear demonstration or some canonical authority to show that the doctrine or statement either must or may be true. But in consequence of the distinctive peculiarity of the sacred writings, we are bound to receive as true whatever the canon shows to have been said by even one prophet, or apostle, or evangelist. Otherwise, not a single page will be left for the guidance of human fallibility, if contempt for the wholesome authority of the canonical books either puts an end to that authority altogether, or involves it in hopeless confusion”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, Book 11, Chapter 5).

“This shows that the established authority of Scripture must outweigh every other; for it derives new confirmation from the progress of events which happen, as Scripture proves, in fulfillment of the predictions made so long before their occurrence”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, Book 13, Chapter 5).

“In the matters of which we are now treating, only the canonical writings have any weight with us”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, Book 23, Chapter 9).

“Let us not hear: This I say, this you say; but, thus says the Lord. Surely it is the books of the Lord on whose authority we both agree and which we both believe. There let us seek the church, there let us discuss our case. . . . Let those things be removed from our midst which we quote against each other not from divine canonical books but from elsewhere. Someone may perhaps ask: Why do you want to remove these things from the midst? Because I do not want the holy church proved by human documents but by divine oracles”

(Augustine (354 - 430), The Unity of the Church. As cited in Martin Chemnitz, An Examination of the Council of Trent, Volume 1, p. 157).

“It would be the instigation of a demonical spirit to follow the conceits of the human mind, and to think anything divine, beyond what has the authority of the Scriptures”

(Theophilus of Alexandria, Epistle 96 [PL 22.778]).

“All things, therefore, that have been delivered to us by the Law, and Prophets, and Apostles, we receive, and acknowledge, and confess; and beyond these, we seek not to know anything. For it is impossible for us to say, or at all think anything concerning God, beyond what has been divinely declared by the divine oracles of the Old and New Testament”

(Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 - 444), De Sacrosancta Trinitate, Chapter 1).

“Do not, I beg you, bring in human reason. I shall yield to scripture alone”

(Theodoret of Cyrus (393 AD - 457 AD), Dialogue 1).

“The canonical scriptures alone are the rule (measure) of faith [Sola canonica scriptura est regula fidei]”

(Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 - 1274), Commentary on John XXI. 24-25, paragraph 2656).

“Yet holy teaching employs such authorities only in order to provide as it were extraneous arguments from probability. Its own proper authorities are those of canonical Scripture, and these it applied with convincing force. It has other proper authorities, the doctors of the Church, and these it looks to as its own, but for arguments that carry no more than probability. For our faith rests on the revelation made to the Prophets and Apostles who wrote the canonical books, not on a revelation, if such there be, made to any other teacher. In this sense St. Augustine wrote to St. Jerome; Only to those books or writings which are called canonical have I learnt to pay such honour that I firmly believe that none of their authors have erred in composing them. Other authors, however, I read to such effect that, no matter what holiness and learning they display, I do not hold what they say to be true because those were their sentiments”

(Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 - 1274), Summa Theologiae, 1a.1.8).

“We must believe the Holy Scriptures simply and absolutely more than the church because the truth in Scripture is always kept steadfast and unchangeable and no one is allowed to add to, subtract from, or change it”

(Henry of Ghent (1217 - 1293), as cited by Hermann Schüssler, Der Primat der Heiligen Schrift als theologisches und kanonistisches Problem im Spätmittelalter, p. 57. As cited in Reformation Theology, ed. Matthew Barrett, p. 151).

“The word of truth is free, and carries its own authority, disdaining to fall under any skillful argument, or to endure the logical scrutiny of its hearers. But it would be believed for its own nobility, and for the confidence due to Him who sends it. Now the word of truth is sent from God; wherefore the freedom claimed by the truth is not arrogant. For being sent with authority, it were not fit that it should be required to produce proof of what is said; since neither is there any proof beyond itself, which is God. For every proof is more powerful and trustworthy than that which it proves. . . . So also we refer all that is said regarding men and the world to the truth, and by it judge whether it be worthless or no. But the utterances of truth we judge by no separate test, giving full credit to itself. And God, the Father of the universe, who is the perfect intelligence, is the truth”

(Justin Martyr (c. AD 100 - c. AD 165), On the Resurrection, Chapter 1).