The Rule for Interpreting Scripture

But it will be said: If the words, the thoughts, and the promises of Scripture are appealed to by the devil and his disciples, some of whom are false apostles, some false prophets and false teachers, and all of them without exception heretics, what are catholics, the sons of Mother Church, to do? How are they to tell truth from falsehood in the sacred Scriptures? They must take great care to follow the course which, at the beginning of this Commonitory, we said holy and learned men had commended to us. That is, they must interpret the sacred canon according to the traditions of the universal church and in keeping with the rules of catholic doctrine. And in this catholic and universal church, moreover, they must follow universality, antiquity, and consent. And if at any time a part sets itself against the whole, novelty against antiquity, the dissent of one or a few who are in error against the consent of all, or at least of the great majority of catholics, then they must prefer the soundness of the whole to the corruption of a part. Within that same whole they must prefer the religion of antiquity to the profaneness of novelty. And within antiquity itself, in the same way, against the rashness of one or of a very few they must prefer, first of all, the general decrees of a universal council, if there are any; or, if there are none, then, as the next best thing, they must follow the agreed belief of many great teachers. If this rule is kept faithfully, soberly, and carefully, we will without much difficulty detect the harmful errors of heretics as they arise. [a]