De locis theologicis

The first reason that all arguments derived from the school’s authority are weak is that the school’s authority is confirmed neither by sacred Scripture, nor by the institutions of the Apostles, nor by a definition of the Church. Since the Lord nowhere promised the Spirit of truth to scholastic authors,

they can err as human beings, and therefore no argument from their authority will be firm. Further, there is no certain dogma in the school; everything is full of factional parties. Nothing certain can therefore be established from the school’s authority. Moreover, all the school’s theologians have asserted that marriage contracted without a minister of the Church is truly and properly a sacrament of the new law. Yet this common opinion of everyone does not make the belief certain, and it does not even seem probable. The school’s testimony will therefore be certain in no other matter. We shall explain in the fewest words possible what we think and why we think it. We shall fight for the school’s authority by reason, not inclination, although we know that many will deliberately argue against us. We could not avoid this unless we wrote nothing at all.