Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

From this, however, one cannot infer that the writings of the fathers are per se and simply the norm and rule of doctrine in all things, because the fathers subject their own writings to the canonical authority of Scripture.  Not only do they allow, but they even order, that everything they teach be proved and examined on the basis of Scripture.  Thus they acknowledge that Scripture is the universal, primary, and principal norm; whatever does not agree with it cannot be acknowledged as divine but is a fiction humanly devised by whomever it is advanced. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Church, p. 411.