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THE doctrine concerning the Sources of Revelation was formally defined by the Council of Trent (sess. iv.) and the Vatican Council (sess. iii., chap. 2). At Trent the principal object was to assert, in opposition to the early Protestants, the equal value of Oral and Written Tradition. As regards the Holy Scriptures, the controversial importance of which was rather overrated than otherwise by the Protestants, the Council had only to define their extent and to fix upon an authentic text. But the Vatican Council had to assert the Divine character of Scripture, which was not contested at the time of the earlier Council. Both Councils, however, declared that the Written Deposit was only one of the sources of theological knowledge, and that it must be understood and explained according to the mind and tradition of the Church.

I. The “Sacred and Canonical Books,” i.e. the definitive collection of the authentic documents of Revelation preserved and promulgated by the Church, have been considered in recent times by writers tinged with rationalistic Protestantism, as being documents of Revelation merely because the Church has acknowledged them to be historically trustworthy records of revealed truth. This, however, is by no means the Catholic doctrine. The books of Holy Scripture are sacred and canonical because they are the Written Word of God, and have God for their Author,