Once in a while, one will find a Protestant claim that Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) held to a view similar to the later Protestant conception of Sola Scriptura. While I am not an apologist for Thomism (for e.g., I think absolute divine simplicity is anti-biblical), Aquinas was not a “proto-Protestant.” Note for example the following:
Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as
manifested in Holy Writ and the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the
First Truth. Consequently whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and
Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth
manifested in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of
faith otherwise than by faith. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 5
A. 3 [trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province; London: Burns Oates
& Washbourne, n.d.], 81)
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