On medieval theologians affirming a form of “material sufficiency”:
A third response is also found in
medieval Catholicism. This was to continue to affirm the material sufficiency
of Scripture and to use allegory to derive from it the desired results. Given the
ingenuity of medieval allegorists, this posed no serious problem. It was such
an approach that caused Scripture to be described as a nose of wax. As an
ancient ditty put it: Hic liber est in quo sua quaerit dogmata quisque;
invenit et partier dogmata quisque sua. Thus medieval Catholicism
repeatedly affirmed the material sufficiency of Scripture. But such
affirmations should not be taken as indicating that the medieval Catholic
Church was willing to affirm only that which could be supported from Scripture—rather
that it was confident that whatever it affirmed could be supported in
Scripture. (Anthony N. S. Lane, “Sola Scriptura? Making Sense of a
Post-Reformation Slogan,” in A Pathway into the Holy Scripture, ed.
Philip E. Satterthwaite and David F. Wright [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
1994], 315-16, emphasis in bold added)
