1] is
the "only rule of faith and practice." At Trent, therefore, once more,
dogma means doctrine. It still means "doctrine" when the collected
_decreta_ of Trent bear on their title-page (1564) reference to an
_Index dogmatum et reformationis_; but here "dogma" is already verging
towards the narrower and more precise sense--truth defined by church
authority. In other words, it is already edging away from its
identification with (all or any) doctrines. On the Protestant side the
identity is still clear in the Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577). This
creed formulates its relation to Scripture over and over, as the one
_regula_ by which all _dogmata_ are to be tried. That characteristic
Protestant assertion had been still earlier pushed to the front in
"Reformed" creeds, e.g. the First Helvetic Confession (1536), and more
notably in the Second (1566).

Definition in Protestant scholasticism.

Protestant creeds had clearly affirmed that _nothing possessed
authority_ which _was not in Scripture_: in a short time, Protestant
theologians--following an impulse common to all Christian
communions--define more sharply the identity of what is authoritative
with the letter of Scripture, _and call these entire contents dogmas_.
Here then, under Protestant scholasticism (Lutheran and Reformed), we
have the first perfectly definite conception of dogma, and the most
definite ever reached. Dogma is the whole text of the Bible, doctrinal,
historical, scientific, or what not. Thus dogma is _revealed_ and is
_infallibly_ true. Dogma is doctrine, viz. that body of doctrines and
related facts which God Himself has propounded for dogmatic faith. Every
true dogma, says Johann Gerhard[12]--the most representative figure of
Lutheran scholasticism--occurs in plain terms somewhere in Scripture.

Roman Catholic replies.

Over against these sweeping assumptions and deductions, the Roman
Catholic Church had to build up its own statement of the basis of
belief. Its early controversialists--like Driedo or Cardinal
Bellarmine--meet assertions such as Gerhard's with a flat denial. The
great dogmas are not, literally and verbally, in the Bible. Along with
the Bible we must accept unwritten traditions; the Council of Trent
makes this perfectly clear. But not any and every tradition; only such
as the church stamps with her approval. And that raises the question
whether the church has not a further part to play? A. M. Fairbairn holds
that D. Pet