Ignatius of Loyola on Authority of Scripture
Scripture with tradition and church teaching office
we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it
THE POSITION
The rules that close the Spiritual Exercises ask the retreatant to lay aside private judgment and be ready to obey "the true Spouse of Christ our Lord", the hierarchical Church, and to praise both positive and scholastic learning. The thirteenth rule grounds this in one Spirit governing Christ and his Bride: what the hierarchical Church defines is to be held even against what one's own eyes report. The Autobiography adds a personal note that sits beside this rather than replacing it: his visions at Manresa so confirmed him that he would have died for the mysteries of faith "even though Scripture did not bear witness" to them.
10 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Basque soldier turned pilgrim, founder of the Society of Jesus (1540) and its first superior general. His Spiritual Exercises, begun at Manresa in 1522–23 after his conversion at Loyola in 1521 and approved by Paul III in 1548, are still widely used for retreats; their closing rules for thinking with the Church are his nearest approach to doctrinal statement. This entry rests on the Exercises in Elder Mullan's 1914 translation and the Autobiography in the 1900 English edition by J. F. X. O'Conor.
Cite this page
"Ignatius of Loyola on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/ignatius-loyola/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/ignatius-loyola/scripture-authority).