Holy Scripture and the Quest for Authority at the End of the Middle AgesAll participants in late medieval debates recognized Holy Scripture as the principal authority in matters of Catholic doctrine. Popes, theologians, lawyersall were bound by the divine truth it conveyed. Yet the church possessed no absolute means of determining the final authoritative meaning of the biblical texthence the range of appeals to antiquity, to the papacy, and to councils, none of which were ultimately conclusive. Authority in the late