II. Interpretation defined; Spirit's intent; papal breast-reliquary claim; Vincent of Lérins
II. Interpretation is Scripture's property by which its genuine sense — the sense most fitting to the mind and intention of the Holy Spirit as author, however that sense is uttered — is solidly and clearly shown in the earnest struggle between spirit and flesh, when the right instruments and hermeneutical rules are used.
The Holy Spirit's intention is what just interpretation seeks, and what the whole Christian world is busy digging out of the sacred letters; yet it is not obvious to all, for the reason the Apostle gives in 1 Cor. 2:14. The papists seek it in the breast-reliquary and infallibility of the Roman pontiff, to whom alone they finally defer the right of interpreting and determining Scripture's sense. Pistorius in his Guide (p. 76) concludes that no other medium of understanding Scripture is found, or is sought in vain, except in the church. Conrad Kling explains the ambiguity: as Scripture heard from a man teaches, so one must stand by the just interpretation and judgment of a man — that is, of the Church or of Peter's See. Others set other precipices of error before those who would understand Scripture. Vincent of Lérins (For the Antiquity of the Catholic Faith) notes that because of Scripture's own height not all receive it in one and the same sense, but one and another interpret its utterances differently, so that nearly as many opinions seem diggable from it as there are men.
Latin
II. Interpretatio est illius proprietas, qua sensus illius genuinus, ut menti atque intentioni Spiritus sancti, tanquam auctoris, convenientissimus, quocunque modo enunciatus sit, in seria lucta spiritus cum carne, dextris adhibitis instrumentis & regulis hermeneuticis, solide ac perspicue ostenditur. Intentio Spiritus sancti est id, quod interpretatione justa inquiritur & in quo e sacris literis eruendo totus Christianus orbis occupatur, neque tamen omnibus obvia est ex causa, quam Apostolus dicit 1. Cor. 2.14. Pontificii eam quaerunt in scrinio pectoris & infallibilitate Romani pontificis, cui soli jus interpretandi & sensum Scripturae determinandi ultimo deferunt. Pistorius in Hodego pag.76. ita concludit: Relinquitur igitur, nullum aliud medium intelligendae Scripturae per somnium inveniri aut frustra quaeri nisi in ecclesia. Quod, quia ambigue dictum, Conradus Kling lib.3. L.C. cap.29. explicat: sic, inquiens, Scriptura ab homine audita docet: sic justae interpretationi & judicio hominis, id est, Ecclesiae vel SEDIS PETRI standum est. Alii alia errorum praecipitia Scripturam intellecturis obvertunt. Vincentius Lirinensis pro Cathol. fidei antiq. p.6.7.8. quia, inquit, Scripturam sacram pro ipsa sua altitudine non uno eodemque sensu universi accipiunt, sed ejusdem eloquiis aliter atque aliter alius atque alius interpretatur, ut pene quot homines sunt, tot illinc sententiae erui posse videantur.