Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Th.D.: "Theology of the English Reformers:" Ch.1...

Whitaker on Scripture and the Church Fathers: “The fathers most clearly favour our opinion…However, I bring them forward not to confirm a think in itself dubious and uncertain, but to shed light upon a truth already ascertained, and to shut the mouths of our adversaries, who loudly, in every question, claim the fathers as their own. I should never make an end, were I to seek to enumerate all who stand on our side in this matter. There is almost not a single father, hardly any author of any kind, who does not support our opinion in this controversy…Even though the fathers were opposed to us [DPV, and they weren’t is Whitaker’s larger argument], and we could give no answer to the arguments drawn from them, this could inflict no real damage upon our cause, since our faith does not depend upon the fathers, but upon the Scriptures, but upon the Scriptures. Nevertheless, I am far from approving the opinion of those who think that the testimonies of the fathers should be rejected and despised…However, we must take heed that we do not, with the papists, ascribe too much to the fathers, but use our rights and liberty when we read them; examining all their sayings by the rule of Scripture, receiving them when they agree with it, but freely and with good leave rejecting them whenever they exhibit the marks of discrepancy.” William Whitaker. Disputations on Holy Scripture, 565.