Did the Scripture produce the church, or the church the Scripture?

Through the centuries of Christian history, the church had always accepted the Bible as infallible and binding, until the Reformation. Then the Reformers’ Scripture principle, that belief was to be based on Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura), challenged the authority of the Roman church to define faith and morals. 

Roman Catholics immediately began to claim that the New Testament derived its authority from the fact that the church had officially recognized it; the Protestants replied that the church was only acknowledging the authority inherent in the Scriptures in consequence of their divine inspiration. 

-Harold O.J. Brown