"None but the Schola Theologorum is competent to determine the force of Papal and Synodal utterances".

"When the Church teaches with authority, theologians explain the exact meaning of these decrees 'in order to make [them] as tolerable as possible.' Such an approach, Newman argues, is not minimalism but a doctrinal moderation consistent with sound faith. The decisions of councils and popes are authoritative for Newman. However, such statements also mark the beginning of sustained reflection wherein theologians determine precisely how and in which exact manner they are in continuity with the prior tradition. This is why Newman can say that [the prophetic power of] theology 'has restrained and corrected such extravagances as have been committed, through human infirmity, in the exercise of the regal [episcopal] and sacerdotal [pastors and the faithful] powers.' Even popes can be salutarily corrected. . . . In a private letter, Newman remarks that theological schools protect the church from the encroachments of popes and councils."

     Thomas G. Guarino, Vincent of Lérins and the development of Christian doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2013), . I was put onto this by Reinhard Hütter, “Authentic development of doctrine between Scylla and Charybdis,” Thomistic Institute Angelicum, 7 December 2019.  The header, also quoted by Hütter, following Guarino, is from the famous "Letter . . . to the Duke of Norfolk", where, however, it is directed against the Anglican Gladstone, not the regal and sacerdotal (as distinguished from the prophetic) powers/offices of the Church as understood by Newman in the important 1877 Preface to the third (Catholic) edition of The via media of the Anglican church.