Pope - "doctrine not defined until violated"

Q. How can Catholics say that they give such high regard to the Scriptures, when on the other hand, they give such high regard to the Pope, a position of authority not even mentioned in the Bible?

A.

"When the Church was thrown upon her own resources, first local disturbances gave exercise to Bishops, and next ecumenical disturbances gave exercise to Popes; and whether communion with the Pope was necessary for Catholicity would not and could not be debated till a suspension of that communion had actually occurred. it is not a greater difficulty that St. Ignatius does not write to the Asian Greeks about Popes, than that St. Paul does not write to the Corinthians about Bishops. And it is a less difficulty that the Papal supremacy was not formally acknowledged in the second century, than that there was no formal acknowledgment on the part of the Church of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity till the fourth. No doctrine is defined till it is violated.” – Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman from Chapter 4 of his “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine”