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This is exactly what has happened to the law in the United States. Oliver Wendell Holmes led the transfer of decision-making in the Supreme Court from reference to "natural law" (going back in each case to the fundamentals, such as the Ten Commandments and English common loaw), to "case law" (each case refers to already-decided cases, not back to fundamentals).

That set up a modern authority, such that about 30 years later, Charles Evans Hughes laid down the rule "The law is what we say it is."

This led to the downfall of standing on principle, and transferred it to human opinion.

Q. E. D.

The Roman "Church" is no longer the Church of The Christ. It is the Church of Fallen Humans; and the Holy Scriptures, for them, only comes in to play when it supports what they have already decided to be "truth."

Our courts no longer submit to authority of natural law. They are authority over the law, thus permitting opinion of the moment to rule.

“actually contradictory to scripture...”

Nothing in the Catholic tradition is contradictory to scripture; that statement is an opinion. All Catholic doctrine is backed by scripture.

The actual issue is that Protestants have a different interpretation of the proof text scriptures that support catholic tradition; not that the scriptures that support the doctrine are missing.

Example:

The Catholic doctrine for Mary’s assumption is based upon

Revelation 12:1-2 is literally Mary

Genesis 3:15 the woman is literally Mary whose seed (Jesus) will crush the serpent by his death on the cross

and Luke 1:28 Mary is Full of Grace meaning saved by grace and without sin

The Church has always taught these interpretations of scripture because the tradition that has been handed on by the apostles interpreted it that way - Rome did not CHANGE any meanings. The reinterpretations came after the reformation; Catholic doctrine does not develop or change; it it is merely announced formally if heretical interpretations are being taught and it must defend it’s teaching.

The proper sequence is not:

Catholic tradition is not scriptural, therefore catholic doctrine is wrong.

Rather:

Protestant doctrine later changed, distorted and dropped the correct meanings of the proof scriptures for Catholic doctrines; therefore it teaches error because it uses a later man’s (Luther, Calvin, et al.) opinion to support its traditions of the new false meanings now handed on.

A protestant of course is free to distort scripture and insist theirs is right, but it is not OK to say that Catholic doctrine is not supported by scripture. That is the lie.

I found it really interesting that tucked down in the footnotes is this statement by Aquinas.

""It should be noted that though many might write concerning Catholic truth, there is this difference that those who wrote the canonical Scripture, the Evangelists and Apostles, and the like, so constantly assert it that they leave no room for doubt. That is what he means when he says 'we know his witness is true.' Galatians 1:9, "If anyone preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema!" The reason is that only canonical Scripture is a measure of faith. Others however so wrote of the truth that they should not be believed save insofar as they say true things." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John 21) [(Romae: Marietti E ditori Ltd., 1952) n. 2656, p. 488.]

In Latin: "Cuius ratio est, quia sola canonica scriptura est regula fidei."

Go figure! Sola Scriptura way before Luther! And in comments made on Galatians 1:9 no less!

Galatians 1:9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!

“..new and novel?...”

Catholic tradition is rooted in Jewish tradition. There is nothing novel about it. The first Catholics were Jewish and they had practiced their Jewish faith prior to their conversions. They continued the practice of relying on oral tradition when they converted.

From the beginning the Torah was always accompanied by oral tradition that was necessary to understand it properly. It was thought to be blasphemous to write oral tradition down!! Eventually it became unavoidable to write it down and it became the Mishna, etc.

Oral tradition was inseparable for the early Jewish Catholics and there is no way they suddenly stopped the manner of practicing their faith that had been taught to them since the time of Moses.