Why did medieval Scholastics refer to earlier writers as authorities?

Medieval Scholastics referred to earlier writers—such as the Church Fathers, Aristotle, Plato, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Avicenna—as "authorities" because their primary historical task was to learn, acquire, and preserve the vast body of tradition they had inherited.123

Following the decline of the ancient world, Scholasticism emerged as an unprecedented, centuries-long process of education. As new nations in Europe adopted Christianity, they sought to master the existing harvest of patristic theology, Greek philosophical ideas, and Roman political wisdom. Because this knowledge was contained in texts that needed to be ordered, classified, and made accessible for teaching, the work of organizing and commenting on these established writings became essential.3

In the university setting, teaching was conducted through lectures that involved reading these prescribed texts followed by a master’s commentary. While Scholastics held these writers in high respect, they did not treat them as infallible; they frequently differed in their interpretations and evaluations of these authorities, often using them as the basis for formal debates known as disputations.12