Responsa Hatam Sofer: Orah hayim 154

The reason for this is that if they see Torah scholars, and those who repair the breaches in Jewish religious practice, voiding the Torah in accordance with the exigencies of time and place, they will assemble and debate the matters at issue back and forth, either verbally or in correspondence; and once they have reached a consensus, they will publish it in the form of letters, and the great and glorious individuals of that era will undersign it with the words: “Thus have we determined—to permit such-and-such a rabbinically prohibited matter, for such-and-such a reason, and in the same vein as the special enactments of the communities, and those of Rabbenu Tam to be found at the end of the book of responsa of our teacher, R. Meir, in Prague, and the like.” But a single individual in his generation, although he may be as mighty as the oaks and as lofty as the cedars, and although his words are soundly based, like the reflection of a person in a looking-glass, must not dare to permit any prohibited matter even where such prohibition is based purely upon a minor-ranking custom among the customs of Israel. For today he will declare that such-and-such represents the halakhic position, and he will have this duly printed and published, while tomorrow, another individual will declare something else to be the correct halakhah, employing feeble, withered, and lean arguments, to the point where they will ultimately even permit something prohibited by the Torah itself.