Commonitory

Article summary

The or Commonitory is a 5th-century Christian treatise written after the council of Ephesus under the pseudonym " " and attributed to Vincent of Lérins. It is known for Vincent's famous maxim: "Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all." Charles Heurtley introduced the Commonitory, in his translation, as Vincent's personal reference to "distinguish Catholic truth from heresy" based on the authority of Holy Scripture by which "all questions must be tried in the first instance" and "supplemented by an appeal to that sense of Holy Scripture which is supported by universality, antiquity, and consent." *by universality – of the whole Church *by antiquity – held from the earliest times *by consent – acknowledged belief of all, or of almost all, whose office and character gave authority to their decision Thomas Guarino commented, in Vincent of Lérins and the Development of Christian Doctrine, that Vincent of Lérins' theology "is often reduced to a memorable slogan: 'We hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, and by everyone.'" Bernard Prusak explained in The Church Unfinished, that for Vincent, "the decrees of a universal council were to be preferred to the ignorance of a few" and the deposit of faith "did not exclude development or progress,…

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1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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