Vincent de Lérins - Adversus profanas hæreseon novationes libellus verè aureus - 1611

VINCENT OF LERINS (Saint Vincentius Lirinensis)
Adversus profanas hæreseon novationes libellus verè aureus...Douai (Douai), typis Marci Wyon, sub signo Phœnicis, 1611.

A volume in-16, full calf binding of the period, spine with raised bands ornamented with gilded compartments bearing floral motifs, old title piece. Title vignette engraved with the arms of the phoenix, drop caps and typographic headpieces.

Rare 17th-century edition printed in Douai by Marc Wyon in 1611 of this masterpiece of Western patristics. Written in the 5th century by the Lérins monk Saint Vincent, this Commonitorium lays the theological foundations of tradition and orthodoxy in the face of the “heretical novelties.” The work is here enriched with erudite notes and a rigorous scriptural index, bearing witness to the fervor of theological controversies of the Counter-Reformation era.

It is in this treatise that one finds one of the most famous theological quotations in the history of Christianity, defining the criterion of Catholic orthodoxy: what has been believed “everywhere, always, and by all” (quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus). This principle, the cornerstone of the notion of the “development of doctrine,” continued to profoundly influence Christian thinkers across the centuries, from Cardinal Newman to the Second Vatican Council.