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Vincent of Lérins

5th century · AD 445 · Western · 9 passages

Background on Vincent of Lérins

In his own words on Proverbs

  • Proverbs 22:28

    I cannot help wondering about such madness in certain people, the dreadful impiety of their blinded minds, their insatiable lust for error that they are not content with the traditional rule of faith as once and for all received from antiquity but are driven to seek another novelty daily. They are possessed by a permanent desire to change religion, to add something and to take something away—as though the dogma were not divine so that it has to be revealed only once. But they take it for a merely human institution, which cannot be perfected except by constant emendations, rather, by constant corrections. Yet, the divine prophecies say, "Pass not beyond the ancient bounds which your fathers have set," and "Judge not against a judge," and "he that breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him."

    COMMONITORIES 21

Quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations of the fathers — Aquinas's Catena Aurea, the Ante-Nicene and Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, and related editions. Each quotation links to its source.