Vincent of Lérins (d. c.450), monk and theologian. He called himself a stranger and pilgrim who had fled from the service of the world to serve Christ in the seclusion of the cloister. This was on the island of Lérins, off the coast of Provence. Little is known about his life apart from his works. In reacting against some Augustinian excesses concerning predestination, he adopted some semi-Pelagian tenets which were later considered unorthodox. His most influential work is the Commonitorium, a work of instruction concerned with the discernment of truth from falsehood. In this search he dealt with the relation between Scripture and tradition, needed by Scripture for its right interpretation. His famous criterion of orthodoxy, what has been held ‘everywhere, always and by all’, is itself difficult to interpret. His views have been much discussed and strongly supported by Bellarmine and others, but were not quoted by Vatican II or the recent Catechism. Feast: 24 May.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- Works in P.L., l. 637–86; Eng. tr. of Commonitorium by T. H. Bindley (1914); study of his views on tradition by J. Madoz in Analecta Gregoriana, v (1933). See also N.C.E., xiv. 681–2 and Bibl. SS., xii. 1142–6
