A Methodical Demonstration of the Doctrinal Principles of Faith

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Original title: Principiorum fidei doctrinalium demonstratio methodica A Latin treatise of Catholic controversial theology, arranged as seven controversies in twelve books, that seeks a single and most certain rule for judging all doctrinal controversies. It identifies that rule with the voice, testimony and judgement of the visible, perpetual and numerous Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit. It treats in turn the true Church in itself, the subject of the Church's judging power (pastors, bishops and the pope), the means of ecclesiastical judgement (rule of faith, councils, Fathers, consent of the faithful), the nature of the Church's voice, the canon of Scripture (distinguishing protocanonical and deuterocanonical books), the interpretation of Scripture, and unwritten tradition. The volume opens with a dedication to Pope Gregory XIII and a preface. Recorded by 1578, it was issued in a second edition, revised and enlarged by the author, by Michel Sonnius at Paris in 1582. That edition adds a thirteenth book defending ecclesiastical succession against William Fulke and a subject index. It also appends the Speculum pravitatis haereticae, a set of quodlibetic orations against the Reformers delivered at Douai, separately printed at Douai by Jan Bogart in 1580. Further Douai academic orations follow: an inaugural oration for the professorship of controversies, licentiate and doctoral orations, an encomium of the later Church, and funeral orations for François Richardot, Jean Lentailleur and Matthaeus Galenus. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original source file This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

• Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here
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