In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas

In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas to German " In essentials unity prevails, in Doubtful freedom, in all but charity ," is a Latin proverb. The sentence comes not accepted how long, by St. Augustine of Hippo, but goes as Nellen 1999 proved, back to the main work De Republica Ecclesiastica of Markantun de Dominis, where they already 1617 is as follows:

Friedrich gap had 1850 as the oldest source nor the Lutheran theologian Rupert Meldenius (actually: Peter Meiderlin 1582-1651 ) and his writing Paraenesis votiva pro pace Ecclesia ad Theologos Augustanæ Confessionis auctore Ruperto Meldenio Theo Logo determined of 1626, which states:

Meldenius ' writing was the fierce disputes about the orthodoxy of theology Johann Arndt's that would call a split in the Lutheran Church. How Markantun de Dominis also differed between Meldenius " necessariis " and "non necessariis " instead of the usual later became " dubiis ".

The originally intended purely within the church call was received quickly and quoted in writings which dealt with the relationship between the various Christian denominations. As the saying in the 18th century became a household word, finally, the negative wording "non necessariis " with " dubiis " has been replaced. By breaking away from clearly defined theological categories is how the saying also spread among people of other faiths, particularly among Catholics. Because of the importance of charity in the work of Augustine of Hippo, the sentence of both Catholics and Protestants has been attributed to this.

Special importance was given the sentence in the Catholic Church in the debate over the Hermesianism mid-19th century, when they used both sides with different weighting of " necessariis " and " dubiis ". As a motto, a Catholic fraternity the spell is first characterized testified that the theology student Hermann Ludger Potthoff him in 1854 in the log book of Unitas, then a pure theologian club wrote.

He is now the motto of the Cartellverbands the Catholic German student fraternities, the Cartellverbands the Catholic Austrian student associations, the Association of the Scientific Catholic student associations Unitas and the Hannover Medical School. The sentence is also available as input a motto for the Constitution of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland.