St. Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-c. 455) | WEST

(Updated July 13, 2025)

This Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from the Church Father, St. Prosper of Aquitaine.

Next to each quote are the topic-based Quote Archives in which they are included.

This Quote Archive is being continuously updated as research continues.

Treatises

St. Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Gauls

• Development of Doctrine | Art. 13

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(Art. 13)¹

Even as regards the errors which God allows to arise in the Church [from heretics], we should understand how His goodness turns them to our good, not of course by fostering them but by fostering through them the zeal of His sons for the search and preservation of the truth. That is what the Apostle says: “There must also be heresies, that that also who are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19).

Footnotes

1. St. Prosper of Aquitaine, P. de Letter, S.J., trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 32: Prosper of Aquitaine: Defense of St. Augustine (New York: Newman Press, 1963), 154. ↩︎