In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity
Not Augustine of Hippo — earliest known in Marco Antonio de DominisMarco Antonio de Dominis1560–1624 · Archbishop of Split & anti-papal controversialist
No one has located this maxim in Augustine’s writings. Its earliest known form is Latin, in de Dominis’s De republica ecclesiastica (London, 1617): “unitatem in necessariis, in non necessariis libertatem, in omnibus caritatem.” The Lutheran Rupertus Meldenius (Peter Meiderlin) used it in 1626 and long got the credit for it.
“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity” Not Augustine. Earliest known source: Marco Antonio de Dominis, De republica ecclesiastica, vol. 1 (London, 1617), bk. 4, ch. 8, p. 676 (Latin). Long credited to Rupertus Meldenius (Peter Meiderlin), Paraenesis votiva (1626). — via Quotle.info · Verbatim: “Omnesque mutuam amplecteremur unitatem in necessariis, in non necessariis libertatem, in omnibus caritatem.”
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Augustine of Hippo. Use the credit shown above instead.
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? The Latin original (1617) is long public domain; the popular English wording has no identifiable translator or first printing, so we give no rights status for it.
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Provenance
Where the maxim actually first appears
Work
De republica ecclesiastica, vol. 1
Author
Marco Antonio de Dominis
Published
London, 1617 — book 4, chapter 8, p. 676
Language
Latin. The popular English wording is an anonymous rendering.
Omnesque mutuam amplecteremur unitatem in necessariis, in non necessariis libertatem, in omnibus caritatem.
Latin, 1617
Our literal gloss: “And let us all mutually embrace unity in necessary things, liberty in non-necessary things, charity in all things.” The Latin is as reproduced on Wikiquote ↗ and Wikipedia ↗. Meldenius’s 1626 version ends “in utrisque” (“in both”) rather than “in omnibus” (“in all things”).
Wikiquote lists the maxim in the Misattributed section of its Augustine page. It gives the “first known occurrence” as de Dominis, De Republica Ecclesiastica, London (1617), lib. 4 cap. 8, p. 676 (Wikiquote ↗).
The Augustine scholar James J. O’Donnell could not find the saying in Augustine’s writings. His page also reproduces Steve Perisho’s summary of H. J. M. Nellen (1999), which traces the earlier de Dominis form, where scholars had previously credited Peter Meiderlin, alias Meldenius (Georgetown ↗; Perisho ↗).
The Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia identifies “Rupertus Meldenius” as the pseudonym of Peter Meiderlin. It dates his Paraenesis votiva pro pace ecclesiae to Rottenburg, 1626 (CCEL ↗).
In 1959 Pope John XXIII quoted it only as “the common saying, expressed in various ways and attributed to various authors” (Ad Petri cathedram, §72, Vatican ↗).
The Latin source, de Dominis’s De republica ecclesiastica (London, 1617), has long been in the public domain. The English wording people quote, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity,” is an anonymous rendering with no identifiable translator or first printing, so we make no rights claim about it.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Who gets the credit, and why
The maxim is pinned on Augustine far more often than on anyone else. For more than a century scholars credited a minor Lutheran pamphleteer instead, until an earlier source turned up in 1999.
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Popular creditAugustine of Hippo Not found in his works
O’Donnell could not find it in Augustine’s writings and notes that Schaff’s History of the Christian Church calls the Augustine attribution false (Georgetown ↗). Wikiquote files it under Misattributed (Wikiquote ↗). Catholic Answers says no one has identified where in his works it would appear (Catholic Answers ↗).
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Long-standing scholarly creditRupertus Meldenius (Peter Meiderlin) Long credited, not first
His irenic tract Paraenesis votiva pro pace ecclesiae, published under the pseudonym Rupertus Meldenius (Rottenburg, 1626; Schaff-Herzog ↗), puts it as a wish: “Si nos servaremus in necessariis Unitatem, in non-necessariis Libertatem, in utrisque Charitatem” (Wikipedia ↗). Some sources date the tract to about 1627 (Ligonier ↗). Nellen’s 1999 article showed that de Dominis had already used the phrase, overturning the older consensus (Wikipedia ↗).
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Later usersRichard Baxter and other 17th-century writers Repeaters
Schaff’s note, quoted on O’Donnell’s page, says Gregor Frank used the phrase in 1628, and that Conrad Bergius passed it on, crediting Meldenius, to Richard Baxter, who repeated it in 1680 as “that of Rupertus Meldenius, cited by Conradus Bergius” (Georgetown ↗).
✓The earliest known occurrence is Marco Antonio de Dominis, De republica ecclesiastica, vol. 1 (London, 1617), book 4, chapter 8, p. 676, in Latin (Wikiquote ↗; Perisho on Nellen ↗).
Context
A peace formula for divided churches
The maxim was coined as a plea for Christian peace, not as patristic wisdom. De Dominis wrote it in an anti-papal treatise published in London. Meldenius, a Lutheran writing “at the time of the Thirty Years’ War,” used it to urge his fellow Augsburg Confession theologians toward concord (Schaff-Herzog ↗). Its “necessary” things were the doctrines needed for salvation.
Later, mostly Catholic, users swapped non necessariis (“non-essentials”) for dubiis (“doubtful things”). The historian Joseph Lecler argued that the change stretched liberty to every undefined question (Wikipedia ↗). That “doubtful matters” form is the one John XXIII quoted in 1959. The popular English “non-essentials … all things” follows de Dominis’s own pattern, in non necessariis … in omnibus.
“The common saying, expressed in various ways and attributed to various authors.” — John XXIII, 1959
Why does Augustine get the credit?
Nobody has documented how the maxim came to be pinned on Augustine. A likely reason, offered here as our inference, is that a short, balanced Latin line about unity and charity sounds like a Church Father, and Augustine is the Latin Father whose name most readily attracts such sayings. Even the Vatican in 1959 declined to name an author (Ad Petri cathedram §72 ↗).
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1560–1624 · Archbishop of Split & anti-papal controversialist
Born on the island of Rab in 1560, de Dominis became Archbishop of Split in 1602. Fearing the Inquisition, he left for England in 1616, where the first part of his anti-papal De republica ecclesiastica appeared in London in 1617. He later returned to Rome, died in September 1624 while confined in Castel Sant’Angelo, and was condemned as a relapsed heretic after his death; his body and works were burned on 21 December 1624.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest known source
Marco Antonio de Dominis, De republica ecclesiastica libri X, vol. 1 (London, 1617), bk. 4, ch. 8, p. 676 (Latin). Identified as the earliest known occurrence by H. J. M. Nellen, “De zinspreuk ‘In necessariis unitas, in non necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas,’” Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 79 (1999). Not found in the works of Augustine of Hippo.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/in-essentials-unity-in-non-essentials-liberty-in-all-things/