 In his treatise Philip sets out to answer several questions related to the ontological status of synderesis, to the question of whether anyone can sin if they follow synderesis, and to whether it can ever be extinguished. As to the ontological status of synderesis, Philip cites Jerome’s authoritative suggestion that synderesis is a faculty or power of the soul. Recall that Jerome had posited a quadripartite soul: one that is composed of reason, spirit, desire and synderesis. Since the first three parts of the soul are potentialities and synderesis is classified alongside these, it seems to follow that it too must be a faculty or power of the soul, distinct from the faculty of reason. Philip cites St. Paul and John of Damascus as corroborating authorities who apparently share the view that synderesis is a faculty of the soul independent of the others (Philip the Chancellor, Summa de bono: Treatise on Conscience; Potts trans. 1980: 95–96).