Instrument of Knowledge of the Infallible Deposit of Faith
– Its Relation with the Rules of Faith
Table of Contents :
Introduction
I. The Commonitorium: Context and General Content
II. The Rules of Faith According to Saint Vincent
III. The Trinitarian Criterion: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus
IV. This Criterion as an Instrument for Discerning the Infallible
V. Links with the Doctrine of Infallibility Defined at Vatican I
Conclusion
Principal References
Introduction
In fidelity to the Catholic doctrine as it was transmitted by the holy Fathers and confirmed by the ecumenical councils up to the twentieth century, it is fitting to examine with care the writings that illuminate the rules of faith and the mechanisms by which the Church discerns infallible truth. Among these writings, the Commonitorium of Saint Vincent of Lérins († around 450) occupies an eminent place. Composed around 434, this treatise, often qualified as a “remembrancer” or warner, aims to fortify the faithful against heretical novelties by recalling the immutable criteria of Catholic Tradition.
This study proposes to analyze the Commonitorium in its relation with the rules of faith, and more particularly with the notion of infallibility. The emphasis will be placed especially on the idea that the famous trinitarian criterion
“quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus”
constitutes a precious instrument for discerning what pertains to the infallible teaching of the Church. The sources used are exclusively certain: the original text of the holy Father, the conciliar definitions, and the Catholic theological commentaries prior to 1963, avoiding any unfounded opinion. The citations will be given in the original Latin, followed by their faithful translation in English, with precise references.
- The Commonitorium: Context and General Content
Saint Vincent of Lérins, a Provençal monk and theologian, wrote his Commonitorium primum (the second is apocryphal) in the context of the Christological controversies of the fifth century, marked by Nestorianism and other errors. Withdrawn to the island of Lérins, he composes this work as a personal aide-mémoire, but intended for the edification of the Church. The full title is Commonitorium adversus profanas omnium haereticorum novitates, underscoring its anti-heretical aim. After its publication, it is quite quickly universally recognized by the other Fathers of the Church as rendering their common doctrine.
The treatise is divided into thirty-three chapters. After an introduction (ch. 1) where the author invokes Scripture to justify his undertaking – “Interrogate patres vestros, et narrabunt vobis” (Deuteronomy 32, 7) –, he exposes a general rule for distinguishing Catholic truth from error (ch. 2-3). The following chapters apply this rule to specific heresies, insisting on the authority of councils and Fathers. Saint Vincent concludes with an exhortation to perseverance in Tradition (ch. 28).
The Commonitorium is not a systematic treatise, but a practical guide. It fits within the logic of reason enlightened by faith: as Saint Thomas Aquinas will teach later in the Summa Theologica (II-II, q. 1, a. 9), Catholic faith rests on a divine deposit to be conserved integrally, without innovation. This text was highly esteemed by Catholic theologians, as evidenced by its inclusion in patristic collections and its doctrinal influence during the preparations for the Council of Trent (from Session IV, 1546), where its principles on Tradition illuminate the decree on the sources of Revelation.
- The Rules of Faith According to Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent distinguishes two principal sources for fortifying faith: the authority of divine Law (Scripture) and the Tradition of the Catholic Church (ch. 2, n. 4-5). Recognizing that Scripture, although perfect, is subject to multiple interpretations – as shown by the heresies of Novatian, Sabellius, Arius, or Nestorius –, he insists on the necessity of an interpretive “line” conforming to the ecclesiastical sense: “Propheticae et apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici et Catholici sensus normam dirigatur” (ch. 2, n. 5). Translation: “The line of prophetic and apostolic interpretation must be directed according to the norm of the ecclesiastical and Catholic sense.”
This rule is akin to the “rules of faith” (regulae fidei) of earlier Fathers, as in Irenaeus of Lyon (Adversus haereses, I, 10, 1) or Tertullian (De praescriptione haereticorum, 13). In Saint Vincent, it culminates in the criterion of catholicity: what is true is what is universal, ancient, and consented to by all.
These three notes
– universitas, antiquitas, consensio –
form an indissoluble whole, guaranteeing fidelity to the apostolic deposit. As the Council of Trent specifies: “nec non traditiones ipsas, oraliter quidem a Christo, aut a Spiritu Sancto dictatas, atque ab Ecclesia […] cum pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia suscipiendas esse decernimus” (Session IV, 1546; Denzinger-Schönmetzer [DS] 1501). Translation: “[the Synod] receives and venerates with an equal sentiment of piety and reverence […] the said traditions, whether they pertain to faith or morals, as having been dictated, either orally by Christ Himself, or by the Holy Spirit, and preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession.”
Thus, the rules of faith are not arbitrary, but objective: they measure conformity to the living Tradition of the Church, the mystical body of Christ.
III. The Trinitarian Criterion: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus
The heart of the Commonitorium resides in chapter 2, n. 5, where Saint Vincent formulates the trinitarian criterion:
“In ipsa item Catholica Ecclesia magnopere curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est. Hoc est etenim vere proprieque catholicum, quod ipsa vis nominis ratioque declarat, quae omnia fere universaliter comprehendit. Sed hoc ita demum fiet, si sequamur universitatem, antiquitatem, consensionem.”
Translation: “Likewise, in the Catholic Church itself, the greatest care must be taken to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and properly Catholic, as the very force of the name and the reason of the thing declare, which comprehends almost universally all things. But this will be accomplished in this way only if we follow universality, antiquity, consensus.”
– Quod ubique (everywhere): Geographical and temporal universality. True faith extends to the whole Church, without local exception. Saint Vincent illustrates it in chapter 3: faced with a “small portion” schismatic, one prefers “the health of the entire body to the gangrene of a corrupted member” (ch. 3, n. 7).
– Quod semper (always): Antiquity. Every innovation is suspect, for “antiquity cannot be seduced by any fraud of novelty” (ch. 3, n. 7). This excludes recent doctrines not rooted in the apostolic past.
– Quod ab omnibus (by all): Consensus. Not a subjective consensus, but the agreement of doctors and councils, “openly, frequently, persistently” (ch. 3, n. 4). A single Father or an errant province does not carry adhesion.
This triptych is not a rhetorical formula, but a logical norm: it applies the Thomistic principle of certainty through causes (causa formalis certitudinis est evidentia), where evidence derives from divinely assisted unanimity.
- This Criterion as an Instrument for Discerning the Infallible
The central idea is as follows: the “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus” is a practical instrument for knowing what is infallible, that is, protected by the assistance of the Holy Spirit against any error in matters of faith and morals. Infallibility is not an abstract privilege, but a concrete grace in service of the deposit (1 Tm 6, 20), discernible by this criterion.
First, Saint Vincent presents it as a rampart against error: “Quid faciet catholicus Christianus, si pars Ecclesiae a communione universae fidei se absciderit?” (ch. 3, n. 1). Translation: “What will the Catholic Christian do if a part of the Church separates itself from the communion of universal faith?” He responds: adhere to consensus, for the infallible is what unites the Church in a single body (1 Co 12, 12-27). Theologically, this aligns with the definition of Vatican I (1870): the Church is infallible in its Ordinary and Universal Magisterium (OUM) through the consent of bishops in communion with the Pope teaching the apostolic doctrine unanimously, see: Pius IX, Tuas libenter, December 21, 1863; DS 2875-2888, Vatican Council, preparatory schema and explanations of Manning, Gasser, etc. (Acta), Leo XIII, Satis cognitum (1896), Pius XII, Humani generis (1950).
Next, this criterion operates like a syllogism: major (the assisted Church cannot err), minor (what is believed ubique, semper, ab omnibus manifests assistance), conclusion (that is infallible). For example, the divinity of Christ, affirmed by all the Fathers since Nicaea (325), is infallible not by vote, but by this consensus. Conversely, an isolated doctrine (like Arianism, limited to an era and a region) is refuted.
The pre-1963 theologians, such as Cardinal Franzelin (1882), see in this principle the foundation of the Ordinary Magisterium: “The passive infallibility of the faithful people and active of the doctors is manifested by the Vincentian unanimity” (Franzelin, De divina traditione). Billuart (18th century), in his Cursus theologiae, explains: the consensus of theologians, when unanimous, reflects the infallible, for it expresses Tradition.
Thus, the criterion is not infallible in itself, but instrumental: it reveals the infallible by applying the logic of Tradition.
Finally, in the face of crises, it serves as a compass: if a “new contagion” infects the Church (ch. 3, n. 1), one returns to the Fathers. This prefigures the condemnation of modernists by Saint Pius X (Pascendi, 1907; DS 3475), who implicitly invoke Vincent against innovations.
- Links with the Doctrine of Infallibility Defined at Vatican I
The Vatican Council I (1870) fully integrates the Commonitorium. In Pastor aeternus (ch. 4; DS 3073-3074), one reads:
“Fideli igitur Traditioni a Christianae fidei exordio receptae inhærentes, ad Dei Salvatoris gloriam, catholicae religionis exaltationem, atque Christianorum gentium salutem, sacro probante Concilio docemus et divinitus revelatum dogma definimus: Romanum Pontificem, cum ex cathedra loquitur, idest cum munere suo tamquam Pastoris et Doctoris universorum Christianorum implet, vi supremi apostolicae auctoritatis in fidem et mores doctrine definitae pro universa Ecclesia obligandi viro, per assistentiam divinam ipsi in beato Petro promissam, ea infallibilitate pollere qua divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit.”
Translation: “Adhering therefore faithfully to the Tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, for the glory of God our Savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and the salvation of Christian peoples, with the approval of the sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra […], possesses, through the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to be provided when it defines doctrine on faith or morals.”
Here, papal infallibility is in service of Tradition: the Pope does not reveal a “new doctrine,” but “religiosum custodiant et fideliter exponant revelationem seu depositum fidei” (DS 3070), a direct echo to Vincent. The consensus of the Fathers – invoked in Pastor aeternus (DS 3050-3055) – is the Vincentian criterion applied, that is, that this faith, all the venerable Fathers and the holy orthodox doctors have received it with supreme piety, have religiously guarded it and religiously transmitted it.
Thus, Vatican I completes what Vincent initiated: infallibility is the divine guarantee of traditional consensus, discernible by quod ubique, semper, ab omnibus.
Conclusion
The Commonitorium of Saint Vincent of Lérins remains a beacon for the Catholic Church, teaching that the rules of faith are verified by universality, antiquity, and consensus. Its trinitarian criterion is a sure instrument for identifying the infallible: what is believed everywhere, always, by all, bears the mark of the Holy Spirit. In these times when novelties threaten, let us recall with Saint Vincent: “Adhaerebit antiquitati, quae hodie plane non potest fraudi novitatis seduci” (ch. 22). Translation: “He will adhere to antiquity, which today plainly cannot be seduced by any fraud of novelty.”
May this study fortify souls in the certain and immutable faith of our Fathers.
Principal References:
– S. Vincent de Lérins, Commonitorium, ed. R. Gryson, Sources chrétiennes n° 166 (1968), but text based on the critical edition of the Hymnus de Prudence (PL 50, 637-686).
– Vatican Council I, Pastor aeternus, in H. Denzinger-A. Schönmetzer, Enchiridion symbolorum, n° 3001-3075 (ed. 1967).
– J. B. Franzelin, De divina traditione et Scriptura, Rome, 1882.