Commonitorium of Saint Vincent of Lérins
Instrument for Knowing the Deposit of Faith
Its Relation with the Rules of Faith
Table of Contents:
Introduction
- The Commonitorium: Context and General Content
- The Rules of Faith according to Saint Vincent
- The Trinitarian Criterion: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus
- This Criterion as an Instrument for Discerning the Infallible
- Links with the Doctrine of Infallibility Defined at Vatican 1
Conclusion
Main 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 shed light on 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 “reminder” or “admonisher,” aims to strengthen 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” (that which is believed everywhere, always, and by all)
constitutes a precious instrument for discerning what belongs to the infallible teaching of the Church.
The most profound foundation of this instrument of infallibility is the promise of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16, 18). Thus, if the whole Church of the past, of today, and everywhere teaches or believes the same thing, it cannot err, for otherwise the Lord’s promise would have no force, which is impossible.
- 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 Withdrawn to the island of Lérins, he composed this work as a personal reminder, but intended for the edification of the Church. The full title is Commonitorium adversus profanas omnium haereticorum novitates (Admonition against the profane novelties of all heretics), underscoring its anti-heretical purpose. After its publication it was rather quickly recognized by the other Fathers of the Church as expressing their common doctrine.
The treatise is divided into thirty-three chapters. After an introduction (chapter 1) in which the author invokes Scripture to justify his undertaking – “Interrogate patres vestros, et narrabunt vobis” (Deuteronomy 32, 7) (Ask your fathers, and they will tell you) –, he sets forth a general rule for distinguishing Catholic truth from error (chapters 2-3). The following chapters apply this rule to specific heresies, insisting on the authority of the councils and the Fathers. Saint Vincent concludes with an exhortation to perseverance in Tradition (chapter 28).
The Commonitorium is not a systematic treatise, but a practical guide. It fits into the logic of reason enlightened by faith: as Saint Thomas Aquinas would later teach in the Summa Theologica (second part of the second part, question 1, article 9), Catholic faith rests on a divine deposit to be preserved 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 (at session 4, 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 strengthening the faith: the authority of the divine Law (Scripture) and the Tradition of the Catholic Church (chapter 2, numbers 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 interpretative “line” conforming to the ecclesiastical sense: “Propheticae et apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici et Catholici sensus normam dirigatur” (chapter 2, number 5) (The line of prophetic and apostolic interpretation must be directed according to the norm of the ecclesiastical and Catholic sense).
This rule is similar to the “rules of faith” (regulae fidei) of earlier Fathers, as in Irenaeus of Lyon (Adversus haereses, book 1, chapter 10, paragraph 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 unanimously professed by all.
These three notes:
– universality, antiquity, consensus –
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 4, 1546; Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1501) ([the Synod] receives and venerates with an equal feeling of piety and reverence […] those traditions, whether they belong to faith or concern 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.
- The Trinitarian Criterion: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus
The heart of the Commonitorium resides in chapter 2, number 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: “In the Catholic Church itself, we must take the greatest care 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 only if we follow universality, antiquity, consensus.”
– Quod ubique (that which is believed everywhere): Geographical and temporal universality. True faith extends to the whole Church, without local exception. Saint Vincent illustrates this in chapter 3: faced with a “small portion” that is schismatic, one prefers “the health of the entire body to the gangrene of a corrupted member” (chapter 3, number 7).
– Quod semper (that which is believed always): Antiquity. Every innovation is suspect, for “antiquity cannot be seduced by any fraud of novelty” (chapter 3, number 7). This excludes recent doctrines not rooted in the apostolic past. Homogeneous development of dogma is permitted and desired but does not constitute true innovation. Commonitorium primum, in chapter 23: “ut annis scilicet consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate” (so that it may be consolidated with the years, extended with time, and elevated with age). Saint Vincent explains the legitimate development of Catholic dogma: it must be consolidated with the years, extended with time, and elevated with age, but always “in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu eademque sententia” (in the same dogma, in the same sense, and in the same judgment). It is an organic growth similar to that of a living organism, never altering the sense or substance of the faith transmitted by the Apostles.
In the present crisis of the Church, this criterion serves especially to radically reject all novelties after 1964, without any concession to a “development” of which modernists abuse.
– Quod ab omnibus (that which is believed by all): Consensus. Not a purely subjective consensus, but the agreement of doctors and councils, “openly, frequently, persistently” (chapter 3, number 4). A single Father or an erring province does not carry adherence.
This triptych is not a rhetorical formula, but a logical norm: it applies the Thomistic principle of certainty through causes, where evidence flows from divinely assisted unanimity.
- This Criterion as an Instrument for Discerning the Infallible
The central idea is the following: the “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus” (that which is believed everywhere, always, and by all) is a practical instrument for knowing what is infallible, that is, protected by the assistance of the Holy Ghost against all error in matters of faith and morals. Infallibility is not an abstract privilege, but a concrete grace at the service of the deposit (1 Timothy 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?” (chapter 3, number 1) (What will the Catholic Christian do if a part of the Church cuts itself off from the communion of the universal faith?). He answers: adhere to the consensus, for the infallible is that which unites the Church in one body (1 Corinthians 12, 12-27). Theologically, this aligns with the traditional doctrine of the Church.
- Links with the Doctrine of Infallibility Defined at Vatican 1
The Council Vatican 1 (1870) fully integrates the Commonitorium. In Pastor aeternus (chapter 4; Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3073-3074), we read:
“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 for 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, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine on faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed in defining doctrine on faith or morals.”
Here, papal infallibility is at the service of Tradition: the Pope does not reveal any “new doctrine,” but “religiosum custodiant et fideliter exponant revelationem seu depositum fidei” (Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3070) (they must religiously guard and faithfully expound the divine revelation or the deposit of faith), a direct echo of Vincent. The consensus of the Fathers – invoked in Pastor aeternus (Denzinger-Schönmetzer 3050-3055) – is the Vincentian criterion applied.
Thus, Vatican 1 completes what Vincent initiated: infallibility is the divine guarantee of traditional consensus, discernible by quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus (that which is believed everywhere, always, and by all). Since the public heresy of Paul 6 in 1964, the apostolic See is vacant and this criterion allows us to clearly discern novelties contrary to the faith.
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 triple criterion is a prudent rule and a sure instrument for identifying the infallible: that which is believed everywhere, always, by all, bears the mark of the Holy Ghost. In these times when novelties threaten, let us recall with Saint Vincent: “Adhaerebit antiquitati, quae hodie plane non potest fraudi novitatis seduci” (chapter 22) (He will cling to antiquity, which today cannot be seduced by any fraud of novelty).
All that, after 1964, departs from “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus” (that which is believed everywhere, always, and by all) must be rejected as novelty.
May this study strengthen souls in the certain and immutable faith of our Fathers.
Main References:
– S. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium, text based on the critical edition (Patrologia Latina 50, 637-686).
– Council Vatican 1, Pastor aeternus, in H. Denzinger-A. Schönmetzer, Enchiridion symbolorum, numbers 3001-3075 (1967 edition).
– J. B. Franzelin, Over de goddelijke overlevering en de Schrift, Rome, 1882.