popularity is attested by several translations into the vernacular, including French,
Catalan, and Dutch verse. After revising and reorganizing his work, Vincent produced a
third volume, the Doctrinale, that contained a treatise on knowledge and the arts,
including all the fields of science, from grammar and mechanics to politics, law, and
medicine: in short, all that is useful to know to live a fruitful and productive life, both
public and private. Although Vincent had intended to publish a fourth part, the Morale,
he never accomplished his goal. The tract entitled Morale that began to circulate in the
14th century with the first three parts is in fact an anonymous compilation drawn from
the Summa theologica of Thomas Aquinas.
In the last years of his life, Vincent composed treaties for the royal court. On the death
of the dauphin Louis in January 1260, he wrote his Epistola consolatoria super morte
filii. Within the next year or so, he published at the request of Queen Marguerite a tract
on the education of princes, De eruditione filiorum nobilium, for the tutors of Prince
Philip. Finishing this work, Vincent returned to his treatise concerning royal government
requested by Louis IX. Sometime before Pentecost 1263, he presented the first part, De
morali principis institutione, to his patron. But as with his Speculum, Vincent never
finished this work: the second part was only supplied at a later date by a fellow
Dominican, William Peraldus.
Mark Zier
Vincent de Beauvais. De eruditione filiorum nobilium, ed. Arpad Steiner. Cambridge: Mediaeval
Academy of America, 1938.
Gabriel, Astrik. The Educational Ideas of Vincent of Beauvais. 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1962.
Lusignan, Serge, A.Nadeau, and M.Paulmier-Foucart, eds. Vincent de Beauvais: Actes du Colloque
de Montréal, 1988. Montreal, 1990.
McCarthy, Joseph M. Humanistic Emphases in the Educational Thought of Vincent of Beauvais.
Leiden: Brill, 1976.
Paulmier-Foucart, M., and Serge Lusignan. “Vincent de Beauvais et l’histoire du Speculum majus.”
Journal des Savants 1990, pp. 97–124.
VINCENT OF LÉRINS
(d. before 450). A monk of the monastery of Lérins, Vincent contributed to theological
argumentation in his day. A vigorous opponent of Augustine’s ideas on grace and
predestination (which he saw as a deviation from true tradition), he may be identified as a
Semi-Pelagian. His Commonitorium offers the famous rule for determining what is to be
believed as Catholic truth: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab om-nibus creditum est
(“what has been believed everywhere, always, by all”). The three characteristics of
universality, antiquity, and unanimity represented a line of defense against heretical, or at
least deviant, developments in matters of belief.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: LÉRINS]
Vincent of Lérins. Commonitorium, ed. R.Demeulenaere. CCSL 64. Turnhout: Brepols, 1985.
The Encyclopedia 1819