Auctorem fidei explained

Auctorem fidei
Type:bull
Pope:Pius VI
Language Of Title:latin
Translation Of Title:Author of the Faith
Signature Date:28 August 1794
Subject:Condemnation of Jansenism

Auctorem fidei is a papal bull issued by Pius VI on 28 August, 1794 to condemn the tendency towards Gallicanism and Jansenist-tinged reforms of the Synod of Pistoia (1786).

The bull catalogued and condemned 85 articles of the Synod of Pistoia. After the bull's publication, Scipione de' Ricci submitted. In 1805, he took occasion of the presence of Pius VII in Florence on the latter's way to Rome from his exile in France to ask in person for pardon and reconciliation.

The document has been cited as a source of doctrinal orthodoxy when later popes were called to combat doctrinal errors in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is mentioned in Gregory XVI's encyclicals Commissum divinitus (1835) and Inter praecipuas machinationes (1844),[1] Pius X's Pascendi Dominici gregis (1907), Paul VI's Mysterium fidei (1965) and Francis's Dilexit nos (2024).

Notes and References

  1. Gregory XVI, Inter Praecipuas, paragraph 5, published 8 May 1844, accessed 6 August 2023