Pope Pius V on the nature of saving faith
Assent to revealed truth, made saving by love
A lighted taper is then put into the hand of the baptised to signify that faith, inflamed by charity, which is received in Baptism, is to be fed and augmented by the exercise of good works.
THE POSITION
Faith is first assent: Article I defines it as the faith "by which we yield our entire assent to whatever has been divinely revealed." What makes it living is charity, given with it in baptism and fed by good works; the baptismal candle signifies exactly that, and the same section warns that baptism is "received in vain" by one who means to live according to the flesh. No passage read says in so many words that faith without charity does not save, so the cell leans rather than affirms.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
3 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Michele Ghislieri, a Dominican friar and inquisitor, was pope from 1566 to 1572 and carried the Council of Trent's decrees into practice. Under his authority came the Roman Catechism (1566), the reformed Breviary (1568) and Missal (1570), and the bull Ex omnibus afflictionibus (1567) on the teaching of Michael Baius; he also named Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church. He wrote little theology of his own, so this entry rests on what he promulgated: the Roman Catechism, read in the McHugh and Callan translation, a commission's work issued by his order, and the 1567 bull in Deferrari's translation of Denzinger.
Cite this page
"Pope Pius V on the nature of saving faith", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/pius-v/saving-faith (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/pius-v/saving-faith).