Introduction

The Dominican tradition has condensed its intellectual ideal into formulas that circulate frequently without precision of origin. Two of them matter here: the one expressing the structure of study — contemplating and transmitting — and the one expressing its climate — seeking in community.

1. Contemplating and transmitting

The formula “contemplata aliis tradere” — to hand on to others what has been contemplated — comes from Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II, q. 188, a. 6:

«Sicut enim maius est illuminare quam lucere solum, ita maius est contemplata aliis tradere quam solum contemplari.»

“Just as it is greater to illuminate than merely to shine, so it is greater to hand on to others what has been contemplated than merely to contemplate.”

The context is the discussion about the religious state: Saint Thomas holds that the mixed life — contemplative and active, which transmits what has been contemplated — is more perfect than contemplation alone, because it adds the good of one’s neighbor and is ordered to charity. The light metaphor refers to the Dionysian tradition; the model of the pastor’s mixed life, to Saint Gregory the Great.

A precision is in order. The complete motto-formula “contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere” is a later condensation: in Saint Thomas appears “contemplata aliis tradere”, without the initial “contemplari et”. And in his doctrinal body Saint Thomas holds that contemplation is in itself superior (II-II q.182, following Aristotle), although transmission constitutes its charitable fullness in an apostolic vocation. These are two things held together, not one reduced to the other.

The Summa itself is an act of “contemplata tradere”: Saint Thomas writes it to hand on to others what has been contemplated in study and prayer. The formula thus defines the Dominican intellectual vocation: truth is not sought for oneself, but to be given. Transmission has three historical forms — preaching, teaching and writing — and in all of them what is transmitted is what has been contemplated, the assimilated truth, not one’s own opinion.

2. Seeking in community

The second formula expresses the climate of that search: “in dulcedine societatis quaerere veritatem” — to seek the truth in the sweetness of companionship. It is attributed to Saint Albert the Great and was disseminated in modern times through Yves Congar (article of 1981).

Two cautions are in order here. On the attribution, the formula is “Albertine” in use, but its exact textual location is not unambiguously fixed: secondary sources cite inconsistent locations, and a citation to Albert’s commentary on the Politics is suspicious, for that work is considered lost; it is likely that it comes from the Super Ethica (“Commentary on the Ethics”), in the treatise on friendship. On the sense, societas means here companionship and living together, not “political society”; and the form of the phrase, according to some sources, would be “contemplari veritatem” — to contemplate — and not “quaerere” — to seek —.

With those precisions, the sense is crystal clear: the search for truth is carried out with joy within a community, not as an isolated endeavor. It is the ideal of common study, proper to the Order, whose studium (“house of studies”) — Paris, Cologne, Bologna — understood study as a communal work ordered to preaching.

3. Structure and climate

Both formulas complement each other: the first describes the structure — contemplate → transmit —; the second, the climate — community, joy —. Together they define a model of intellectual life in which study operates as a form of contemplation — lectio (“reading”) and meditatio (“meditation”) lead to contemplatio (“contemplation”) —, contemplation overflows into preaching, teaching and writing, and all of it is carried out in community and not in solitude.

Conclusion

It can be safely asserted that “contemplata aliis tradere” is Saint Thomas’s text (II-II q.188, a. 6), that the complete motto-formula is a later condensation, and that “in dulcedine societatis” has an Albertine spirit even if its exact location remains unfixed. It should not be asserted that these formulas are literal quotations without nuance, nor that societas means political society. The contemplate–transmit structure connects with the metaphysics of human making in Creating, making, and imitating nature; the Benedictine side of study is studied in Ora et labora: history of a motto.

References

Primary sources

  • Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae II-II, q. 188, a. 6 and qq. 179–182.
  • Saint Albert the Great, Super Ethica (probable attribution of the formula).

Secondary sources

  • Congar, Y., «“In dulcedine societatis quaerere veritatem”. Notes sur le travail en équipe chez S. Albert et chez les Prêcheurs au XIIIe siècle» (1981).
  • Torrell, J.-P., Initiation à saint Thomas d’Aquin.