St. Vincent of Lerins, writing around 434, gave the classic exposition found in the Church Fathers:

     In the Catholic Church herself every care must be taken that we may hold fast to that which has been believed
     everywhere, always, and by all. For this is, then truly and properly Catholic . . . (1)

     Will there, then, be no progress of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly there is, and the greatest . . . But it is truly progress and not a change of faith. What is meant by progress is that something is brought to an advancement within itself; by change, something is transformed from one thing into another. It is necessary, therefore, that understanding, knowledge and wisdom grow and advance strongly and mightily . . . and this must take place precisely within its own kind, that is, in the same teaching, in the same meaning, and in the same opinion. The progress of religion in souls is like the growth of bodies, which, in the course of years, evolve and develop, but still remain what they were . . . Although in the course of time something evolved from those first seeds and has now expanded under careful cultivation, nothing of the characteristics of the seeds is changed. Granted that appearance, beauty and distinction has
     been added, still, the same nature of each kind remains. (2) Dogma . . . may be consolidated in the course of years,
     developed in the sequence of time, and sublimated by age - yet remain incorrupt and unimpaired . . . so that it does not
     allow of any change, or any loss of its specific character, or any variation of its inherent form. (3)

     It should flourish and ripen; it should develop and become perfect . . . but it is sinful to change them . . . or mutilate
     them. They may take on more evidence, clarity, and distinctness, but it is absolutely necessary that they retain their
     plenitude, integrity, and basic character . . . The Church of Christ is a faithful and ever watchful guardian of the
     dogmas which have been committed to her charge. In this sacred deposit she changes nothing, she takes nothing . . ., she
     adds nothing to it. (4)

Here we have almost all the elements outlined by Newman fourteen centuries later, yet Protestant controversialists such as
George Salmon [new comment: and some Orthodox and some "traditionalist" Catholic polemicists] claim that Newman's views
were a radical departure from Catholic precedent! (5)

1. Notebooks, 2,3. Jurgens, William A., ed. and tr., The Faith of the Early Fathers (FEF), 3 volumes, Collegeville,
     MN: Liturgical Press, 1970, vol. 3, p.263.
     2. Ibid., 23:28-30. Jurgens, FEF, vol. 3, p.265.
     3. Ibid., 23. From Chapin, John, ed., The Book of Catholic Quotations, NY: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1956, p.271.

     4. Ibid., 23/23:30 ff. From Chapin, ibid., p.271; Gibbons, James Cardinal, The Faith of Our Fathers, NY: P.J.
     Kenedy & Sons, rev. ed., 1917, p.12.
     5. Salmon, George, The Infallibility of the Church, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House (orig. 1888), pp.31-35.