Palladium theologicum, Tomus quintus: De virtutibus

To faith also pertains the gift of science; since, indeed, faith in itself is obscure, indicating what is to be done, but not in all things how to act, this gratuitous Gift is given by the Holy Spirit, through which faith is begotten, nourished, defended, and strengthened, whose proper act is to render man easily mobile by the Holy Spirit toward judging well and discriminating according to the rules of the eternal law in those things to be done whose manner of acting is not determined, as far as we are concerned, because they do not always come about uniformly. So the holy Doctor, cap. 3. de dono scientiae. Hence there is made known divinely to man the right judgment in his actions, and it extends itself to the things to be believed and done which are proposed to us in Holy Scripture: Of this gift St. Greg. speaks thus, lib. 10. Moral. apud D. Bonav. de dono scientiae, cap. 2., indicating that it is especially cultivated by the reading of Holy Scripture: From earthly desires it invites the heart to the embracing of things above; it aids the mind of the reader with humble words, and raises it with sublime sentences. It stirs the soul especially toward charity, manifesting the many lovelinesses of the Creator, and proposing the many ways in which He may be loved. The rest I shall indicate through certain doubts.

Whether SCIENCE is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

The holy Doctor asserts that Science is a Gift of the Holy Spirit. He shows this from what was said above, and it is evident from that Wisdom 10: The Lord led the just, etc. he gave him the science of holy things. Hence also he infers that science is an infused habit, in which man has judgment concerning his actions, so that he may in no way stray from it, but whatever he judges is to be done, he may order to be done promptly and expeditiously. For as Understanding does two things concerning truths, perceiving them, and directing the will, while it obeys them, so our mind, irradiated by the gift of Science, first, receives the supernal truths; second, it discerns without error how they are to be observed in practice.

Since, moreover, man is blind with respect to supernatural things by his own light, he cannot proceed safely among so many precepts unless a certain light shine upon him from above, joining what is to be done to what is to be believed, whence through this gift the actions of man are resolved to the articles of faith as to their principles, which only the Holy Spirit can accomplish in man.

And in order that this science be distinguished from the other, which is acquired by one's proper powers, the holy Doctor relates the description and distinction of both; first, indeed, from St. Bernard upon the Canticles: There is a certain secular science, secular, which inebriates not with Charity, but with curiosity; it fills, but does not nourish; it puffs up, and does not build up; it swells, and does not strengthen. Second, from St. August. lib. 14. de Trinit. cap. 1.: There is a Science which is not of vain things, nor of curious ones, but is begotten concerning those things upon which the most salubrious faith leads to true beatitude, is nourished, etc., and this the Seraphic Doctor concludes to be the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It must be said that science concerns only created things in their order to God. Since, indeed, the soul experiences difficulty, and in a certain manner grows torpid, with respect to supernatural acts; according to the kinds of difficulty, habits are infused into it, whereby it may be made mobile for the service of the Holy Spirit: whence, since especially the will is held back from acting on account of a defect of cognition in the intellect, two habits are given to remove this defect, the first of which is concerned with created things, and concerning them passes judgment through their causes, and is called the Gift of science: the other is concerned with divine things through the most exalted principles, and it is Wisdom.

But the created things with which Science is concerned are, first, the other sciences, acquired by study and teaching, concerning which by the gift of infused science we judge rightly and with sound sense; and this, considered in this present state, the holy Doctor calls the morning hour; because it is still mixed with darkness.

Second, the Gift of science is concerned with the things to be believed and done, contained in the sacred letters. For from these it draws forth a most ardent light, whereby it inflames and illuminates the mind, as with the midday sun; of this he says, Isaias 18: As the light of midday, it is clear.

Third, this science is occupied with the other moral matters, establishing and quieting the mind in truth, lessening the labor by the intuition of eternal quiet, and bringing it to its terminus: This is the end, and the evening twilight, of this gift; on account of these things it is said, Psalm 103., says the Seraphic Doctor here at the end of chapter 1: Man goeth forth in the morning to his work, until the evening.

Since Science is borne especially toward doing and believing, so that it may pass judgment on these according to truth, St. Thom. and St. Bonav. cap. 3. de dono scientiae assert here that it is primarily speculative: it is nevertheless secondarily practical, because it is also ordered to operation, insofar as it prescribes that charity be begotten and defended in this or that way. Both holy Doctors prove that this gift is at once speculative and practical from St. Greg. 1. Moral. cap. 6., who says: Science in its day makes a banquet, because it makes a fast from the ignorance in the womb of the mind. But the fast of ignorance is not broken except by both science, speculative and practical; for he who has contracted an ignorance of supernatural things by acting perversely must needs expel it not only by knowing rightly, but also by acting well.

Then, speculation, or practice, of Science is drawn from the condition of the object; but the object of this science, although primarily speculable, is nevertheless in certain respects operable; for it supplies the medium and manner by which the practice of divine love is had; indeed, for this present state it would be in vain unless it illuminated toward the exercise of charity, as the Seraphic Doctor has from Hugh, lib. de vanitate mundi, where he says: In vain does the abundance of divine cognition grow in us, unless the flame of divine love increase in us.

Then, the Gift of science follows the nature of faith; for it also passes judgment on this; but faith, although primarily it does nothing concerning its object, nevertheless, once perfected, works abundantly through charity. Galat. 5.

Finally, to these considerations add that spiritual banquet of science, where the Seraphic Doctor feeds the whole throng at the threefold table of History, Allegory, and Anagoge with most savory and sweetest dishes, through the whole of chapter 3; see them there, for those dishes translated hither would perhaps lose their native savor.

Since temporal things are possessed with excessive joy because the vileness of these things is not known, and heavenly things still, beneath the bitter rind of the letter, are found tasteless; hence the mind cannot acknowledge its blindness, and much less can the will turn it away by a salutary mourning:

Therefore the holy Doctors, St. Thomas here, St. Bonaventura, cap. 3. de septem Donis, assert that the third beatitude corresponds to the Gift of science.

It is proved first from St. August. supra de sermone Domini in monte, cap. 9. Then, because the gift of science teaches one to pass right judgment on the creatures on account of which man is turned away from God and slides into miseries, and therefore to that right judgment of science there corresponds the mourning, whereby one is turned away from the evil of lust, and from the languor of concupiscence, and is converted to the evil of one's own blindness, to be bitterly bewailed, as that word of the Psalmist says: I shall reflect upon all my years in the bitterness of my soul. From this Gift of science also arises the reward of this beatitude, namely that supernal consolation, whereby man, having clearly seen the vanity of the creature,¹ and tasting the goodness of God, is filled to the marrow. But this consolation is promised not to those who revel, but to those who mourn; nor can they mourn who do not pass through the gift of science to the contemplation of pure truth, as the Seraphic Doctor concludes here.