Palladium theologicum, Tomus quintus: De virtutibus

On the Gift of Wisdom.

Although charity may make the yoke easy,¹ it is not relishing without wisdom, which affects the affective and the intellective powers together, and the rest, through redundancy; and it is deservedly called a GIFT, because it is not acquired by study, but given by inspiration; wherefore St. James says cap. 1. as the Seraphic Doctor has in Diaeta, tit. 7. cap. 4. toward the end: If anyone lacks Wisdom, let him ask it of God: Therefore it is compared there to the SUN, most splendid, illuminating all things; to HONEY, most flavorsome, whose taste makes all else insipid; to the SEA finally, most profound, whose ways and paths are unsearchable; see the Seraphic Doctor.

What kind of gift WISDOM is.

IT IS TO BE NOTED with St. Bonaventure de septem Itineribus aeternitatis, Itinere 3. dist. 3. art. 3. et de septem donis, de dono Sapientiae, cap. 1. et 3. p. Centiloquii, sect. 45. et aliis locis, Multas enumerari sapientias. I omit the wisdom of the flesh, an enemy to God, as is said Rom. 8., and the wisdom of this world; which is called by St. James, cap. 3., animal, and diabolical, and by Paul is called foolishness, since it prefers transitory goods to eternal ones, as iron to gold. See St. Bonaventure LL. cc.

THERE is Uncreated Wisdom, whose panegyrics the author of Sap. cap. 7. wove together: The brightness of eternal light, the unspotted mirror, etc., which the Holy Doctor elegantly pursues in his Commentary, and St. Augustine lib. 1. de Genes. ad litt. cap 5. Now this wisdom is the SON OF GOD, not a Gift, but the Giver of gifts.

A twofold Created Wisdom is GIVEN: one, which is acquired by human study, and is an intellectual virtue, of which Aristotle lib. 1. Metaph. cap. 2. and St. Augustine lib. 14. de Trinit. cap. 1. say that it is the universal cognition of all things divine and human. This indeed can be called wisdom, because it is sapid knowledge, although not perfectly seasoned; although Aristotle in his Ethics brings forward admirable delights in it, yet St. Thomas adds that these are imperfect, because they are not seasoned with the oil of grace.

BUT that Wisdom can have a judgment somewhat right concerning divine things, as Hugh shows super caelestem Hierarchiam, cap. 1.

There is also that Wisdom which deals with the most abstract and divine things, which Aristotle calls Metaphysics; but we more fittingly name it Theology, at whose splendor earthly wisdom has been eclipsed and has dissolved into fictions. We acquire it, however, with labors, faith presupposed.

FURTHER there is also the other, infused Wisdom, as St. James 3. says, whose object is God, not under the aspect of the naked true, but of the true as to be tasted for good; and this is truly Sapid Knowledge. Of this Sap. 11.: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of Wisdom, etc.

The act of THIS is to contemplate God, not in any manner whatever, but from love with a certain experimental sweetness and affection. Hence St. Augustine 15. de Trinitate, cap. 7. says: Where there is no love (namely, gratuitous), who says that there is any Wisdom? And Bernard serm. 85. in Cant. Nor would I say it is blameworthy, if anyone should define wisdom as the savor of the good. Hence Isidore, lib. 10. Ethymol.: The wise man is so called from savor; for as taste is apt for the discernment of the savor of foods, so the wise man is apt for discerning the savors of things and of causes.

From these you have that the Gift of Wisdom is a supernatural habit, infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit, for knowing God and loving him with relish. It is thus defined: It is a habit, infused by God, rendering the soul easily mobile toward loving and tasting the Gifts out of love, or Charity. Therefore its act is to contemplate God, not in any manner whatever, but from love, with a certain experimental sweetness and affection.

The principal OBJECT, therefore, of Wisdom is God, not under the aspect of the true absolutely; but under the aspect of the true in relation to the aspect of the good, as it is excitatory of the will toward its sapid delectation. Hence Wisdom is called, as it were, sapid knowledge, as the Holy Doctor often says. The quasi-subject of Wisdom is indeed the intellect, but one overflowing its operations into the will, as the sun in the fourth heaven influences the other orbs, and the elements. Therefore the Holy Doctor proves that it does not stop in the intellect lib. de septem donis, De Dono sapientiae, cap. 1. et in Diaeta, tit. 6. cap. 4. et in 1. quaest. 3. Prooem. from Scripture, and the Fathers.

FIRST indeed Eccles. 6. says: For wisdom is according to its name [the doctrine of it], that is, sapid knowledge.

St. Thomas answers quaest. 45. art. 2. ad 2. Tanner disp. 2. quaest. 4. dub. 3. num. 44. et alii, that this does not seem to be the true interpretation of the name wisdom, namely, that it is Wisdom, as it were sapid knowledge.

AGAINST this, because thus the Holy Fathers, cited by the Holy Doctor, interpret it. St. Bernard, sermone 85. in Cant. Nor would I say it is blameworthy, if anyone should define wisdom as the good. Isidore, lib. 10. Ethymol., word Sapiens: The wise man is so called from Savor; for as taste is apt for the discernment of the savor of foods, so the wise man is apt for discerning the savors of things and of causes, as I had noted just above.

He CONFIRMS it from cap. 24. where Wisdom says: My spirit is sweeter than honey.

St. Thomas answers that this is had in the Latin, not in the Greek; but the sense is, that Wisdom is according to its name, that is, Great, nor is it less than its name, that is, Fame. But in the Greek it is read, according to its name, τὸ ὄνομα.

THEN I say that it cannot be without charity. It is proved by the Holy Doctor ad id Sap. 1. Into a malevolent soul Wisdom shall not enter.

It is PROVED by the Holy Doctors, because it makes rightness of judgment: toward itself and of savor concerning divine things, according to the divine rules to which it is connatural, which indeed are through Charity.

What is the utility, and necessity of this Gift.

IT IS TO BE NOTED first with St. Bonaventure de Dono Sapientiae, cap. 2. from St. Bernard lib. de natura, et dignitate amoris Divini, cap. 7. that: As the body has its five senses, by which it is joined to the soul, life mediating; so the Soul has its five spiritual senses, by which it is joined to God, Charity mediating; and as all the senses, without the sense of Taste, are weakened and dulled in their operations; so all the spiritual senses are weakened and languish in their works without the sapiential taste, which makes spiritual things relishable and flavorful. This savor, as St. Bernard says, serm. 85. in Cant., we lost in the eating of the sour apple, infected with poison, from which our cravings now have a taste for us. But this sense is repaired through wisdom, so that divine things become sweet to us; whence the powers of the soul are revived, as St. Bernard says above, cap. 10. Therefore the sense of Hearing it excites to hearing the word of God; the sense of Smell to following the Beloved, so as to say: We shall run in the odor of your ointments; the sense of Touch to holding the Beloved firmly, so as to say: I held him, and I will not let him go. I will bring him into my father's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me. Cant. 3.

THEREFORE all the spiritual senses are excited by the taste of wisdom to the highest appetible thing, as St. Augustine lib. 10. Confess. cap. 6. teaches.

Of this wisdom James says, cap. 3.: The wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste: because it avoids the corruptions of sin; indeed peaceable, and modest, keeping the mean in all things, etc.

Therefore the gift of Wisdom not only teaches one to contemplate divine things with right judgment, but also teaches to regulate human acts in a more excellent manner than the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue teaches. St. Augustine 12. de Trin. cap. 14. brings the reason, saying: The higher part of reason is deputed to wisdom; the lower, however, to knowledge. But the higher reason is for meditations supernal, namely divine, to be beheld and consulted. To be beheld, indeed, insofar as divine things are contemplated in themselves. But to be consulted, insofar as through divine things it indicates concerning human ones, directing human acts by divine rules, so that man be assimilated to God not only according to the image, but also according to the operations, as far as he can. Hence St. Augustine, de serm. Domini in monte cap. 9. says: Wisdom is the contemplation of truth, pacifying the whole man, and taking on the likeness of God. Wisdom is more precious than all works, and all things that are desired are not worth comparison with it.

From what has been said the Holy Doctor, with St. Thomas art. 3., deduces that Wisdom is practical. Hence the Apostle Coloss. 4. says: Walk in wisdom: hence it is elicited also, toward which operation it orders, namely, that the divine things sapidly tasted be judged by a palate cleansed, not infected, and that we famished ones aspire avidly to them, the infection of the evil humor having been removed, in the manner in which, after the gall has been purged by savoring sugar, necessary foods afterwards taste good to us. The same St. Augustine has, 12. de Trin. cap. 14.

The reason is, because the higher any virtue is, the more things it extends to, as is had in lib. de causis, prop. 10. Therefore since wisdom, which is a gift, is more preeminent than wisdom intellectual acquired, which is directed to contemplation, it follows that it extends also to action, as Tannerus also argues num. 39.

You will say that Sap. 8. has: No bitterness is in her conversation (namely, Wisdom's), nor tedium in her company, but joy and gladness. Yet in action tedium and bitterness are found, as St. Gregory lib. 6. Moral. cap. 28. says: In contemplation the principle, which is God, is sought; in operation, however, one labors under heavy necessity of the bundle.

It is answered that the bitterness which is in action does not come from Wisdom; but rather is turned by it into sweetness, as Tannerus observes number 40., from St. Bonaventure on that passage of Wisdom, and St. Thomas.

By what means the GIFT OF WISDOM may be obtained from God.

The Holy Doctor observes that Wisdom is found through cognition; but possessed through love; through cognition, indeed, to be seen; through love, however, to be embraced and tasted. To see pertains to the intellect; but to embrace and taste to the will, as Richard says lib. 4. de contempl. cap. 15.: As God is heard through memory, seen through the intellect: so he is embraced and tasted, or bound, through affection, and thus held: And this indeed is more perfect than merely to see, which St. Augustine shows lib. 9. de Trinitate, cap. 12., where he says that the act of embracing is the proper act of the will.

Therefore the wise man teaches to seek Wisdom, Prov. 2.: If you shall seek Wisdom as money, and shall dig for her as for treasures: then you shall understand the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Expounding which words Jerome says: He who digs for treasures casts aside the earth, digs a pit deep down, diligently persists, until he finds what he seeks. So he who desires to find the treasures of wisdom, let him cast off from himself every earthly weight, make in himself a pit of humility, and not rest, until he finds. These are his words: For wisdom itself is easily seen by those who seek her: and to think of her is a sense brought to perfection. Wisdom, therefore, is to be sought, for as she herself says, Prov. 8.: He who shall find me, shall find life, and shall draw salvation from the Lord.

But how you may recognize that wisdom has been found by you, St. Bernard teaches in his Sentences: You have plainly found wisdom, if you weep for the sins of your former life, if you esteem lightly the desirable things of this age, if you desire eternal beatitude with your whole desire. You have found wisdom, if each of these things tastes to you as they are, so that these indeed are bitter, and altogether to be fled; those also, as it were falling and transitory, to be despised; but these, as perfect goods, to be desired with the whole desire, which you judge and discern with a certain deepest savor of the soul.

Therefore this gift, which is a supernatural habit, is to be earnestly asked of God, as James says, cap. 1.: If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

He adds, however, four conditions: First, indigence in the one asking: If anyone wants. Second, Petition, which is that of sons, as is said Psal. 2.: Ask of me, etc. As asking is of a servant. Hence you have that wisdom is not infused except to sons adopted by grace. Hence Sap. 7. says: God loves no one, except him who dwells with wisdom. Third, the liberality of the giver: Who giveth abundantly to all, whence 3. Reg. cap. 3. it is said to Solomon, who was asking for Wisdom: But even these things, which you did not ask, I have given you, riches and glory. Fourth, the confidence of the one asking: nothing wavering. These things the Holy Doctor says concerning Wisdom. See many Holy Fathers in St. Bonav. lib. 3. Pharetrae, cap. 32.

On the illumination which Wisdom brings.

Wisdom is as it were the Sun, bringing a day luminous with knowledge, and fervent with affection. Hence Alan of Lille: Wisdom is the Sun, through whom the light of the mind dawns in darkness, the eye of the heart, the fruit of inward love, the delightful paradise of the soul. It converts the earthly to the heavenly, the mortal to the immortal, man to God, with the authority of deifying transformation. This luminous wisdom he desired, who said, Sap. 7.: I invoked, and the Spirit of Wisdom came into me: and I preferred to have her for light: for her light is inextinguishable. And all good things came to me together with her, for she is the Mother of all these good things. See the Holy Doctor in Diaet; tit. 6. cap. 4., saying wondrous things.

Tully first de legibus says: The mother of all good things is Wisdom, than which nothing is more fruitful, nothing more preeminent, for the good of life was given by it. For since it taught all other things, it also taught what is most difficult, that we know ourselves. See St. Bernard sermone 85. in Cant. and serm. 3. de circumcisione, where he shows that from wisdom there arise adornment in the soul, the clarity of conscience, than whose testimony nothing is clearer, since truth shines in the mind, and the mind sees itself in truth. This day, the most serene Sabbath of the mind, he says shines in contemplation, which day indeed, the seventh, namely the seventh gift, has no evening, but here has dawn, and in heaven eternal noon. For the Lord calls it the best part, Luke 10. Hence Anselm lib. de similitudinibus, cap. 131. says: The Gift of Wisdom pertains to the contemplative life, which is the best part, which Mary chose, which shall not be taken from her: But more it shall be perfected in the fatherland. Hence the Gloss there says: The contemplative life here begins, and is perfected in the heavenly fatherland; for love is a fire, which begins to burn, but when it shall see him whom it loves, it shall further glow in love. These things the Holy Doctor, whom see.

On the spiritual delights of Wisdom.

The Holy Doctor elegantly treats of these from chapter 5, on the Gift of Wisdom, where under the figure of a banquet he expounds the spiritual delights of the Gift of Wisdom.

This banquet is expounded from Canticle 5: Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearest. Where he shows a threefold banquet prepared by Wisdom. The first is for just friends, that they may eat, chewing by labor, whence it is said: By the labors of your hands, for you shall eat. The second banquet is the sweet drinking of the soul after this life. The third is the inebriation of man after the body has been resumed in the resurrection; and these are called the dearest. See St. Bernard, book On Loving God, where he has: He feeds those laboring in this life, gives drink to those resting after this life, and inebriates those reigning in eternal life, etc.

THE FIRST, therefore, banquet is that of friends, for whom the Holy Spirit prepares the banquet of Wisdom. In this the soul eats the bread of Wisdom, but in the sweat of the face. This food is the very work, to do the will of God; whence Christ said, John 4: My food is to do the will of my Father. Of this St. Gregory, book 1 of the Morals, chapter 16: Wisdom makes a banquet in its day: because it refreshes the mind with the hope and certainty of eternal things. Of this food they partake who by meditation eat the bread that came down from heaven, as is said in John 4. See St. Bonaventure setting forth marvelous things about these.

He proceeds, chapter 6, to set forth the wine of wisdom, of which Proverbs 9: Drink the wine which I have mingled for you. This the worldly lack, John 2: They have no wine, as the Holy Doctor and St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia, excellently expound. Whence the spouse rejoices, Canticle 2: He brought me into the cellar of wine: This is uncreated Wisdom, the eternal Word, containing all the treasures of the wisdom of God hidden away.

This was the generous wine, of which Assuerus was warmed in figure, Esther 15. Of this Canticle 8: I will give you a cup of spiced wine. See the Holy Doctor.

He explains, chapter 7, who are the friends and dearest ones invited to the banquet of Wisdom.

ORIGEN, on that verse of the Canticle I languish with love, distinguishes between simple love, ardor, and languor, saying: Beginners love, the proficient burn, but the perfect languish in love. Therefore, those who love with the greater love are loved by God: I love those who love me. Proverbs 8. The dearest of God are those who take their greatest delight in God, because they love the most. Whence Canticle 7 the Beloved says: How beautiful are you, and how comely, dearest, in delights. Hence the Vercellense: How beautiful are you in affections that burn with fervor and spirit, dearest, on account of your surpassing beauty and ardent love.

FURTHER, St. Dionysius in the letter to Titus, and the Vercellense, on those words of the Canticle 5, Be inebriated, my dearest, expound that inebriation as the abundance of heavenly theorias, that is, the frequency and experiential overflowing of revelations. Such, says Richard, book On Benjamin, chapter 37, was that of Paul, 1 Corinthians 11: Whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not, God knows. To this alludes Psalm 67: There is Benjamin, a stripling, in ecstasy of mind. But he had said before: God will voluntarily separate a rain for his inheritance, and it was weakened, etc. For inebriation effects an alienation of mind, as Richard says, book 4 on contemplation, chapter 16. Whence Psalm 35: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house, and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure.

IF, therefore, we wish to be drenched with this inebriation, let us strive to love the Lord intimately. For thus transformed into God we shall live outside ourselves, as Paul used to say. So great, indeed, is the force of love and of the beautiful, as the Vercellense says in the prologue on the Canticle, that it snatches not only men and Angels outside themselves into God, but even draws God himself outside himself toward creatures. This he learned from St. Dionysius, chapter 4 on the divine names, where he says: One must dare to say what is true, that God himself, by love of what is beautiful and good, goes forth out of the abundance of his amative goodness, as it were outside himself.

HENCE, therefore, the Holy Doctor, chapter 8, ascends to expound the second banquet in glory, where the soul, stripped of the flesh, drinks wine with milk that brings sleep. Canticle 5.

LIKEWISE, chapter 9, he expounds the third banquet of those reigning after the resurrection; of which Luke 22: I dispose to you a kingdom, as my Father has disposed to me, that you may eat and drink at my table, etc. See the Holy Doctor.

Then, chapter 10, he describes the series of those banqueting at that royal feast of wisdom, where he relates wondrous things woven together from the Holy Fathers.

LASTLY, chapter 11, according to the number of the seven gifts, he expounds the beatitude of those banqueting. See him, divinely eloquent.

From what has been said above you can gather in what the gift of Wisdom differs from the other gifts. It differs from the gift of Understanding, because Wisdom is a knowledge of God absolutely; Understanding, however, comparatively, namely in relation to creatures. Second, because by Understanding God is known through illumination from what has been heard in Scripture; but Wisdom is known by experience. Thus through Understanding we know God; through Wisdom we taste his sweetness; whence Wisdom is said to be, as it were, science seasoned with the savor of virtues. And so, just as the gift of Understanding is for speculation, that the intellect may be easily moved toward divine things as they are such in themselves; the gift of Wisdom, however, is practical, rendering the intellect easily movable to perceive divine things as they are good and desirable, and to judge that they are to be adhered to, as St. Bonaventure teaches, book 5 of the Compendium of Theology, chapter 46, St. Thomas, articles 2 and 3, Cajetan there, and question 46, and Valentia, dispute 3, question 20, point 1.

IT DIFFERS also from the gift of science, because this renders the intellect ready to judge what created things are to be adhered to, and in what manner; and it teaches this according to created reasons. The gift of Wisdom, however, shows how one is to adhere to divine things, and according to divine reasons. See St. Bonaventure on the seven gifts, on the Gift of science.

It differs also from the Gift of Counsel; for this teaches what is to be done here and now: Wisdom, however, is universal. See on the Gift of Counsel the Seraphic Doctor..

How foolishness is opposed to Wisdom.

FOOLISHNESS is opposed to Wisdom, which is called false Wisdom by St. Gregory, book 13 of the Morals, chapter 14, cited by St. Bonaventure, book 3 of the Pharetra, chapter 32; by Paul it is called: the wisdom of this world, 1 Corinthians 1; and by Gregory, book 31, chapter 20, it is called: Foolishness before God, before whom is the right judgment of things.

THIS, however, consists in a perverse judgment, which postpones divine things to fleeting ones, as St. Augustine says, book 2 on free choice, chapter 16, and On the quantity of the soul, chapter 19, and book 10 on the city of God, chapter 28; and this is called to be wise in a bad sense, and to be foolish, by St. Bernard, the book on the degrees of humility, degree 1; and on the verse: Behold us, etc., he calls it the accursed wisdom, which supplants, and earthly, animal, diabolical, as the Holy Doctor notes, loc. cit. Pharetra, whom see.

IN THE SAME way it is called such by St. James, chapter 3, as the Holy Doctor excellently expounds, on the gift of Wisdom, chapter 1. It is indeed called diabolical, because it deceives so as to destroy. See St. Thomas, question 46, article 2.

JUST as Wisdom gives savor, sweetness, and taste in divine things; so foolishness in fleeting things. Of this, the second book of Wisdom, where those young men cried out: Come, let us enjoy good things, etc. Let us leave everywhere signs of our joy, as the Holy Doctor expounds, sermon 2 within the octave of the Nativity.

From this it is deduced that foolishness is a sin of the same species as that object which is preferred before God. See also St. Thomas, articles 2 and 3.

Whether the seventh Beatitude corresponds to the gift of Wisdom.

ST. AUGUSTINE, in the book On the Sermon on the Mount, distributing the gifts among the beatitudes, says: Wisdom befits the peacemakers, in whom there is no rebellious motion, but one obeying reason.

THEREFORE Wisdom corresponds to this seventh beatitude: Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God: The reason, St. Bonaventure, part 5 of the Breviloquium, chapter 6, is; because Wisdom joins us to the supreme and true good, in which is the end and tranquillity of our whole rational appetite; once this peace is attained, there necessarily follows a superabundant spiritual delight, which is contained in the twelve fruits of the Spirit.

WHY, however, Wisdom is ordered to peace, St. Thomas also explains, question 45, article 6; for peace is the tranquillity of order, as St. Augustine says, book 19 On the city of God; but to order belongs to Wisdom, as Aristotle teaches at the beginning of the Metaphysics, and therefore to be a peacemaker is attributed to Wisdom.