La evolución homogénea del dogma católico

220¹. THE AFFECTIVE WAY AND THE DEPOSIT OF FAITH.—What we have been saying shows how the affective way, no less than the speculative, is grounded on faith and lives by it. "The gifts of the present life are compared to the end, as to the principle which they presuppose"¹ "And faith itself is, for all supernatural illuminations as long as we are pilgrims from the Lord, both the stabilizing foundation, the diligent lamp, and the door that leads in; according to the measure of which (faith) the wisdom divinely given to us must necessarily be measured"²

Neither the speculative theologian nor the mystic sees divinity itself³ nor, consequently, any truth directly in God. Biblical statements are, here on earth, the only objective source of supernatural knowledge⁴.

What differentiates the speculative from the mystic, from the standpoint of penetrating the truths implicit in the revealed deposit, is that the former, as such, has at his disposal only study and reasoning to attain them, while the latter relies more on grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which enable him to reach by the experimental way a number of latent truths either completely unknown to the speculative or won only at the price of costly labor.

God is not, then, like the revealed deposit, an immediate objective source of knowledge for the mystic; He is only the efficient cause of the revealed statements—the objective source—and of grace, gifts, and supernatural lights—subjective aids that introduce the mystic into the depths of the sacred deposit.

Because the role of the intellectual gifts of the Holy Spirit—chiefly the gift of understanding—is to penetrate the treasures of truths hidden in the revealed datum. “Multa genera eorum, quae interius latent, quasi intrinsecus penetrare”⁵.

The mystic makes use—thanks to the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and counsel—of this connatural penetration of the truths of faith, due to the gift of understanding, in order to judge connaturally divine and created things and human acts. “Thus, regarding those things that are proposed for belief concerning the faith (the deposit of faith), two things are required on our part. First, that what is understood be penetrated or grasped, and this pertains to the gift of understanding. Second, that one have a right judgment about them... this judgment, therefore, insofar as it concerns divine things, pertains to the gift of wisdom; insofar as it concerns created things, pertains to the gift of knowledge; and insofar as it concerns particular works, pertains to the gift of counsel”⁶.

Of the seven gifts that constitute the basis of all mystical life, these four belong to the order of knowledge; the other three—fortitude, piety, and fear of God—to the appetite⁷.

The first four have the intellect as their subject, for it is evident that the mystical knowledge constituting the affective way resides essentially in it, and as their cause they have the will, that is, charity. “Sic ergo sapientia, quae est donum, causam quidem habet in voluntate, scilicet charitatem; sed essentiam habet in intellectu, cuius actus est recte iudicare⁸.

The experiential way is, therefore, caused by love, but it is by essence a sharper intellectual penetration and a more correct judgment of the implicit content of the revealed deposit. It is thus that it contributes to the development of dogma⁹.

It is very important never to lose sight of this doctrine of St. Thomas: the only objective source of all supernatural knowledge is the truth of faith; from this arise the special relations of dependence and subordination that unite speculative or mystical theology to the revealed deposit and to the authority of the Church.

From this it follows that mystical theology, although enabled by the intuitive path of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to comprehend more easily and more quickly a greater number of truths, cannot, nevertheless, attain them unless they are implicitly contained in the revealed datum. The extension of a knowledge, says Saint Thomas, is measured by the objective medium: "The perfection of knowledge, as far as the known object is concerned, is measured by the medium"¹⁰. Since the revealed deposit is here the only objective resource of knowledge, neither mystical theology nor speculative theology, whatever the development of their subjective means, will be able to exceed the implicit virtuality.

Thus, St. Thomas concludes that the relationship these two theologies have to the deposit of faith is exactly the same as that which conclusions have to their principles. "Tota certitudo intellectus et scientiae, secundum quod sunt dona, procedit a cognitione fidei, sicut certitudo conclusionum a certitudine principiorum"¹¹. The sap that nourishes them and the source from which they flow is the same: revealed virtuality, the "revealable." But the process of deduction is different: for the speculative theologian, it is abstract study; for the mystic, it is immediate and living experience. The principal agents differ even more: in the first case, it is the theologian with his own reason; in the second, it is the Holy Spirit, whose gifts are nothing more than the instrument. But in both cases the objective source from which everything springs is the same: the revealed deposit, the sole starting point of all dogmatic progress; any attempt at development, speculative or affective, will not exceed its inexhaustible virtuality.

220². THE AFFECTIVE WAY AND PRIVATE REVELATIONS.—So, what is the role of private revelations, visions, and other analogous phenomena so frequent in the lives of the saints? Do they not constitute an objective source of dogmatic knowledge that overflows the limits of the revealed deposit?

Here is a triple response to this difficulty.

Firstly, the phenomena in question do not in themselves belong to the mystical life, since they require in the subject neither grace nor even faith, and God can grant them to a sinner and even to an unbeliever. They do not, therefore, reveal the "sense of faith," since they do not originate in a life or in a habit intrinsic to the subject. They come extrinsically from God and are added to the graces gratis datae. In contrast, the sense of faith, the principle of the affective way, is vital, and proceeds from the supernatural habits, which make the Christian, and above all the saint, capable of judging connaturally the content of the revealed deposit. Only of this "sense of faith" have we affirmed—is it not evident?—that it cannot exceed the limits of the revealed virtual object, and this by the very fact of being a sense¹².

Secondly, we see that these private revelations, although by right, owing to their divine origin, could extend to new doctrines, not contained in the revealed deposit; nevertheless, in fact they never extend to them. After the Apostles, they are limited to the revealed doctrine or to directing human acts; such is, according to St. Thomas, the divine economy: "There were, however, in the New Testament also some possessing the spirit of prophecy, who foretold many future events... and at individual times there were not lacking some having the spirit of prophecy, not for setting forth new doctrine of the faith, but for the direction of human acts"¹³.

Thirdly, and above all, we respond that the Church, instead of using private revelations to judge the content of revelation, always proceeds in the opposite direction.

Private revelations are never for the Church a source of its definitions; they can, however, become an occasion for examining whether a doctrine, perhaps unsuspected by theologians, is or is not contained in revelation.

Once this is verified, the Church can define it not as a private revelation but as contained in the apostolic revelation¹⁴.

Even if one admits the hypothesis of some theologians that many saints have contemplated in life, for brief moments, the divine essence, this would never constitute a new objective source of dogma or of dogmatic evolution. There is no revelation other than the Catholic one, definitively constituted and sealed with the death of the Apostles, and there are no other guides for dogmatic evolution than those that consist in explaining the content. "For our faith rests on the revelation made to the Apostles and prophets, who wrote the canonical books, and not on any revelation made to other teachers"¹⁵. "In the time of grace, on the revelation made to the Apostles... is founded the entire faith of the Church"¹⁶.

220³. MECHANISM AND OPERATION OF THE AFFECTIVE PATH.—From what precedes, some light is already shed on the mechanism and operation of the twofold speculative and affective path.

In the speculative path, the objective source is the inexhaustible fecundity of the revealed datum, whose first principles are known to every believer. The subjective instrument of development is the intelligence "informed" by faith and acting as reason. The more active and constant the use of the instrument, the more the acquired light will increase with it, along with the penetration of the revealed and the number of truths discovered therein.

In the affective way, the objective source is the same, but the subjective instruments are, besides faith, grace, charity, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the patrimony of every just person, which operate through acts of love of God. The more intense and permanent this love is, the greater is the experimental light of the intelligence, its depth of penetration, and the number of truths connaturally understood within the revealed deposit¹⁷

Indeed, since according to Saint Thomas the Divinity itself dwells in us through sanctifying grace and charity, it follows that every member of it, through acts of love, necessarily produces in the soul a more profound rooting of God, a more intense supernatural light, and a more comprehensive penetration of the revealed deposit¹⁸

In summary, here is everything that is increased in the soul by acts of love for God: first, sanctifying grace; then, the habit of charity; next, the possession of the divinity; and, lastly, intellectual gifts, true intellectual light, which increases the penetration of the implicit virtuality of the revealed deposit.

This concatenation is clarified by the following comparison of Saint Thomas. Just as the more perspicacious the spirit is, the more it penetrates the virtuality of the principles of reason, so likewise, the more intense the supernatural light of the spirit is, the more it can penetrate the virtuality of the principles of faith. For—he says—the supernatural light is to the revealed principles what the natural light is to the principles of reason¹⁹.

This indicates that in both ways the progress of knowledge is intrinsic and vital. In the speculative way, because from its essence the intellect, subject of divine faith, proceeds in a connatural manner, and because this intellect, actuated by the comparative study of revealed principles and the principles of reason, in turn produces a more luminous and more extensive speculative knowledge. Likewise, in the other way sanctifying grace, soul of the supernatural life, gives rise to charity and to the gifts of the Spirit, from which, through the exercise of love, there proceeds an increase of light and of affective knowledge.

But let us repeat it once more: Christian reason and study on the speculative path, grace, gifts, and love on the affective path are nothing more than subjective principles: the objective source upon which they act is the revealed datum, pa-

“Ita se habet lumen superadditum (the gift of understanding) to those things which are supernaturally made known to us (the revealed deposit) as the natural light is disposed to those things which we know primarily" (ST. THOMAS, loc. cit., q. 8, a. 1, ad 2).

"For it is the common teaching of the saints, indeed of the scholastics, that whoever has sanctifying grace and charity also has the seven gifts to some degree: And the more one grows and is perfected in charity, the more one also does so in the gifts".

“Of these gifts, moreover, one is the gift of understanding, by which those things that pertain to faith are in some manner penetrated, perceived, and understood, inasmuch as the reasons of faith are acknowledged. Hence, just as heroic men perfected in charity, through the gift of wisdom which they possess according to a perfect degree, are like counselors and secretaries of God, and His familiar friends, by whom they are continually enlightened, standing in a certain contact with the sun of uncreated wisdom: who, through an internal and abundant supernatural taste, both know and savor the divine truths to be believed, and judge well and certainly concerning them by the conformity and connaturalness of their affection to them: so through the gift of understanding, by which they are adorned according to a perfect degree, they most clearly, most certainly, and most subtly understand those things that pertain to faith, as well as the connection and order of things to be believed, and the supernatural credibility of Catholic truth: and they possess faith together with the reasons of the things to be believed and the understanding of a purified mind...”

“And in general all those who continually experience mystical theology are such. Hence this illumination is not given to all who study theology or to those equally gifted, but to those who make greater progress in purity of heart and charity. One of these was the holy brother Giles, who refused to say, “I believe in God,” but rather, “I know God.” And especially that seraphic Francis” (DIONYSIUS THE CARTHUSIAN, 1 Sent., prol., q. 1: “Complete Works” [Montsolii], vol. 19, p. 65).

“How will that undeniable fact be explained, indeed, that so many simple and unlettered souls, at a moment of their most exalted contemplation, acquire such prodigious knowledge with which they later come to surpass the greatest theologians? And these souls exist in abundance, and they are called Hildegard, Angela of Foligno, Catherine of Siena, of Genoa, or of Bologna; Ruusbroec, Joseph of Cupertino, Nicholas Factor, Teresa of Jesus, Rose of Lima, Marina de Escobar, Ágreda, Emmerich, Taigi, Sister Barbara, Gemma Galgani, Benigna Consolata, etc., etc., for even in our own days there are many.

We have had occasion to deal with some who, without reading any other books than Jesus crucified, the true book of life, left us astonished to see how sublime and wonderful experiential knowledge they had of the adorable mystery of the Trinity and of the mysterious work of the Spirit of love in righteous hearts" (ARINTERO, J. Evolución mística [Salamanca 1908], 5th ed., c. 8, p. 519). Intimate testimony of every believer, speculative or mystical. Consequently, the development in both cases can only concern the implicit content of the revealed deposit.

It is true that the source of the mystical life is the Holy Spirit, God Himself, but God known through the veil of faith and not seen face to face, because the mystical life, being divine, does not cease to be a life of faith. When the Council of Trent teaches, with all the Fathers and theologians, that faith is the root of justification and, consequently, of the supernatural life, including the mystical life, it does not intend to say that the truths of faith are only a point of departure, quickly left behind and abandoned, but rather the true root of all the sap of our supernatural life in this world, while charity or the action of the Holy Spirit plays the role of assimilating heat.

In summary, Christianity could be compared, with its two branches of knowledge, speculative and mystical, with all the progressive manifestations of its supernatural life—purgative, illuminative, unitive—to a living tree, unique and homogeneous, whose roots are sunk in the revealed deposit. The Catholic Church, infallibly assisted by the Holy Spirit, guards and cultivates it. The light of faith and of study, the warmth of grace and of love, effectively contribute to its growth, but they always leave it rooted in the revealed deposit, from which it draws all the sap by which it lives.

In this way, every explicitly new dogma—like each new saint—is nothing more than a new fruit of this germ (the revealed datum) that Christ and His Apostles have deposited in the bosom of the Church. Under the perpetual assistance of the Holy Spirit, akin to light and heat, the Church preserves and develops this divine germ.

2204. COMPARISON OF THE TWO WAYS, AFFECTIVE AND SPECULATIVE.

If we have said that the affective path, or “feeling of faith,” has contributed to dogmatic development as much as or more than reasoning, this does not mean that there are many dogmas developed by it alone; it is due to the frequent and notable services it renders to the speculative path.

The sense of faith is in the supernatural order what common sense is in the natural order. Almost always they intervene in speculation, and in three ways:

First, by anticipating the solution to the problem before knowing the demonstrative reasons.

Second, rejecting by instinct, as inadmissible, certain solutions, grounded, nevertheless, in specious reasons; and this solely because they clash with common sense.

Thirdly, by making accept a doctrine by the whole Christian society, even by those members incapable of understanding the force of its reasons.

And facilitating this acceptance is to favor its definition. Where the influence of the sense of faith appears most clearly is in questions that refer to the affective order, to Christian morality or piety. Read again in Denzinger one of the series of propositions on morality or mysticism upheld by Baius, Molinos, and the laxists, and condemned by the Church ²⁰, and it will be seen that there are many whose error leaps out at the eye of Christian feeling, and yet they are difficult to refute by the sole path of reasoning. For example: "fornication and 'mollities' are intrinsically evil" ²¹ is a proposition engraved on the heart of every devout person; and nevertheless, it does not escape the obsession of a theologian obliged to demonstrate it with evidence and to answer the objections.

Just as in ancient times the Christian sensibility rejected with horror the heresies of Arius and of Nestorius, from the moment they appeared, and well before their condemnation in the Councils of Nicaea and Ephesus, because they went against dogmas perceptible to the heart, so too did the Christian sensibility reject by instinct and from the beginning the aberrations of the mystics and moralists before their falsehood was demonstrated by the theologians and condemned by the Church.

The "sense of faith" does not attain its perfection except in souls in whom faith, grace, charity, and the gifts reside, without which there is no true experience of divine things at all ²².

It can be said that it is found, albeit imperfectly, in every believer, even in one who is transiently in a state of mortal sin. And this for three reasons: First, because faith, after the Council of Trent, is the principle, the foundation and the root of grace, of charity and of the gifts. With faith, then, one possesses everything else in germ ²³.

Second, because, according to St. Thomas, the virtue of faith is by nature a tendency toward everything that is contained—in whatever manner—in the revealed deposit. "Quia fides, quantum in se est, ad omnia quae fidem concomitantur, vel sequuntur, vel praecedunt sufficienter inclinat²⁴. If every habit is a second nature that instinctively inclines toward its object, as chastity, for example, makes one judge connaturally concerning what pertains to it both as much as science alone does, and sometimes better than all of it, so the virtue of faith frequently enables us to appreciate instinctively what pertains to faith itself. "Sicut enim gustus diiudicat sapores secundum suam dispositionem, ita mens hominis diiudicat de aliquo faciendo secundum suam habitalem dispositionem... sicut de his quae ad castitatem pertinet per rationis inquisitionem recte iudicat ille qui habet scientiam moralem; sed per quamdam connaturalitatem ad ipsam recte iudicat ille qui habet habitum castitatis. For just as taste judges flavors according to its disposition, so the mind of man judges concerning something to be done according to his habitual disposition... thus, concerning those things that pertain to chastity, he who has moral science judges rightly through rational inquiry; but he who has the habit of chastity judges rightly through a certain connaturality with it²⁵.

Finally, the acts of the supernatural habits, although they do not engender another habit, nevertheless create a disposition or natural facility that persists even when the supernatural habit has disappeared. It is not, therefore, surprising that any Christian who has been in a state of grace sometimes retains inclinations similar to those of grace and the supernatural virtues, even when he is then momentarily in a state of mortal sin ²⁶.

In any case, it is a historical fact that, when it comes to dogmas "sensitive to the heart," the sense of the faith has manifested itself in all the Christian people, without distinction between the just and sinners, although more intensely in the former than in the latter, in the fervent than in the lukewarm. Thus it has happened with the dogmas of the consubstantiality of the Word, of the divine Maternity of the Virgin Mary, and of the Immaculate Conception.

If in dealing with the affective path we have almost always used the expression "sense of the faith," and not "sense of the faithful," it has been to avoid the danger of making it exclusive to the simple faithful, to the detriment of theologians, bishops, and the Pope.

In all believers—regardless of their rank—this sense is proportioned to the degree of faith, charity, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Hence some, like Father Gardeil, have aptly called it the “social sense of the Church” (10).

Let us note, however, that if in some theologians it may be neutralized by the frequency or excess of speculative reasoning, on the contrary, in some simple faithful it may sometimes be maintained more purely and intensely, though less safeguarded against deviations, than when it is guided by speculative reason.

220⁵. COMPARISON OF THE TWO WAYS.—The term “mystical theology” can signify two different kinds of knowledge: a) that which results in the saints and contemplatives from their personal mystical experience; b) that which is engendered by the study of the mystical experiences of another.

In the first sense it is distinguished specifically from speculative theology and is superior to it. Thus did the ancients understand it, and St. Thomas is accustomed to call it “Sapientia quae est donum Spiritus Sancti” ²⁷

In the second sense, more common today, of human science acquired through study, it is inferior to speculative theology, since it is but a branch or offshoot of it ²⁸.

Speculative theology is indeed divided into: a) dogmatic theology, and b) moral theology. The former studies God in Himself, and as the principle of creatures; the latter studies God as the ultimate end of human acts. These acts, if they are ordinary, produced “in a human manner,” that is, under the influence of the virtues, form the object of ordinary or ascetical moral theology. If they are perfect, produced “in a divine manner,” that is, under the predominant influence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they form the object of mystical theology.

Considered ontologically in itself, mystical knowledge resulting from personal experience of divine things surpasses—as we have already said—in nobility and value the speculative knowledge acquired through study. The reason is clear. Mystical knowledge resulting from the motion of the Holy Spirit exercised through the gifts is formally infused, supernatural, and divine. Speculative knowledge, on the other hand, resulting from study and the product of human reason—"informed" by faith—is formally natural, acquired, and human, although materially or objectively divine and supernatural (309).

But in the evolution of dogma the speculative path has played a more important part, or at least a more visible one, than the mystical path. For the latter develops through subjective or personal experiences, very clear perhaps to the favored subject, but which are difficult for others to ascertain, whereas the speculative path is founded on objective reasons that everyone can examine and appreciate. Moreover, history shows us that Councils and Popes, whenever they have to define a dogma of faith, consult speculative theologians, even non-mystics, before pious or mystical persons without theological learning.

220. COMPARISON OF THE TWO WAYS WITH THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH.—The two ways, the speculative and the affective, depend, therefore, equally on the deposit of faith. Now, since this deposit was entrusted by God exclusively to the Church to guard and explain it, it follows that all theology depends on her authority intrinsically and essentially, and not only extrinsically and accidentally, like the human sciences.

Moreover, every theologian, compared with the simple faithful, far from depending less than he does on the Church and having less need of her, depends, on the contrary, more on her and is more indebted to her, in direct proportion to the depth of his learning. The faithful does not, in any way, go beyond the surface of the revealed datum, whereas the theologian is the more eminent the more he penetrates the riches of this treasure entrusted by God to the exclusive guardianship of the Church, falling under her jurisdiction in proportion to his teaching office.

Not to mention that wanting to explore the depths of a supernatural deposit—that is, one superior to human reason and of a different order than it—is always dangerous. It is easy, on this mysterious and slippery ground, to lose oneself or fall if one does not have the divine assistance, which Christ promised not to anyone, however wise and holy he may be, but to the Church, his bride.

There exists for the theologian, frequently, the danger of being mistaken about the value of a demonstration: "Frequenter in hoc homo fallitur, quod putat esse demonstrationem quod non est"²⁹

For the mystic, the danger, no less frequent, consists in taking for divine experiences the weaknesses of his imagination or the excitements of his sensibility—not to mention that the angel of darkness very often transfigures himself into an angel of light. "For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light"³⁰ In short, since both deal with divine things, the deficiency of reason is very pronounced. "Human reason in divine matters is greatly deficient"³¹

Here is why the sentire cum Ecclesia will always be the most essential norm, both for the wise and for the holy, in everything pertaining to revelation, the source of theology.

2207. THE UNITY OF CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE.

In man three principles of action are distinguished: a) natural reason, with the acquired virtues; b) Christian reason, with the supernatural or infused virtues; c) the Holy Spirit, using Christian reason as an instrument through the gifts.

From this arise three kinds of acts: a) completely natural as to substance and manner; b) supernatural as to substance and natural as to manner; c) completely supernatural as to substance and manner.

In the first class, the substance and the mode are human; in the second, the substance is divine and the mode human; in the third, the substance and the mode are divine³²

Ethics deals with the first class; ascetical moral theology, with the second; mystical theology, with the third.

Between first and second acts—those of an infidel and those of a Christian—there is an essential difference; between second and third acts—those of an ordinary or lukewarm Christian and those of a perfect or mystical Christian—, the difference is modal.

Likewise, there is an essential difference between ethics and ascetical or mystical moral theology; modal, between these two branches of theology, as well as between the ascetical and mystical life. They differ as the imperfect from the perfect, in the same species; as the shrub from the tree, the child from the adult. The mystic is nothing more than a perfect Christian, and the mystical life, the Christian life in its full development.

In this way, unity appears not only of doctrine, but also of life, in the Christian. These are two realities that correspond to each other. For just as the degrees of the former are nothing but stages in the homogeneous development of the same doctrine, in the same way, all the degrees of the latter represent the homogeneous evolution of the same life.

What the Holy Spirit communicates to the mystics is not another life, but only another mode of acting, the divine one. Likewise, in the definitions of faith, what the Holy Spirit provides to the Church is not another doctrine, but a new mode of knowing, the divine or dogmatic mode.

Thanks to the intervention of the Holy Spirit, the ascetic life—already substantially supernatural—is changed into the mystical; just as theological knowledge—substantially revealed—is changed into the dogmatic. There is, on both sides, a change of mode, and not of substance (304, 309).

There are, then, not two lives, nor two Christian doctrines, but different degrees of the same life and of the same doctrine.

2208. THE PRIMARY ROOT OF THE TWO PATHS OF DOGMATIC DEVELOPMENT.—Since the Divinity itself is the immediate origin and central subject of the revealed statements, and since it is also the source and principal cause of faith, grace, and the supernatural habits, it may be said with all truth that, even in this life, although known obscurely through the veil of faith, it is the first root from which the tree of doctrine and of Christian life draws its sap and warmth, in all the paths of its evolution.

In the next life, it will not be necessary to change the root, nor the sap, nor the tree, but only to remove the veil of faith, so that from the Divinity seen intuitively there may flow the torrent of light, of love, and of divine life that will flood and divinize eternally the soul of the elect and all its powers³³.

In heaven the two paths, speculative and mystical, sometimes separated on earth, will be definitively united. Then there will no longer be non-mystical theologians, nor non-theological mystics. The beatific vision will necessarily produce love, and speculative intuition will always be accompanied by mystical experience.

Then evolution will no longer be possible, for the supernatural tree will have attained in every sense the fullness of its development; there will be no implicit potentiality, not because it has disappeared from the object, but because it no longer exists for the subject, for the human spirit, which, obliged here below to unfold little by little, and piecemeal, the inexhaustible "divine revealable," will contemplate it fully manifested in the beatific vision³⁴.

In heaven there will be no need for ecclesiastical magisterium or for an external rule; first, because the formal reason for that magisterium—preserving and explaining the revealed datum—will not exist; second, because each blessed one will possess in himself, in the vision of God, the first rule of all judgment and of all truth, which guarantees in all his acts, speculative and affective, their absolute rectitude, without any external regulation whatsoever.

But before the beatific vision, the obscurely revealed deposit is the only objective source, and the authority of the Church the only proximate rule of all our dogmatic development. Hence follows the necessity, for the two ways, speculative and affective, as for the two lives, ascetic and mystical, of having faith as their foundation and the Church as their rule. "For we walk by faith, and not by sight"³⁵. "But faith adheres to all the articles of faith on account of one medium, namely, on account of the First Truth proposed to us in the Sacred Scriptures, according to the sound understanding of the doctrine of the Church"³⁶.