Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I: De Principiis

622. A threefold species of infused habits. — For operating supernaturally, we need three principles :

1°) principles by which we are ordered toward the supernatural last end itself : these are the theological virtues ;

2°) principles by which we are ordered concerning the means to the supernatural last end to be chosen reasonably under the guidance of reason : these are the moral virtues ;

3°) principles by which we are ordered to follow the very leading of the Holy Spirit moving us to eternal life : these are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

About each of these something must be said.

S. Th. I-II, q. 62 ; De Virt., q. 1, art. 10 et 12.

623. The theological virtues are operative principles by which we are immediately ordered to God as the supernatural end, so that through their acts the soul immediately attains God the supernatural end and is united to Him. They are rightly called theological :

1°) because God Himself, the supernatural end, inasmuch as He exceeds the cognition of our reason, they have both as material object, which is attained by them, and as formal object or motive,

2°) and therefore they are infused in us by God alone,

3°) and can be known by revelation alone (a. 1).

624. Thesis. Theological virtues are necessary, and indeed three. — It is proved :

1°) By the reason of S. Thomas : In the natural order man would be habitually inclined toward the natural end, radically through the soul, immediately through the intellect knowing the end and judging that one must tend toward it, and through the will which of its nature tends toward the end or its proper good. But, since man, by the gratuitous goodness of God, is destined to a supernatural end, the beatific vision, it is necessary that supernatural principles be added to nature by which he may be habitually inclined toward the supernatural end¹. There is one substantive principle : sanctifying grace, in the very essence of the soul, and three operative ones : faith by which the intellect attains God, the supernatural end, as true, and is able to know Him and the other supernatural principles ; hope by which the will tends toward God the supernatural end as its good but arduous ; and charity which is ordered toward Him as the good in itself and thus through love is supernaturally conformed to Him. Therefore there are three theological virtues (a. 3 ; II-II q. 17, a. 6).

2. By Scripture and Tradition, in which these three virtues are constantly enumerated, as requiring to be connected to one another by a peculiar fittingness and to be distinguished from all the others ; whence the Apostle, I Cor. XIII, 16 : « Now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is charity » (cf. I Thess. V, 8 ; Col. I, 4, 5).

3. By the Decrees of the Church. For this is supposed by Innocent III (cap. Maiores), saying that among the learned it is disputed whether faith, charity and the other virtues are also infused to little ones ; and by Clement V in the Council of Vienne, who establishes this opinion as the more probable to be preferred ; he teaches it however as certain for faith, hope and charity, the Council of Trent, sess. 6, c. 7, although he does not define it.

625. Among the theological virtues there is an order :

A) An order of generation, not indeed 1) according to time, for all are infused together, but 2) according to reason faith precedes, hope follows, and finally charity comes a) according to acts : for no one hopes or loves what he does not know ; but what he hopes and loves, he knows through faith ; — and similarly man, hoping for the good from God, also considers Him as his own good and goes forth to love Him ; — b) also according to habits, but in relation to acts : for faith is presupposed to hope and hope to charity, as intellect is presupposed to will, and imperfect love precedes perfect love.

B) But in the order of perfection charity precedes, which is the perfection of all the virtues (a. 4).

S. Th. I-II, q. 63, a. 3 et 4 ; De Virt., q. 1, a. 10.

626. Thesis. Besides the theological virtues, supernatural moral virtues are to be admitted, as Saints Augustine, Gregory and Thomas teach, against Scotus and the Nominalists, and as the quasi common opinion of theologians now admits. For :

In the natural order man would not only be well disposed habitually toward the last end, but also concerning the means to the end through acquired moral virtues. Therefore, also in the supernatural order, about which God certainly provides no less, it will not suffice that man be habitually well disposed toward the supernatural last end, but it is also necessary that he be habitually well disposed concerning the supernatural means to be ordered toward the last end, which is done through infused moral virtues (q. 65, a. 3). — Otherwise a) there would be lacking the proportion between the soul raised to the divine being and its moral life, between the supernatural end and the moral virtues, between the theological virtues about the end and the moral virtues about the means : for there would not be of the same order, but the divine effects of theology would have to be operated through instruments not proportioned and defective. Whence b) supernatural moral acts would not be elicited by us connaturally, but the faculties would be moved to them as it were violently (q. 63, a. 3).

This is supposed by Innocent III and the Council of Vienne (n. 624,3) and by Leo XIII, ep. to Card. Gibbons (n. 581) ; and Scripture hints at it (Wis. VIII, 7) : « She teaches sobriety and prudence (eternal Wisdom), justice and virtue, than which nothing is more useful in the life of men » (Cf. II Peter I, 5-7).

627. Infused moral virtues are operative principles by which we are ordered toward the right choice of human acts as means to the supernatural last end, and therefore they are not immediately about God the supernatural end, but about our acts and the whole life to be ordered, for which reason they are called moral.

Whence 1) they also pertain to the divine life participated in us, inasmuch as they mediate pursue the supernatural end itself : for under the influence of the theological virtues they in some way order all works toward God the end and His glory, as God orders all things to Himself.

2. They are therefore as many as the many and diverse human acts ; in general theologians say that as many supernatural moral virtues are infused as natural virtues can be acquired¹]. They can however all be reduced to the four cardinal ones, in the same way as was said about acquired virtues.

**628. Supernatural moral virtues are distinguished from natural ones, as was said above, q. I, n° 620, and indeed not only

a) according to essence, as habits less properly so called from those properly so called ; and

b) according to the efficient cause, which is God alone, not our acts ; and

c) according to the end and nature, namely that man be well disposed for the heavenly city and eternal life, and not only for human things ; but also

d) according to the formal object : in natural virtues the good is according to the rule of human reason ; in supernatural ones the good is according to the rule of the divine law, or of human reason raised through faith. Thus e.g. natural prudence dictates what is good according to reason, supernatural prudence what is good according to the supernatural law of faith ; justice chooses the mean by a higher title, preserves peace and society, that peace and society be as it were deiform and heavenly ; by natural abstinence man uses food moderately for the sake of human reason, e.g. lest it harm his health, by supernatural for the sake of the reason of faith, e.g. that he may chastise his body and reduce it to servitude and himself more freely attend to divine things ; supernatural patience is to be exercised not from the reason of human wisdom, but that he may be conformed to Christ, etc. Whence infused prudence does not always dictate the same mean as acquired prudence, and therefore infused moral virtues do not have the same act as acquired virtues (q. 63, art. 4). Whence they differ in species.

629. Corollary. — From which can be understood how the virtues are distinguished as political, purgative, and of the purified soul, as S. Thomas teaches, q. 61, a. 5 :

« A. Because man according to his nature is a political animal,

1. virtues,... insofar as they exist in man according to the condition of his nature, are called political, inasmuch as man according to these virtues behaves rightly in the conduct of human affairs...

B. But because it pertains to man that he also draw himself toward divine things as much as he can... and this is commended to us in Scripture in many ways, as is that Mt. V, 48 : Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, it is necessary to posit certain virtues intermediate between the political ones, which are human virtues, and the exemplary ones, which are divine virtues (in God Himself) ; ... so namely that 2) certain virtues are of those tending toward divine likeness, and these are called purgative virtues : so namely that prudence despises all worldly things by the contemplation of divine things and directs every thought of the soul to divine things alone ; temperance indeed leaves, inasmuch as nature allows, what the use of the body requires ; fortitude is that the soul not be terrified by the departure from the body and the approach to heavenly things ; justice is that the whole soul consent to such a proposed life.

3. Certain virtues however are of those already attaining divine likeness, which are called virtues of the already purified soul, so namely that prudence contemplates divine things alone, temperance knows nothing of earthly desires, fortitude is ignorant of passions, justice is allied with the divine mind in perpetual covenant, namely by imitating it ; which virtues indeed we say are those of the blessed and of the most perfect in this life ».

Whence virtues are distinguished as political, purgative, and of the already purified soul.

S. Th. I-II, q. 68, a. 1-4 ; q. 69 et 70 ; II-II, q. 8, a. 6.

630. Thesis I. The gifts of the Holy Spirit differ from the infused moral virtues¹ : we need these to be disposed to obey promptly right reason ; therefore all the more do we need those to be disposed to obey promptly the motion or inspiration of the Holy Spirit in us through charity (as of the proper mover) indwelling. « For the higher the mover, the more necessary it is that the mobile be proportioned to it by a more perfect disposition, as we see that a disciple must be more perfectly disposed in order that he may grasp higher teaching from a doctor ». And therefore, just as for obeying reason the appetite needs habits, so all the more it seems to be said that the gifts by which we obey the Holy Spirit are habits, not transient dispositions, so that we may be moved connaturally, promptly, easily and sweetly, not however as it were violently, but as instruments fitted and proportioned to Him.

Therefore the gifts of the Holy Spirit are supernatural habits by which we are disposed to obey promptly the motion or inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself in us through charity as of the proper mover indwelling. They are called gifts not only because they are given by God, but because they dispose for following the instinct of the giving (i.e. infusing) Holy Spirit, and render man promptly movable by divine inspiration, which is a special gift of actual grace ; they can also simply be called spirits².

631. Thesis II. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are necessary for salvation. — For the motion of the Holy Spirit³, or the special aid of actual grace, is needed not only by those who exercise extraordinary and more excellent works (for which one's strength is not sufficient), but by each one that he may persevere and progress in the grace received, as is proved in the treatise on grace. The fundamental reason for this is assigned by S. Thomas, that through grace and the theological virtues we possess the nature, life and forces of God only in an imperfect way ; but he who possesses some nature or form or virtue imperfectly cannot always and in all things operate of himself, unless, at least sometimes, he be moved by Him who perfectly possesses that nature : as infants in life, who must be led lest they fall, but also that they may progress. Therefore the imperfect in divine life are to be moved and led by God Himself, that we may always live so as to arrive at eternal life.

Whence the gifts of the Holy Spirit are necessary for salvation to every just person, and although especially for extraordinary and more excellent works, not however uniquely but also for common works they dispose, whenever and inasmuch as they are done by the just under the motion of the Spirit of God. Hence those gifts are granted to all the just (Rom. VIII, 14) and are connected with charity by which we are united to the Holy Spirit the mover.

632. What those gifts are. — Those gifts are enumerated in Isaiah XI, 2, where they are attributed to Christ the exemplar of the just and the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. VIII, 9-29 ; Gal. IV, 6) : « The spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall rest upon him ». But, according to the doctrine of the Fathers from the beginning of the Church, they are also granted to all the just.

Nothing certain can be established about the number of gifts, for in the Greek and Latin text seven are enumerated, in the Hebrew text piety is lacking ; besides the prophet does not seem to intend a complete enumeration but rather indicates the more excellent gifts to teach that the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit belongs to Christ. Nevertheless the Fathers, theologians and mystical authors are wont to order all the sanctifying effects of the Holy Spirit according to the seven gifts which are enumerated in our text, to which the Liturgy alludes in its hymns.

Four are in the intellect, by which we are disposed that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and as it were experimentally 1) we may penetrate the truths of faith through the gift of understanding, and judge both 2) about created things through the gift of knowledge, insofar as they lead to God or lead away, and 3) about divine things, and about human things according to divine reasons, through the gift of wisdom, by which we sweetly relish them (Wis. VII, 8, 11), and 4) about individual things to be done or avoided in the spiritual life, and in more difficult and unforeseen cases, through the gift of counsel, by which we are directed to operate without hesitation. This is the practical gift ; the three preceding are principally speculative, secondarily practical.

Three are in the appetite : for impelled by the Holy Spirit 5) we lovingly revere God, not as creator but as Father, and all men as His children (Rom. VIII, 15) through piety ; 6) we confidently scorn whatever dangers and adversities in the way of salvation through the gift of fortitude ; and 7) with filial reverence fear to offend God especially in the pleasures toward which we are most inclined, and this is the fear of the Lord⁴].

633. The gifts correspond to the virtues. — And indeed 1) immediately⁵] to the seven principal infused virtues : to faith correspond understanding and knowledge ; to hope the fear of God insofar as it makes us avoid offending God ; to charity wisdom ; to prudence counsel ; to justice piety ; to fortitude the gift of fortitude ; and to temperance the fear of God insofar as it makes us flee the pleasures that most allure us to sin. By these gifts respectively we are disposed for acts both common and ordinary, and the more excellent ones of these virtues to be exercised under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Thus S. Thomas ; according to others however, while counsel [corresponds] to hope, knowledge corresponds to prudence ; according to still others to hope, to which then fear does not correspond ; according to others, as Innocent V, to temperance.

2. They also correspond mediately⁶] to the seven principal acquired virtues : to understanding, the principle ; to knowledge and wisdom correspond the three gifts of the same name ; to prudence counsel ; to justice piety ; to fortitude fortitude ; to temperance the fear of God.

634. The Beatitudes are not habits but certain perfect and excellent works of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which especially conduce to beatitude, and especially merit both perfect beatitude in heaven, and also the inchoation (sure hope) of beatitude in the present life. Whence by reason of their singular perfection they are a pledge, merit, and inchoation of perfect beatitude.

About the fittingness of their enumeration and signification, cf. S. Thomas, q. 69, a. 3 and 4. — According to him also one beatitude corresponds to each gift, considering in the beatitudes their motives, namely in this way : To the gift of fear, the first beatitude : Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ; — to the gift of piety, the second : Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land ; — to the gift of knowledge, the third : Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted ; — to the gift of fortitude, the fourth : Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled ; — to the gift of counsel, the fifth : Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy ; — to the gift of understanding, the sixth : Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; — to the gift of wisdom, the seventh : Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God (III Sent. d. 34, q. 1 a. 4). The eighth beatitude however : Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, is a certain confirmation and manifestation of all the preceding, inasmuch as through them it comes about that for the sake of these goods no one withdraws because of any persecution (I-II, q. 69, a. 3, ad 5).

635. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are whatever works of virtue when they have a special delight and sweetness attached, whence they are called fruits ; they are perfected under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whence they are called fruits of the Holy Spirit. When carnal and worldly delights allure us, the Holy Spirit Himself produces in us a much greater and as it were heavenly delight through the works of the virtues ; hence the fruits are opposed to the works of the flesh.

The principal ones are enumerated by the Apostle, Gal. V, 22, 23.

636. Corollaries. — From the fact that the gifts dispose man to be well moved by God, the virtues to be well moved by reason, which is the fundamental distinction, it follows

1. that the virtues are given that man may actively act well, the gifts that he may be passively acted upon well ; and although he also acts freely under the action of the gift, yet he is more passive than active, « because the mind of man does not behave as mover but rather as moved » ;

2. that the virtues perfect man for acting in a human way, accommodated to human nature ; the gifts for acting in a higher way, superhuman and divine, according as it befits the Holy Spirit : thus as to the object when someone exercises more excellent and heroic works, or as to the manner alone when he is moved spontaneously, as it were instinctively, and acts without discourse and is rather led than leads himself ;

3. that we can use the virtues when we wish, the gifts when the Holy Spirit wishes.

637. Observation. — The gifts are not to be confused with the gratias gratis datas (gracious gifts), although these can be founded on a gift, e.g. of knowledge or wisdom, which they manifest : for they remain distinct ; and they are rather transient, not habits. Cf. q. 68, a. 5, ad 1 and 2.