Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology · §44 · Robert Baron

Whether knowledge is an act elicited from the habit of faith

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Article XVII. Whether knowledge is an act elicited from the habit of faith.

1. Bellarmine says faith is assent, not knowledge — knowledge only a prerequisite, not faith's own act.

2. Distinguish: knowledge of terms; of the proposition as proposed; and the judgment by which we assent. The first two precede faith's assent; the third is assent itself or joined to it.

3. Justifying faith is not bare historical knowledge but fiducial assent. If Bellarmine severs faith from knowledge entirely, reject that. Orthodox: faith includes knowledge, assent, and trust.

Latin

ART. XVII. An notitia sit actus ab habitu fidei elicitus. 1. Robertus Bellarminus lib.1. de justificatione cap.7. dicit, fidem non esse notitiam, sed assensum; & notitiam esse praerequisitam ad fidem, non ipsum fidei actum. 2. Distinguendum est inter notitias: (1) notitia terminorum; (2) notitia propositionis ut proponitur; (3) notitia seu judicium quo assentimur. Primae duae praerequiruntur ad assensum fidei; tertia est vel ipse assensus, vel ei intimius conjuncta. 3. Fides justificans non est nuda notitia historica, sed assensus fiducialis; ideoque Bellarmini distinctio, si eo tendat ut fidem a notitia prorsus sejungat, rejicienda est. Orthodoxi docent in fide inesse notitiam & assensum, imo & fiduciam.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

Robert Baron, Philosophia theologiae ancillans (Philosophy in Service to Theology): exercises on being and essence, on the origin of the soul and the spread of sin, and on faith, science, and opinion, rendered from the 1658 Latin.

Dateby 1621 AD (first printed at St Andrews, 1621; this text is from the corrected Oxford reprint of 1658; Reformed)

English follows 1658 Oxford Latin. Prima Art. I-XII from IA PDF leaves ~15-53. Secunda Art. I-XV from PDF leaves 56-107 / printed pp.54-105 (tess+pdftotext+DjVu). No modern English copied. The third exercise, on faith, science, and opinion, is included.

Reference

Wing B887. IA bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_philosophia-theologi-an_baron-robert_1658. Exercitatio Prima Art. I-XII; Exercitatio Secunda Art. I-XV (De origine animae & propagatione peccati). Exercitatio Tertia Art. I-XXX is included.

Printed text used

Translated from Latin (Oxford 1658) (Latin)
Also checked Text extract of Art. I-II (Latin)
Also checked machine-read text of the 1658 volume (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. III (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. IV PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. V PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. VI PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. VI (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. VII PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. VII (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. VIII PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. VIII (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. IX PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. IX (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. X PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. X (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. XI PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. XI (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Art. XII PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Art. XII (Latin)
Also checked Tesseract machine-read text of Secunda Art. I PDF pages (Latin)
Also checked IA Text PDF page extract of Secunda Art. I (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake