Theological Theses · §826 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Valencia: charity is metaphorical form only; faith and charity are distinct virtues

Gregory of Valencia agrees: theologians say charity perfects faith as a form, yet not as an essential or even accidental proper form — faith and charity are species-distinct virtues perfecting different powers.

Charity may only metaphorically be called faith's form by analogy to a proper form that perfects its subject.

Latin

VI. Quibus consona sunt quae observat Gregorius de Valentia, eandem fidei distinctionem in formatam & informem explicans. Theologi, inquit, affirmant fidem a charitate tanquam a forma perfici. Nec tamen sentiunt, quod charitas proprie sit forma fidei, aut essentialis, ut Anima dicitur forma hominis, aut accidentalis & extrinseca, ut albedo corporis. Hoc enim falsum esse ex eo perspicuum est, quod charitas & fides sunt duae virtutes specie distinctae, quae duas diversas potentias perficiunt. Solum igitur volunt Theologi, charitatem, quoniam perfectionem aliquam addit fidei, metaphorice dici posse formam ipsius, secundum analogiam videlicet ad formam proprie dictam, quae suo modo subjectum perficit. Tom. 3. in Summam Thomae, Disput. 1. quaest. 4. puncto 5.

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About this text

Louis Le Blanc, a Reformed professor at Sedan, sets out theology in theses argued against Rome: Scripture, faith, grace, free choice, good works and the saints.

This volume holds the Theses on Theology I–XLIII and On Faith I–XXII, in eighteen sections.

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu (1614–1675) was minister and professor of theology at the Academy of Sedan, the Reformed school on France's eastern border. His Theses were disputed by students over many years and collected in a London folio (1675).

The Theological Theses range across the whole Reformed system — Scripture, God, predestination, grace, and justifying faith — in the crisp thesis-and-proof form of the seventeenth-century schools.

Date1675 AD (Sedan theses; London collection)

No modern English.

Reference

ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves).

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