Theological Theses · §836 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

All Rome: only living, charity-formed faith actually justifies; Aquinas and Becanus

Setting the historical label aside: all Roman doctors confess dead faith without charity does not profit to salvation or justice, and no faith actually saves and justifies unless it is living and effective through love.

Aquinas: unformed faith is not a virtue; formed faith is, because we are justified only through what has the nature of a virtue.

Becanus for Catholics generally: faith can exist unformed, but justifies only when formed by charity.

Latin

XVI. Sed hoc misso, fatentur Doctores omnes Ecclesiae Romanae fidem mortuam, & quae cum charitate juncta non est, ad salutem non prodesse, nec ad justitiam assequendam valere, neque fidem ullum actu servare & justificare, nisi quum viva est, & per dilectionem efficax. Haec est praesertim Thomae Aquinatis doctrina. Etenim negans fidem informem esse virtutem, fidem formatam virtutem esse probat, ex eo quod per illam justificamur, quia scilicet, non justificamur, nisi per illud quod habet rationem virtutis. 2. 2. Quaest. 4. art. 5. Idem vero post Thomam expresse docet Martinus Becanus Jesuita, eandemque sententiam omnibus suis Catholicis tribuit. Catholici, inquit, docent fidem non justificare, nisi sit formata charitate. Item, Catholici docent eam fidem posse informem existere, non tamen, nisi formatam justificare. In Summa Theologiae Scholasticae, tom. 2. tractatu 4. cap. 2. num. 7.

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