Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Grace and Free Choice · Book I: On Grace
Chapter 8: That charity is a created virtue, not the Holy Spirit himself
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, Book I. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Since we have demonstrated that charity is not distinguished from the grace that makes pleasing, in order that it may be the more solidly confirmed that the grace that makes pleasing is a quality — which was proved by us in chapter 4 — we have judged it worth the labor in this place to refute the opinion of those who teach that the charity by which we love God is not a created habit, but the very person of the Holy Spirit; which opinion, as we said above, is wont to be attributed to Peter Lombard.
But it is to be observed that Lombard was not so rude and dull as to think that the action of loving, which we ourselves produce, and which by the theologians is named actual charity, is the Holy Spirit; but what Lombard taught was this: that the cause, or proximate principle, of the love of God in us is the Holy Spirit, and not some created habit, such as are the habits of faith, of hope, and of the other virtues. And so he would have this difference between charity and the other virtues: that in these, besides the action, there is found also a created habit; in that, there is no created habit, but the Holy Spirit himself immediately moves us to the action of loving. Which opinion all the theologians refute in their commentaries on distinction 17 of the first book of the Sentences; and above all St. Thomas sharply assails it, 2-2, question 23, article 2, and in the disputed questions, the question on charity, article 1, where he dissolves twenty-four objections which could have been made for the opinion of Peter Lombard.
It is proved, then, that charity is a created quality, first from that testimony of blessed Paul, Romans 5: the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. In the explication of which place it is to be known that it can seem ambiguous whether the Apostle speaks of the charity by which God loves us, or of that by which we love God. For the commentary which is inscribed to Ambrose explains this place of the charity of God toward us; but on the contrary Augustine, book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter 32, and Bernard in epistle 107, Anselm, and some others on this place, teach that the Apostle speaks of the charity by which we love God. The fuller commentary explains the words of blessed Paul of both; for so expound, in the commentary on this place, Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Sedulius, Oecumenius, Thomas, and others.
But that Paul speaks properly of the charity which is in us after the manner of a habit is proved in this way. The Apostle does not speak of actual love, but of some permanent thing. For actual love is not poured by God into our heart, but is poured out from our heart unto God, according to that: the end of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart, 1 Timothy 1 — in which place the act, not the habit, is treated of, for the act is the end of the commandment, not the habit; and so actual charity goes out from a pure heart, and tends to God. But the Apostle in Romans 5 speaks of a charity which is sent by God into our heart, and remains in it. And that this permanent thing is not the Holy Spirit, but his gift, is proved from that word, “is poured forth”: for it does not properly belong to the Holy Spirit to be poured forth, save by reason of his gifts; wherefore in Acts 2 blessed Peter says: Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God… he hath poured forth this gift which you see and hear — where a created gift is said to be poured forth. The same is proved also from those words: by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. For here the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the charity poured out in us, as a cause from its effect — just as if one should say: Light was poured out in this house through the lamp which was kindled for us; or: Fragrance was poured forth through the balsam with which we were anointed. For no one would say that the light and the lamp are the same, or the fragrance and the balsam, but that the one is the cause of the other.
Second, it is proved from the testimonies of the Fathers. St. Augustine, about whose opinion almost the whole question turns, book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter 32: “The charity of God,” says he, “is said to be poured out in our hearts — not that by which he loves us, but that by which he makes us his lovers; as the justice of God is that by which by his gift we are made just, and the salvation of the Lord that by which he saves us, and the faith of Jesus Christ that by which he makes us faithful.” In this place St. Augustine teaches in two ways that the charity poured out in hearts is not the Holy Spirit, but a created virtue: first, because he says it is like justice, salvation, and faith; second, because he says this charity is not that by which God loves us, but that by which he makes us his lovers — whereas the Holy Spirit, by the opinion of Peter Lombard, is the charity by which God loves us and by which we love God. The same Augustine, in the book On the Morals of the Catholic Church, chapter 15 [al. 20], writes that charity is a virtue of our mind — which certainly does not befit the Holy Spirit. The same, in the book On Nature and Grace, chapter 70, says that charity is the justice by which we are just; and on Psalm 118, discourse 26 [al. 20], says that the justice by which we are just is a virtue of the mind, which God effects in us; and in epistle 83 [al. 120] to Consentius, and book 15 On the Trinity, chapter 8, says that the justice by which we are just is a form by which from deformed we are made shapely: but assuredly it would not rightly be said of the person of the Holy Spirit that he is a virtue of the mind effected by God, or a form by which from deformed we are made shapely. Finally, in book 15 On the Trinity, chapter 18, he openly distinguishes the charity which is in us from the person of the Holy Spirit: “The love,” says he, “which is of God, and is God, is properly the Holy Spirit, through whom is poured out in our hearts the charity of God, through which the whole Trinity inhabits us.” Where he did not say that the love which is properly the Holy Spirit is poured out in us, but that through it there is poured out in us the charity of God — that, namely, by which we love God.
St. John Chrysostom, homily 32 on the first epistle to the Corinthians, discourses copiously of charity, and always calls her a virtue, and speaks of her as of a true virtue. St. Cyril, book 9 on John, chapter 24, distinguishes the charity which is in us from that which is in God; and that indeed which is in God he teaches to be God, but ours to be not God, but a certain virtue, which is as it were a form and image of that which is in God. Finally St. Bernard, in epistle 11 to the Carthusians, and in the book On Loving God, beyond the middle: “Rightly,” says he, “is charity called both God and the gift of God; for charity gives charity — the substantival gives the accidental.” Where it signifies the giver, the name is of the substance; where the gift, of a quality.
It is proved last by reasons. The first reason, which is St. Thomas's, 2-2, question 23, article 2: if there is no habit of charity, then either the Holy Spirit effects love in our minds with the free will concurring and cooperating, or without its concurring and cooperating. If the first be granted, it follows that the action of loving in us is not perfect, easy, prompt, sweet; if the second be granted, it follows that the same action is not voluntary and free, and thereby not meritorious either. But both are against the very notion of love, and against what each man experiences in himself: for nothing can be more voluntary, nothing more prompt, easier, sweeter than charity; and according to the Scriptures the action of loving is not only meritorious, but the principle and root of all merit — for God hath promised the crown of life to them that love him, James 1. And that from that opinion of the Master it follows that the action of loving is not voluntary and free, or at least not prompt and sweet, is clear. For if the Holy Spirit should effect love in us without the free will cooperating, without doubt that love could not be voluntary; but if with the free will cooperating, yet without a habit first infused, the love will not be perfect and prompt: for a power cannot produce a perfect action unless it be itself perfected through a habit, nor can it work promptly and sweetly unless it be inclined to the operation by a form which it has in itself. Wherefore, if the human will have no form and no habit through which it is inclined to the supernatural love of God, but only the extrinsic help of the Holy Spirit, without doubt it will not love God perfectly and promptly.
The second reason: through charity we are made sons of God, as we proved above from the first epistle of St. John, chapter 3, and many other places; hence through charity we obtain a divine being, according to that of Psalm 81: I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High. For none is a son of God but God, as neither is any a son of man but man. Therefore the Holy Spirit, if he is our charity, makes the men whom he inhabits to be gods, and thereby communicates to them his nature. Now he does not communicate his person — for that is the singular privilege of the humanity of Christ, to be sustained in a divine person; he communicates therefore the nature, according to that of blessed Peter in the second epistle, chapter 1: that… you may be made partakers of the divine nature. But the nature of God cannot be communicated save through some accidental participation of it — that is, through some created form; charity therefore is a created form, through which the Holy Spirit inhabits us.
The third reason: the Holy Spirit inhabits not only adults, but also baptized infants, as St. Augustine teaches in epistle 57 [al. 187] to Dardanus; he effects charity in them, therefore — but not actual; therefore habitual.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
Spiritum sanctum. Quoniam charitatem a gratia gratum fa¬ ciente, non distingui demonstravimus, ut solidius confirmetur, gratiam gratum facien¬ tem esse qualitatem, quod probatum a nobis est cap. 4. operse pretium esse duximus hoc loco refellere sententiam eorum, qui docent, charitatem, qua diligimus Deum, non esse habitum creatum, sed ipsam personam Spi¬ ritus sancti ; quam sententiam supra dixi¬ mus, Petro Lombardo tribui solere. Est autem observandum, non fuisse Lom- bardum tam rudem et hebetem, ut existima¬ ret actionem diligendi, quam nos produci¬ mus, quaique charitas actualis, a Theologis nominatur, esse Spiritum sanctum, sed quod docuit Lombardus, id fuit, causam sive prin¬ cipium proximum dilectionis Dei, esse in nobis Spiritum sanctum, non autem habi¬ tum aliquem creatum, quales sunt habitus fidei, spei, caeterarumque virtutum ; itaque hoc interesse voluit inter charitatem, et alias virtutes, quod in istis, prmter actionem, ha¬ bitus etiam creatus, reperiatur : in illa nullus sit habitus creatus, sed ipse Spiritus sanctus immediate nos moveat ad actionem diligendi. Quam sententiam omnes Theologi refellunt in commentariis suis ad distinet. 47. libri primi Sentent. atque in primis sanctus Tho- mas acriter eam oppugnat in 2. 2. quiest. 23. art. 2. et in qusestionibus disputatis, quaistione de charitate, articulo primo, ubi diluit objectiones viginti quatuor, quse pro sententia Petri Lombardi fieri potuissent. Probatur igitur charitatem esse qualita¬ tem creatam, primum ex testimonio illo B. Pauli ad Rom. v : Charitas Det diffusa est in cordibus nostris, per Spiritum sanctum, qui datus est nobis (2). In cujus loci explicatione sciendum est, ambiguum videri posse, 1 iqua- tur ne Apostolus de charitate, qua nos dili¬ git Deus, an de illa, qua nos diligimus Deum, nam commentarius, qui inscribitur Ambro¬ sio, explicat hunc locum de charitate Dei erga nos. Contra autem Augustinus lib. de Spiritu et littera, cap. 32. et Bernardus in epistol. 107. Anselmus et alii nonnulli, in (4) Rom. XIII, 8; I Corin. XIII, 4. - (2) Rom. V, 5. r CAPUT VIII. hunc locum, docent, Apostolum loqui de charitate, qua nos diligimus Deum. Plenus commentarius, de utraque, explicat verba B. Pauli, ita enim exponunt in commentario hujus loci Ori genes, Chrysostomus, Theo- doretus, Sedulius, QEcumenius, Thomas, et alii. Sed tamen proprie loqui Paulum de cha¬ ritate, quas est in nobis per modum habitus, probatur hoc modo : non loquitur Apostolus de dilectione actuali, sed de re aliqua per¬ manente. Actualis enim dilectio non diffun¬ ditur a Deo in cor nostrum, sed effunditur a corde nostro in Deum, juxta illud : Finis prxeepti charitas de corde puro, I ad Tim. (1); in quo loco de actu, non de habitu agitur, actus enim est finis praecepti, non habitus; itaque charitas actualis exit de corde puro, et ad Deum tendit. Apostolus autem ad Ro. man. 5. loquitur de charitate, qua; in cor nostrum a Deo immittitur, et in eo permanet. Rem autem istam permanentem non esse Spiritum sanctum, sed donum ejus, proba¬ tur ex voce illa, « diffusa est >>, non enim convenit proprie Spiritui sancto diffundi, nisi ratione donorum suorum, quare Acto¬ rum ii. B. Petrus dicit : Dextera igitur Dei exaltatus , effudit hoc donum, quod uos videtis et auditis (2), ubi donum creatum dicitur ef¬ fusum. Idem etiam probatur ex illis verbis: Per Spiritum sanctum , qui datus est nobis. Hic enim distinguitur Spiritus sanctus a chari¬ tate in nobis effusa, ut causa ab effec tu, quem¬ admodum si quis diceret : Effusa est lux in hac domo per lampadem, qua; accensa est nobis; vel : Effusus est odorper balsamum, quo uncti sumus : Neque enim ullus diceret lucein et lampadem idem esse, neque odo¬ rem et balsamum, sed unum alterius cau¬ sam esse. Secundo, probatur ex testimoniis Patrum. S. Augustinus, de cujus sententia tota fere quaestio est, lib. de Spiritu et littera cap. 32 : « Charitas, inquit, Dei dicta est diffundi in cordibus nostris, non qua nos ipse diligit, sed qua nos facit dilectores suos: sicut justi¬ tia Dei, qua justi ejus munere efficimur, et Domini salus, qua nos salvos fecit, et fides Christi, -qua nos fideles facit. » Hoc loco duo¬ bus modis docet S. Augustinus charitatem diffusam in cordibus, non esse Spiritum san¬ ctum, sed virtutem creatam. Primo, quia olf) similem esse dicit justitiae, saluti et fidei. Secundo, quia dicit, non esse istam charita¬ tem, qua nos Deus diligit, sed qua nos facit dilectores suos. Spiritus autem sanctus ex sententia Petri Lombardi, est charitas, qua Deus nos diligit, ct qua nos diligimus Deum. Idem Augustinus in lib. dg moribus Eccle¬ sia; Catholicae cap. 20. scribit, charitatem esse virtutem animi nostri ; quod certe non convenit Spiritui sancto. Idem in lib. de na¬ tura et gratia cap. 70. dicit, charitatem esse justitiam, qua justi sumus, et in Psalm. 118. concione 20. dicit, justitiam, qua justi su¬ mus, esse virtutem animi, quam Deus in nobis efficit, et in epist. 83. ad Consentium, et lib. xv. de Trinitate cap. 8. dicit, justi¬ tiam, qua justi sumus, esse formam, qua formosi ex deformibus efficimur : at certe non recte de persona Spiritus sancti dicere¬ tur, quod sit virtus animi a Deo effecta, vel forma, qua formosi ex deformibus efficiamur. Denique lib. xv. de Trinitate cap. 18. aperte distinguit charitatem, quae est in no¬ bis, a persona Spiritus sancti : « Dilectio, inquit, quae ex Deo est, et Deus est, proprie Spiritus sanctus est, per quem diffunditur in cordibus nostris Dei charitas, per quam nos tota inhabitat Trinitas. » Ubi non dixit dile¬ ctionem, quae proprie Spiritus sanctus est, in nobis diffundi, sed per illam diffundi in nobis charitatem Dei, qua videlicet Deum diligimus. S. Joannes Chrysostomus hom. 32. in prio¬ rem ad Corinthios, de charitate copiose dis¬ putat, ac semper eam virtutem appellat, et ut de vera virtute loquitur S. Cyrillus lib. ix in Joannem cap. 24. distinguit charitatem, qua; est in nobis, ab ea, qua; est in Deo, et eam quidem, quae est in Deo, Deum esse docet, nostram autem non Deum, sed virtu¬ tem quamdam, quae sit quasi forma et imago illius, qua; est in Deo. Denique S. Bernardus in epist. 11. ad Carthusienses, et in libro de diligendo Deo, ultra medium : « Recte, in¬ quit, dicitur charitas et Deus, et Dei donum charitas enim dat charitatem, substantiva accidentalem. » Ubi dantem significat, no¬ men est substantiae; ubi donum, qualitatis. Probatur ultimo rationibus. Prima ratio quae est S. Thoinae in 2. 2. quaest. 23. art. 2. si nullus est habitus charitatis, vel Spiritus sanctus efficit in animis nostris dilectionem, concurrente et cooperante libera voluntate} (1)1 Tim. I, 5. -(2) Act. II, 33. LIBER T. .‘»20 vel oa non concurrente, neque coopcrante : si primum detur, sequitur actionem diligendi iu nobis non esse perfectam, facilem, prom¬ ptam, suavem ; si detur secundum sequitur eamdem actionem non esse voluntariam et liberam, ac per hoc nec meritoriam : utrum¬ que autem est qf. contra rationem dilectionis, et contra id, quod unusquisque in se experi¬ tur. Nihil enim magis voluntarium esse po¬ test, nihil promptius, facilius, suavius chari- tate, neque solum secundum Scripturas actio diligendi meritoria est, sed principium et ra¬ dix omnis meriti. Nam coronam vitii’ repro¬ misit Dem diligentibus se, Jacob. I. (t). ' Sequi autem ex opinione illa Magistri, actionem diligendi non esse voluntariam et liberam, aut certe non promptam et suavem, perspicuum est. Nam si Spiritus sanctus di¬ lectionem in nobis efliciat, non coopcrante libera voluntate, sine dubio dilectio illa vo¬ luntaria osse non poterit; sivero coop nante libera voluntate, sed absque habitu prius in¬ fuso, dilectio perfecta et prompta non erit, neque enim potentia perfectam actionem fa¬ cere potest, nisi ipsa perfecta per habitum* neque potest prompte et suaviter operari, nisi ex forma, quam in se habeat, inclinetur ad operationem. Quare si voluntas humana nullam habeat formam, nullumque habitum, per quem inclinetur ad amorem Dei super- naturalem, sed solum extrinsecum auxilium Spiritus sancti, sine dubio perfecte et prompte Deum non diliget. Secunda ratio, per eliaritatem efficimur filii Dei, ut supra probavimus ex epist. I. S. Joannis cap. 3. et aliis multis locis, proinde per charitatem adipiscimur esse divinum, juxta illud Psal. lxxxi : Ego dixi, Dii estis , et . filii, excelsi omnes (2). Non enim est filius Dei, nisi Deus, sicut nec filius hominis, nisi homo, ergo Spiritus sanctus,- si charitas est, homines, quos inhabitat, facit esse Deos, ac per hoc eis communicat naturam suam : non autem communicat personam, id enim sin¬ gulare privilegium est humanitatis Christi, ut in persona divina sustentetur, communi¬ cat igitur naturam, juxta illud beati Petri iu epist. II. cap. 1 : Ut divinae efficiamur cbn - sortes naturae (3). Porro Dei natura commu¬ nicari non potest, nisi per accidentariam ali¬ quam sui participationem, id est, per for¬ mam aliquam creatam; charitas igitur est forma creata, per quam nos Spiritus sanctus inhabitat. Tertia ratio. Spiritus sanctus non soluin adultos, sed etiam infantes baptizatos inha¬ bitat, ut S. Augustinus docet in epist. 57. ad Dardanum; efficit igitur in illis charitatem, at non actualem, igitur habitualem. CAPUT IX. Solvuntur objectiones.