Dist. 34, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/34/q/bon-sent-III-d34-p1-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether the gifts are prior to the virtues, or conversely.*

Secondly it is asked concerning the comparison of the gifts to the virtues as regards order, and the question is whether the gifts are prior to the virtues, or conversely. And that the gifts go before, it seems.

**To the opposite:**

1. On Matthew six, upon the Lord's Prayer, it is said in the Gloss: « In prayers it is that we may obtain the gifts; in the gifts, that we may carry out the commandments; from the working follow the beatitudes »: therefore it seems that a man's advance begins from the gifts. But those gratuitous habits are prior in which the beginning of acting well is initiated: therefore the gifts are prior to the virtues.

2. Likewise, to be healed is prior to acting well;

sed per dona sanantur potentiae — but by the gifts the powers are healed and by the virtues they are enabled for acting well: therefore the gifts are prior to the virtues.

3. Likewise, *to turn away from evil* is prior to *doing good*; but by the first among the gifts we turn away from evil, by the virtues we are ordered to doing good: therefore the gifts are prior to the virtues.

4. Likewise, the generating is prior to the generated; but by knowledge faith is generated, according to what Augustine says in the fourteenth book of *On the Trinity*, saying that « knowledge concerns those things by which most saving faith is begotten, nourished, and strengthened »: therefore the gift of knowledge is prior to faith. But faith is the first of the virtues: therefore the gifts are prior to the virtues.

5. Likewise, intellect is prior to affect, therefore the intellective habits are prior to the affective habits; but the gifts are for the greater part in the rational [power], the virtues for the greater part in the affective: therefore the gifts are prior to what the virtues are.

**On the contrary:**

1. Upon that text of Job one: *A vehement wind* etc.; there Gregory says: « The Spirit before all things adorns the mind with seven virtues »: therefore naturally the habits of the virtues come before from grace prior to the habits of the gifts.

2. Likewise, Lamentations two: *He has cast down all her ramparts*; there the Gloss: « In these the right order is kept, because, when a sinful soul is abandoned, first the gifts of the virtues, which are given for the manifestation of the Spirit, are taken from it, then the foundations of faith, hope, and charity are overthrown ». If therefore that is the order in destroying, that what was last in composing is first destroyed; and the gifts are taken away before the foundations of the virtues; it seems that the virtues are prior to the habits of the gifts.

3. Likewise, to act rightly is prior to acting expeditiously in the same genus: if therefore the habits of the virtues are for setting right, and the habits of the gifts for expediting: therefore the gifts are not prior to the virtues.

4. Likewise, fear is the first of the gifts, as faith is the first of the virtues; but faith is prior to fear, because fear takes its origin from faith: therefore it seems simply that the virtues are prior to the gifts, because « if the first in one genus is prior to the first in another genus, this is simply prior to that » according to the consideration of the Philosopher.

5. Likewise, that is the order of habits which is the order of acts — for thus faith is said to be prior to hope, because to believe is prior to hoping — since therefore the virtues are for the first acts, the gifts for the middle acts; it follows necessarily that the virtues are before the gifts.

> ### Conclusion.
> The virtues precede the gifts not as regards origin, but as regards use.

**I respond:** It must be said that there are two ways of speaking about the habits of the virtues and of the gifts: either as regards the origin of the habits themselves, or as regards use. If as regards origin, since all gratuitous habits take their origin from grace, thus all are simultaneous in origin, because all gratuitous habits are infused together, grace being infused, which is their principle. — But if we speak of the habits of the gifts and of the virtues themselves in comparison to the uses that follow; then it must be conceded that the virtues precede the gifts. For although the act of some special gift precedes the act of some virtue, as the act of fear [precedes] the act of hope; yet because the act of the first virtue, namely of faith, precedes the act of the first gift, namely of fear; and generally the act of any virtue precedes the act of the gift corresponding to it, as the first act precedes the middle: hence it is that it can be generally conceded that the habits of the virtues, by comparison to acts and prior uses, are so with respect to the gifts; and this I say with respect to the same [subject]. — Hence the reasons and authorities which were brought forward for that side must be conceded.

**To the arguments for the affirmative side:**

1. To that, then, which is first objected to the contrary, that in the gifts there is the inception of acting well; it can be said that the gifts are there taken broadly for the virtues; or if they are taken for the gifts properly so called, according to what the preceding text seems to say; then the working of the commandments there stands not for any whatever, but for the expedited working, in which our advance consists, by whose progress the beatitudes follow. Hence also those obtaining prayers are rooted in the virtues: otherwise they would not obtain nor efficaciously merit.

2. To that which is objected, that to be healed is prior to acting well; it must be said that this is true of a certain health, and false of a certain other health. For there is a being-healed *from disease* and there is a being-healed *from the aftereffect of disease*. When therefore it is said that to be healed is prior to acting well; it must be said that this is true of the healing which consists in the removal of disease and fault; but not of that which consists in the removal of the symptom and aftereffect. And when it is said that the gifts are for healing: this is understood not of healing in the first mode, but in the second. And thus it is clear that that reasoning does not conclude.

3. To that which is objected, that to turn away from evil is prior to doing good; it must be said that this is true: but *to turn away from evil* belongs not only to the gifts, but also to the virtues, as is clear of penance and justice. But that turning-away from evil is attributed to fear, this is on account of the expediting, because the gift of fear makes [one] turn away from evil easily.

4. To that which is objected, that the generating is prior to the generated; it must be said that that is true of what is generally the principle of generating the rest: but knowledge is not in this way the principle of faith. For in the same [subject] faith is prior to the knowledge which is generative of faith. Hence the saying of Augustine is understood only particularly and with respect to different [subjects]: because knowledge in the preacher is a way to generating faith in the hearer.

5. To that which is last objected, that the intellect precedes the affect; it must be said that it is true as regards acts and habits which are of the same coordination — hence cognition directing toward affection is preambular to it, on account of which it is prior to believe than to love — but of habits and acts which are not of the same ordination, it does not hold true, because it is not prior to see God than to love God, but rather the contrary. And since the habits of the gifts and their acts are not of the same coordination as the habits and acts of the virtues, because the acts of the virtues are in the first degree, but the acts of the gifts in the middle: hence it is that it is not necessary that the gifts be prior to the virtues, although these habits regard the intellect more, and those regard the affect more.

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