The Scholastics generally recognised the distinction (hinted bj' Augustine) between objective and subjec- tive faith (fides qua creditur and lides fium creditur), and also distinguished between developed {expHcitii) and undeveloped {imjdicita) faith (Aquinas, Summa, ii, qu. 1, art. 7). But in all the scholastic period, the prev- alence of the sacerdotal theory of religion hindered, if it did not al)soUitely prevent, a just apprehension of the nature of faith, and naturally developed the theory of the merit of good works. Peter Lombard, indeed, saj'S that good works are those only that spring from the love of God, which love itself is the fruit of faith {opus ficki; Sentenf. lib. iii, dist. 23, D); but the "views of Thomas Aquinas were not quite so scriptural ; thus {Summ. pt. ii, 2, qu. 4, art. 7) he speaks of faith itself as a virtue, though he assi'j;ns to it the first and highest place among all virtues." He defines faitli to be "an act of the intellect assenting to divine truth in virtue of the operation of the Spirit of God upon the will" {Summa, ii, 2, 1, 4), and reckons faith among the the- ological virtues, which he distinguishes from the ethi- cal (Neander, W'iss. .Abhandlung. ed. Jacobi, 1851, p. 42). " Such notions, however, led more and more to Jio
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revival of Pelagianism, till the forerunners of the Ref- ormation returned to the simpler truths of the Gospel" (Hagenbach, Ilistorij of Doctrines, § 18G). According 10 Aquinas, the faith l)y wiiich we are cleared from sin is not thejkhs iiiformig, whicli can coexist with sin ; but is the Jld.s for mafa per charUatem (faith informed by love). In justilication there is a motus charitatis as well as a motus Jidei ('Summa, pt. iii, qu. 44, art. 1). Tliis statement contains the germ of tlic later Koman Cath- olic doctrine (see other passages in Miihler, S;jmboUsm, N. Y. 1844, p. 205 ; comp. Beck, Doijmenf/eschichte, 18G4, p. 3G5). Its doctrine (as that of the period generally) is that justilication is "not an objective act, but some- thing subjective, making man internally righteous by the communication of the divine life in fellowship with Christ. For the attainment of just/Jicatio, moreover, faith can only be the first step ; it was not sufficient for justilication, but love must lie added; the ffratia justijicans was first given in i\\c fides formata, making man internally rigliteous. Since tliis external idea of faith required that for effecting justilication some- thing must be added from without, the additional aid of the Church here was demanded" (Neander, Dcijmas, p. GGl). See Justification.
4. John Wessel (f 148'J) was a precursor of the Ref- ormation in his views on faith, as well as on many other points. None of the theologians of tlie Scholas- tic age expressed the principle of faith so fully in the Pauline spirit as Wessel. He considers it " not a mere taking fur granted of historical facts, but the devotion of the whole mind to fellowship with God through Christ ; it is the basis of the whole higher life ; not merely in the relations of man to man, but also in the relations of man to God" (UUmann, Reformers before the R formation, Edinb. 1855, ii, 4G8).
Practically, at the dawn of the Reformation (and for ages before). Christian people were tauglit liy their pastors that the pardon of sin was to be secured, not W faith in the merits of Christ, but \iy penitential ob- servances and good works, followed bj' ]iriestly abso- lution; &\\A faith itself was generally hold to be sim- ply the reception of the teacliing of the Church. In practice, faith was transformed into credulity.
(III.) The Protestant and Roman Cath'jlic Doctrines of Faith compared. — The Protestant Doctrine. — The cen- tral point of the Reformation, in a doctrinal point of view, was justification by faitli. Its development will be treated in our article Justification ; we can here onlv briefly give the distinction between the Protestant and Roman Catholic doctrines of faitli : 1. tliat of the Reformers ; 2. that of the Roman Catholic Church.
1. The Reformers. — The Reformers, in opposition to the Scliolastic doctrine of justification as a subjective work (the making just), brouglit out prominently the objectire idea of justification (as a work done for us by Christ). " On the other side, corres;]iondinL;ly, the}' re- garded faith as subjective, and as tlie principle of the transformation of the whole inner life" (Neander, Doff- 7Hrt«, ii, CG2). The prominent position of faith in the tlieolog}' of the Reformers was a fundamental part of the change that was talking place, at the time, in the general religious views of Christendom. "The mind was not satisfied with an objective and outward salva- tion, however valid and reliable it might be. It desired a consciousness of being saved ; it craved an experience of salvatiim. The Protestant mind could not rest in the Church, neither could it pretend to rest in an atone- ment that was unappropriated. The objective worli of Christ on Calvarj' must become the subjective experi- ence and rejoicing of the soul itself. While, however, the principle and act of faitli occupies such a promi- nent place in the soteriolog}' of the Reformation, we should not fail to notice that it is never represented as a, procuring cause of justification ; it is only tlie instru- mental cause. Protestantism was exceedingly care- ful to distinguish justification from legal righteousness on the one hand, and f.om sanctification by grace on