Section 1. The Necessity Of Faith For Justification
1. THE LUTHERAN HERESY VS. THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.—The Protestant Reformers, notably Luther and Calvin, did not deny that justification is wrought by faith, but they defined justifying faith in a manner altogether foreign to the mind of the Church.
a) They distinguished three kinds of faith: (1) belief in the existence of God and the historical fact that Christ has come on earth, suffered, and ascended (_fides historica_); (2) the sort of trust which is required for exercising the gift of miracles (_fides miraculorum_); and (3) faith in the divine promises with regard to the remission of sin (_fides promissionum_). The last-mentioned species of faith they subdivided into general and particular. _Fides generalis_ is that by which we believe that the righteousness of Christ “covers” (but does not wipe out) our sins. _Fides specialis_ or fiduciary faith (_fiducia_) is that by which a man applies to himself the righteousness of the Redeemer, firmly trusting that his sins are for Christ’s sake not imputed to him. Thus the Reformers erroneously transferred the seat of justifying faith from the intellect to the will and completely subverted the Catholic notion of faith as an intellectual assent to revealed truth.
b) To this fundamental error the Fathers of Trent opposed the orthodox doctrine that (adults) “are disposed unto justice when, excited and assisted by divine grace, receiving faith by hearing, they are freely moved towards God, believing those things to be true which God has revealed and promised, ...”(782) and they solemnly anathematized those who assert “that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sin for Christ’s sake, or that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified.”(783)
Hence it is _de fide_ that the faith whereby man is justified, is not a confident persuasion of being esteemed righteous in the sight of God, but a dogmatic or theoretical belief in the truths of Divine Revelation.
2. REFUTATION OF THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE OF FIDUCIARY FAITH.—Whenever Sacred Scripture and Tradition speak of justifying faith, they mean a dogmatic belief in the truths of Revelation,—that faith which the Protestants call _fides historica_.