Question XVI: What is the proximate subject of charity

I assert with D. Bonaventure, passim, that it is the will. All subscribe to this assertion.

It is proved by S. Thomas in 2 Sent. dist. 26 q. 5, and in 3 dist. 23 q. 2, and dist. 27 q. 1 and following. A habit is in some power as in a subject, in which is the act whose principle is the habit itself together with the power: but the act of love is in the will: Therefore also the habit of Charity, which is the principle of the act. The minor is proved: for the love of Charity is an appetite, which is borne toward the highest good, known by the intellect.

But S. Thomas teaches that it is in the concupiscible part, as Hope is in the Irascible; and Faith in the rational, as has often been said disput. 1.

He does not will, however, that it be in the sensitive concupiscible, which alone D. Thomas seems to acknowledge: but in the concupiscible of the rational appetite, which certainly is not lacking the powers and faculties by which it excels the sensitive, as Aragon. q. 24 a. 1, Tannetus disp. 2 q. 2 dub. 3 note; of these I treated in prima secundae, Tract. 5, which is on Grace, disp. 2 q. 4.