Doubt VII: Whether faith, among the fruits of the Holy Ghost, corresponds to the gift of understanding

The holy Doctors assert that to the gift of Understanding there corresponds, among the fruits of the Holy Spirit, faith, and they prove it; Since, indeed, the Theological and Divine truths, which are revealed to us by faith for salvation, are veiled beneath the veil of many figures, the obscurity of prophecies, and the diversity of expositions, it was necessary that another supernatural light be superadded, causing the certitude of the former, penetrating with a certain experimental clarity to the inner veils, and in a certain way making one see what faith made one believe; whence it is said, John 10(13): Unless you believe, you shall not Understand; for these the Seraphic Doctor cites St. Bernard, serm. 33. in cantica, where he discoursed most excellently on the correspondence of faith and understanding as follows: Truth is set before me, but in a Sacrament. The Angel is fed on the fatness of the wheat, and I must meanwhile be content with the naked grain beneath a certain rind of the Sacrament, with the husk of the flesh, with the chaff of the letter, with the veil of faith. And these are such things as, when tasted, bring death, if they do not receive from the first-fruits of the Spirit however little a seasoning, which comes about through the gift of Understanding; and he adds: In all these things faith is rich to me, understanding poor: but is savor not given to the understanding and to the faith, since the one is in merit, the other in reward.¹ See the Seraphic Doctor, cap. quinto de dono Intellect. ¹ Editor's note: the print reads 'numquid verò per sapor intellectui, fideique, cum sit in meritum ista, in praemium illa' — a garbled Bernard citation (serm. 33 in Cantica) whose syntax cannot be restored with confidence; rendered as a rhetorical question ('is savor not given to the understanding and to the faith?'), taking 'sapor' (the taste of the gift of Understanding) as subject.