Question II: Whether the kinds of almsgiving are fittingly distinguished

Seven kinds of corporal alms are set forth in this verse:

I visit, I give drink, I feed, I redeem, I shelter, I clothe, I bury.

That is, to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to receive in the stranger (harbor the harborless), to visit the sick, to redeem the captive, and to bury the dead.

Seven other kinds are of spiritual alms, which are expressed in this verse:

Counsel, rebuke, console, forgive, bear, pray.

To teach the ignorant, to counsel the doubting, to console the sorrowful, to correct the sinner, to forgive offenses, to bear the burdensome and the heavy, and to pray for all.

These are reported by S. Bonavent. in 4. dist. 15, part. 2, dub. 2, litt. and on the seven Gifts, on the Gift of Piety, cap. 1, and in the Diaeta, tit. 7, cap. 4, and Book 5 of the Compendium of Theology, cap. 52, and on Luke 11 in these words: That which remains over, give as alms. D. Thom. here, and the Theologians commonly.

IT IS PROVED by the holy Doctors from the defects of one's neighbors, by whom one can be helped; of which some are on the part of the body; some on the part of the soul, which needs are easily gathered, and among the holy Doctors are clear.

But spiritual alms are intrinsically the greater; nevertheless in some case corporal alms can be the greater; whence in extreme necessity the person failing is rather to be fed than another ignorant one taught, as the holy Doctors teach, Thom. art. 4, and Bonavent. dist. cit. dub 4.