Doubt I: Whether understanding is a gift of the Holy Ghost

I ASSERT. It is proved from St. Bonaventure in the places alleged, especially de Dono intellectus, cap. 2. and St. Thomas art. 1. Understanding imports a certain intimate cognition; for to understand is said as it were to read within, and this is clear to one considering the difference between the cognition of the Intellect and of the senses; for sensitive cognition is occupied about sensible things outside; but intellectual cognition, as nobler and subtler, penetrates even to the interior quiddities of things, because the object of the intellect is whatever is, from Aristotle 3. de anima, text. 37. Whence human cognition begins from sense, nor is it perfected unless it arrives at the Intellect, which truly knows what a thing is. For it is said in the book de spiritu, et anima, cap. 11. that: Whatever the senses perceive outwardly, the imagination represents inwardly, reason investigates, the intellect judges, intelligence comprehends, and leads to contemplation, which memory preserves. But it must be adverted that intellect is sometimes taken as it is the natural power of the soul, and thus the author of the Book de Spiritu, et anima speaks of it, while he says, that the intellect is the power of the soul by which it perceives invisible things, with which Aristotle de anima concurs. And this intellect is for the most part blinded: Whence Psal. 81. They did not know, nor understand. Sometimes the Intellect is taken as the intellectual virtue, or the habit of the first natural principles, which subsist beneath the light of the intellect, as is clear from Aristotle 6. Eth. cap. 6. But neither of these is the Gift of the Holy Spirit, although it is from God, and accordingly even from the Holy Spirit.

Since however man is ordered to beatitude as to a supernatural end, as appears from his image; therefore one must posit an intellect, or some light, as the supernatural habit of supernatural principles, which are the articles of faith, and in consequence the operation of certain [virtues] which are ordered to the end, because: Faith works through love, as the Apostle says Galat. 5. and this supernatural light is called the gift of Understanding, which names a certain excellence of cognition, penetrating supernatural things, which cannot be had by natural light.

But it is DESCRIBED in the book de spiritu, et anima, loc. cit. Intelligence is that power of the soul which is immediately subjoined to God: for it discerns the highest truth itself.

AGAIN it is defined there cap. 37. The Intellect is that power of the soul by which, as far as is possible to man, the Divine things are known, for penetrating the heavenly secrets, which cannot be penetrated except through his spirit, who also searches the deep things of God. Whence the Apostle says 1. Cor. 2. But to us God has revealed by his Spirit, who searches all things, even the deep things of God. This is St. Bonaventure literally, and almost St. Thomas.

The Holy Doctor proves the same thing by the testimonies of the Scriptures, and of the Fathers. Prima Ioan. 2. The anointing of the Spirit teaches us. Ioan. 16. When the Paraclete shall come, he will teach you all truth. He proves the same in Diaeta loc. cit. from 2. Timot. 2. The Lord will give you understanding in all things. He proves the same in 3. dist. 34. p. 1. art. 2. quaest. 2. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, and of understanding.

St. Bonaventure elegantly discourses on the most noble and delightful cognition which the Gift of understanding communicates, under the metaphor of a banquet, de septem donis, cap. 7. Where he first asserts that by the gift of Understanding celestial dishes are set forth, and he reports St. Gregory lib. 1. Moral. cap. 32. saying: Understanding prepares a banquet in its day: because in that it penetrates what is heard, refreshing the heart, it illuminates its shadows: Therefore in the penetration of the things heard, the truth having been found, the mind is refreshed. The reason is, because it does not suffice the mind to taste the coverings of truths, but the kernel. Since therefore the gift of Understanding, according to Gregory, penetrates all the coverings of divine truth, both in the Scriptures and in doctrine, it reaches even to the intimate truth to be tasted, by a certain intellectual experience, which belongs to the most perfect, as Bernard says in Cantica; therefore the gift of Understanding refreshes the mind most sweetly. Speaking of this taste of experience, Bernard in the book de amore Dei cap. 10. says: The taste of the experience of the Scriptures, and of the Sacraments of God, which is in Christ, gives us sense, that we may understand the Scriptures. Whence the Lord after the resurrection opened the sense of the disciples, that they might understand the Scriptures, at the end of Luke. See the Seraphic Doctor delighting divinely in this bread having all savor of sweetness, Sap. 16. For he feeds them with the bread of life, and understanding. Eccles. 15.