Reinhard Schwartz points to Luther’s designation of two
kinds of faith, a fides acquisita and a fides infusa, in which
his marginal comments on Peter Lombard’s Sentences (1509/10). The latter
is never separated from justifying grace, whereas the former has nothing to do
with it. Schartz argues that this distinction of two kinds of faith represents
a break with the entire medieval tradition, insofar as Luther collapses
unformed and acquired faith and unites infused with with love (Fides, Spes
und Caritas biem jungen Luther. Unter besondern Berücksichtigung der
mittelalterlichen Tradition, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 34 [Berlin: de
Gruyter, 1962], p. 42; compare Martin Luther, WA 9: 90.24-34). In exploring the
origin of the fides historica in Zwingli, Gestrich notes that this term
appears with any frequency in Luther’s works only after 1531; he points out
also that Luther, in his distinction to Zwingli’s use of the term, uses it
primarily to cover the scholastic fides acquisita and fides informis.
Gestrich concludes that Zwingli most likely derives his understanding of fides
historica from Melanchthon, and he quotes the 1531 version of the passage
just cited (Zwingli asl Theologe, pp. 29-31, note 36) (Barbara Pitkin, What
Pure Eyes Could See: Calvin’s Doctrine of Faith in its Exegetical Context [Oxford
Studies in Historical Theology; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999], 173 n.
17)
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