b) Does conversion always follow this conciliary schema? No. The Council did not mean to define that these acts must follow one another in strict sequence or that they are one and all absolutely indispensable for justification. It is certain, however, that the process invariably begins with faith and ends with contrition accompanied by a firm purpose of amendment. In exceptional cases (_e.g._ the Prodigal Son, Mary Magdalen) perfect charity seems immediately to follow faith, and may then be said virtually to include the intermediate stages of fear, hope, and contrition. Yet this is not the usual way. Ordinarily faith elicits fear, which in turn produces two kinds of hope—hope of forgiveness (_spes veniae_) and hope in God (_spes theologica_), which marks the beginning of charity (_amor concupiscentiae_). Contrition is always a _conditio sine qua non_, because there can be no forgiveness of sin without sorrow for it.(854) It is for this reason that, according to St. Thomas, explicit contrition for mortal sins is necessary for justification even when there is perfect charity, and the sufficiency of the so-called _poenitentia virtualis_ is limited to venial offenses and such grievous sins as cannot be remembered.(855) Fear, while not absolutely indispensable, is seldom absent. Holy Scripture tells us that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” and it is natural for the sinner seeking forgiveness to detest his sins out of fear of divine justice before he attains to the motive of perfect charity.(856) c) Certain utterances of Scripture and the Fathers with regard to the possibility of a “dead” faith(857) have led theologians to distinguish between _fides informis_ and _fides formata_. _Fides informis_ is a dead faith, devoid of charity, and without justifying power. The only faith that can justify a man is that which is animated by charity and productive of good works.(858) This is the _fides formata_ of the Schoolmen, which includes all the preparatory acts enumerated by the Tridentine Council, from fear to perfect charity. These acts, however, though united in the _fides formata_, retain their respective independence, and can disappear singly, one after another, as they came. Zwingli’s assertion that faith, hope, and charity are identical, or at least inseparable, has been expressly condemned by the Tridentine Council: “If any one saith that, grace being lost through sin, faith also is always lost with it; or that the faith which remains, though it be no live faith, is not a true faith; or that he who has faith without charity is not a Christian; let him be anathema.”(859)