ectypal.net

Fides salvifica, further defined as fides propria, true, personal faith, is usually explained as having three components, the first two belonging to the intellect...the latter one belonging to the will: (1) notitia (q.v.), knowledge, the actual content of the gospel and the promises of God; (2) assensus (q.v.), assent, by which the intellect acknowledges the truth of notitia, apart from any personal trust or saving appropriation of that knowledge; (3) fiducia, trust, or apprehensio fiducialis, faithful apprehension, which appropriates savingly, by an act of the will, the true knowledge of the promises of God in Christ. Notitia and assensus alone, without apprehensio fiducialis, are the elements of a mere historical faith, or fides historica. Saving faith cannot be merely intellectual; it must also have the volitional component.