What is The Gift

[SmirkingCoward]

Because you are not submitting to God's will hard enough.

[David_Chart]

@Zer

We have a player who say that a character with all the four Ars Goetia doesn't necessarily have the Gift : for him, the Gift is just the ability to learn new powers and supernatural virtues, and not the manifestation of these power

By the rules as written, that player is correct. In fact, a character with all four Ars Goetia is not particularly likely to have The Gift. The character has Infernal powers, and The Gift is associated with Magic.

Some sort of evil aura would be a really appropriate Flaw for the character, but they do not necessarily have it.

@Salutor

Other people have made more in depth and in-character replies, but to state the obvious mechanical determinant: a character has the Gift if they have "The Gift" Special Virtue on their character sheet, along with all that implies, and doesn't if they don't.

This is correct. When you need a quick, game-mechanical answer, this is how to decide.

[John_Prins]

@Timothy_Ferguson

IMO the Gift is a charism. That is, it's a gift in the soul from the Divine.

Probably not? According to Mythic Locations the Mercurian priests had a ritual to grant the Gift. That alone seems to say it's not a charism. True Faith is the charism, of which the Gift is a poor reflection.

The Gift is of the Magic Realm and IMO it's an alignment to the Magic Realm. Being Gifted saves you from Warping from strong Magical Auras and sets you apart from the mundane (i.e. it gives you social penalties that unfortunately apply to everything). Why and how this alignment with the Magic Realm happens is anybody's guess, though like many other things in Ars Magica it's probably related to Warping on the part of the parents.