Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (7).

1. What should be considered concerning the angels. The following matters should first be considered concerning angelic nature: when it was created, where, and what it was like when first made; then what it became through the turning away of some and the turning toward God of others; and also something should be said about its excellence, orders, differences of gifts, offices, names, and many other matters.

2. He first states when the angels were made, since authorities seem to conflict on this point. Certain authorities seem to imply that the angels were created before every other creature. Hence the statement, “Wisdom was created before all things,” is understood of angelic nature, which Scripture often calls life, wisdom, and light. For the Wisdom who is God was not created: the Son is the begotten Wisdom of the Father, neither made nor created; and the whole Trinity is one Wisdom, neither made nor created, neither begotten nor proceeding. This statement must therefore be understood of angelic life, of which Scripture says when it was made: “before all things.” — But another Scripture says: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth”; and the Prophet says: “At the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” — These assertions seem to give rise to a contradiction. For if Wisdom was created “before all things,” everything else seems to have been made after it; thus heaven and earth seem to have been made after it, and it before heaven and earth. Again, if “in the beginning God created heaven and earth,” nothing was made before heaven and earth, nor was Wisdom itself made before them. Since these statements therefore seem opposed, and it is not permissible to think that there is any contradiction in divine Scripture, let us seek the true understanding.

3. He teaches what should be held, distinguishing the foregoing authorities. It seems, then, that we should hold that spiritual creation, namely the angelic, and corporeal creation were made at the same time, as we may understand Solomon’s statement: “He who lives forever created all things together,” that is, spiritual and corporeal nature. Thus the angels were not created earlier in time than the corporeal matter of the four elements. Yet “Wisdom was created before all things,” because although it does not precede in time, it does precede in dignity.

4. He confirms by an authority that corporeal and spiritual creation were made together. Augustine plainly shows in On the Literal Meaning of Genesis that spiritual and corporeal creation are understood by “heaven and earth,” and that these were created “in the beginning,” that is, at the beginning of time, or “in the beginning” because they were made first.

¹

²

³

⁴

Chapter 2 (8).

Nothing was made before heaven and earth, not even time: they were created with time, but not from time. For nothing was made before them. Nor was time made before spiritual—namely angelic—nature, or before corporeal nature, namely the confused matter of the four elements. These were created with time, not from time or within time; just as time itself was not created within time, since there was no time before heaven and earth existed. — Hence Augustine says in On the Trinity that God was Lord before time existed, and did not begin to be Lord in time, because he was Lord of time when time began to exist. Nor did time itself begin to exist in time, since there was no time before time began.

Chapter 3 (9).

1. Corporeal and spiritual creation began together with time and the world. Corporeal and spiritual creation were therefore made together with time and the world; the angelic creature did not exist before the world, since, as Augustine says, “no creature exists before the ages, but from the ages,” with which it began.

2. Jerome seems to contradict this, as though angels existed before time. Jerome, however, seems to think otherwise in his commentary on the Epistle to Titus, saying: “Six thousand years of our time have not yet been completed. How many eternities before this, how many times, how many beginnings of ages, should we suppose there were, during which Angels, Thrones, Dominations, and the other orders served God without the changes and measurements of time, and at God’s command subsisted?” Certain people, adhering to these words, said that worldly time began with the world, but that before the world there existed eternal time without mutability; in it, they maintained, the angels subsisted and served God immutably and timelessly, at his command.

3. We, however, approve more readily what was said earlier, as far as our understanding allows, while still revering the mysteries in which nothing should be asserted rashly. We think that Jerome said this not as his own view, but while reporting the opinion of others.

Chapter 4 (10).

1. Where the angels were immediately after their creation: in the empyrean, which was made at once and filled with angels. It has already been shown when angelic nature was created; now we must consider where it was made.

2. The testimony of certain authorities clearly shows that before the fall the angels were in heaven, and that some fell from there through pride, while those who did not sin remained there. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel: “I saw Satan falling from heaven like lightning.” Here “heaven” does not mean the firmament made on the second day, but the bright heaven called the empyrean—that is, fiery—not from heat but from brightness. It was made at once, filled with angels, and is above the firmament.

3. Some interpreters of sacred Scripture also wish the empyrean to be understood by the name “heaven” where Scripture says, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” — Strabo. “Here,” Strabo says, “heaven does not mean the visible firmament, but the empyrean, that is, the fiery or intellectual heaven, called so not from burning but from brightness. It was made at once and filled with angels. Hence: ‘When the morning stars praised me’,” and so forth. — Bede. Bede also says of this: “As soon as this heaven above, separated from the revolving world, was created, it was filled with the holy angels, whom the Lord testifies were created in the beginning together with heaven and earth, saying: ‘Where were you when the morning stars praised me and all the sons of God shouted for joy?’ He calls the same angels morning stars and sons of God. For the heaven in which the luminaries were placed” was made not in the beginning but on the second day. — From these statements it is clear that all the angels were in the empyrean before the fall of some of them, and that the angels were created at the same time as the empyrean heaven and the unformed matter of all corporeal things.

⁵

⁶

⁷

⁸

⁹

Chapter 5 (11).

The matter of visible things and the nature of invisible things were created together; each was unformed in one respect and formed in another. The matter of visible things and the nature of invisible things were created together, and each was unformed in one respect and formed in another. For just as the confused and mixed matter of corporeal things, called “chaos” in Greek, had at that first beginning of creation the form of confusion, but lacked the form of distinction and separation until it was formed later and received distinct kinds, so spiritual and angelic nature at its creation was formed according to its natural state, yet lacked the form it was later to receive through love and turning toward its Creator; without that form it was unformed. — Hence Augustine, explaining the foregoing words of Genesis in various ways, says that “heaven” means “the unformed nature of spiritual life, as it can exist in itself, not turned toward the Creator by whom it is formed; and earth means corporeal matter without any of the qualities that appear in formed matter.”

Chapter 6 (12).

How Lucifer can say according to Isaiah, “I will ascend into heaven,” and so on, when he was already in heaven. It is customary to ask here: if the angels were in the empyrean heaven as soon as they were made, how can Lucifer, as we read in Isaiah, say, “I will ascend into heaven and exalt my throne, and I will be like the Most High”? — Solution. There he calls God’s loftiness “heaven,” to which he wished to make himself equal. “I will ascend into heaven” therefore means, “I will rise to equality with God.”