Scotus Academicus, Tomus quartus: De Angelis

It is a matter of faith that the angels were brought forth by God. For Sacred Scripture openly hands down that God is the one God from whom all other things have been created: thus John 1. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. And Romans 11. From him, and through him, and in him are all things. Indeed, as is read in Esther 13, You made Heaven and Earth, and whatever is contained within the compass of Heaven; you are Lord of all. The Apostle bears witness to this specifically of the angels, whom he reckons among the works of God at Colossians 1: In him all things were created, * in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created through him and in him*; whereby the Apostle clearly signifies that the angels were created by God. For just as by "visible" he wished to embrace all bodily creatures, whether heavenly or sublunary, so it is most certain that by "invisible" spiritual and intelligent creatures are denoted, namely the angels.

Nor does Moses declare this obscurely at Gen. 2: the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the ornament of them: or as the Hebrew text has it, all their host, namely the angels. For nothing is more familiar to Scripture than that the angels are called the host of heaven. So Psal. 23, verses 20 and 21; and Psal. 148, verse 2; and Luke 2, verse 13. Hence God is called Sabaoth, that is, of hosts, chiefly from the multitude of the angels who surround him.

*Hence the Royal Psalmist, after saying at Psal. 145: Praise him, all his angels, adds: For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. I pass over the general Councils and the Symbols of faith in which it is asserted that God is the maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible. For not only does natural reason demonstrate this truth, as we signified in the first Tom., Tract. 1, Disp. 1, Sect. 1, where it was proved that some being from itself must necessarily be admitted, from which all other things are; but experience itself also persuades it, since it is evident that the angels are subject to God and serve him: the good indeed willingly, but the wicked unwillingly, as appears in the Exorcisms of energumens; but if the angels were from themselves, they would not be so subject to God, for a being from itself in no way depends on another, nor can it be subject to it.

Note 2. That the angels were created by God for a threefold end. First indeed on account of the concord of divine praises, whence Plato calls them Sirens; St. Bernard the singers of heaven; Gregory, heralds of divine praises; Athanasius, an unceasing hymn and unresting praise of the magnificence of God; hence God himself, addressing Job, says: Where were you when the morning stars praised me, and all the sons of God rejoiced? Second, the angels were created that they might administer the corporeal world. For divine Providence is accustomed to rule lower things through higher ones, and to administer bodily things through spiritual ones; hence the angels are said to be rulers of the world, ministers of divine Providence, and to bear up the orb, according to that of Job, chap. 9: God, whose anger no one resists, beneath whom they are bowed down who bear up the orb. Seneca also knew this truth, for he says in Lactantius, book 1, Divinarum Institutionum, chap. 5:

When God was laying the first foundations of the most beautiful mass, and beginning this work which nature knew to be neither greater nor better, so that all things might go forth under their Leaders — although he himself had extended himself through the whole body, yet he begot ministers of his kingdom, the gods (that is, the angels).

Third, the angels were created that they might assist men, and rule and guard them, according to that of Hebrews 1: All are ministering spirits, sent to minister for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.

Note 3. That in fact the angels were not created from eternity; not because they could not have been created from eternity — since God from eternity could have produced any creature whatsoever, especially an angel, as we demonstrated at length in our Physica — but because it pleased God to produce creatures of any kind after their non-existence, and consequently not from eternity. Nor indeed were they created long after the world was formed; since at Job 38 they are said to have praised God when he founded the earth: therefore they had already then been brought forth into light. There remains, therefore, a difficulty to be examined, whether the angels were created before that moment of which it is said: In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth; concerning which there are chiefly two opposing opinions of Authors. The first indeed is that of several Greek Fathers who, with Origen, Tractate 9 on Matthew, contend that the angels are more ancient, not only than man created afterward, but than every creature made on account of him; which opinion Cassian, Collation 8, chap. 7, affirms was undoubted among all the faithful: nevertheless nearly all the Scholastics cry out against it together with very many of the holy Fathers, both Greek and Latin, as will be shown

First conclusion. — In truth the angels were not created before the corporeal world, but together with it.

This truth seems to be determined in the Lateran Council, chapter Firmiter, where we read:

One is the Principle of all things, Creator of all, of things visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal, who by his omnipotent power from the beginning of time created both creatures together out of nothing, the spiritual namely, and the corporeal, that is, the angelic and the mundane: and then the human, as it were common, constituted of spirit and body.

The Council, however, speaks of simultaneity of time, as is clear from those words: God from the beginning of time together: for although otherwise the particle simul could be taken in a collective sense, not a temporal one, as if it said: God equally or alike created both creatures — in which way it is taken in certain other places of Scripture, as together the foolish and the senseless shall perish, that is, they shall perish alike, namely by the same kind of corporeal death, though not together in time and in the same instant — nevertheless that particle simul written by the Council cannot be taken otherwise than of simultaneity of time, sufficiently declared there, because the Council does not say only that God created together, but added: from the beginning of time he created both creatures together. Moreover, immediately it subjoins: and then the human, etc. But the particle deinde can signify nothing else than posteriority of time, because the human creature was created only on the sixth day of the world, when first the angels were created together with Heaven and Earth: therefore just as the particle deinde necessarily signifies posteriority of time, so also the particle simul denotes its simultaneity.

This same thing is proved also from the Constantinopolitan Council, Action 11, where the letter of Sophronius was read and approved, in which God is said to have created all things invisible and visible, the creature spiritual and corporeal, and to have constituted the beginning for all times.

This same thing Sacred Scripture indicates, Genesis chap. 1: In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, where the particle, in principio, sounds the same as before he did anything, as it is taken in Proverbs 8, where Wisdom speaks thus: The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he did anything, from the beginning: for thus St. Augustine expounds the same particle, book 11, De Civitate Dei, chap. 6. Then from chap. 20 of Exodus: Six days did God make Heaven and Earth, and all things that are in them: which last particle, according to the manner of speaking of sacred Scripture, embraces also the angels themselves; for in Psal. 148 the angels are numbered among those things that are in the Heavens.* *It accedes that whatever was before the world is God himself, because this prerogative is claimed for him in Scripture, psalm 91, verse 2; and Proverbs VIII, verse 22; and John I, verse 1, when it is said: In the beginning was the Word, whereby it is signified that before the created world nothing existed besides the divine Trinity, and consequently the angels did not yet exist*

The holy Fathers teach this same truth: of the Greeks indeed St. Epiphanius, heresy 65, where he says Scripture plainly indicates that the angels were not before Heaven and Earth: Since, he says, this word is plainly immutable, that before Heaven and Earth there was nothing of created things. Theodoret consents, Question 3 on Genesis, although he uses a reason not sufficiently to be approved: namely, that an angel needs a place in which it would be received: Because if there is not, he says, in the nature of things something that comprehends, how will there be something that is comprehended? Likewise Procopius, in the Preface to Genesis, referring both opinions, brings forward this one, and says that Moses, by the name of Heaven, comprehended the angels when he said: In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, where the container is put for the contained. Bede himself sings in accord with these, tom. 4, in Exameron, saying that the angels were created in the beginning together with Heaven and Earth, and therefore that Moses said of the earth that in the beginning it was empty and void, because it lacked fruits and inhabitants; but that he did not say this of Heaven; Because, soon created, it was filled with its inhabitants, that is, with the most blessed Spirits of the angels; whence Moses subjoins: The Heavens were finished, and all the ornament of them; seeing that they had their due inhabitants. — To this opinion subscribe also very many of the Latin SS. Fathers, with saint Augustine lib. 11. De Civit. Dei, cap. 6. and the imperfect book upon Genesis, chap. 3, especially St. Gregory, book 32, Moral., chap. 9, Beda in Exameron, etc.

This truth can also be persuaded by theological reason: First indeed a priori, by that congruity, namely, which St. Thomas sets forth, question 61, art. 3: namely that God created this Universe in the manner of a workmanship most excellent and absolute; but that it may be perfect, it ought to consist of spiritual and corporeal things: therefore he ought to produce both parts of the Universe together, not indeed one after the other, lest, the former being produced long before the other, the Universe would not stand integrated, nor consisting of its parts. — It can truly be proved a posteriori thus: when the angels sinned, the Heavens already stood high, since immediately against the rebels there was made a great battle in Heaven; for Michael, and his angels fought with the Dragon, namely Lucifer, Apocalyps. 12, and the arch-enemy Lucifer, with his most lost followers, was cast down out of Heaven immediately after sin, according to that of Luke 10: I saw Satan falling like lightning from Heaven. Which almost all sacred Interpreters explain of the ruin, and fall of the angels.

But it is more probable that the angels sinned shortly after their formation; for it is not made probable that the wicked stood long in grace, because it is credible that the state of the way of the angels was ended in a briefer space than that of men, since the angels are by their own nature more prompt in operation and election than men; but it is evident that Adam did not stand innocent so long: therefore it seems the demon persevered in grace by a much smaller interval of time.

— It is confirmed from this, that for the angels sinning eternal fire was prepared, as is evident both from that Matth. 25: Go into eternal fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his angels: therefore as soon as they sinned, they paid the penalties of their guilt; and from 2 Petr. 2: If indeed God spared not the angels that sinned, but dragged them down by chains of hell into Tartarus, to be tormented; therefore already then the tartarean place existed when the angels first sinned.

You will say 1. Sacred Scripture not obscurely insinuates that the angels already existed when God created the Universe; therefore they were not created with it. The antecedent is proved. First from chap. 28 of Job, where God addressing him says: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth..... when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God rejoiced? that is, the angels. Also chap. 40, of Behemoth it is said, He is the beginning of the ways of the Lord, that is, of creatures: therefore Lucifer, who by sin was made Behemoth and the Devil, was brought forth before the other creatures, and the same must be said of the other angels. Finally, at Titus 1, of the Incarnation of the Word it is said: which he promised, who lies not, God, before the times of ages: therefore it was necessary that some should have been before the created world, to whom the promise of incarnating the Word would be made: certainly to none others than the angels: therefore then they were standing.

I deny the antecedent, and to its first proof I say that the angels could have been present at the creation of the stars, especially since the Sun and Moon, and the other stars were not created on the first day. Add that the angels themselves, having been created with all the endowments of Intelligence, could have known God immediately from their formation *and burst forth into his praises. But from that sacred text nothing is had from which it could be gathered that they were created long before the Mosaic beginning. Indeed, since from this it is evident that they are a certain part of the universe, no reason can be given why that part remained separated from its whole through so many centuries. And what need was there to create those ministering spirits at so great an interval of time, before there were those to whom they would be sent, and whom they would serve?*

To the second text I say that by Behemoth, literally is understood the Elephant, or some other terrestrial animal of the genus of Dragons; just as Leviathan signifies either the whales of the sea, or some genus of fish. But it is rightly called the beginning of the ways of God; not because it precedes the other works in duration, but because in power of body, magnitude, and fortitude it excels the other beasts. If however you take these things of the demon, I will reply with Beda, question 9, ex variis, that Lucifer was first, by prelation of order, not of quantity of time.

To the third context I say that that word promisit does not signify any promise made by word, but the eternal predestination of God, as SS. Chrysostom and Anselm explain that place; namely in that mode in which he speaks, 2 ad Timoth. 1: According to his own purpose, and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, before the times of ages: what here he calls purpose, there he calls promise.

You will say 2. Very many of the holy Fathers openly teach that the angels truly existed not only before the creation of the world, but even some contend they were created from eternity: thus *in the first place Origen, lib. 3, De Principiis, c. 5, where he says that God created the world, and much more the spiritual substances, from eternity. For if, he says, the world is from time, what was God doing before the world was made? To call the nature of God idle is at once idle and absurd; or to think that goodness sometimes did not make, or that omnipotence sometimes did not exercise its might. To him subscribes *S. Basilius, Homilia prima Exameron;

There was indeed, he says, a certain status prior to the generation of the world, abstracted from that concretion of matter, more excellent than the world, accommodated to decorum, anterior also in condition of time, namely eternal and perpetual. Thus Hieronymus on the Epistle to Titus, chap. 1.: Six thousand years of our time are not yet completed, and how great times, how great origins of ages must be judged to have been, in which Angels, Thrones, Dominions, and the other Orders served God? To him subscribes S. Damasc., lib. 2, De Fide: Certain ones say, that before every creature the Angels were born, as the Theologian Gregory says. First indeed God devised the angelic virtues, and the celestial, and the devising was his work. Of the Latin Fathers S. Clemens Papa signifies, lib. 8, Constitut., chap. 12, saying: O God, who before all things madest Cherubim and Seraphim, and Ages, and Armies, Virtues and Powers, Principalities and Thrones, Archangels and Angels: and who after all these fabricatedst this world that is seen, and all things that are contained in it: therefore it is certain from their mind that the angels were created before the world.

I answer. Truly indeed the praised holy Fathers were of the opinion that the angels were created before corporeal things: but contrary is the opinion of several other Fathers, and now it has prevailed more among all sacred Doctors, and seems more conformable to sacred Scripture, as is evident from the texts praised by us above. But concerning saint Basil, who seems to assert that the mundane substances, which he calls potentiae, existed from eternity, I would judge him to be understood thus, that the angels, in his opinion, were created before the motion of the Heavens, which we call time, before which he judges there was a certain interval more ancient than time and generation, in which he thinks the angels were created; and that therefore he calls it eternal, because it is preceded by no true time.

You will say 3. It does not seem consonant with reason to believe that God was idle for so many centuries before the creation of the corporeal creature: therefore we ought to assert that God communicated his goodness to spiritual creatures before he produced corporeal creatures. Theodoret answers, Question 3 on Genesis, that that reason is empty and futile, for if it had any weight, it would certainly prove that the angels were brought forth by God from eternity, lest through eternal duration God should be idle. For however he had created the Spirits from the beginning, even if he had produced them before the corporeal creature, it would follow that through eternal duration before their production God was idle: but no Catholic will judge this absurdity.

You will say 4. If the angels had been created with the corporeal world, Moses would have made some mention of their creation: but he made no mention of them, when he spoke of the creation of the corporeal world: therefore it is a sign that they were not created with the corporeal world. St. Augustine answers, in the book de Genesi ad litteram, and with him Beda in the Exameron, that the creation of the angels was not omitted by Moses, but expressed by the name of light, which God formed on the first day of all. Some indeed judge that in truth the angels were passed over by Moses, and that deliberately, lest namely he give occasion to the Jews, prone to Idololatria, to worship them as Gods. But by this reason he ought never to have made mention of them anywhere, since discourse about the angels would have afforded the same occasion of idolatry. I would judge therefore it truer to say that Moses made no mention of the creation of the angels because the reason of his institute did not demand it: for his scope was to weave the history of the Church, and to take its beginning from the beginning of the world; therefore it sufficed him to delineate the origin of the world, from which the Church takes her origin. Not passing over the angels either, presently, as the reason of his institute demanded in adorning the history of the Church; in nearly similar mode, in histories of Kingdoms, accurate mention is not always made of the origin of the neighboring Kingdom. But that the angels were brought forth by God was sufficiently evident in the single moment of time; since they are spiritual substances, involving no succession in their being.

Second conclusion. — It is more probable that the angels were created in the sidereal Heaven, which is proximate to the Empyrean.

Proof 1. By the authority of S. Hieronymi, lib. 6, In Isai., cap. 14, where, weighing those words: I will ascend into Heaven, which he had previously said could be understood of the fall of the angels, and asking: if he was still placed in Heaven, how does he say: I will ascend into Heaven? he answers: But because we read Heaven the Heaven of the Lord, while he was in Heaven, that is, in the Firmament, he desired to ascend into Heaven, where the throne of the Lord is.

Likewise it is persuaded from this, that by this reason all those texts of sacred Scripture can easily be understood literally, by which it is evident that Lucifer fell with the angels from Heaven, and desired to ascend into Heaven. Thus also it appears that the angels had a place corresponding to their natural dignity, and afterwards obtained one worthy of their merits, so that the faithful and observant toward God were raised into the empyrean Heavens, but the hostile cast down into Tartarus.

You will say. Lucifer is said, Ezech. 28, to have been in the delights of Paradise: but the Heaven which is Paradise is not sidereal, but empyrean: therefore not in that, but in this were the angels created and stood. Then, the angels ought to have been created in the place noblest and supreme of all; for the place always corresponds to the dignity of the one placed, as appears in corporeal things themselves, which the nobler they are, the higher place they obtain: but no place is nobler and more sublime than the empyrean: therefore the angels ought to have been created in it. Finally, since the angels are incorruptible and consistent substances, they ought to have been formed in a consistent and immovable place: but such is not the sidereal Heaven, but the empyrean: therefore in this, not in that, the angels ought to have been formed.

Answer to the first. By the name of Paradise is here not signified that most delightful place which blessed minds occupy, and which is commonly named the seat of the Blessed; for no Theologian will admit that the Devil ever stood in it: but those gifts of heavenly charisms are understood, wherewith Lucifer, illuminated and enriched with the other angels, had been in that sidereal Heaven, marked expressly by the name of Paradise because it had been illuminated not only by twinkling stars, but also by angels.

To the second. I say it is false that a higher place is conveniently assigned to the nobler thing; for man holds primacy among corporeal things, nevertheless inhabits a lower place.

Finally to the third I answer. An angel is not necessarily moved with the motion of Heaven, since it occupies no corporeal place, nor adheres to it: and so it could stand unmoved in the movable. Add that no inconvenience appears, that the angels were moved together with the Sidereal Heaven; since everywhere they had God most present.