Scotus Academicus, Tomus quartus: De Angelis

Note 1. From St. Dionysius, chapter 3 of The Celestial Hierarchy: since a Hierarchy is a sacred Order, knowledge, and action, which approaches as far as possible the likeness of the Divinity and is drawn upward to the imitation of God in proportion to the illuminations divinely given to it; its end is the imitation of God; but the means by which the divine likeness can be formed is participation in the divine light, by which the supreme angels, being nearer to God and receiving the divine light more fully and gazing wholly upon divine truths, illuminate and instruct those below them: wherefore in the middle of that same chapter he affirms that the order of the Hierarchy requires that some be purified and purify others: Some are enlightened by the light of doctrine, and some enlighten; and some are perfected, while others perfect: not that only the superior Hierarchy illuminates and purifies the inferior; but since within the same Hierarchy one order is superior and another inferior, the inferior angels are enlightened by the superior.

But those, he says, whose task it is to enlighten, so that their minds may be brighter and of such a kind as properly to be able both to receive light and to impart it to others, being most richly suffused with sacred splendor, pour forth that light with which they are surrounded on all sides upon those who are worthy of it.

Note 2. From the Subtle Doctor in book 2, dist. 9, question 2, number 25: That angelic illumination is a kind of speech about a truth perfective in second act. It is called speech first of all: for every illumination is a speech of an angel to another, although not every speech is an illumination, and accordingly illumination differs from speech as a species from its genus: since speech is about any matter whatsoever, whether perfective of the intellect of the hearer or not perfective, and indifferent; for one angel can address another about a matter whose knowledge he already had, in which case the speech is not perfective of the intellect of the angel hearing it: since it would not instill new knowledge and perfection. There is added "about a truth," not because for illumination it suffices to manifest and declare any truth whatever — otherwise it would not differ from simple speech: but, says the Doctor, it must be about a truth divinely revealed to the superior angel and previously unknown to the angel who is said to be illuminated. Finally it is said to be perfective in second act, since it instills in the illuminated angel actual knowledge of some truth which he could not acquire by his own natural powers, and which he did not previously know through the species concreated with him: since however all knowledge of truth is perfective of the intellect, hence deservedly the angel illuminated, through the revelation of a supernatural truth previously unknown, is rightly said to be perfected in second act, or actually.

Note 3. Concerning the resolution of the present Question the Princes of Theology vary greatly. For some contend that illumination takes place by the simple proposition of the truth about which the illumination is made, without anything being impressed upon the illuminated angel, just as happens among men when a Master teaches and enlightens a disciple by proposing to him the truth to be learned, without any efficiency in his intellect; thus certain more recent Thomists think concerning illumination and angelic speech. Others indeed contend that through illumination something is caused in the intellect of the illuminated angel; so that the illuminated angel, strengthened and fortified, can perceive the thing revealed and proposed to him. Thus St. Thomas, part 1, question 106, article 1, in the body; where he says that angelic illumination takes place by fortifying the intellective power of the angel to be illuminated, and by distinctly manifesting the thing to him; according to these two, he says, one angel can make known a known truth to another: First indeed by fortifying his intellective power. He explains the manner: For just as the power of a less perfect body is fortified by the situational nearness of a more perfect body, as the less hot grows in heat from the presence of what is hotter, so the intellective power of the inferior angel is fortified by the conversion of the superior angel to him. For in spiritual things the order of conversion does what the order of local nearness does in corporeal things. Second, one angel manifests a truth to another on the side of the likeness understood. He explains this manifestation: so that the angel to be illuminated may receive the truth more particularly, while the illuminating angel distinguishes it, so that it can be grasped by the inferior. He gives an example: as among us doctors distinguish in many ways what they grasp in summa, providing for the capacity of others, that is, of disciples. So the Angelic Doctor. — He explains the matter more briefly in answering the 2nd argument there: One angel does not illuminate another by handing over to him the light of nature, or of grace, or of glory, but by fortifying his natural light, and by manifesting to him the truth about things pertaining to the state of nature, and of grace, and of glory. See also question 3, article 1, in the body, and also question 117, article 1, where he teaches that angelic illumination, whether among themselves or toward men, takes place by the proposition of truth and the fortification of the intellective power of the illuminated one.

There are indeed certain other theologians who think that an angel is illuminated by another through the derivation of a certain spiritual ray from the illuminator into the illuminated, by which he is thereby stirred to listen, and through whose mediation he forms in himself the likeness of the thing revealed, about which he is instructed and illuminated by the superior. Some say that through illumination there takes place only an intensification of the light of the inferior angel, who is said to be illuminated. Finally the rest, with the Subtle Doctor, affirm that illumination does not take place by the simple proposition of the thing to be revealed and without the production of any effect in the intellect of the illuminated angel, nor through the causation of a new light, whether natural or supernatural, by which the illuminated angel would become livelier and more powerful for seeing the truth revealed to him; but he contends that this angelic revelation takes place in the same way as speech, namely by producing knowledge of the revealed truth in the intellect of the angel to whom that revelation is made.

First conclusion. — Truly certain angels illuminate others. Thus think all Theologians against Durandus, who in book 2, dist. 11, question 3 affirms that all angels are illuminated by God immediately.

The truth of the conclusion is evident from St. Dionysius cited in the first note, and he teaches this truth at length in the book On the Celestial Hierarchy, especially chapter 7, where concerning the Seraphim he says: That the lower ranks bear up most powerfully in their own likeness, with a luminous and illuminating property expelling all obscurity. And there concerning the Cherubim he says, That they transfuse into what follows and is below the wisdom granted to them. Hence around the middle of the chapter: This the Theologians plainly believe, that the lower orders of celestial natures, rightly unfolding the divine works, learn the sciences from those above: but that the highest are taught the mysteries by God himself according to their capacity. For he shows that some of them rightly learn this from those before them, that the Lord is of the heavenly virtues, and King of glory, he who was assumed into Heaven, as he taught as man. Whence in the following chapter he teaches that the middle distinction of celestial spirits, which contains these divine properties in itself, is indeed purified, and illumined, and perfected, as has been said, by the divine illuminations which are given to it in the second place through the first distinction of the Hierarchy, and through that middle one are carried in the second place. Moreover very many other Fathers subscribe, especially St. Athanasius in the book On the Common Essence, where he says: The Cherubim and Seraphim learn from God without any mediator and interpreter, and by them the lower orders are instructed, and so on in turn the rest according to their rank. Sophronius in the Encomium on the Angels addressed to Seraphinus says: You receive the splendor, as far as is lawful, without any intermediary, and you make what you have received common to the other minds and intelligences. Similarly St. Damascene, book 2, chapter 3.: That indeed, he says, is clear, that those who are more excellent and more sublime impart splendor and knowledge to the lower. Finally St. Bernard in the fifth sermon On Consideration, chapter 1, says of the Cherubim: Drawing from the very fountain of wisdom with the mouth of the Most High, and pouring back the streams of knowledge to all their fellow citizens. Nor does it avail to reply, with Durandus, that the aforesaid holy Fathers wish to say only that God illuminates the lower angels through the mediation of the higher, not by a mediation of causality, but of dignity, inasmuch as no doubt he first illuminates the superiors, and afterwards the others. This reply, I say, does not avail; since from the words of the holy Fathers it is clear that those divine irradiations take place first in the superior angels, and through them are carried down to the inferiors.

The conclusion can also be proved by this argument: to illuminate another is nothing else than to manifest to him an unknown truth: but the superior angels teach and manifest to the inferiors a truth unknown to them: therefore they illuminate them. The major is admitted by all: the minor however is proved: the superior angel, since he is nearer to God, perceives the things of God far more clearly and abundantly than the inferior, seeing that he is of lesser activity and power; and since among them there flourishes the greatest and most perfect friendship, which demands the mutual communication of goods, it is fitting that they pour out that fullness of divine light upon the inferiors. — Further, this order in the state of the universe of things has been prescribed by God, that lower things be governed and perfected through higher ones; whence the higher luminous bodies illuminate the lower; and in the Church the superiors are said to illuminate the inferiors, according to that text of Ephesians 3.: To me, the least of all the saints, is given grace to illuminate all, etc. Rightly therefore, says St. Dionysius, chapter 4 of The Celestial Hierarchy: That supreme and supersubstantial Order of all established through each distinction first, middle, and last orders and virtues, namely that the more excellent of the inferior spirits should be Teachers and Leaders: where the name of Leader and Teacher evidently shows the causality of one in another by way of doctrine and illumination. — Finally, just as although God can produce all things immediately through himself, he nevertheless does not will it so far as he bestows this productive power upon creatures; so likewise he does not will to illuminate all intellectual creatures immediately through himself, but some through the benefit of others, that they may become partakers of that illuminative power: whence the Royal Psalmist, Psalm 6.¹ Illuminating wonderfully from the eternal mountains; that is, not only our souls, but also the inferior angels from the superior, who are therefore metaphorically called mountains; because just as the mountains first receive the rays of the Sun and at last communicate them to the lower parts of the world, so the supreme angels receive the divine illuminations immediately from God: but where, says Dionysius, chapter 3., they have drunk their fill of the most sacred radiance granted to them, thereafter they pour it out upon those who follow without envy.

Truly, says William of Paris, part two of the second part of De Universo, c. 51., this angelic illumination is to be understood not after the manner of bodily and natural influences: for those take place by necessity and a kind of servitude, but these by will and liberty; for it is not in the power of solar light to shine less than it shines, or to withhold anyone from its rays, but as it were by an impulse and violence of divine generosity it diffuses its light in its whole power of luminosity everywhere. But these luminous substances infuse the lights of revelations as they will and as much as they will, and likewise withhold them; and each holds its luminosity most fully in its free power.

You will object 1. Speech and illumination must take place through the production of the knowledge of that thing about which the illumination or speech is made in the intellect of the illuminated or hearing angel: but a blessed angel cannot produce in the intellect of another angel such knowledge as he himself has of an object divinely revealed to him, e.g. of the futurition of Antichrist: therefore neither can he illuminate him. The minor is proved: The angel who is said to illuminate has no other knowledge of such an object than that by which the knowledge is said to be in the Word: but such he cannot communicate to another angel: both because that is beatific vision, which one blessed being cannot produce in another: and because the Subtle Doctor expressly denies here that knowledge in the Word can be bestowed by one angel upon another.

— I deny the minor, and also the minor of its proof, for not every vision of a thing in the Word is beatific vision, nor does the Doctor deny that every vision in the Word can be communicated by one angel to another. For something can be seen in the Word in two ways: in the prior way when through the beatific vision of the Word not only the Word itself or the divine Essence is seen, but also certain secondary objects are seen which shine forth in it: in the latter way something can be seen in the Word insofar as the knowledge of the Word, inasmuch as it was terminated to some particular extrinsic object, for instance to the futurition of Antichrist², which as such was not seen through the beatific vision itself, could be seen through a vision distinct from beatific vision: but when an angel sees something anew in the Word, he is not said to see in the prior way, but only in the latter: whence the prior knowledge cannot be communicated to another angel; but the latter can. *For since the angels are not all of equal beatitude, nor do they altogether have the same beatific vision, a superior angel discovers more in the Word than an angel of the interior order. Therefore when God manifests to a superior angel the time and circumstances of the coming of Antichrist, e.g., that superior angel informs the expressed concept of this truth revealed to him, and directs it into the intellect of the angel to be illuminated, so that in him he may see the immanent concept of the illuminating angel and the thing expressed in it, which he himself saw in the divine Word; which thing that angel, gazing upon it, forms of it an intellection and formal concept by which he is formally illuminated. Therefore a twofold illumination can be distinguished on the side of the efficient cause: one indeed objective, which is made by the revealing angel directing to the other the concept he expressed of the thing manifested to him. The other truly formal on the side of the intellect of the angel to be illuminated, who at the presence of the object proposed to him fashions the image of it or formal concept by which he understands the thing itself and is formally illuminated. — The Doctor further notes in the aforesaid number 25., that this formal illumination can be a disposition to a more excellent illumination, which will take place through the vision of the same thing by the illuminated angel in the Word, namely if that illuminated angel, seeing the image of that thing which the illuminator saw in the Word, as representing the thing itself most perfectly as in a mirror, should desire to behold the same in that divine mirror through beatific vision; which vision if God grants to him, he will without doubt be illuminated far more excellently, and will apprehend the thing more clearly and distinctly than he had before perceived it in the expressed concept directed to him by the illuminating angel.

You will ask. how the inferior angel, to whom that vision of such an object revealed to him, for instance of Antichrist to come, is not owed, can behold it in the divine Word?

I answer. that vision to be indeed immediately and directly not owed to the angel; but not mediately and indirectly so entirely not owed, because on occasion of the revelation made by the illuminating angel there has been stirred up in the illuminated angel the desire of beholding the thing itself more distinctly and more clearly; which desire God, willing to satisfy out of his goodness, manifests the object itself to the desiring angel in the Word as in a divine mirror: so that he who had seen the thing in the expressed concept directed by the illuminating angel, as in an imperfect mirror, says the Doctor, sees it in the Word as in a perfect mirror, and rejoices in seeing and is perfectly illuminated. Whence he concludes that vision to be disposively from the superior angel, because he gave the occasion of this desire which is fulfilled in the Word.*

You will object 2. The heavenly Jerusalem, Apocalypse 21.³ is said not to need the Sun, nor the Moon, that is, created light, because the clarity of God illumined it: therefore since the angels are citizens of that supernal city, they must be said to be illuminated by God alone. 2. God alone beatifies the angels both in essential and in accidental beatitude; but illumination is a kind of accidental beatitude: therefore God alone produces it in all the angels. 3. Illumination takes place by proposing the object and fortifying the intellect, because such illumination confers glorious knowledge, to which nature does not suffice unless it receives strength and vigor from God: but God alone can propose a supernatural object and fortify the intellect of any angel: therefore he alone can illuminate an angel immediately.

— I answer to the first. that those words of the Apocalypse are to be understood of those things which pertain to beatific vision and the manifestation of the Deity itself, which God alone can effect and bestow; but not of that illumination which pertains to certain supernatural truths, which God can reveal to one of the Blessed apart from another. Whence the consequence must be distinguished: The angels are not illuminated except by God, with that illumination which is the intuitive and clear manifestation of the divine essence, I concede; which is the declaration of a certain supernatural truth specially revealed by God to one angel, I deny.

To the second I distinguish the major. to beatify essentially, both effectively, namely by bestowing the beatific light by which the created intellect is illumined, elevated, and fortified to elicit beatific vision, and objectively, by terminating that vision itself, pertains to God alone, I concede: to beatify accidentally, not indeed primarily, but after the manner of a certain appendage, namely by manifesting a certain truth which can confer some perfection upon the beatific intellect, pertains to God alone, I deny: for there is nothing inconvenient in the superior angels cooperating in some way in the acts pertaining to the accidental beatitude of the inferior angels; seeing that men wayfarers can cooperate in the sanctification of other men, which is more excellent than accidental beatitude itself.

To the third I deny the major, since ordinarily the illuminated angel, in the opinion of the Doctor, is merely passive in receiving the illumination, which is wholly produced by the illuminating angel, or at least concurs only effectively with the species emitted by the illuminating angel for perceiving that thing about which the illumination is made, and consequently no other virtue is required in him than that which is ordinary to him.

You will object 3. No blessed angel is overwhelmed with darkness: therefore none can be illuminated. — The Doctor distinguishes the antecedent. as regards the privation of the knowledge of that thing which pertains to his beatitude, he concedes it: as regards the privation of the knowledge of some other object, he denies it. For just as it is not inconvenient that blessed angels be in potency to some knowledge which has the character of light, so neither is it incongruous that they be in potency to the privation of some knowledge, which can be called obscurity, not positively, but negatively.

Finally you will object. If a superior angel were to illuminate an inferior, since he has a greater light, he would impede him from his own operation, just as the light of the Sun, which is far greater than the light of the stars, impedes their effect, whereby it comes about that while the Sun shines the stars do not gleam: therefore one cannot illuminate another. — I deny the antecedent, in proof of which I say that the light of the Sun does not extinguish the light of the stars, since even at midday the stars can be seen in the depths of wells: and therefore although the power of the illuminating angel is far superior to that of the illuminated, he does not on that account extinguish the latter's light, nor impede his operation. Add that, says the Doctor in number 26., the parity does not hold of sensible light with respect to the eye to intelligible light with respect to the intellect. For, according to Aristotle, book three of De anima, text 7., after the most excellent intelligibles we understand other things no less, but more: but after the most excellent sensibles we sense other sensibles less, because the power or organ is weakened.

Second conclusion. — *Angelic illumination takes place through the impression of the knowledge and truth which the illuminator transfuses concerning the thing revealed.** Thus the Subtle Doctor in book 2, dist. 9, question 2, number 25., where treating of illumination he writes:

that illumination in an angel is a kind of speech about a truth, perfective in second act. For just as not every intellection is simply the perfection of the angelic intellect, but the vision of the Word, and not the vision of quiddities, whether through habitual or intuitive species: so neither does every cognition of singulars, other than the vision of the Word and the cognition of quiddities, equally perfect the angelic intellect, as it were secondarily, but the vision of the truth revealed perfects in second act: but not so the singular cognition in its proper genus. I say then that the superior angel, to whom according to the common course something particular is first revealed, causes in the inferior a certain concept of that thing revealed, which is called hearing, and to cause this, which is a kind of special speaking, is to illuminate. It also seems probable that the illuminating angel causes something in the illuminated, and not in himself: because God himself, illuminating the first angel, causes nothing in himself, but in the illuminated angel.

These words of the Doctor, in which he declares and establishes first, that illumination is a kind of speech about the revealed object, which is perfective of the intellect of the illuminated angel in actus secundus. Secondly he establishes that it takes place through the production of a concept of the truth itself revealed by the illuminating angel in the intellect of the illuminated. Thirdly he judges it probable that the illuminating angel is not changed in himself while he illuminates: but that the illuminated is changed by God through the illumination, for God, who reveals the unknown thing, changes the illuminated angel himself through the illuminating angel by conferring on him a new knowledge which he did not have. Since however the illuminator was already endowed with that knowledge, he is not changed by it, for the agent is not changed by the action by which he produces the term in the patient, which is truly changed. These things having been premised, so that it may be clear what the opinion of the Doctor is, the Conclusion must now be proved.*

And that by the same reasons set forth in the preceding Question; for since illumination is a kind of speech, as was said in the 2nd note; and since speech takes place through the direction of the expressed concept to the intellect of the hearer, the illumination itself must likewise be judged to take place in the same way.

Third conclusion. — Not only can a superior angel illuminate an inferior, but also an inferior a superior. Thus the Doctor in the place cited, number 25.:

I say, he says, that God by his absolute power could reveal something to an inferior angel which was not revealed, or known, to the superior, and then that inferior could in some way speak to the superior about that which the superior was ignorant of, and that speech would be in some way an illumination. Yet it cannot have so great an efficacy over the intellect of the superior as over the intellect of the inferior, and therefore he could not necessarily make the superior hear, as conversely, because if the superior considers something in its proper genus, that inferior would not make him hear simpliciter. But simpliciter the superior can make the inferior hear, and can impede his intellection of some intelligible. In fact however it is likely that God distributes his illuminations in an ordered way, as he distributes the angels in their orders; first indeed to the superiors, then to the inferiors.

In which words the Doctor admits that in the ordinary way the inferior angels are illuminated through the superiors; yet that in an extraordinary way the superiors can receive light from the inferiors. For since God is the most free distributor of his gifts, he can reveal to any angel as he pleases those things which are hidden even from the others most near to himself, and can will that the thing declared by an inferior be known by the other superior angels also: just as in the Church militant he reveals not only things to come, but also truths most lofty, to most holy men, though unlearned and plebeian, sometimes, that they may make them known to the Prelates and Doctors of the Church.