Scotus Academicus, Tomus quartus: De Angelis

Note 1. All the angels, besides their distribution into three Hierarchies and nine Orders, are commonly divided into Assistants, and Ministrants, which division is taken from Daniel 7.¹ Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand assisted him: from which oracle the Doctors infer that there are more assisting angels, as it were the Princes of the heavenly court, than ministrant ones; for the Prophet designates the assisting ones in a greater number than the ministrant ones. Hence some conjecture that not all the angels are deputed by God from heaven to earth to men: but only those who are of the last hierarchy, while the rest assist God, ever present in heaven, and never appear to men; whether this is true is to be determined here.

Note 2. According to the Doctor, in 2. dist. 10. qu. unica, num. 2., a twofold Mission of the angels can be distinguished: one exterior, sensible, and immediate; the other interior, insensible, and mediate. The former is that by which the angels are sent by God to men, insofar as they either insinuate the divine will into them, or stimulate and enkindle their affection toward divine love, or illustrate and illuminate their intellect — not only by imparting divine light to them, but also by suggesting to them the truths entrusted to themselves: the latter, however, is that by which the higher angels are sent to the lower ones, so that they may instruct them concerning the divine mysteries and the divine will, insofar as they themselves may be able to teach the same things to men: According to the common process, and order, says the Doctor, the great mysteries of God are revealed to the higher angels, before the lower ones: and so the higher ones are sent to the lower ones by speaking, and illuminating them interiorly: and those lower ones are sent exteriorly, to announce or explain those revealed things to men: and so not all are commonly sent abroad. Whether, however, at least extraordinarily, all the angels are sent by God to men for the sake of announcing certain great mysteries, or transacting affairs, or conferring benefits, is to be resolved here.

Note 3. Although all the Scholastic Doctors agree that the angels are sometimes sent by God to men, so that they may illuminate their intellect and inflame their affection; yet very many disagree among themselves in assigning the mode of that illumination and inflammation; for the Seraphic Doctor says, dist. 11. art. 2. par. 2:

our souls can be illuminated by the blessed angels through their revelations in three ways; In one way, he says, so that the angel is understood to illuminate the interior portion after the manner of an irradiating light: In another way, so that he is understood to illuminate after the manner of a mirror that bears [the image]: In a third way, so that he is understood to illuminate after the manner of a tongue expressing with liveliness. All these modes, although they are in some way intelligible, since the angel is a light, and a mirror, and has also the office of spiritual interpretation or speech, can be maintained; the third mode, however, is more intelligible. For it does not appear very well how the angel irradiates, nor how he offers himself to the sight of the soul; but this is sufficiently intelligible, how the soul can suggest what it has conceived: and just as the Doctor > when he speaks outwardly, and prepares the way for understanding, and a living and efficacious speech has entrance into our intellect with a certain liveliness, while it sounds outwardly in the ear of the body, by reason of which a man also hears more willingly a good cleric, whose speech is efficacious, and living: since it has something of the latent energy of the act of a living voice, as Jerome says: so also in this way it is to be understood, that the angel can do this interiorly, and thus illuminate, not by infusing light, nor only by offering himself as an object or mirror, but also by exciting with liveliness, just as the Doctor does outwardly, and in an even more efficacious way.

These things having been thus premised, three points are to be resolved. First, whether the angels are truly sent by God from heaven to earth for the homage of men: Second, whether not only those from the last Hierarchy, but also from the other two higher ones are sometimes thus deputed: Third, what is the principal, and ordinary effect of that angelic mission.

First conclusion. — The angels are truly sometimes sent to men. This is of faith, and is proved by various texts of Scripture: Exodus 23. Behold I will send my Angel, who may go before thee in the way. Luke 1.² The Angel Gabriel was sent. Acts 12. Now I know in very deed that the Lord hath sent his Angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod.

The Seraphic Doctor proves this Conclusion in the place cited above, q. 1. from the fact that this mission most highly befits divine charity, which is manifested through that mission; and angelic charity, which through it helps us; and our own, which, since it is weak, is fostered, nourished, and excited through angelic homage. This mission, I say, accords with divine charity, because in this the divine goodness is manifested, how greatly it loves our salvation, while it directs and sends the noblest Spirits, who are joined to it by intimate charity, to procure our salvation. And it befits also angelic charity; for since it belongs to ardent charity to desire most greatly the salvation of others, on account of which the Lord says, as Isaiah also said, cap. 6., Behold me, Lord, send me: and the angels are able to help us, for the reason that they see us to stand in need of their help, and the evil angels to assail us unceasingly; therefore, that they be sent to us, the law of angelic charity requires. This also befits human charity, which, since it is small as long as we are in the way, needs to be fostered, and nourished, and excited. And since the angels are fellow-citizens of men, because they are not joined to them by a likeness of nature which excites to love, it was fitting that they be joined by the homage of beneficence.

You will say 1. A man sends a messenger in vain, where he himself is present, and can do better by himself: therefore since God is most present to us, and can do all things by himself, he sends an Angel to us in vain: but God undertakes nothing in vain: therefore he does not send an Angel either.

— The Seraphic Doctor answers, that although God is present, nevertheless on account of the blindness and darkness of our intellect in which we are, we know him as absent. And because those Spirits, on account of the clarity of the light, and the perfection of beatitude, always see God face to face, and are present to him, just as those who are in the King's chamber make known the will of the King to those who are in the King's army, and are sent for this purpose by their Lord: so it is to be understood in the matter at hand. Nor does this avail: The Lord can do it by himself: therefore he should not send a messenger for this. For he who presides can do many things by himself, which he nevertheless enjoins upon a servant, or messenger, so that a seemly and fitting order of actions may be preserved in the ministry.

You will say 2. God sent the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to restore our salvation: therefore for procuring it the mission of the angels is not necessary. — The Seraphic Doctor denies the consequence: for although the Son, and the Holy Spirit, truly restored our salvation most sufficiently through their mission to us, since we are nevertheless endowed with freedom, and our will is sluggish, and does not cooperate well with grace, it therefore needs to be excited: and for this no one is more suitable than an angel: and therefore it is fitting that he be sent to us, not on account of any need in the procuring of our salvation on the part of the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but on account of the negligence of cooperation on our part.

You will say 3. The blessed angel has his seat in the empyrean heaven, as in a place congruent, and most suitable, to himself, and consequently desires to be there: therefore if he is sent outside the empyrean heaven, his desire is frustrated, and thus he will not be perfectly blessed: but this consequence is absurd: therefore also that from which it follows. — He answers the same, that a place is not owed to the Angel on account of his necessity, or need, but only on account of a certain congruity. But this congruity can be compensated, and then it posits no imperfection or indecency through his own absence: and so it is in the matter at hand. For the Angel delights more in fulfilling the will of his Lord, and in pleasing God by helping man, than he delights in being in the empyrean.

You will ask 1. Whether God also sometimes sends the evil angels to men. I affirm it; for Scripture signifies this expressly. For we read in 3. Kings, last chapter, that, addressing the demon, who had it in mind to ask permission that he might deceive Achab: And the Spirit went forth before the Lord, and said: I will deceive him: to whom the Lord said: wherein? And he said: I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Since therefore that angel offered himself for deceiving, it follows that he is evil, and that he was sent by God, as is signified by the following words: Thou shalt deceive, and shalt prevail: go forth, and do so. Therefore the evil ones are sometimes sent to men. Gregory explains this very point insistently in lib. 2. Moralium, where, speaking of the good angels, and the evil ones, he says: Just as from the good angels the aid of piety is bestowed upon those laboring in this life: so these, unknowingly serving his hidden justice, strive to execute the ministry of reprobation: for not they alone minister to God, the good ones who help, but also the evil ones, who test; not only those who lift up those returning from fault, but also those who burden those wishing to return. Nor does it matter, that the perverse angels intend the seduction of men and the perdition of souls: for although, says our Alensis, q. 41. membro 2., the intention of the devil himself is contrary to the divine intention, insofar as the one is good, and the other evil, nevertheless the Lord uses the temptation of the devil for good; for the temptation by which the Devil tempted Job, as far as concerned the will of the devil, was for seducing: but the Lord ordered it to good, so that the patience of Job might be proved. The mission of the Lord therefore regards the ordination of power to tempting, which is under divine power, not in relation to the will of God; but God orders his evil will to good.

You will ask 2. Whether the lower angels are sometimes sent by the higher ones to men. I affirm it, and S. Gregory proves it in the Moralia from those words of Zacharias the Prophet, where the Prophet says, that the Angel, who spoke in me, went forth, and another Angel went forth to meet him, and said to him: speak to this young man, saying: Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls. From which it is gathered, that one angel sends [another], whence he says: In the sight of the Creator the angelic ministries are ordered, so that, seeing their Maker, they may rejoice for the common happiness of beatitude: while for the disposition of dignity some minister to others. The Angel sends an Angel to the Prophet, and teaches and chooses what he contemplates in common with himself concerning God, because he excels in the more excellent science by the power of knowledge, and in the more eminent grace by the summit of power. Thus S. Gregory. From which it is manifestly gathered, that one angel is sometimes sent by another.

It is confirmed. because it is likely that when God wishes to reveal something to the lower angels, he reveals it first to the higher ones, generally speaking, and through these as mediators to the lower ones: therefore the higher ones are sent to illuminate the lower ones: but the lower ones likewise illuminate others lower than themselves, until one arrives at the last order, from which some are likely sent to illuminate men.

You will say. That although the higher ones illuminate the lower ones, it nevertheless does not follow from this, that they are sent, because for the mission here in question local motion is required: but that the higher ones illuminate the lower ones, it is not necessary that they be moved locally, otherwise they could not illuminate those nearest to themselves. — I answer, perhaps the higher angelic choirs are so distant from the lower ones, that they cannot illuminate them without being moved locally. Then it could be said, that any mission whatsoever does not necessarily import local motion, but the ordination of the Angel to illuminate another, so that that Angel is said to be sent to another, whom God commands to instruct another, whether meanwhile this is done with, or without local motion.

Second conclusion. — Not only the lower angels, but also each of the higher ones are sometimes deputed by God to men. Thus the Doctor in the place cited above, num. 2., where he says: It seems that the supreme ones, or some of the supreme ones, are sometimes sent abroad.

And the Conclusion is proved from Sacred Scripture, chiefly from that passage of Isaiah 6. where we read: The Seraphim stood upon it: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings, and he immediately adds: And one of the Seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar, and he touched my mouth. But the Seraphim are of the higher order, as was proved above, and the holy Damascene indicates, lib. 2. c. 4., where, referring to the teaching of S. Dionysius, he says: The first order of angels is that which always stands around God, and is joined to him assiduously, and without the intervention of any thing: namely the six-winged Seraphim. Likewise Gen. 3. we read, that God placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubim, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. We said, however, above, that the Cherubim are of the second order of angels, who are nearer to God, whence also 4. Kings 19., O Lord God, King of Israel, who sittest upon Cherubim, thou art the only God of Israel. — The same thing is also evinced from that passage of Daniel 10.³ Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me: and below: there is none that helps me, but Michael your prince. Hence the Church in the office of the angels prays: We beseech that Michael, the angel of peace, be sent from heaven to this hall. And again: Michael the Archangel, come to the help of the people of God. But indeed Michael, one of the first, is believed to be, if not the first, of the Seraphim, as Pantaleon the Deacon judges, in hom. De S. Michaele, in Surius, 29. Septembris, as also S. Basil, hom. 1. De Angelis, where we read these words: Michael, Leader of the supernal Spirits, who art set above all the Spirits in dignity, and honors, I beseech thee. Laurence Justinian holds the same, saying in a sermon on S. Michael: In the first spiritual conflict Michael was set above the other holy Spirits, just as Lucifer above the evil ones. This can also be strengthened by reason; for in the angelic war, which was at the beginning of the world, Michael was the leader of the good, who roused them to obey God, just as Lucifer led his companions into defection.

It is confirmed. it is likely that the mind of the Church is to venerate the supreme of all the angels more than the rest: because this can also be deservedly presumed to be more in accord with the divine will: but the Church venerates Michael most highly, as it professes in the office of the angels, and dedicates temples to him above the others: therefore she holds that he is the supreme of the Seraphim.

It does not, however, escape me, that S. Thomas, in 2. dist. 1., asserts that Michael is of the order of the Principalities, and understands literally the words of Daniel cap. 10. where Michael is called, One of the chief princes: which opinion Toletus follows in his commentary on the first chapter of Luke, and Pererius lib. 12. on Daniel: there are also not wanting those who place him among the Powers, because it belongs to that order to vanquish, and drive away demons, in which the greatest power is attributed to Michael, Apoc. 12. Which opinion the Church seems to favor in the office of S. Michael himself, saying: whenever something of marvelous power is done, Michael is said to be sent. But the more probable opinion has now prevailed, that he is the supreme among the Seraphim, and so the prince of all the angels whatsoever; and since he is sent to us, it must be certain that not only the lower, but also the higher angels are sometimes delegated by God to men.

Finally, S. Paul teaches this very point excellently, where without any exception he testifies that all the angels are sent by God, and take up and fulfill the ministries committed to them: Are they not all, he says to the Hebrews 1., ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation? which words most expressly confirm the truth of the conclusion; especially if one attends to the whole series of S. Paul's discourse: for he intends to prove that Christ excels all created things; especially the angels, who surpass all other created things: Being made, he says, so much better than the angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent name than they, namely that he is called the Son of God, and sits at his right hand, as equal to the Father: whence he adds: to which of the angels hath he said at any time: sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? which prerogatives of dignity, in order that the Apostle may evince that they do not befit the angels, he adds: they are all ministering spirits, etc. which reason would certainly appear weak, and entirely null, unless it comprised all the angels without any exception of dignity, or order; for if the highest orders be excepted, Christ could indeed be seen to excel the angels, and Archangels, or certain others; not, however, the Cherubim, and Seraphim, who would neither be sent by God with the rest, nor come into the role of ministering. Wherefore what Paul says of the angels in that place pertains to all, even the supreme angels. It must therefore be certain, that all the angels, even the higher ones, are sometimes deputed by God to us.

The same truth is proved by the holy Fathers, especially St. Athanasius in his Second Oration against the Arians, where he demonstrates that the Son of God is truly God, from the fact that He is superior to the angels, who are sent to minister. And the angels who attend God above and below offer themselves as ministers; but of the Son it says: and let all his angels adore him. These last words, taken from the Apostle, denote absolutely all the angels, even the superior ones; indeed not only the lowest angels but also all the princely angels have been commanded to venerate Christ.

Most explicit too is the passage of Chrysostom, Hom. 8. on Gen., where he proves that those words, Let us make man, are not referred to the angels, as the Hebrews think, because the angels are not principals of the divine mysteries but ministers: It is not, he says, granted to the angels that they be partakers of counsel, but that they stand by and perform ministry; that you may learn this, hear Isaiah, most eloquent of speakers, speaking of the superior powers of the angels: I saw Cherubim standing at the right hand of God, and Seraphim.

Gregory Nazianzen agrees in Oration 34. Having enumerated both the highest and the lowest orders of angels, he at once says universally: They are the ministers of the divine will, traversing every place, present everywhere to all with ready alacrity of ministry and with the agility of their nature, some holding one part of the world, others assigned to any other part or to the whole universe.

I pass over very many other Fathers affirming the same thing, and I will bring forward for each one St. Bernard, who, addressing Lucifer in a sermon on St. Benedict, says: The Cherubim, says the Prophet, stood, and did not sit: why have you labored, that now you sit! All are ministering spirits sent in ministry for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation, and will you sit? And in his First Sermon on St. Michael, having said that although Michael is among the superior angels, yet he keeps watch over us and comes to our aid, he adds: Nor should this seem anything incredible, seeing that the Creator Himself, and King of the angels, came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.

The same truth the Subtle Doctor proves in the place cited, from the fact that Gabriel, sent to the Blessed Virgin, was one of the supreme angels, since he knew the mystery of the Incarnation, which was hidden (as he thinks) from many inferior angels.

For, he says, many angels did not know of the Incarnation before the time of the Incarnation or of the Passion of Christ, as is clear from that passage of Isaiah 63., where in the person of the inferior angels there is asked: Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments? etc.; and from that verse of the Psalm: Who is this King of glory? and the Lord answered, strong and mighty, etc. It appears also from the Apostle to the Ephesians 3.: and that the Principalities and Powers may be made known through the Church, etc., where Jerome's gloss says that the angelic powers or dignities did not fully know the aforementioned mystery of the Incarnation until the Passion of Christ had been completed and the preaching of the Apostles had been spread among the Gentiles; which nevertheless up to that time was not hidden from the greater angels, according to Augustine's gloss in the same place, who says: It is established, moreover, that the angel sent to the blessed Virgin was not ignorant of this message: therefore he to whom this was revealed was of the superior angels, and not of the lower ones, from whom that sacred mystery was hidden.

Thus the Doctor.

You will say. St. Dionysius, chapter 13. De Coelesti Hierarchia, judges that the supreme angels never descend to these lowest ministries: and as for the fact that one of the Seraphim is read to have descended to purify Isaiah, he explains it thus, that no one of the highest order undertook this office, but some interior angel, upon whom the name proper to the Seraphim is imposed, because he was performing the function proper to that order when he burned the Prophet's lips with a burning coal. This interpretation St. Gregory the Great also embraces in his commentary on the first chapter of Hebrews, and proves it from the fact that sometimes angels too are called by the name of God when, acting in His stead, they carry out works of greater moment: therefore these Fathers judge that the superior angels are not sent to us. — I answer indeed that such was their opinion; but in this matter they do not seem to be heeded, especially since Sacred Scripture quite clearly establishes our opinion, and the other Fathers side with us, as has been said above.

I add that that exposition of St. Dionysius seems to conflict with the very words of the Prophet: Seraphim stood over it: six wings to one, and six wings to the other, of the Seraphim who were represented by those images: for just as the Prophet says: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, so he says he saw Seraphim attending Him: therefore just as the former words are understood of God Himself represented in that imaginary vision, so the latter are understood of true Seraphim attending God and praising Him. Add what Suarez says, lib. 6. c. 10., that in no other place of Scripture is mention made of the Seraphim except in that one, as Jerome notes there: therefore if there Seraphim does not signify the proper order, but generally an ascending angel, we shall have no mention in Scripture of that order, nor anything whence we might prove it; for what is said in Psalm 103.: Who makest thy angels spirits, and thy ministers a burning fire, although expounded by some concerning the Seraphim, as if the sense were that God makes even the supreme angels, burning within themselves like a flame of fire, His ministers; yet the true sense is that David speaks of all the angels, whom he calls a flame of fire, either because they burn with charity, or because they have the power of spiritually burning and inflaming men, as Augustine, Theodoret, and Gregory hom. 31. on the Gospel expound there. Hence the argument is rather strengthened; for since all the angels are ministers of God and by a general designation a flame of fire, if for this reason alone they are called Seraphim by Isaiah, no place remains from which from the name Seraphim we could prove a proper order of Seraphim.

You will say 2. The angels, as we said in the first Note, are customarily divided into assistants and ministrants: but that division would be null if all were chosen for ministry: therefore it must necessarily be granted that the superior angels, who are said to assist God, are deputed to ministries. — It is confirmed from St. Gregory, lib. 17. Moral., where, explaining those words of Daniel: Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him, he writes thus: To assist is one thing, to minister another: those Powers undoubtedly assist which do not go forth to announce certain things to men; but those minister who come to fulfill the offices of messengers; and yet even these do not depart from the innermost things by contemplation: and because more minister than those who principally assist, the number of the assistants is shown as it were definite, but that of the ministers infinite.

— I distinguish the major: the angels are divided into assistants and ministrants according to the ordinary disposition of divine providence, I concede; according to the extraordinary, and as regards extraordinary works, I deny.

Ordinarily indeed only the inferior angels are deputed to guardianship and custody. Nevertheless at times even the superior ones are sent forth; which certainly is clear from the testimony of Scripture, which teaches that certain angels who are expressly said to stand before God are sent from heaven to earth and discharge various embassies and ministries: such was Raphael, who confesses himself to be one of the seven who stand before God, and yet, being sent to Tobias, refused not even the lowest services of servants; thus Gabriel presented himself to Zacharias the Priest in the temple: I am, he says, Gabriel, who stand before God: the same angel, at the command of another, stood by Daniel and foretold to him things to come: while Michael, one of the chief princes, is nevertheless read in the same Daniel to come to bring aid, and in the canonical Epistle of Jude to have contended with the devil about the body of Moses: for of the Seraphim, who are held to be the highest of all, it is sufficiently clear from Isaiah that they are sent and work various functions. Likewise the Cherub placed before the paradise of pleasure is reported by Moses. But that which Dionysius writes, following the opinion of some, namely that they were not of the orders of the Seraphim or Cherubim, but of an inferior order, acting in the place of the greater, seems not at all consistent, and very many ancients cry out against it, who think that those called by the names of these belong to their orders; I shall be content with the testimony of Jerome alone out of them all, who speaks thus of the Seraphim: A certain Greek exceedingly learned in the Scriptures explained that the Seraphim are certain powers in heaven which, assisting before the tribunal of God, praise Him, and are sent into diverse ministries, especially those concerned with those who need purification and deserve to be cleansed by punishments in some measure on account of former sins.

Third conclusion. — The ordinary and principal effect of the mission of angels to men is the purification of the soul, the illumination of the intellect, and the kindling of the affection. Thus the Seraphic Doctor dist. 10. art. 2. qu. 1. et 2. And this truth he himself sets forth luminously, whoever may be the author of the Compendium Theologicae Veritatis, whether he himself or another drawn from him, lib. 2. cap. 18., where he says:

St. Dionysius attributes three acts to the angel, namely to purge, to illuminate, and to perfect: therefore the angels purge by removing phantasms, which impede the illumination which the angel intends to effect in us. Whence they remove three things from the soul, namely ignorance, and the clouds of phantasies, and false opinions of philosophical reasons contrary to revelation. But they illuminate the soul in a threefold way, namely as regards sense, as is clear when something is manifested in an assumed body; likewise as regards imagination, namely when they transmit into diverse phantasms the fumes which are raised through the animal spirit to the brain; and this power the devil also has; likewise as regards the intellect, and such illumination alone is perfect. Now the angel does not illuminate the intellect by effecting a new cognition in the soul, because he cannot imprint a new species in the intellect, nor give the habit of new light, nor can he turn its intention whither he wills, because this is against the nature of free will. For these three things are required that our intellect understand something, namely the species whereby it is known, and the light in which it is known, and the intention whereby the intellect is turned upon the species. But the angel illuminates our intellect by exciting and disposing, and by transferring the divine light into us: for he effects, as has been said, a transmutation of species in the phantasy, composing and dividing according to the exigency of the thing which he wishes to reveal. Likewise he irradiates the light of his own intellect upon those species, that they may move our intellect, and thus they can see more things and subtler ones in a doubled light. Likewise he excites the intention of the soul by some motion, that it may turn itself upon those phantasms, abstracting itself from others: and he perfects, that is, promotes to better things.

He teaches the same as regards the kindling of the affection, while proving, after premising, that the human intellect can be kindled in a threefold way: namely by effecting, or by exciting and aiding, or by moving.

In the first mode, God alone can inflame the affection, namely by effect. In the second mode, the thing desired itself inflames the affection, namely by exciting and aiding. In the third mode the angel can set our affection ablaze by moving. Of these we have examples in natural things: because in the first mode fire kindles wood; in the second mode wood kindles fire; and in the third mode, he who puts wood to the fire kindles the fire. But there is a difference between sending a thought, setting ablaze, and illuminating the mind: because to send a thought is, as Bede says, to create and make a thought within; but to set ablaze is to inflame a thought already made; while to illuminate is to give a revelation of some hidden intelligible thing.

Note however 1., with the Subtle Doctor in 2. dist. 11. n. 4., that the angels, in illuminating the human intellect, cannot in any way cause any actual intellection or intelligible species as total causes. The reason, he says, is not from any impotence on the part of the angel, because he is sufficiently in first act and can cause in another angel the act in second act: but the reason is from our intellect, which in this state is passive determined to a determinate active cause, namely to phantasms and the agent intellect: and therefore it is prevented from being able to receive immediately an impression from any intelligible act without a phantasm; because phantasms in this state stand to our intellect as sensibles to sense, namely in this respect, that just as sense is not impressed first except by a sensible outside, so neither is our intellect impressed in the first impression except by a phantasm. From these he infers that no angel can naturally ravish a man into ecstasy by intellection or intellectual vision, and that every rapture effected by the power of the devil takes place first and directly toward some vehement imagination, which is accompanied, or can be accompanied, by an intellectual cognition of the same object; and that this imagination can be so vehement as to distract a man from attention to any other object; and finally that the rapture of a man to which a man can dispose himself by habituation is also toward considering something imaginable. Although perhaps God may sometimes ravish the soul accustomed to withdraw itself from all other objects to the consideration of some single good object, e.g. the passion of Christ, or the glory of Paradise, from that consideration to a consideration purely intellectual independent of phantasms, namely such as the soul would have outside the body.

Note 2. from the same place ibidem n. 5., as Poncius explains him, that an angel cannot produce in man any cognition independent of phantasms, nor even one dependent as a total or partial cause immediately concurring effectively to that cognition; he could nevertheless teach a man; which opinion is common, and is proved: because just as a man teaches a man by proposing signs ordered among themselves in such a way that he can know what he did not know before, so also an angel can do; because in an assumed body he could speak as well as a man, and because he knows better the natures of things, he could lead more easily and more quickly to knowledge than a man. Next, the angel can excite those species which one has, in that order whereby they can determine him to knowing something previously unknown, and by doing this he would teach and instruct. Again, he could propose the very things themselves according to such a reason that from them one could know something which he previously did not know; and thus also he would teach, wherein there is no difficulty. — Whether, however, an angel could teach a man more quickly by using signs instituted at pleasure than he could be taught by another man, the Doctor thinks would be marvelous; For it would seem marvelous, he says, if sight could be changed more quickly by many sensibles or visibles, from which the species necessary for one great argumentation of man would be abstracted, than he himself or a man could use those signs instituted at pleasure representing those objects. Yet this ought not only to seem marvelous, but even impossible, if we speak of a cognition which would require the proposition of varied things; but I do not doubt that he can teach more quickly by showing the very thing itself, one or another aspect of its nature, than a man could by speaking.

Note 3. from the same place ibidem n. 6., that an angel cannot produce a new phantasm in the phantasy of a man except through the mediation of the object naturally causative of it; and the reason is, because he cannot produce a vision of whiteness with the eye without the concurrence of the whiteness itself, nor consequently can he produce its visible species without the whiteness, as all confess; and certainly that power would be granted to him gratuitously: therefore equally he cannot produce an act of phantasy, or the species required for such an act, without the concurrence of the object: given, however, the concurrence of the object, the concurrence of the faculty itself suffices, and thus the angel ought to have no immediate concurrence to the act or the species. Therefore he can concur only in the manner of one proposing the object, or its species, and also in the manner of one removing an impediment.