Scotus Academicus, Tomus quartus: De Angelis

Note 1. That although God, just as He produced all things through Himself immediately, likewise governs, directs, preserves all things by His particular providence, and orders and leads them to certain ends due to Him; nevertheless He does not intend, nor effect, the execution of this providence, which we call governance or direction, alone and immediately; but sometimes makes use of certain creatures for preserving and moderating others. For He judged it consonant with His divine goodness not only to make creatures partakers of Himself, but He willed also to impart to them the power of acting and of communicating themselves to others, insofar as they could somewhat imitate and share in the divine goodness and its manner of communication. Therefore He influences some creatures upon others, as through the Sun He diffuses light and splendor upon other bodies, and as St. Augustine says lib. 3. De Trinitate, cap. 4.:

Just as grosser and lower bodies are ruled in a certain order by subtler and more powerful ones: so all bodies are governed by the spirit of life, and irrational spirits of life by the rational spirit of life, and the apostate spirit by the pious and just spirit, and that one by God Himself... For nothing is done visibly and sensibly that is not either commanded or permitted from the inner, invisible, and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor.

Note 2. That there are chiefly two ways of guarding a thing: The first is when there are removed and eliminated from it all the causes or occasions which can harm it, and can take away its good, whether already acquired, or impede its acquisition. The second is when its good is promoted, namely by rousing the thing itself to a more perfect state, or by helping it attain that state through internal powers superadded, or through an inwardly inspired greater knowledge of that good, from which an ardent desire for its attainment may be kindled. Thus the good Shepherd is said to guard His sheep, not only by removing from them the wolf and everything harmful: but also by providing with watchful care richer and better pastures and other advantages for them. Whether however the angels guard us in both these ways must be determined here.

Note 3. That the angels keep watch over us and serve us especially on account of three things, as the Seraphic Doctor observes, or whoever is the other author of the Compendium Theologicae veritatis lib. 2. cap. 18., namely, on account of the reparation of their ruin, because men to be saved shall enter into the place of the fallen angels. Also on account of the accumulation of accidental merit, which is increased in them until the day of Judgment. Also on account of the demonstration of their love toward us. As we shall demonstrate more fully below.

These points premised, three things must be determined here: First, whether the angels are truly appointed to the guardianship of men. Second, whether every man has assigned to him a special angel guardian. Third, whether even the other creatures are endowed with a guardian angel.

Although this truth plainly appears from very many texts of Holy Scripture; nevertheless Calvin, 1. 1. Instit. c. 14. sect. 7., lest he leave any Catholic dogma untouched, first called into doubt whether an angel has been constituted and designated by God for each individual man for their guardianship. Then, becoming bolder, in his comment. on Genes. chap. 32 he flatly denies that individual guardian angels are given to individual men, and says that those affirming this wickedly diminish the grace of God; and he feigns no doubt that the devil attempted by this cunning to diminish our confidence in some measure. That we may refute this error, let

First conclusion. — It is of faith that the holy Angels are appointed by the ineffable providence of God to the guardianship of men who are wayfarers.

Proof 1. From Scripture, indeed above all from those words of Psalm 33, The Angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him, and shall deliver them; or as St. Jerome translates from the Hebrew, The Angel of the Lord shall surround those who fear him round about. Or as another version has it, The Angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him. After the manner indeed of commanders, who establish and order their camps near a fortress or city, that they may defend it from enemies. Hence Salmeron translates from the Greek, The Angel pitched his camp with battle lines arrayed round about those who fear him. Namely, that he may drive back the assaults of bad angels on every side. Hence St. Basil on the same words of the Psalm, Just as, he says, the walls of a city drawn round about repel on every side the thrusting hostile attacks: so the angel fortifies you in front, guards you behind: and leaves nothing unguarded on either side. The royal Psalmist describes and sets forth more clearly this angelic protection and guardianship in Psalm 90 in these words: God hath given his angels charge over thee, that they keep thee in all thy ways, in their hands they shall bear thee up, etc.: and although S. Ambrose, Luc. 4, and Augustine interpret that Psalm literally of Christ, referring to those words of the Psalmist, nevertheless other holy Fathers and Doctors judge with S. Jerome that there the discourse is general concerning all men, especially the Just: since the beginning of the Psalm designates all the Just in these words: He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High. Wherefore S. Bernard, expounding the aforesaid words wondrously in the Psalm Qui habitat, says: A wonderful dignity, and truly great love of charity; let us consider, brethren, whom, for whom, concerning what, what He commanded. Then he weighs each of those four things, and

First, whom? and how great is He who gave such a command, namely God, who is great and exceedingly to be praised, and whose greatness hath no end. — Second, to whom did He give command? To the angels themselves, assuredly creatures most noble, most powerful, most wise: so lofty, so blessed, and adhering to Him so closely and familiarly, truly His domestics. — Third, concerning whom did God command? Concerning man assuredly; whence the same Bernard exclaims with David: Lord what is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? As though man were not rottenness, and the son of man ashes. Yet Thou settest Thy heart upon him, Thou bearest solicitude for him, Thou hast care of him, nor dost Thou merely send him Thine Only-begotten, nay Thou sendest Thy Spirit, Thou promisest Thy countenance: but meanwhile, lest anything be lacking in the heavens for works of solicitude for us, Thou sendest those blessed Spirits for our sake into ministry, Thou appointest them to our guardianship, and biddest them become our Teachers.

I add, what is more admirable than that the most beautiful nobles of the starry Court, the honored ones of the Triad, the Palatine heaven-dwellers? Those magnificent Genii, noble in the adornment of all graces, those enjoying divine honors and made blessed, should fly down to men, join themselves most benignly to them, protect and embrace them with the greatest humanity? Men, I say, impious toward God, children of wrath, stained with many crimes, beasts in cruelty, cattle in senselessness, ungrateful toward those very guardians? For the angels are the Olympian Dynasts and the purple-clad ones of the Empyrean house, in favor with Augustus the maker and Lord of the orb of the earth. Prefects of the Universe, and Overseers of all created things, to whom God ruling within us, the supreme Emperor, has given the care and providence of men and of all things that are under Heaven, says Justin Martyr Apol. 1. — Fourthly finally there occurs for consideration from S. Bernard: what did God command His angels concerning us? Namely that they keep us in all our ways, namely in all the lanes, streets, and squares in which like the Spouse of the Canticles we seek God: in all journeys, places, affairs, and exercises, seeing that in all things the stone of offense, the rock of scandal, and the snare of temptation is cast by the enemy.

This same truth is confirmed by many oracles drawn from the New Testament; but above all from that of Matthew 18, where Christ speaking under the name of the little ones, that is, the humble, concerning the faithful, says: See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in Heaven always see the face of my Father who is in Heaven. As though He would say, they are not to be despised, especially because they are of such great merit with God that He did not disdain to grant them the guardianship of angels: for, says Euthymius on these words, Those whom angels serve ought not to be despised, if not on account of their virtue, at least on account of their Guardians. Whence S. Hilarius: That man is dangerously despised whose desires and petitions are conveyed to God by the ministry of angels. It is confirmed from that saying of Paul to the Hebrews: All are ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.

This same truth is proven by the testimony of the holy Fathers, first indeed by Dionysius, who in chap. 9. De Caelesti Hierarchia, said specially of the third, or lowest Hierarchy of angels that it presides over human orders, that they may be referred to God and converted. Hermas also, another disciple of S. Paul, as is related in the book called Ecclesia, division 3, writes that he was guarded and preserved through a good angel named Hegri from a certain great beast which had appeared in the form of a Net, from whose mouth fiery locusts were issuing. Clement of Alexandria lib. 6. Stromatum near the end: Divine power, he says, supplies good things through angels, whether they appear, etc. Origen hom. 8. on Genesis: Angels have the care of our souls, and what from infancy we commit to them as to Tutors and Curators. The same lib. 3. Periarchon, cap. 2. Judith, a heroine most illustrious, openly confesses and proclaims her angel as director of her journey, defender and preserver of her chastity among the barbarous and impure hands of the profane, and keeper of her salvation.

To these accedes S. Cyril writing lib. 4. contra Iulianum:

Through the benefit of his tutelary angel, Elias fleeing the furies of Jezabel even into the desert, and sleeping under the juniper tree, is first aroused and refreshed with bread and water: secondly too he is aroused, refreshed, and admonished concerning the great journey which yet remained for him to accomplish.

There accedes Chrysostom, who proves from the same and similar passages of Scripture that each one of us has a guardian angel; for he writes: Each one of the faithful has an angel. For from the beginning each of celebrated and approved men had an angel; as Jacob said: The angel who feeds me, and who delivered me from my youth.

And the same again, homil. de Ascens. Domini: That you may know that angels are everywhere present, hear what Paul, providing for feminine modesty, says: Women ought to have a veil over the head because of the angels. And again Jacob says: The angel who delivered me from my youth. And those who were with the Apostles say to Rhoda: It is his angel. — So far S. Chrysostom, who leaning on the Scriptures we have adduced confidently asserted that a singular angel is designated for each of us.

Nazianz. carm. 6. De substantiis separatis, De ministrantibus Angelis thus says: One half of the world prone to obedience sustains the globe, and by its aid preserves it, etc.

Gregory of Nyssa lib. De Vita Moysis:

There is, he says, a saying claiming faith for itself from the tradition of the Elders, that after our nature fell into sin, God provided for this fall of ours, and by no means left us destitute of His care: but employed a certain angel from among those allotted a nature exempt from body for the protection and defense of each one. But on the contrary, the corrupter of nature strives against us with equal contrivance, and bringing destruction upon human life joined to him is a certain perverse and malicious demon. Moreover man, placed between the two, is rendered stronger by his own impulse to bring either one to a definite goal and purpose contrary to the purpose of the other.

Ambrose lib. De Viduis after the middle: The angels are to be besought for us, who have been given to us for protection: and on Psalm 37, How far off stand, he says, those who have been attributed for our aid? And Psal. 43. on him who commits salvations to Jacob: Salvation, he says, lies in the ministries of angels, who are deputed to the protection of men.

The Seraphic Doctor urges this truth dist. 11. art. 1. qu. 1. with a triple reason;

It was fitting, he says, for fallen man to be entrusted to angelic guardianship: both because it befits the height of divine power: then because it befits the order of wisdom; and then also because it befits the sweetness of mercy. For the height of power befits it from a double cause; one is, because God wills to be honored not only in Himself, but also in His servants: whence it does not suffice the height of divine power that angels minister to Himself, but also for the manifestation of His excellent power He exacts this from them, that they minister even to His creatures: the other reason is, because since God has the devil and his demons as adversaries, it is more fitting that He Himself conquer them through His own ministers, that thereby the power of the hand of God be shown, because He is not only powerful in Himself, but also in His servants; and lest the Lord of hosts be undeservedly so called. But the order of wisdom similarly befits it; for this is the order which the divine law executes and conserves in its works, that it lead the lowest through means to the highest; therefore since the angel, both by reason of the immortality of nature, and also by reason of grace perfected, holds the middle between God and fallen man, it was fitting that God aid and guard man through an angel. The sweetness also of divine mercy befits it, which opened its bosom to fallen man, and did not fail him in anything pertaining to the promotion of his salvation; and therefore since man having fallen was sold to do evil, it ministered to him the price of the blood of His Son, by which he is redeemed, that he might do good; and because he has an adversary assailing him, it gave him a minister guarding, or a guardian aiding; that so from no side might human misery remain without the aid and benefit of divine mercy. There was fitting therefore, from this triple reason, that angelic guardianship be given to fallen man.

William of Paris proves and confirms this same truth in a marvelous manner in the second part De Universo c. 108.

First indeed because, he says, natural piety and love exist among men toward one another, and a natural love of honorableness and comeliness of life, through which every father of a family intends this, that the morals of his household be composed outwardly and its life adorned. Piety and love also show themselves, moving and reproving men from vices and sins by which the morals of men are disfigured and life disturbed: and no one has yet doubted that this is both good and pleasing to God most high. How much more strongly therefore does this natural piety and love exist in the Saints and most blessed Angels, and so much greater than in men, how much more expeditious and superior is their nobility for these and all other good things than are men themselves in the misery of the present life. If therefore human nature in that depression and misery of men does not suffer good men to abstain from the correction and governance of men, which is possible: how much more will the most noble nature of those good angels, from incomparably greater piety and love, not allow most miserable men to lack their counsels, and aids, and all other things pertaining to their governance? — Secondly, if natural piety and love have such power among men that, as I said before, some counsel others, some aid others, and bestow upon others the office of governance; how much more will piety and love be able to do this, so that the blessed and holy Angels are unwilling to fail men in such misery and desolation? — Thirdly, if justice is that which neither makes miserable nor abandons the miserable, therefore there will be no justice of the saints and blessed angels, if they do not exercise care for men. — Fourthly, if power over men is given to men, and Rulers of men are set over them, and men do this publicly and privately against disturbers: how much more strongly are Rulers and Defenders necessary to them against evil spirits, which are most hostile, most harmful to men? If therefore it is the care of the Creator, namely of God most high, that all should have Rulers and Defenders, whether Kings and Princes against the assailers and disturbers of men: how much more strongly is it the care of the same blessed Creator that there be for them rulers and defenders against spiritual assailers and disturbers, namely evil spirits, where they so much more need such governance and care, how much greater are spiritual goods and evils than bodily and temporal ones. — Fifthly, since the universal governance of God most high is ordered, and He suffers nothing beyond His own governance, permits nothing to lack due governance, He has subjected each single thing according to its mode and order to congruent rulers: but it is manifest that men exist neither wholly congruent nor sufficient rulers for men, especially since in the greater and better part of their governance they fail, namely against the princes of the spiritual militia; for against them they are incomparably less able by their own strength or wisdom than the care of the governance of men requires. Therefore that the governance of God most high be perfect, by which the whole universe needs to be ruled, it is necessary that there be for men rulers wiser and stronger and in all ways better; especially on account of the infestations and disturbances which come to men and human affairs from spirits; especially since it is manifest through the governance of Rectors, that is, of those ruling, that men can resist neither the cunning nor the power of evil spirits; otherwise, what else would become of men? Except that given to evil spirits like animals of slaughter without Shepherds and Guardians they would be delivered up for prey and devouring, which the goodness and benignity of the blessed Creator suffers in no way. Thus William.

This truth was also manifest to the pagan Philosophers; whether they drew it from the Jews teaching, or from the sacred Books, or received it through tradition from their ancestors. On which matter Apuleius thus writes in the book De Deo Socratis:

From this sublimer multitude of demons, Plato asserts, individuals singly assigned to individual men in the conducting of life as witnesses and guardians: who, conspicuous to no one, are always present, witnesses not only of all deeds but even of thoughts. And when life has been lived out and return is to be made, that same one who was bestowed upon us seizes and drags straightway his own charge as it were to judgment, and there stands forth to plead the cause; if anything is contrived falsely, he rebuts it; if anything true is said, he confirms it; in short the verdict is rendered by his testimony.

Hence he adds that wholesome admonition:

Wherefore you all who listen with me as interpreter to this divine sentiment of Plato, form your minds toward whatsoever you would do or meditate in such a way that you know that before these guardians nothing at all is secret, neither within the soul nor without: since he curiously partakes of all things, sees all things, understands all things, and dwells in those most hidden recesses of minds with the voice of conscience.

— Afterwards he subjoins the example of Socrates in honoring this angel in these words:

This thoroughly guardian, singular prefect, domestic watcher, inseparable arbiter, inseparable witness, disapprover of the greater evils, approver of goods, if rightly attended to, diligently known, religiously cultivated, as it was cultivated by Socrates with justice and innocence, a looker-out in uncertain things, a forewarner in doubtful ones, a wayfarer in perilous ones, a helper of the needy, who can for you both in dreams, then in signs, then even perhaps face to face when use demands, turn away evils, prosper goods. And soon: Socrates knew and worshipped this his God most excellently perfectly.

— That moreover the ancients worshipped genii with the highest religion Censorinus thus declares, cap. 3:

Therefore to the Genius especially we sacrifice yearly through every age. Although not only this one, but besides there are several other gods supporting the life of men, each according to his portion, which books of indigitamenta sufficiently taught whoever wished to know them; but all these represent once in each man the effect of their divinities, wherefore they are not summoned throughout the whole space of life by new Religious rites. But the Genius has been appointed our observer in such a way that he withdraws not even for a point of time farther away, but accompanies us from the womb of our mother, when received, to the last day of life.

You will say 1. Angelic guardianship detracts from man's liberty, and from the excellence of his merits: therefore it does not seem to be admitted. The antecedent is proved: man cannot be compelled to evil by free will, nor be violently acted upon: therefore of himself he is sufficient to resist his adversaries: in vain, then, are Angels deputed to his guardianship, or else that angelic guardianship detracts something from the glory of his liberty. Moreover, the greater the glory of the victor, the fewer the aids with which he triumphs over his adversary. Therefore it would be more glorious for man to conquer the devil by himself, than with an Angel assisting and fighting alongside him: and thereupon that very angelic guardianship detracts something from his glory, just as from his liberty.

I deny the antecedent, as to both parts; for although perhaps man, strengthened by the aid and benefit of grace through free will, would suffice of himself to resist those who oppose him, and to win a splendid triumph over them: nevertheless, since his struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities and Powers, and against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places, and since he himself is weak and infirm, he would more often be conquered by them than conquer them, unless he had holy Angels fighting alongside him against the evil Angels. For neither, says Peter Damian in his Epistle to Alexander II, supreme Pontiff, could human frailty resist the cunning of so subtle and practiced an enemy, unless angelic virtue drove him back from the temptations of the Elect. Therefore it is far better and more glorious for him to conquer enemies so formidable with the aid of angels, than to be conquered without aid.

You will say 2. From that oracle of Christ the Lord, Luke 22, He who sits at table is greater than he who serves: therefore, if an Angel serves man by guarding him, it follows that man is superior to the Angel: but the consequence is false: therefore so is the antecedent. Moreover, if an Angel guards man, either he has this from nature, or from grace: if from nature, it follows that demons too ought to be reckoned guardians of men, for their natural gifts remained intact in them: if from grace, since one soul surpasses another in grace, he ought to be deputed to the guardianship of that one.

I deny both consequences, and to the antecedent of the first, I say that it is indeed true of the ministry of subjection, but not of the ministry of presidency: but an Angel, in guarding man, ministers to him by presiding over him, and by ruling and teaching him, as a pedagogue a little child; not by serving and obeying, as a servant his lord. To the antecedent of the second consequence, I say that the Angel has from both nature and grace that he can guard man: from nature indeed, because he is stronger and more powerful than man: but from grace, because he is more excellent and firmer: therefore on both counts it belongs to him to rule and protect man.

You will say 3. To God alone does it belong to guard man: therefore not to an Angel. The antecedent is proved; both because God is said in Scripture to be the guardian of men; thus Job 7, What shall I do to thee, O guardian of men? And in Psalm 120, Behold, he who guards Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep... The Lord guards you from all evil; may the Lord guard your soul. The Lord guards your going in and your coming out. And also because guardianship is ordered to preserving man, lest he fall into the captivity of the devil: but it belongs to the same one to preserve in liberty as to liberate and redeem from captivity: therefore since to redeem from captivity belongs to God alone, to guard and preserve in liberty also belongs to him alone.

I deny the antecedent, and to its first proof I say with the Seraphic Doctor praised above at 5, that the perfection of divine guardianship does not exclude the utility of angelic guardianship. For just as God, for the manifestation of his goodness and the manifestation of the wisdom of his order, communicated to creatures the power to act, and to produce other creatures effectively, himself nevertheless producing and cooperating; so he gave the Angels the power to guard man, yet he himself never ceases from the guardianship of his servants, because such a power of guarding befitted the dignity of angelic grace and nature: therefore divine guardiansship does not hinder angelic: nay, the divine contributes to the perfection of the angelic; and the angelic to the commendation and manifestation of the divine.

To the second proof, I deny the parity, with the same Seraphic Doctor: for to redeem is to quicken the dead; but to confer life in the first instance, and to restore it anew when lost, belongs to God alone: to guard, however, signifies only some external act of beneficence, which can be conferred by a more excellent nature and a more powerful virtue: therefore it is no wonder if the Angels, who could not free man from the captivity of the demon, can nevertheless guard and preserve him, lest he again rush headlong into it through sin.

Second conclusion. — To each and every man, whether little ones or adults, whether faithful or infidels, predestined or reprobate, sinners or just, individual guardian Angels are deputed.

This is most widely received among Catholics against Calvin, book 1 of the Institutes, chapter 14, where he most mendaciously affirms that it is uncertain whether individual Angels are assigned to individual men: and on Psalm 90 he adds that it is a false invention. St. Basil gathers this truth from Sacred Scripture in book 3 against Eunomius:

But that an Angel is present to each of the faithful, as it were some Pedagogue and Pastor governing his life, let no one contradict who remembers the Lord's words saying: Despise not one of these little ones, for their Angels always see the face of my Father who is in Heaven. And the Psalmist says: The Angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him. And: The Angel who delivered me from my youth, and so forth of that kind.

With these passages of Scripture Basil establishes the common dogma of Catholics against Calvin. Hilary subscribes to him, who, weighing the same passage, says: Great is the dignity of souls, that each one should have an Angel delegated to guard it from the beginning of its birth. First he says pointedly "each one," for not one Angel guards several men: then because an Angel cannot be guardian at once in several places, and it can often happen that two men distant in place need the local presence and assistance of their Angel: whence if there were one and the same Angel, he could not suitably help both: then because this more greatly commends the magnificence and liberality of God: finally, because it is likely that in the lowest Hierarchy there are more Angels than there are men actually and in fact existing, and thereupon it does not appear necessary that one Angel guard several men.

The Conclusion is proved moreover; and that first concerning infants and little ones. For this St. Jerome first teaches expressly, saying: Above this, each soul from the beginning of its birth has an Angel deputed to it. Although some, as St. Thomas 1. p. q. 113. a. 5. ad 3, expound these words of birth not in the womb, but outside the womb; because, they say, when the child is in the womb it is like a part and fruit of the mother; whence just as he who guards the body, or the tree, also guards a part of the body, and the fruit joined to the tree, so the Angel guarding the mother also guards the child as long as it is in her womb; nevertheless nearly all now agree that that deputation of the Angel is made at once when the soul is infused into the body. And this St. Anselm taught openly in the Elucidarium, writing: Each soul, when it is sent into the body, is entrusted to an Angel: but the soul is infused at conception: therefore at conception an Angel is deputed to its guardianship.

* Tertullian had anticipated this in the book De Anima, chapter 37, where he writes: but the whole apparatus of man's sowing, framing, and fashioning in the womb is molded by some power ministering to the divine will, whatever reason it has had allotted to exercise. By which words he signifies not only that an Angel is destined for each man when formed in the womb, but even while being formed by God: which truth he declares was known even to the pagans; for he adds, estimating thus: Even the Roman superstition fashioned a Goddess Alemona to feed the fetus in the womb, and Nona and Decima from the more solicitous months; and Partula, who governs the birth, and Lucina truly, who brings it forth into the light. We believe the Angels to discharge the divine offices.

He thought, therefore, that Angels were destined by divine Providence to watch over children being formed in the maternal womb and being brought to birth, and to discharge those offices which the ancient Romans raved were exhibited by fabricated divinities, whose madness St. Augustine pursues and elegantly mocks lib. 4. De Civit. Dei, cap. 11, where he assails the teachers of the gentiles because they ascribed to Jupiter, whom they called the supreme God, those tasks which were attributed to plebeian divinities.

He himself, he says, should preside under the name Liber, over the seeds of men, and under the name Libera, over those of women. He himself should be Diespiter who brings the birth to the day, he himself should be the Goddess Mena whom they set over the monthly courses of women. He himself should be Lucina, who is invoked by women in labor. He himself should bring help to the newborn, receiving them into the bosom of the earth, and be called Ops. He himself should open the mouth in the cry, and be called the god Vaticanus. He himself should lift from the earth, and be called the goddess Levana. He himself should guard the cradle, and be called the goddess Cunina, etc.

— Origen explains this matter thus, tractate 5 on Matthew:

Further you ask, of these little ones, the Angels who preside over them, when they begin to have care of them: whether from the time when they were born in Christ through the laver of regeneration, as then newborn infants, and no longer subject to a certain adverse power; or from the time of their carnal birth, according to the foreknowledge of God and his preordination, those whom he foreknew and predestined, that they might be conformed to the glory of Christ. You see, that whoever has carefully weighed both, it belongs to him to affirm which of the two is true, and to bring forward the Scripture consenting to one of the two. For on each side much can be said, nevertheless let us bring forward from the many a little something. Those who wish that as soon as anyone has been born he should receive an Angel set over him, of those who have been foreknown by God, use the voice of the Apostle saying: who separated me from my mother's womb, that he might reveal his Son in me; as if from that time he has need of an Angel ruling him, because he was separated according to the foreknowledge of God. Likewise in the Epistle of Jude it is written thus: In God the Father beloved, and in Jesus Christ preserved and called. By whom preserved, unless by the Angels to whom they had been handed over, that they might be preserved, and rescued from all evil, who were held as foreknown and preordained? Further he will bring forward also that which is said in the psalms: From my mother's womb you are my protector; so that God may be the protector of the foreknown, through Angels deputed for this very ministry. So also he will take that: You took me from my mother's womb; likewise: upon you was I cast from the womb; and a thousand others of this kind having the same sense, etc.

* — Moreover this truth is urged by reason: first, because as soon as the little one is formed, he begins to be man the wayfarer: whence although physically he is as it were a part of the mother, nevertheless in the order of the salvation of the soul, he is a distinct person; whence he is capable of original sin, even if the mother is holy; and by the grace of God he is capable of merit, as is seen in John the Baptist. Likewise, it is credible that a demon is at once joined to him, who may procure to harm and injure him specially: therefore also an Angel ought from then to be deputed to him, that he may ward off the demon, and from then guard against other impediments, both corporal and spiritual. Nor does it stand in the way that the guardian Angel of the mother could take up this care: because it pertains to him only as long as it is necessary for the good of the mother. But it can redound to the utility of the son alone, and his own Angel will have it with a special and more proper affection. And sometimes the mother, not attending to her Angel, can attempt something harmful to the child, which the Angel guardian of the child will be able to impede. Finally, this providence is more generous; and therefore I gladly adhere to this part.

— But how, and for what cause this angelic guardianship is made toward the little one, whether existing in the womb or outside the mother's womb, Alensis teaches, qu. 41. memb. 4. art. 3.

But the reason of this guardianship is taken, he says, both on the part of the Angel guarding, and on the part of the man guarded. On the part of the Angel, the reason is merit, for he merits an accidental reward from such guardianship. On the part of the little one the reason is taken, both on the part of the body, namely that the good Angel guards the body of the little one from the vexation of the adverse power: and on the part of the soul, and this in two ways; because the reason is taken of the soul in itself, and from the conjunction of the soul to the body. On the part of the soul in itself, because as soon as the soul is created, it is convertible to good or to evil, and can profit, not then, but afterward: and therefore a guardian Angel is given to it, not for this time, that is, not that it then make it profit, or withdraw it from evil, but that he order it, and dispose it, and fit it for this, that it may profit afterward, when the time will be of using reason. But on the part of the soul as it is joined to the body, the reason of guardianship can be taken in the little one, because the soul, as soon as it is united to the body, is corrupted with a vitious corruption; thence it contracts corruption: whence the soul, as soon as it is joined to the body, suddenly proceeds into another habilitation, either to evil or to good; although such habilitation is not known, and to such habilitation the good Angel helps and orders, who is given to it as guardian: as perhaps that corruption, which it contracted from the body, helped to habilitate to evil,

You will say. Little ones cannot fail through fault, nor profit into the better through a good work, since they lack the use of reason: therefore angelic guardianship is fruitless for them.

I distinguish the antecedent; they cannot profit for that time, and as long as they do not obtain the use of reason, I concede: they cannot profit for the future time, when they will be endowed with the perfect use of reason, I deny; as Alensis expounded above.

The Conclusion is proved similarly as to the remaining parts: namely, that all adults whatsoever, whether predestined or reprobate, whether sinners or just, have a special Angel deputed to them for guardianship. And indeed first it is clear concerning the reprobate; both because there is conceded to them sufficient aid for salvation: but angelic guardianship is not outside the latitude of such sufficient aid: therefore it must be conceded to them. The major is clear: the minor is proved: God permits the reprobate to be tempted by the demon; and consequently he ought to afford them protection and sufficient defense: but this he supplies through guardian Angels: therefore he ought not to have denied it to them: And also because although this guardianship have no effect of merit of eternal life; nevertheless through it they are recalled from many evils, which without doubt they would perpetrate, unless the good Angel withdrew them. And because God permits the predestined to have demons lying in wait for their salvation: therefore by equal right he ought to concede angelic guardianship to the reprobate, that they may watch over their salvation by every way they can. Finally, because this guardianship redounds to the good of the predestined; for through it the demons instigating reprobate men are held off, lest they harm the Elect as much as they desire.

— By these can be solved and explained St. Paul, when he asserts in Hebrews 1, that Angels are sent in ministry for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation: for thus the ministries of the Angels concerning the reprobate redound to the good of those who shall inherit salvation: for by the aforesaid words St. Paul wished to signify, that the end of the angelic ministry universally is the salvation of men, and therefore it is exercised concerning men, although the fruit is chiefly completed in those who are saved effectively.

This same truth holds concerning sinners of every kind: And indeed, says the Seraphic Doctor, dist. 11. qu. 1,

The good Angel is no more sparing in preserving in good, than the evil Angel is in precipitating into evil: but the evil Angel, however good a man may be, does not cease to assail him even until death: therefore it seems that neither does the good Angel cease to guard even an evil man however wicked, even until death: And because the worse anyone is, the more prone he is to evil, and the more prone to evil, the more he needs one to draw him back: therefore since the Angel deputed to guardianship is ordered to this, that he draw back from evil, it seems that he ought not desert a man however great a sinner: Finally, because of no one is one to despair, while he still exists as wayfarer: therefore however obstinate anyone may be in sin, there always shines forth some hope of his salvation: therefore as the physician deserts no sick man, unless he has first lost all hope of restoring his health: so neither ought the Angels, physicians of souls, to desert anyone, as long as any hope of salvation flourishes.

But this flourishes as long as man exists as wayfarer: therefore the guardian Angel ought to desert no one before death.

You will say 1. Very many of the holy Fathers affirm that not all men, but only the just, have guardian Angels. Thus Didymus indicates, in Damascenus book 4. Parallel. c. 7. saying: Upright and holy men have lucid Angels as guardians: but the wicked, dark ones. The same Evagrius indicates in the same, writing: The sponsors of Knowledge and Wisdom join many Angels to you: but the impious and scandalous man is disjoined even from that angel who was given to him from boyhood. This very thing St. Basil signifies on Psalm 33. where he teaches that Angels assist only the faithful and pious, but desert sinners: To everyone believing in the Lord, he says, an Angel assists, unless perhaps we drive him away ourselves by wicked deeds: for as smoke drives bees in flight, and a bad odor repels doves: so a fetid sin repels the Angel, the tearful guardian of our life. And in the Commentaries on Isaiah, expounding those words of the Prophet, and I will take away the hedge thereof, he interprets of the guardianship of the Angels, writing: It can also happen that the Angel, since each one of us has a holy one, who encamps round about them that fear the Lord, when caught in sins, becomes liable to this plague which he threatens, and is deprived of the gift, that is, the guardianship of the holy virtues. It can be confirmed from those words of Jeremiah 51. We have cured Babylon, but she is not healed: let us leave her alone.

I answer, The holy Fathers can be expounded thus, that they wish the Angels to guard only pious men, and to desert sinners, not because they have no care of these at all, but because they sometimes relax the actual operation and exercise of guarding on account of the incapacity or resistance of men. But they do not wish that they desert him entirely, nor any longer have any care of him, for we read the contrary in Exodus 23. where God, promising the Jewish people a guardian Angel, adds: he will not dismiss you when you have sinned. And this very thing is urged by reason: since the demon does not cease from tempting the just on account of his outstanding works of justice, so neither will the holy Angel desert the sinner: for, as Ambrose said on that Psalm 38. I was dumb and was humbled, etc., the Angel is round about man, lest anyone harm him; the Angel does not depart, unless commanded by the Lord. Moreover this care was given to the Angel independently of the faith or grace of the wayfarer man; therefore just as the Angels guard those men who never had either grace or faith: so also those who lost them. Finally, God does not desert these sinners as to sufficient internal and external aids: therefore neither can the Angels desert them on account of sins, since this is not consonant with the will of God; therefore the Angel does not entirely desert the sinner: but he bears himself toward him remissively, and perhaps with lesser solicitude, on account of his continual resistance toward him.

Hence it also sometimes happens that the guardian Angel seems in a certain way to abandon, or assist more remissly, the just man, that this may at last redound to his greater good; thus Ambrose on those words of Psalm 35. They who were near me stood afar off.

Let not the mystical affection of piety recoil, he says, as if it were said of the Angels, who present themselves to those who fear the Lord, that they may snatch them from temptations, which they cannot bear: how then do they stand afar off, who are attributed for help? But they do not separate themselves, but he who is pressed by temptations thinks them far away, whom he desires to be nearer at hand, and judges them to dissemble, while they await the time of helping by the nod of him above them, who commanded his athlete to contend the longer, that he might conquer the more gloriously.

Corollary. — From these gather, that every hardened sinner is not without a guardian Angel, nay, that even Antichrist himself will not be without one, as Alensis, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas teach; and this is gathered from this, that God wills all men to be saved, and excepts no one, but comprehends all, even the worst; and consequently Antichrist himself also. Reason also favors it, for he who proposes to anyone an end, ought to provide the means for obtaining it; but eternal life is proposed to all men however impious, and angelic guardianship is a means for obtaining and acquiring it: therefore, etc. and consequently it will not be denied to Antichrist. Add that just as the evil Angels always lie in wait, so on the contrary the good, with the charity with which they burn, will to aid continually, and in this they imitate God, the fountain of mercy and charity. — Nor is it to be said, that guardian Angels desert men however great sinners, as long as they are in this life. For just as common supernatural aid is denied to no wayfarer entirely, so neither, while he is on the way, is he entirely destitute of the guardianship of the Angels. But as on account of the sins of men certain particular and more efficacious aids are sometimes denied to them, which God is not bound to give, so the guardianship of the Angels is denied as to certain special effects.

We must know, says Alexander of Hales, that the effect of angelic guardianship over souls is manifold: one is that the soul may advance in the good of grace; another that it may not fall into the evil of guilt; a third is that, if it falls, it may afterwards rise again; or that it may not fall so often, or into so great an evil. Hence he concludes: we say therefore that Antichrist will have angelic guardianship, not for the first effects, that is, the Guardian Angel will not have those effects with regard to him, but only the last, namely, that he may not fall as often as he would fall without a Guardian Angel. For no wayfarer, inasmuch as he is a wayfarer, is lacking in the mercy of God, which consists in giving a Guardian Angel.

— Yet John Altestaing of Mindelheim, in his Vocabulario Theologico, holds that a good angel will first be assigned to Antichrist as guardian; but when he shall be so obstinate in sin that he will call himself God and exalt himself above everything that is called God or is worshipped, as the Apostle says, then at last the angel will wholly forsake him, and will not thereafter have him under protection.

* It does not escape me that Origen denies that good angels are destined by God to the guardianship of wicked and lost men; for in tract. 5. in Matth., after writing that it is uncertain whether angels are destined by God to the guardianship of men from their formation in the womb, or only from their regeneration through baptism, he adds:

But whoever wishes an angel helper to be given to men from the time when, through the laver of regeneration, they have become infants newly born in Christ, will say that it is not credible that a holy angel should preside over the senseless and unbelieving, those erring and serving various and unclean desires, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, fornicators and adulterers, sometimes even abusers of themselves with men, robbers and drunkards and plunderers: lest he be defiled by such acts of the man to whom he has been given as guardian. But a man indeed, in the time of his unbelief and his sins, because born of unbelievers, is under the angels of Satan and malignant spirits and unclean demons. But when they have received the faith, then Christ, who is the Redeemer, who redeems by the price of his blood the believer in God from wicked lords, hands him over to a holy angel, on account of its purity always beholding the face of the Father.

Yet he teaches the contrary elsewhere, namely in tomo 13. in Matth. and hom. 35 in Lucam, where he teaches that angels are designated for individual men. *

Collect 2. That Christ the Lord had no Guardian Angel:

because, as the Seraphic Doctor says at dist. 11. quaest. 3, Christ had no need of the guardianship of an angel, nor did it become him; he had no need, he says, because his adversary could neither oppress by violence the Body united to the Divinity, nor seduce by cunning an intellect fully illumined by the Word, nor allure by blandishments an affection confirmed by the fullness of grace: therefore Christ had no need of a good angel, neither for the defense of his Body, nor for the instruction of his operation, nor for the incitement of his affection. But not only did he not need angelic guardianship, but neither did it even befit him. For guardianship, in the guardian with respect to the one guarded, implies a certain presidency: and since the angels were subject to Christ the Lord, not set over him; therefore no office of presidency ought to be committed to those angels with respect to Christ, and for this reason no angel ought to have been deputed to guard Christ, but rather a multitude of angels ought to have been deputed to his ministry.

It is confirmed, by the fact that we need a Guardian Angel chiefly for three causes: first, that he may teach and instruct us lest we be deceived; second, that he may admonish and exhort us to act well; third, that he may remove occasions and dangers of sinning: but Christ needed none of these: first, because he was endowed with greater knowledge than all the angels; second, because, being full of grace, he could stir himself up to act well; third, because he was intrinsically impeccable by reason of the hypostatic union, grace, and glory: he therefore who keeps Israel, nay rather who is the Keeper of all, had no need of a Guardian Angel.

You will say. Angels were delegated to the guardianship of Christ: therefore he truly had Guardian Angels. The antecedent is proved from that Psal. 90. Angelis suis Deus mandavit de te, ut custodiant te, etc. which Psalm very many of the Holy Fathers testify to have been written of Christ. — Moreover, to console the sorrowful and to strengthen the failing is the office and function of a guarding angel; but we read Luc. 22. that while the soul of Christ was sorrowful even unto death, the Angel of the Lord stood by him, strengthening him; therefore Christ had a Guardian Angel. — Finally, Christ according to his human nature was made a little lower than the angels: therefore, like other men, he needed their ministry and guardianship.

I deny all these consequences, and to the first antecedent I say that although some of the Holy Fathers interpret those words of the Psalm of Christ, nevertheless the others contend that they were written by David not of Christ, but of any just man whatsoever. Add that if they are taken of Christ, they can be understood not of the guardianship of Christ against the demons, whose conqueror he was; for he had no need of the aid of the angels in order to conquer them, but only of a certain external ministry which they rendered. Hence we read Matthew 4. that when the devil had been vanquished, angels came and ministered unto him, namely Christ.

To the second antecedent, I say with the aforesaid Alexander of Hales at art. 2. that comfort is twofold, one authoritative, the other ministerial; the former imports authority, the latter sounds of friendship and reverence: in the former way a lord consoles a servant, namely by bestowing upon him favors and benefits; in the latter way a servant can console the Lord by supplying him with certain things exciting him to mitigate pain. Thus, as S. Damascenus says lib. De Fide cap. 3. the Angel strengthened Christ the Lord, not indeed by proposing to him anything of which he was unaware, but only by representing to him what had been decreed by the Divine Father to be brought about; whence there arose supreme glory to God and salvation to men.

To the third, I say that although Christ is said to have been made lower than the angels by reason of his passible human nature, yet he was never so made lower as to need their protection and governance: for in every state, even of passion and death, he remained the supreme Lord of the angels, and commanded them at his nod.

Collect 3. That the Most Blessed Virgin, although illumined by graces and attended by virtues, because she was not intrinsically impeccable, but only extrinsically through special protection, and insofar as she was confirmed in grace, all Theologians hold with S. Bernard 17. to have had a Guardian Angel, whom they judge to have been S. Gabriel, who, as S. Ambrosius writes, consoled her in her straits, and disclosed to her divine commands and mysteries. Andreas Cretensis moreover writes that she had not only the Angel Gabriel as Guardian, but that, as she was Queen of heaven and Lady of the angels, she was surrounded by many troops of them, which angelic host S. Gabriel governed and ordered, as Gregorius Nicomediensis says in the oration de Maria in templo praesentata. And this seems to have been foretold in Canticles 7. where the Sunamitis, who bore the likeness of the most holy Virgin, is called terrible as an army set in array: for the choirs of camps are the hosts of the heavenly Citizens, and the celestial legions, which protected and comforted that most holy Virgin.

Collect finally, That Guardian Angels were also deputed to the First Parents in the state of innocence, as Alexander of Hales teaches, and likewise the Seraphic Doctor: both because God is more prone to pity and to succor than to condemn: therefore if in the state of innocent nature he permitted an evil angel to infest and tempt man, with stronger right he ought to delegate to him a Guardian Angel, who might fight along with him against the assailing devil; especially since he wrote Ecclesiast. 23. Against evil is good, and against life death, and so look upon all the works of the Most High, one against one, and two against two. And also because Guardian Angels are deputed to us for this reason, that through their aid we may be recalled from evil: but man in the state of innocence needed to be removed from evil, seeing he could sin: therefore he needed angelic guardianship for that. Finally, the same good angel is deputed to man in guardianship, that he may defend him from oppression against violence, says the Seraphic Doctor qu. 2, that he may instruct and direct him against deceit, and exhort and lead him on to good against blandishments: since therefore in the state of innocence of the First Parents the devil could seduce the reason by cunning, lead the will to evil by blandishments, and crush the virtues by a kind of violence, seeing he was stronger and more cunning than innocent man, and more pertinacious in his purpose of malice; therefore it was fitting that angelic guardianship be granted to innocent man, that he might be able to resist so formidable an enemy.

Third conclusion. — Angels are deputed not only to men, but also to other things, as Rulers, Administrators, and Guardians.

This truth is proved, first indeed by the authority of the Holy Fathers, above all S. Augustini, who lib. 83. qu. 79. says: Every visible thing has an angelic power set over it. Which sentiment certainly can be confirmed from Scripture; for Apocalypse 14. it is said: Et alius Angelus exivit de altari qui habebat potestatem super ignem: and cap. 15: Audivi Angelum aquarum dicentem: iustus es Domine, etc., where Arethas says: Hence we know that angelic powers are set over creatures: this one indeed over the waters, that one over fire, and another over some other particular creature. Hence Origenes 8. in Ieremiam teaches that angels preside over all things, both earth and water, and air and fire, that is, the principal elements, and in this order come down to all animals, to every plant, to the very stars of Heaven. The same Homilia 23. says:

The celestial powers have undertaken the ministries of this world, that one may preside over the germinations of the earth or of trees, another over rivers and fountains, another over winds, another over the seas, another over earthly animals, or over each thing born of the earth; and that in each of these there are ineffable Sacraments of the divine dispensation, all things being ordered in their place, and each office discharged by its proper power.

— *And lib. 8. contra Celsum, answering his assertion in which he contended that demons preside over all the parts of the world and over their dispensation, he writes:

But we say that without the protection of invisible husbandmen, so to speak, and other administrators, who provide not only for the produce of the earth but also for water and air, the earth would not bear those things which are said to be ruled by nature, the water in springs and rivers would not of itself spring forth and flow, the air would not be preserved incorrupt, nor impart life to breathing things; yet we do not say that those invisible administrators are demons. And if anything must be said boldly, if demons have any part in these matters, we must attribute to them famine, the barrenness of trees and vines, immoderate heats, corruption of the air for bringing ruin upon fruits, and sometimes bringing death upon living things and pestilence upon men. Of all these demons are the authors... We do not receive from demons the several things necessary for sustenance, especially we who have learned to use them decently, nor do they banquet with demons who enjoy the fruits, wine, the produce of trees, waters, air, but rather with the divine Angels, to whom the care of all these things has been entrusted... Therefore when we eat, drink, breathe to the glory of God, and do the other things on the same account, we do not banquet with that demon, but with the Angels of God, because every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. But it would not have been fitting, nor would it have been lawful, for these things to be consecrated, if they had been entrusted to the care of demons.*

But especially the holy angels are deputed to the guardianship of Provinces, Churches, and Communities. For that particular angels are dispatched for the guardianship of Kingdoms, we gather quite plainly from Daniel 10. where Daniel addressing Gabriel says:

Princeps Regni Persarum restitit mihi viginti et uno diebus, et ecce Michael unus de Principibus primis venit in adiutorium mihi, et ego remansi ibi cum Principe Regni Persarum; and further on: Nunc revertar ut proelier adversus Principem Persarum; Cum ergo egrederer, apparuit Princeps Graecorum veniens, etc.

In which words mention is made of angels destined to the guardianship of the Jews, Persians, and Greeks, as S. Dionysius interprets c. 9. De Caelesti Hierarchia; and Theodorus lib. 5. De Divino decreto cap. 7; Hieron. on those words, and Gregorius lib. 17. Moral. All of whom hold that mention is there made of holy angels, among whom although there is no battle nor discord, but all enjoy perfect peace, according to that Job. 25. Qui facit concordiam in Sublimibus suis; nevertheless without prejudice to peace and charity, they fought for one another before

God by their prayers: Gabriel indeed, acting on behalf of the Jews, besought God to release the Israelites from captivity, inasmuch as he had promised that such captivity would last no longer than seventy years, which time had now almost elapsed. But the other two angels assigned to the guardianship of the Persians and Greeks earnestly entreated God to prolong the sojourn of the Jews among the Greeks and Persians; because very many of the unbelieving Jews, enlightened by doctrine, rejected the worship of idols and venerated the true God: and thus they fought against one another by prayers, because what God had decreed to keep silent was not yet known to them: whence after S. Michael, who was superior to those three Princes, had manifested to them the divine will, then above all they were of one accord.

— This truth is confirmed from that chapter 2. and 30. of Deuteronomy, where we read: Quando dividebat Altissimus gentes, quando separabat filios Adam, constituit terminos populorum, iuxta numerum filiorum Israel. The Seventy Interpreters render: Iuxta numerum Angelorum Dei. Hence Origenes Hom. 35. in Lucam concludes from that passage: that Princes, that is, Angels, were appointed from the beginning of the divided earth. So also Theodoretus on that chapter of Daniel, when he had said: Singulis Angelis uniuscuiusque nostrum creditam esse curam, ut custodiant, et tueantur, et a pravis daemonum insidiis nos liberent: concludes from Matth. 18. cap.: Archangelis vero illud munus impositum, ut Gentium sint praefecti, sicut beatus Moyses docuit, with whose words blessed Daniel likewise agrees, when he speaks himself of the Prince of the kingdom of the Persians: and again a little later of the Prince of the Greeks.

This same all the Holy Fathers attest, and above all Clem. Alex. lib. 6. Strom. where he says: Per Gentes, et Civitates divisae sunt Angelorum praefecturae: and lib. 7. Iussu divino, et antiquo per Gentes sunt distributi Angeli. This same S. Basilius teaches lib. 3. adversus Eunomium, where he affirms: Singulis fidelium adesse comites Angelos, sive Gentibus alios praeesse; and the more excellent a whole nation is by some singular man, by so much the more excellent in dignity is the angel set over the nation than him to whose care any single person is committed. Similarly Epiphanius haeresi 51. Regna, inquit, et Gentes sub Angelis posita sunt. The same the other Holy Fathers teach everywhere.

— Similarly the Theological Doctors hold, not without reason, that if angels preside over nations and peoples, much more over Churches, temples, and religious communities. Of Churches indeed there stands the testimony of Apoc. 1. cap., where to the seven Churches so many presiding angels are named, as Origenes interprets Hom. 20. in Numeros: Secundum ea, quae Ioannes in Apoc. scripsit, he says, an angel presides generally over each Church. And Hom. 13. in Lucam he says that in each Church two Bishops preside, one visible, the other invisible.

*Therefore, he says, angels are present also in our assembly, not only generally for every Church, but also severally, of whom the Savior: Angeli eorum semper vident faciem Patris mei qui in Caelis est. Here there is a twofold Church, one of men, the other of angels. If we speak according to reason and according to the will of the Scriptures, the angels rejoice and pray with us. And because the angels are present in the Church, in that alone which rejoices and is Christ's, therefore praying women are bidden to have a veil upon their head because of the angels, namely those who assist the saints and rejoice in the Church.

This same* Ambrosius confirms lib. 2. in Lucam, where he says: Non solum Episcopus ad tuendum gregem Dominus ordinavit, sed etiam Angelos destinavit. Greg. Naz. subscribes oratione 32. Nec enim, inquit, mihi dubium est, quin alii aliarum Ecclesiarum Praesides, ac Patroni sint, quemadmodum in Apocalypsi Ioannes me docet. — Hence it is no wonder if very many most holy men, Prelates of Churches, had angels as guardians of their own Churches laboring even sensibly in their ministries: nor ought it equally to be called into doubt what most Histories relate, namely that holy Angels have often appeared in Temples to whose guardianship they were destined. Thus in Prato spirituali cap. 4. we read that Leontinus Abbot of the Monastery of Laura saw standing at the corner of the altar an Angel, who said to him: Ex quo sanctificatum est altare istud, ego ei iugiter adstare iussus sum. Lanspergius relates similar things of S. Geltrude Virgin, etc. — But that they are present above all for guarding the communities of Religious, our Le Petit proves by many arguments cap. 17. sect. 1. De SS. Angelis; especially from the fact that religious emulate the angelic life; for the angels love their fellow-citizens, and take the greatest care of their table-companions.

* APPENDIX.

To these must be added the opinion of the ancient Philosophers disapproved by the Theologians, namely that to each individual man a twofold angel is assigned by God, one good, the other bad, of which the former meditates the salvation of men, the latter their ruin and destruction. Which opinion Origenes had imbibed, as appears from lib. 1. in epist. ad Romanos; and likewise homil. 23. in Iosue, and 35. in Lucam; and also lib. 3. De principiis, cap. 2. Nay, he joins to individual men not merely a single Angel or a single demon, but whole cohorts of Angels and demons, homil. 1. in Ps. 36: Nunquam enim, inquit, solus est iustus, sed ne unius quidem, aut duorum vel trium tantummodo Angelorum societate subnixus est, sed exercitus ei virtutum coelestium praesto est. Which he does not restrict to the conferring of spiritual goods, but extends also to corporeal ones, homil. 20. in Ios. It is evident therefore that there are many powers within us, to which the care either of our souls or of our bodies has been entrusted. In defending this he uses a certain apocryphal writing, which you might suspect to be the book of Enoch, homil. 35. in Luc. Legimus, inquit, si tamen cui placet huiusmodi scripturam recipere, iustitiae et iniquitatis Angelos super Abrahae salute disceptantes, dum utraeque turmae suo eum coetui volunt vindicare. He brings forward besides, for the confirmation of these, the example of that demoniac of whom mention is made Luc. 8. v. 30; and Marc. 5. v. 9.¹ For when the demon who tormented that wretched man was asked by Christ questioning him what name he bore, he answered: Legio, by which word he signified that so many infesting demons were present to that man as combatants are wont to be numbered in a military legion. Whence Origenes gathers that by vice one demon presides over each man as dominator and prince, to whom several inferior demons serve as subordinates for propagating that vice. But when a man labors under many vices at once, then he is besieged and infested by many demons at once. — Now that doctrine concerning a twofold attendant angel, good and bad, which he confirms from the book of Hermes entitled Pastore, and from the epistle of S. Barnabae, he seems to have drawn from the Platonists. For Theodoretus, Serm. 3. de curandis Graecorum affectionibus brought forth these words from Plato, libro 10. Legum:

But when you say that the soul governing and implanted in all things that move everywhere governs also the heavens, that soul must necessarily be said to govern them. What then? One or many? I will answer for you: Let us suppose not fewer than two, the one which confers goods, and the other which can effect contraries.

The same was the opinion of the followers of Plato concerning the many genii assigned to individual men. For Porphyrius assigns various demons or genii to each man, of which one has the regimen and care of the body, another of the soul, another of the mind. Nay, he pronounces that far more demons are present to each man, in such wise namely that one cares for the health of the newborn, another for his beauty, others for a certain aptitude in these things, and each of them presides over them equally. To whom Iamblicus answers by denying: that one demon does not preside merely over some part of us, but is present to the whole at once, leads the whole, just as he is attributed by the whole orders that are in the world. Again Porphyrius introduces contrariety as belonging to the ruling demons, for he makes some good, others bad, although, as Iamblicus testifies, nowhere do evil spirits obtain the lot of prefecture, nor are they distributed over against the good with equal authority or number. Many however more eminent, striving against the Monas of Iamblicus, attribute three guardians or demons to each man at his birth: the first of which they call Sacred, which, according to the doctrine of the Egyptians, descends neither from the fixed stars nor from the wandering ones, but from the superior heaven, namely from the empyrean, through God himself the president of demons, and is assigned to the rational soul; and they say that the office of this one is to direct the life of the soul, always to exhibit good thoughts to the mind, and to act within us unceasingly by illuminating, although we do not always perceive him, but when we have been purified and live tranquilly, then he is perceived by us, and speaks as it were with us, and strives unceasingly to bring us to sacred perfection. The second is named Genius, insofar as he is a begotten demon, who descends from the disposition of the world and the circuits of the stars, which are involved in generation. The third indeed they will have to be the demon of birth presiding over profession and mastership, whom they hand down as infused from the stars, furnishing the manners of the soul and the way to worldly dignities and honors. And indeed they assert this to have been found out and approved by experience, that if the profession accord with our nature, and a demon of profession like to us and concordant with the Genius be present, the life becomes more tranquil, happy and prosperous. But if we are engaged in a profession contrary to or unlike the nature of the Genius, life is rendered laborious for us, and disturbed by actions at variance, etc. These are their teachings, in which there are some things savoring of paganism.*