Scotus Academicus, Tomus quartus: De Angelis

Note 1. This was Origen's paradox, for he thought that the guardian angels of men obtain the vision of God on no other condition than if they lead to salvation those committed to their faith. For that reason, he says in homilies 28. and 35. on Luke,

The angels are anxious about us, knowing > that if they have governed us well, and led us on even unto salvation, they themselves too may have the confidence of seeing the face of the Father: For just as, if salvation is procured for men through their care and diligence, they attend always upon the face of the Father: so if through their negligence a man perishes, they are not unaware that it is a matter of their own peril as well. And just as a good Bishop, and the best Dispenser of the Church knows it to be a matter of his own merit and virtue if the sheep of the flock entrusted to him have been guarded; so understand it also of the angels. It is a disgrace to an angel if a man entrusted to him has been just, and has sinned: while conversely it is glory to an angel if the least one in the Church entrusted to him has at least been faithful. For they shall see not sometimes, but always the face of the Father who is in Heaven, while others shall not see it always. For according to the merit of those whose angels they are, the angels will contemplate the face of God either always or never, or little, or more.

But homily 20. on Numbers also taught the same thing, that angels are blamed, as Pedagogues, if those committed to their care have turned aside from their office. The Apocalypse proves this by its testimony: where one angel is said to preside over each Church, who, it says, is either praised for the benefits of the people, or even blamed for its offenses. The error of Origen, long since lulled to sleep and extinguished, Calvin raised up again, for our Fevardentius in his Theomachia Calvinistica lib. 9. cap. 19. reports Calvin saying in lib. 3. of the Institutes cap. 14., that the angels cannot satisfy the justice of God; because, as the same Calvin wrote in serm. 16. on Job, If God deal with the angels by supreme right, he will find what he desires in them; constant and perpetual firmness will not stand in them. And further on: God does not find solid truth in the angels, but folly, vanity, and inconstancy. Below, however, he declares himself to be speaking of the angels who persevered in obedience to God and behold his face. But

Note 2. This error was long since proscribed by the Holy Fathers, who teach most constantly that the good angels, though they could previously sin, by not sinning in the way merited that they be no longer able to sin. Thus teaches Augustine in the Enchiridion 57: Fulgentius, De Fide ad Petrum cap. 23. Gregory lib. 34. Mor. c. 4. And this truth is gathered especially from the words of Christ, by which he taught us to pray to God in this manner, Thy will be done as in Heaven, and on earth; for by these words we ask that we fulfill the will of the Father on earth, as the angels fulfill it in Heaven. Nor indeed could Christ have spoken those words except on account of the angels; since at that time there were no creatures in Heaven except the angels alone: therefore he supposes that the divine will is being fulfilled by the angels most faithfully, and most perfectly; and forthwith that they cannot sin. Add what David preaches of the angels Psal. 102. Bless the Lord, all his angels, mighty in strength, doing his word. Whence he adds, as it were by Antonomasia: His ministers, who do his will. Finally, if in order for anyone to enter the heavenly Jerusalem he had to be pure from every stain, according to that word of the Apocalypse 21. 27.¹ There shall not enter into it anything defiled; much more must he who is forever gifted with the vision of God be forever innocent: since David says to God Psal. 5. The wicked shall not dwell near thee, nor shall the unjust remain before thy eyes; whereas the angels remain always with God, since Christ says of them: Their angels always see the face of the Father. It follows, therefore, that they can in no way sin, nor lose their beatitude. Vain, then, and utterly erroneous is the conceit of thinking that because men fall into sin, the angels are to be blamed and punished, as if they had not guarded those entrusted to them with the vigilance that befitted them. There remains, therefore, only to examine whether they receive anything of reward from God on account of the care of their guardianship bestowed upon us: and that it may be done more plainly,

Note 3. Beatitudes are customarily distinguished as twofold, namely essential, and accidental: For there is, says the Seraphic Doctor dist. 11. art. 2. quaest. 2, a twofold joy in the Blessed: the first, in which the substantial reward consists, and this is joy over the uncreated good, which the angel has of God, and in God; namely, enjoying God through union with him, and love. Another is accidental joy, which the angel has over created good, whether his own or another's: of which indeed Scripture often makes mention: as Psalm. 149. where it is said; The Saints shall exult in glory, they shall rejoice in their beds. And Luke 15. There shall be joy in Heaven over one sinner doing penance. To this also belongs the judicial power which Christ voluntarily promises to the poor; nay, even that hundredfold which the same Lord promises in Matthew 19., besides eternal life, to those who have left all things for his sake. To that accidental glory also belong the aureole of Virgins, Martyrs, and Doctors, and similar things, which are common to the angels in their own manner, and with due proportion. For although aureolae properly do not befit them, because they are not capable of Virginity or Martyrdom, nevertheless they have other proportionate objects over which they can rejoice accidentally.

— It must further be known that by the name of accidental beatitude we here do not understand those things which infallibly follow of themselves upon the vision, love, and joy of God, either universally, or in each individual Blessed one according to his own measure; such as, e.g., the memory of past good works together with the joy arising from it, likewise the honor and glory of the Blessed among themselves and before God; just as the glory of the rising bodies, in respect of the beatitude of the soul, is also numbered among the accidental beatitudes.

Of this genus, then, of accidental beatitude we do not speak at present; for although it is found also in the angels, yet it is not receptive of increase; because this accidental beatitude follows essential beatitude infallibly, whether from the nature of the thing, or from the divine ordination; and therefore since the former is not receptive of increase, neither can the latter grow.

— Here, therefore, the discourse is only about that accidental beatitude which consists in a certain act of the intellect and will regarding created objects, which does not follow upon essential beatitude; but is granted by the particular favor of God, such as the revelations through the Word concerning the effects of grace and contingent futures, which the angels did not know from the beginning of beatitude. Of the same kind are joys and other affections regarding things thus known, such as that joy over a sinner doing penance. Glory, therefore, and the joy resulting from these is called accidental beatitude; because it not only surrounds the essential, but is also separable from it after the manner of an accident.

These things thus premised, three things remain to be determined: First, what benefits the holy angels bestow upon us through their guardianship. Second, what sort of beatitude God renders to them on account of that guardianship. Third, what offices of gratitude and veneration we ought to render back to those most faithful guardians.

First conclusion. — There are six principal benefits which the holy angels bestow upon us through their guardianship.

This Conclusion is gathered from the Seraphic Doctor in 2. dist. 11. art. 2. quaest. 1. ad 7. where, having said:

it must be believed that the angels who guard us strive in many ways to promote us toward good, and to withdraw us from evil, although the dullness of our spirit does not perceive this: on account of which many become proud, many become ungrateful, and frequently attribute to themselves what is from the angelic benefit, and thereby become less worthy to be helped by the angels: it is therefore most useful to know and understand the effects of angelic guardianship: twelve effects are accustomed to be assigned by the Masters: yet all of these can be reduced to six principal ones.

The first is to rebuke for faults. Thus Judges 2.

And an Angel of the Lord ascended from Galgal to the place of weepers, and said: I brought you out of Egypt, and led you into the land for which I swore to your fathers, and promised that I would never make void my covenant with you: Only thus far, that you should not strike a compact with the inhabitants of this land, but should overthrow their altars: and you would not hear my voice: Why have you done this? etc.:

Nay, sometimes it happens that they even send punishments upon the men whom they guard: for certain punishments of this life proceed from the pure vindictive justice of God, and are called chastisements: others are ordained from the mercy of God, and are called medicinal punishments: punishments of the former kind God sends through demons, according to that word of Psalm 77. He sends upon them the wrath of his indignation.... sendings through evil angels: For God makes use of evil angels, says St. August. on these words, not only to punish the wicked, as in King Achab whom a Spirit of deceit, by the will of God, seduced that he might fall in battle: but also to prove and manifest the good, as he did in Job.

Punishments of the latter kind God sometimes also sends through good angels, as the same August. teaches, lib. 9. De Civit. Dei, cap. 5. where he says, The holy angels punish without anger those whom they receive under the eternal law as deserving punishment, and succor the wretched without compassion of mercy. This same truth is gathered quite openly from Holy Scripture; for according to the more common opinion of Interpreters God executes at times the office of punishing sinful men through holy angels: for holy were the Angels sent to overturn Sodom Genesis 19. Holy was the Angel who stretched out his hand over the Israelites, to exterminate them on account of the sin of David. Whence with better right God sometimes chastises a just man with medicinal punishments through a good angel; since this punishment is a work of mercy, and pertains especially to the office of a Pedagogue or guardian; both that the guarded person may pay the punishment owed to divine justice on account of his negligences, and that by these tribulations and afflictions he may merit eternal life and increase his merit.

The second effect is to absolve from the bonds of sins, of which matter that angel gave an example who, Acts 12.² stood by Peter when cast into bonds by Herod, and loosed the chains from his hands, and restored him to his former liberty. Which loosing of sins, indeed, the angels perform neither effectively nor authoritatively, but only dispositively, while namely, says Cresolius lib. 3. Mystag. c. 3., they exhibit to men defiled by sin the state they ought to mourn, with a light implanted from heaven, in such wise that the minds of men see the turpitude of crimes, and, as it were, the monstrous image full of horror and contempt, and behold set before their eyes the pestilence, the cruel ruin, the fatal calamity, and eternal damnation, if suddenly they should be snatched from the dwelling of the body in that state.

Whence it comes about that sinners perceive the wrathfulness of the Divine Majesty, the secret judgments dreadful to the human race, that sword painted in the divine oracles: like lightning polished and vibrating, that eye penetrating all things and irradiating the hidden thoughts of the mind: the insuperable power, the strong hand, which no man's force or cunning escapes as it exacts punishments. Then the angel casting more sweetly the ray of his light upon the mind of the sinful man shows him clearly the infamy of his crime, the stain of his soul, the inexplicable folly of men rejoicing in their own evil, the indignity of an ungrateful mind: moreover he demonstrates the power and strength of divine grace, which wickedness destroys, and which when destroyed makes man the mockery of the demon, the spoil of hell, an exile from Heaven: he sets also before the eyes of conscience the joy of a good conscience, which surpasses every bodily pleasure clearly in spiritual gladness and delight. These and similar things our guardian angel sometimes impresses upon us, that he may remove us from, or recall us from, the foul state of sins.

The third effect is to coerce the demons lest they urge us too heavily with temptations, or implant so many depraved thoughts, or subject occasions of sinning: for, as Granadensis says in the sermon on St. Michael,

As long as we militate in the body, wicked spirits do not fail, who are inciters to evil: so also angels do not fail, who are exhorters to good, who namely hold out to us light for the knowledge of truth, who show the way by which one goes to Heaven; who defend us from enemies, who withdraw us from crimes, and always lead us to what is honorable.

Therefore as those always suggest evils, so on the contrary these always counsel honorable things, and repress the forces and venom of the devil who opposes us. Therefore as we read of the holy Angel Raphael with Tobias, that he seized the demon and bound it in the desert of upper Egypt: so our guardian angels are a terror to the demons themselves, our enemies, and restrain their fury with the greatest power; for they are those sixty valiant ones of the mightiest of Israel, who surround the bed of mystical Solomon, namely the faithful soul, the triclinium, and sanctuary of Christ the Lord: For strong, says St. Athanasius lib. qq. q. 22., are the angels of God, who go around the perfect man, and walk about him, that namely they may guard and preserve him from the incursions and encounters of demons.

The fourth effect is to remove obstacles to virtue, and to pave an easy way to its attainment: which indeed is signified in Exodus, where we read that the Angel struck the firstborn of Egypt: since to their guardianship belongs especially to take away impediments to spiritual progress: for in the way of virtue not to advance is to fall behind; hence with reason the Royal Bard sang of the guardian angel: In their hands they shall bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone. Whence St. Augustine in the Soliloquy cap. 27:

The holy angels walk with us in all our ways, enter and go out with us, attentively considering how piously, how honorably we converse in the midst of a wicked nation: with how much zeal and desire we seek your kingdom and its justice; with how much fear and trembling we serve, and exult to you in the gladness of our heart.

They help the laboring, protect the resting, encourage the fighting, crown the conquering, etc. Whence St. Bernard admonishes in serm. 2. on the aforesaid Psalm: Our holy guardians are faithful, they are prudent, they are powerful; why do we tremble? Only let us follow them, let us adhere to them, that we may dwell in the protection of the God of Heaven.

The fifth effect is to offer to God the prayers of those whom they guard, as long as they live this mortal life on earth, and to be present to them in the instant of death, so as to lead their souls, if they be free from any debt and fault, to Heaven. And this is gathered from Tobias 12. I offered your prayer to the Lord; expending which words St. Augustine says in sermon 3. De Natali Domini: Offering our vows, and good works to God, namely alms, fastings, and finally other things, as is clear of Raphael, who offered to God not only the prayers of Tobias, but also his alms, and other good works which he exercised around the dead, whom he buried. Whence in Acts the Angel says: Your prayers and your alms ascended into memory in the sight of God; as if to say: I offered them to God.

Moreover, when they offer prayers and announce desires, they also allege reasons to God that he may hear us, and join their prayers to ours; and the more fervent they are, and the more ardent and purer the desires, the more willingly do they announce and offer them to God: and this they accomplish with the greatest eloquence, as we gather from what is found in Job cap. 33.³ If, he says, there shall be for him an Angel speaking, one of thousands, announcing the equity of the man. Pagninus, and the Royal edition render "eloquent"; for as Orators are wont to use a well-composed and premeditated speech, that they may lead those whom they address to what they intend; so there is no doubt that the angels, when they offer our prayers to God, accomplish this with the greatest eloquence, that God may deign to hear them.

— The same is urged by St. Bernard from those words of the Psalmist 67. The Princes went before joined with them singing psalms: We believe, he says, that the holy angels stand by those praying, offering to God the prayers and vows of men. To which also pertains the vision of Jacob, of which we read in Genesis cap. 28.: And he saw in sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top of it touching Heaven; the angels also of God ascending and descending by it, etc.

Expounding which passage Origen lib. 5. Contra Celsum, says: *

We confess indeed that there are certain ministering spirits, going to and fro as God frequently sends them, to those men upon whom awaits the inheritance of salvation, and these now ascend to the purest heavenly places, and purer even above the heavens, about to offer the prayers of men; now again descend to men, carrying back thence something else for the use of each one, as each is worthy of the benefit.

Similarly St. Augustine lib. 2. Medit. cap. 3:

The angels are said to offer our prayers and vows to God, not because they teach God, who knows all things before they come to be, as well as after they have been made; but because they consult his will concerning these things, and what they have known to be completed by God's command, that they report back to us evidentially, or hiddenly.

Whence he says to men: When you have prayed your prayer I offered it to God. Similarly we also pray, not that we may teach God, as if he knew not what we wish, and wherein we have need, but rational creature has need to refer temporal causes to eternal truth, either by asking what be done toward itself, or by consulting what be done.

— Similar things Tertullianus has, lib. De oratione, cap. 12.; he writes, inveighing against those who approach to make adoration to God without due religion, modesty and attention. Since indeed, he says, it is irreverent to sit in the sight, and opposite to the gaze of him whom you would reverence and venerate as much as possible: how much more irreverent, then, is this act done in the sight of the living God while the angel of prayer still stands by, unless we reproach God because our prayer has wearied us. Where he calls the angel of prayer either because he himself presides over our prayers, or because he receives them themselves and offers them to God most powerful.

On which matter St. Augustine must be heard, serm. 7. de tempore, where he writes thus: We consider how sweet it is, when our vows, such as I have said, the angels who are guardians of our life, have offered before the sight of the divine Majesty. Luc. 1. The whole multitude of the people was praying outside, at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an Angel of the Lord standing at the right hand of the altar of incense. Act. 10. Cornelius the centurion saw in vision manifestly, as it were at the ninth hour of the day, an Angel of God entering in unto him and saying to him etc: Your prayers and your alms ascended into memory in the sight of God. And in Soliloq. c. 27: They love, he says, their fellow-citizens, through whom they await that the breach of their fall be restored. Therefore* with great care and vigilant zeal they are present to us, solicitous, running to and fro between us and thee, O Lord; bearing back our groans and sighs to thee, that they may obtain for us an easy propitiation of thy benignity, and bear back to us the desired blessing of thy grace.

— This same truth St. Hilarius declares excellently on Matthew c. 18. The angels, he says, of the little ones preside over the prayers of the faithful. That angels preside is absolute authority. Therefore the angels daily offer to God the prayers of those to be saved through Christ. Therefore dangerously is he despised whose desires and petitions are conveyed to the eternal and invisible God by the ambitious servitude and ministry of angels.

— *This same truth was discovered by the ethnic Philosophers. For Appuleius writes in the book De Deo Socratis:

Moreover there are certain middle divine powers, between the highest aether and the lowest lands, in this intervening space of air, through which both our desires and our merits pass to the Gods. These they name by the Greek word δαίμονας, carriers between mortals and dwellers in heaven, hence of prayers, thence of gifts.

— Finally the same is urged from these words Apoc. 8. And the smoke of the censers ascended from the prayers of the Saints, from the hand of the Angel before God: by which he signifies how great force prayers and good works receive, when they are offered by the angels. For just as incense and aromatics, unless placed upon coals, smell but little; but when cast upon fire, breathe fragrance far and wide; not otherwise our prayers and works, which perhaps of themselves would avail but little, yet when they are intermixed with the prayers of the angels, and join their commendations to those, and so are offered by them to God, receive great value from the offerers. Which indeed St. Thomas explains luminously 2. 2. q. 83. art. 1. where he says, by their prayers and merits our prayers obtain effect, and our good works are accepted by His divine majesty.

— *Hence the Patriarch Jacob in a mystical sleep saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and on it angels ascending and descending: ascending indeed to God, so that they might offer to Him the prayers and petitions and good works of men; but descending from God to men, so that they might bestow divine benefits upon them; which S. Augustine admirably explains in his commentary on psalm 44: *The Angels of God, he says, ascend and descend upon the son of man, because above is he to whom they ascend in heart, that is, his head, and below is the son of man, that is, his body. One ascends to the head, and descends to the members.

— But they who during this mortal life assist us with such great charity do not fail even our souls when loosened from their bodies. For if they depart from this life altogether pure, without stain or wrinkle of venial fault, or the guilt of any punishment, they are led by their guardian Angels up to Heaven, and sometimes at the same time by others besides, according to their varied merits and the disposition of divine Providence. But if they need some purgation, the holy Angels lead them down to the place of Purgatory, and there visit them and console them.

This is gathered above all from Luke 16., where Christ the Lord says of the Beggar: And it came to pass that the Beggar died, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom. Where Chrysostom in his special Homily says: He was carried, he says, on the shoulders of the Angels, lest he should labor even by walking: Would one Angel suffice to carry him? but therefore several come, that they may make a choir of joy. Each of the Angels rejoices to touch such a burden; they are gladly weighed down with such loads, that they may bring men to the kingdoms of Heaven.

Sixthly, finally, the effect is the consolation of mourners. Thus we read Genes. 16.⁴ that an Angel consoled Agar fleeing from the face of the Lord, and said to her: Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hand: and thus he wiped away her grief and sorrow while she was a fugitive in the wilderness. It is established also of Gedeon, to console whom God sent an Angel, who saluted him honorably, saying: The Lord be with thee, O most valiant of men, that he might revive him who was faint-hearted, and detain him who was thinking of flight. Thus the Angel Raphael consoled Tobias when he said to him, speaking of his son whom he was undertaking to conduct on his journey, Tobias 5.: I will bring thy son safe, and restore him. Thus on the return, when he presented his son to him safe and sound, he refreshed him with no lesser consolation. Thus one Angel appeared to Elias, pouring over his spirit, spent with bitterness, the heavenly dew of consolation, and restoring the strength of his body, worn out by the fatigue of the journey and the hunger of famine, by offering him the hearth-cake.

Sacred Scripture supplies many other proofs of angelic consolation, whereby it is established that the benefits of the holy Angels toward us are immense, which they bestow upon us with so much the greater affection because not only do they obey the divine commands in this matter, but they also burn with most ardent charity toward us:

For neither, says Blosius in the Sayings of the Fathers, did any mother ever keep watch over her only beloved son, to govern, guard, and protect him, as these most blessed Spirits keep vigil for our salvation, and especially each man's own Angel specially deputed by the Lord for our guardianship; for night and day, in every place and time, in all our causes and necessities, he stands by us with the utmost fidelity, nor ever withdraws from us even for a moment.

Truly, since those heavenly Spirits see and know how admirably, immensely, and ardently both our Lord and theirs pursues us with love, so also do they themselves embrace us with such affection as can be worthily expressed by none.

— All these things holy Bernard clearly declares in sermon 1. De sancto Michaële;

this is, most beloved, the threefold cord, whereby the supereminent charity of the Angels is drawn down from the lofty habitation of Heaven to console, to visit, to help us: for God's sake, for our sake, for their own sake. For God's sake indeed, whose > such great bowels of mercy toward us they too imitate as is fitting. For our sake, in whom surely they compassionate their own likeness. For their own sake, whose orders they await with all desire to be filled up from among us. For in the mouth of little ones, who now feed on milk and not yet on solid food, that praise of the divine majesty is to be perfected, of which the Angelic Spirits, possessing the firstfruits, enjoy blessed delight without doubt: but they await us with so much the more eagerness as they are stirred by the expectation and manifestation of its consummation.

Second conclusion. — Guardian angels, on account of the heavenly benefits lavished upon us through their services, receive from God an increase of accidental joy: so commonly teach the Scholastic Doctors, together with our Alensis 2. part. quaest. 41. membro 6. and the Seraphic Doctor dist. 11. art. 2., where, after he had reported two opinions on this matter — of which the first affirmed that in the blessed angels, from the salvation of men, there grows essential joy together with accidental joy, not only extensively but also intensively, because the Followers of this opinion held that the angels were not yet perfectly blessed, although confirmed in grace — while the second contended that neither joy, essential as well as accidental, grows intensively, but only extensively, just as their charity is not now greater than it was from the beginning, although they now love more persons than then — he concludes at last and establishes the third opinion, namely that in the angels the reward, and essential joy, is by no means increased:

because, he says, as regards that, they are perfectly blessed: but the joy, in which the accidental reward consists, increases not only extensively but also intensively, both in respect of their own good and in respect of what is joined to it; because while ministering to others they perform good works, in which they merit the accidental reward, and they also lead their fellow citizens to beatitude, over whom without doubt they rejoice and exult: and this third position seems the more probable, and according to it the answer to the opposing parts is clear: for the arguments showing that from our beatification there accrues to the angels joy conclude only about accidental joy, which is concerned with created good, in which nevertheless the essential increase of the reward does not consist.

Gabriel embraces and teaches the same opinion, art. 3. dubio 2., and affirms that the angels, as regards that accidental joy, are not in the term but in the way; because before it is given they lack it, whence they can merit it, and therefore it is granted them by God on account of merit.

— Yet I can scarcely be brought to believe that the angels are still in some part Wayfarers, and able to some extent to merit a new reward. For in order that anyone be in the state of meriting, it is not enough that he lack some thing; but beyond this it is necessary that he be in a way destined for meriting by divine ordination; which way, regularly, in angels and men, is the state of faith, opposed to the intuitive vision of God.

Adde. that that accidental joy can sufficiently be understood to be granted to the angels by God without their meriting it; for the angels receive that joy anew either from the new presence of objects, and without any special revelation or illumination on the part of God or of the Superior Angels, as they rejoice over one sinner doing penance, because they can know his penitence by their proper knowledge: whence since they love men with the highest charity, so they rejoice over their salvation; for, says Augustine cap. 27. Soliloquiorum:

As often as we act well, the angels rejoice, and the demons are saddened: as often as we decline from good, we make glad the devil, and defraud thine angels of their joy; for there is joy to them over one sinner doing penance; but to the devil over one just man abandoning penitence.

In this manner, however, the angels obtain joy without any merit of their own. — Or it can be said that the increase of that joy proceeds from this, that something new is revealed to the angels in order to their ministries; as when the Incarnation was revealed to Gabriel the Archangel, to be carried out at such a time and in such a manner that he might announce it to the Virgin; and then too he had no need of any new merit for receiving that joy; since it proceeded from that new revelation made to him. Or finally it can be conceived that that new joy is granted to an angel on account of a new revelation made to him, pertaining to his ministry, as when it is revealed to him that a man entrusted to his guardianship is about to perform such a penitence at such a time, or about to perform such or other meritorious works. In this manner, however, that joy likewise does not come on account of any special merit of the angel; but only on account of the divine revelation and the conversion of the sinner; and therefore the merit of the angel does not seem necessary for attaining that accidental beatitude. More truly, therefore, I judge it must be said that the increase of that beatific joy, or that accidental beatitude, proceeds both on the part of God liberally granting that joy to the angel, and also on the part of the angels, who on account of the supreme charity with which they pursue men are steeped in surpassing gladness, and conceive immense joy, as often as they see them strive and keep vigil for their salvation.

Rogabis. How does the angel stand toward the man deputed to his guardianship, whom he knows, God revealing it, to be about to be damned?

Our Alensis answers, membro 6. art. 2.:

That although to some angel the damnation of him to whom he is deputed is revealed: nevertheless the quantity of the damnation is not revealed to him, namely how great his damnation is going to be: for this is among the most secret things of God. Hence although he may know by revelation that he is to be damned; and know that he will accomplish nothing as regards him so far as being saved: nevertheless because he does not know how great his damnation is going to be, therefore he does not know whether he will accomplish anything as regards him in this, that his punishment, or damnation, be less. Hence he still applies care concerning him, nor does he abandon him altogether; nor does this disagree with the divine will. Hence although he does not act concerning him so as to draw him to salvation; nevertheless he acts so as to withdraw him from a greater damnation, which namely he would incur unless the angel guarded him.

Third conclusion. — We must repay three things above all to our most holy tutelary angels in gratitude of soul; namely veneration, love, and invocation. So S. Bernardus serm. 12.*:

He himself, God, commanded these very ones, who obey Him out of such great charity, and succor us in such great necessity, that they must not be ungrateful; let us therefore be devout, let us be grateful to such great guardians, let us love them again, let us honor them as much as we can, as much as we ought; yet let both love and honor be rendered wholly to Him, from whom is all things to them as well as to us, whence we can honor, or love, whence we deserve to be loved and honored.

But how great a reverence we owe to the holy angels, the same mellifluous Doctor admirably explains on Psalm 90., sermon 12., where among other things he admonishes thus: In whatsoever lodging, in whatsoever corner, have reverence for thy angel: dare not thou, in his presence, what thou wouldst not dare before me seeing.

And in the first sermon on Saint Michaël he inculcates that we must hold the greatest reverence toward those most loving Tutelaries:

Consider how much solicitude we need, most beloved, that we may show ourselves worthy of their company, and that we may converse in that manner in the sight of the angels, lest perhaps we offend the sacred gaze. For you, if ever the angels provoked by our sins and negligences shall have judged us unworthy of their presence and visitation, so that already we must needs lament with the Prophet and say: my friends and my neighbors drew near and stood against me; and they who were near me stood afar off; and they exerted violence who sought my soul; too far removed are they whose presence could protect us and drive back the enemy.

But if we have so necessary a familiarity of angelic condescension, their offense must be avoided by us, and this exercised chiefly in those things wherein we know they take delight. For there are many things that please them, and that delight them to find in us: as sobriety, chastity, voluntary poverty, frequent groans toward heaven, and prayers with tears and intention of heart: yet above all these things, the angels of peace require of us unity and peace.

— How great gratitude we owe equally to those most blessed Guardians Bernard himself declares in the prefaced Sermon 12. on Psalm 90., where, after he had said: They are present therefore, and present to themselves, not only with themselves but also for themselves: they are present that they may profit: what shall I render to the Lord for all things that he hath rendered to me? he adds: Let us therefore be devout, let us be grateful to such great Guardians, let us love them again, let us honor them, as much as we can, as much as we ought: and the sequel, which he has cited above.

— Finally, they are to be invoked by our invocations and prayers as often as spiritual and corporal straits press upon us. For so did the most holy Patriarchs: above all indeed Jacob, who blessing the sons of Joseph said Genes. 48.: The angel who delivered me from all evils, bless these boys, by which words it is established that he invokes the angel as his protector. The same we read cap. 5. Job, where Eliphaz reproaching Job says: Call therefore, if there be any that answereth, and turn to some one of the Saints: where by the name of Saints he understands the blessed angels, as S. Augustine interprets in his Annotations on Job, who also thinks that that passage: Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, is said of the angels, according to what is said in the same Job chapter 33.: If there shall be an angel speaking for him, one of thousands, he shall pity him, and say, Deliver him, that he go not down into corruption. Which certainly is confirmed by that passage Oseae 12. where we read of Jacob the Patriarch that he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened, he wept, and prayed to him: for so is explained that struggle which the same Patriarch had throughout the whole night with the angel Genes. 32. But when the angel asked him to let him go at dawn, he answered: I will not let thee go except thou bless me.

The same truth the holy Fathers teach, above all indeed saint Chrysostomus in his Liturgy, thus as he writes: Prince of the celestial militia, Michael, we ask thee now unworthy, that thou fortify us by thy intercessions. And more clearly lib. De Incomprehensibili Dei natura, speaking of the angels he says:

They pray for the human race, as if they said: For these we pray thee, Lord, whom thou hast loved so much that for their salvation thou didst undergo death, didst breathe forth thy soul on the cross; for these we supplicate, for whom thou thyself didst bestow thy blood; for these we pray, for whom thou didst immolate thy body, etc.

The same the Church performs, which in the sacred Canon of the Mass after the consecration prescribed these words to be pronounced by the Priest: Supplices te rogamus, omnipotens Deus, iube haec perferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum, in conspectu divinae maiestatis tuae. And that this plainly happened to a certain Priest of his time, the Blessed Climacus relates in the Speculo exemplorum, writing that when a certain Priest of his time had pronounced the aforesaid words while celebrating, immediately a great multitude of celestial spirits was present visibly, among whom one more illustrious in appearance and more sublime in majesty was seen to take the sacramental Host, and to present it to the divine gaze, then, when offered, with all the other angels congratulating with supreme reverence, to deposit it again upon the altar for the consummation of the sacrifice.

Hence saint Bernardus, in the sermon de triplici genere bonorum, devoutly admonishes: From the holy angels, he says, aid must be sought, that with hidden sighs and frequent tears they offer our prayers to that supereminent majesty, may bear back grace; because they are ministering spirits sent for us, that we may take possession of the inheritance of salvation. Which he certainly confirms in sermon 12. on Psalm. Qui habitat: As often therefore the gravest temptation is seen to press, and violent tribulation to impend, invoke thy Guardian Angel, thy Doctor, thy Helper in opportunities and tribulations, cry out to him, and say, Lord save us: we perish.

Thence it is no wonder if our Seraphic Father Franciscus, as S. Bonaventura says in his life, was joined to those angelic spirits with so great a bond of love, and venerated them so much, that out of devotion to them, from the assumption of the glorious Virgin, persisting he fasted forty days; but to the blessed Michael the Archangel, because he had the office of representing souls, he was more devoted with spiritual love, on account of the fervent zeal he had for the salvation of all to be saved.

Dices. Sanctus Paulus ad Coloss. 2. forbade every religious cult of angels, writing thus: Let no man seduce you, willing in humility and religion of angels, walking in the things which he hath not seen, in vain puffed up by the sense of his flesh. Whence Theodoretus, expounding these words of the following chapter, in which Paul exhorts: All things whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; following this law, he says, the Synod of Laodicea, that it might bring a remedy to that old disease, decreed that supplication was not to be made to angels, nor was our Lord Jesus Christ to be abandoned: therefore, say the Calvinists, angels are not to be invoked.

— Nego consequentiam. for neither do the words of saint Paul and of the Council of Laodicea convey this sense: for what the Apostle wished, saint Chrysost. Homil. 6. in idem cap. explains openly: What, he says, do these words altogether mean? He answers: There were some saying: We ought not to have access to God through Christ, but through the angels; for that surpasses our capacity. Hence the Apostle everywhere strives to inculcate those things which he had said of Christ: Through the blood of his cross we are reconciled, and he suffered for us. Which same thing Theophylactus has: they asserted, he says, that it was unworthy of the majesty of the Only-begotten to bring us to the Father; and greater than for human weakness: Whence, they say, it is more consonant to reason to say that the angels served for our reconciliation. Against this cult of the angels they inveighed, and persuaded the simpler sort, that they should apply their mind to these, as to those who had saved us. Nor does Theodoretus shrink from this interpretation, for he says, These things pertain to the heresy of certain men: who, as if led by humility, since they assert that God invisible to all cannot be touched nor comprehended, hold that divine benevolence must be conciliated for themselves through the angels: he adds however that they had been accustomed to Jewish rites, and had boasted that the law was handed down through angels, and therefore seemed worthy of cult and veneration. Hence he subjoins, This disease, he says, lingered long in Phrygia and Pisidia: on whose account, a Synod held at Laodicea, a town of Phrygia, willed by law that angels be prayed to; even today oratories of saint Michael may be seen among them and their neighbors. By which it is clear that it was not Theodoretus' mind, as he willed that through the Synod of Laodicea the cult of angels had been proscribed, but only that those condemned heretics, who, Christ despised, employed angels as if principal and sole intercessors with God, as the last words in the objection set forth relate.

But what he mentions, that in those regions there are frequent oratories sacred to S. Michaël, does not pertain to condemning them, such as they were then celebrated with popular cult: but that it may be an indication that those peoples were most inclined to the veneration of the angels, because frequent oratories of saint Michael were in those places, which had been instituted long before; not indeed that superstitious honor was there paid to the angels, as those heretics afterward did, but that it might become manifest that the holy angels were held by the faithful in supreme veneration from the very beginnings of the Church itself.

But that such was also the judgment of Laodicea, it is clear from Canone 37. in which we read the constitution:

That Christians ought not to leave the Church of God, and go and name angels, and make Congregations, which are known to be forbidden. If anyone therefore be found serving this occult idolatry, let him be anathema, because he has left our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, and delivered himself over to idolatry.

By which words it is perspicuous that every cult and invocation of angels is not prohibited; but only that one which pertains to the contempt of our Lord Jesus Christ, as those humble cultores of angels were doing. Moreover, that the veneration of the angels, and especially of saint Michaël, had grown widespread in the age of Theodoretus, and that frequent oratories in his honor had been instituted throughout the whole East, Sozomenus, contemporary of Theodoretus, testifies lib. 2. c. 3., where he reports the Michaëlia, that is, basilicas and oratories dedicated to saint Michaël, and the immense miracles wrought in them, whence Nicephorus lib. 7. cap. ult. By these things therefore it is established how slight are the grounds by which the Calvinists are led to upbraid us with the cult of angels.