Annotatio CCLVI

”Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains,” etc. — Micah 6:1

Jerome, opening the understanding of this clause, seems to imitate Origen, asserting that the Angels set over the care of men can err in their administration, and accordingly that they are to be set before the judge on the day of judgment,¹ that, according to the merit of the care performed, they may [receive] punishments or ### ANNOTATIO CCLVI (concluded)

“Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains,” etc. — Micah 6:1

(Jerome continues:) [that, according to the merit of the care performed, they may receive] punishments or rewards. His words, in the second commentary on Micah, thus read: “Arise, and contend in judgment against the mountains — which [mountains] I think to signify no others than the Angels, to whom the administration of human affairs has been committed² — the Canticle of Deuteronomy agreeing in this very thing: ‘When the Most High divided the nations, when he disseminated the sons of Adam, he constituted the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Angels of God.’ These are administering spirits, sent for ministry for the sake of those who shall possess the inheritance of salvation.³ And contend in judgment, that whether the mountains or the hills [higher or lower angels] shall have been found not worthily to have administered the peoples — either it may seem to be mine [my fault], who set such ones over [them], or the fault may be taken away from the people and referred to the princes. Let us read the Apocalypse of John the Apostle,⁴ in which are praised and accused the Angels of the Churches for the virtues and vices of those over whom they are said to preside: for as it is sometimes the Bishop’s fault, sometimes the people’s, and often the master sins, often the disciple, and sometimes it is the father’s fault, sometimes the son’s — whether they be well or badly instructed: so in the judgment of God, [it will be] that the crime shall be referred to the Angels, if they have not done all the things which pertained to their office, or to the people, if — those [angels] doing all things — they have contemned to hear them.” Thus far Jerome, who, although in many places he often assails this error, at present wrote these things from the mind of Origen — [Origen’s name] being suppressed for modesty, as is his custom, under the Origenic name: which also can be discerned from those things which not much below he added.

Thou wilt find Origen’s opinion on this matter above, Annotation 126.