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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book One — the works of the six days

DISPUTATION. Why Moses in this place did not expound the creation of the Angels

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DISPUTATION. Why Moses in this place did not expound the creation of the Angels.1

DISPUTATIO. Cur Moses hoc loco creationem Angelorum non exposuerit.

Explicanda est ultimo loco, quae hunc librum claudat, minime praetermittenda quaestio: cur Moses, qui describens mundi opificium ceterarum rerum primordia et effectionem edocuit, solam Angelorum creationem tacitus praeteriit? Nam fas non est ambigere creatos esse a Deo Angelos; id enim clarissime docuit David in Psalmo 148, in quo, cum Dei opera, in quibus etiam Angelos numerat, ad praedicandas opificis sui laudes provocet, de illis ait, Ipse dixit et facta sunt, ipse mandavit et creata sunt; statuit ea in aeternum et in saeculum saeculi. Simile ponitur in Cantico trium puerorum Danielis cap. 3, et Ioannes in Apocalypsi cap. 4 et 10 Deum inquit creasse caelum et quaecumque sunt in caelo, terram et maria et quaecumque in eis sunt. Paulus item ad Colossenses 1 apertis verbis docet omnia esse condita in Christo, sive visibilia sive invisibilia, principatus, thronos, potestates et dominationes, omnia per ipsum et in ipso esse condita; idemque traditur in symbolo Fidei Catholicae, et confirmatum est in Concilio Lateranensi magno canone 1. Nec sane existimari potest Angelos fuisse quidem a Deo creatos, sed ab aeterno tamen: id enim omnium Patrum consensu et Ecclesiae auctoritate reprobatur. Ac licet nusquam Scriptura docere videatur Angelos ab aliquo temporis initio esse factos, id tamen ex quibusdam eius sententiis nec obscura nec infirma ratione colligitur. Etenim Proverbiorum 8 dicitur Sapientia fuisse ex omni aeternitate, et antequam Deus quicquam faceret: fuit ergo quando nihil a Deo factum erat. Et 1 capite Ecclesiastici Prior omnibus creata dicitur esse Sapientia. Huc facit et illud, Primogenita ante omnem creaturam. Huic quoque rei illud etiam fidem facit, quod solet Scriptura aeternitatem tanquam quicquam proprium Dei eique soli conveniens praedicare. Cum igitur Angeli et creati sint a Deo, et ab aliquo temporis principio, et sint principes huius mundi partes, non temere in dubium vocatur cur Moses, describendo mundi molitionem, eorum effectionem tacuerit.
There is to be explained, in the last place, a question by no means to be passed over, one which closes this book: why Moses, who in describing the fashioning of the world taught the beginnings and making of all other things, passed over in silence the creation of the Angels alone? For it is not lawful to doubt that the Angels were created by God; this David taught most clearly in Psalm 148, in which, when he calls upon the works of God—among which he numbers the Angels also—to proclaim the praises of their Maker, he says of them, He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created; He established them forever and unto the age of ages. The like is set down in the Canticle of the Three Children in Daniel chapter 3, and John in the Apocalypse, chapters 4 and 10, says that God created heaven and whatever is in heaven, the earth and the seas and whatever is in them. Paul likewise to the Colossians, chapter 1, teaches in plain words that all things were founded in Christ, whether visible or invisible, principalities, thrones, powers, and dominations—all things were founded through Him and in Him; and the same is handed down in the symbol of the Catholic Faith, and was confirmed in the great Lateran Council, canon 1. Nor indeed can it be supposed that the Angels were created by God, but yet from eternity: for that is rejected by the consensus of all the Fathers and the authority of the Church. And although Scripture nowhere seems expressly to teach that the Angels were made from some beginning of time, yet it is gathered from certain of its sayings by a reasoning neither obscure nor weak. For in Proverbs 8 Wisdom is said to have been from all eternity, and before God made anything: there was therefore a time when nothing had been made by God. And in the first chapter of Ecclesiasticus Wisdom is said to be created before all things. To this purpose also is that text, The firstborn before every creature. To this matter, too, that lends credence which Scripture is wont to do—to predicate eternity as something proper to God and befitting Him alone. Since, therefore, the Angels were both created by God and from some beginning of time, and are the chief parts of this world, it is not rashly called into doubt why Moses, in describing the building of the world, was silent about their making.2
QUIDAM respondent Mosen, quod videret Hebraeos esse perquam rudes nec spiritualium rerum doctrinae capaces, ad eorum captum et intelligentiam attemperata et accommodata scriptione sua, huius duntaxat mundi...
SOME reply that Moses, because he saw that the Hebrews were exceedingly unschooled and not capable of the teaching of spiritual things, with his writing tempered and accommodated to their grasp and understanding, wished to explain the origin and procreation only of this...3
...mundi corporati et aspectabilis originem et procreationem explicare voluisse. Haec responsio mihi plenissime satisfacit: Mosen namque rerum modo corporalium, et quae sub sensus cadunt, effectionem docere, mihi persuasum et certum est; idemque existimasse B. Hieronymum colligo ex iis quae scripsit ipse in 139 Epistola ad Cyprianum ad hunc modum: Mosis ore creationem mundi, et eorum duntaxat quae visibilia sunt, conditionem hominis et omnis retro historiae didicimus veritatem. Permultis tamen probata est ea ratio, quam Athanasius respondens ad 4 quaestionem Antiochi (si tamen Athanasium eius libri auctorem fuisse credimus) et Chrysostomus atque Theodoretus tradunt: Iudaeos ingenio fuisse ad idolatriam admodum lubrico et proclivi, quod patet argumento vituli aurei, quem recentes ab egressu ex Aegypto, post tot tantaque prodigia a Deo facta, tanquam Deum in deserto adoraverunt; quare Mosen veritum, ne, si caelestium mentium dignitatem et praestantiam Hebraeis aperiret, hinc illi occasionem caperent existimandi Angelos esse Deos et divinis honoribus colendos, consulto eorum creationem in enarrando mundi opificio commemorare supersedisse.
...corporeal and visible world. This response satisfies me most fully: for I am persuaded and certain that Moses teaches the making only of corporeal things, and of those that fall under the senses; and I gather that the blessed Jerome thought the same from what he himself wrote in his 139th Epistle to Cyprian, in this manner: From the mouth of Moses we have learned the truth of the creation of the world, and the condition only of those things which are visible, the making of man, and of all past history. By very many, however, that reasoning is approved which Athanasius, answering the fourth question of Antiochus (if indeed we believe Athanasius to be the author of that book), and Chrysostom and Theodoret hand down: that the Jews were of a disposition exceedingly slippery and prone to idolatry, as is plain from the example of the golden calf, which, fresh from their departure out of Egypt, after so many and so great wonders done by God, they worshipped in the desert as though it were God; wherefore Moses, fearing lest, if he disclosed to the Hebrews the dignity and excellence of the heavenly minds, they should thence take occasion to suppose the Angels to be gods and to be honored with divine worship, deliberately forbore to mention their creation in narrating the fashioning of the world.4
Verum hanc rationem, ut pervulgatam, ita minime firmam et probabilem esse probat Tostatus hoc argumento. Ante huius libri scriptionem et egressum ex Aegypto, Angelorum notitiam habebant Iudaei ex traditione maiorum, quibus saepenumero eos apparuisse acceperant, velut Agar, Loth, Abrahae et Iacob, quas apparitiones etiam hoc in libro narrat Moses; quin etiam statim ut Adam eiectus est de Paradiso, scribit Moses in eius loci custodiam positum esse Cherubim, ut ab ingressu homines arceret. Quinimo, ob eam ipsam causam quam isti afferunt cur Moses nullum hoc loco verbum de Angelis fecerit, convenire maxime videbatur ut eorum creationem exponeret, scilicet ut ita omnem Iudaeis idololatriae occasionem praecideret: nihil enim periculi fuisset ut quisquam Iudaeorum Angelos crederet esse Deos et ut Deos colere vellet, quos ex Mose cognovisset nec fuisse semper, et ab alio esse factos ex nihilo, et in numerum atque ordinem creaturarum coactos.
But Tostatus proves, by this argument, that this reasoning, common as it is, is by no means firm and probable. Before the writing of this book and the departure out of Egypt, the Jews had a knowledge of the Angels from the tradition of their forefathers, to whom they had received that the Angels had very often appeared—as to Hagar, Lot, Abraham, and Jacob, which apparitions Moses also narrates in this very book; indeed, immediately after Adam was cast out of Paradise, Moses writes that a Cherub was set to guard that place, to keep men from entering. Nay rather, for the very cause which these men allege as to why Moses said no word here about the Angels, it would seem most fitting that he should expound their creation, namely so as thus to cut off from the Jews every occasion of idolatry: for there would have been no danger that any of the Jews should believe the Angels to be gods, and should wish to worship as gods those whom he had learned from Moses had not always existed, but were made out of nothing by Another, and forced into the number and order of creatures.5
B. AUGUSTINUS, libro 12 Confessionum et libro 11 De civitate Dei et 1 libro De Genesi ad litteram, censet non fuisse a Mose praetermissos Angelos, sed eum per creationem caeli et lucis figurate insinuasse Angelorum creationem; idem sentit Beda in Hexameron: quod mihi tamen non sit verisimile. Est enim narratio haec Mosis historica, non aliam sententiam proprie reddens nisi qua exprimunt verba eius secundum propriam usitatamque eorum notionem et usum accepta. Severianus, ut citatur in Catena, Mosen ait eo consilio scripsisse Hebraeis hanc Cosmopoeiam, ut (quia illi Aegyptiorum, quibuscum diutina commemoratione ac consuetudine versati fuerant, impiis erroribus atque superstitionibus imbuti et infecti erant—Aegyptii autem moderabantur et astra omnia quae in caelo sunt, et multa de animalibus terrestribus, aquatilibus et volatilibus, necnon et homines quosdam di[vinis]...
The blessed AUGUSTINE, in book 12 of the Confessions and book 11 of The City of God and book 1 of On Genesis according to the Letter, holds that the Angels were not omitted by Moses, but that he figuratively hinted at the creation of the Angels by the creation of heaven and light; Bede thinks the same in his Hexameron: which, however, does not seem to me probable. For this narrative of Moses is historical, rendering properly no other meaning than that which his words express when taken according to their proper and customary notion and use. Severianus, as he is cited in the Catena, says that Moses wrote this Cosmopoeia for the Hebrews with this design: that (since they, from their long remembrance of and familiarity with the Egyptians, among whom they had dwelt, had been imbued and infected with impious errors and superstitions—and the Egyptians worshipped both all the stars that are in heaven, and many of the land, water, and flying animals, and even certain men with di[vine]...6
...[di]vinis honoribus colebant) eos ab istiusmodi superstitione et impietate averteret. Omisit igitur incorporearum rerum opificium, et ad ea quae sensibus patent scriptionem applicuit, ut haec omnia quae cum voluptate cernerent et admirentur non Deos esse, sed Dei opera et ab initio temporis et ex nihilo facta intelligerent. Basilius, Ambrosius, Damascenus propterea putant omissam esse a Mose creationem Angelorum, quod is voluerit tantummodo describere originem huius mundi corporei, earumque rerum omnium quae simul cum mundo sunt conditae; Angelos vero multis ante hunc mundum saeculis esse factos: hoc si verum esset, omnem propositae quaestionis difficultatem exauriret.
...divine honors) he might turn them away from superstition and impiety of this kind. He therefore omitted the making of incorporeal things, and applied his writing to those things which lie open to the senses, so that they might understand that all these things which they beheld and admired with delight were not gods, but the works of God, made both from the beginning of time and out of nothing. Basil, Ambrose, and Damascene think that the creation of the Angels was omitted by Moses for this reason: that he wished only to describe the origin of this corporeal world, and of all those things which were founded together with the world; but that the Angels were made many ages before this world: which, if it were true, would drain away the whole difficulty of the proposed question.7
VERUM ea de re magna lis est inter Patres. Etenim fere Graeci scriptores, et de Latinis quicumque fuere ante Augustinum, censuerunt multis ante hunc mundum saeculis Angelos esse a Deo conditos. Hoc tradit Origenes in opere suo περὶ ἀρχῶν et homilia 4 in Isaiam, Basilius homilia 1 et 2 in Hexameron, Gregorius Nazianzenus in oratione de Natali Domini; Severianus et Diodorus eiusdem sententiae fuisse perhibentur in Catena; idem reliquit scriptum 2 libro De fide capite 3 Damascenus. Ex Latinis autem hoc etiam probat Hilarius libro 12 De Trinitate et in libello contra Auxentium, et Ambrosius libro 1 in Hexameron capite 5 et in Praefatione in primum psalmum, Hieronymus item super 1 caput epistolae ad Titum, Isidorus etiam libro 1 De summo bono capite 12; quin Cassianus in collatione 7 capite 8 neminem fidelium, inquit, ea de re posse dubitare. Pro hac opinione duplex affertur ratio: tum quod Angelus, sicut dignitate praecellit mundum corporeum, ita conveniens erat ut eundem etiam antiquitate antecederet; tum etiam quod in 1 capite Ecclesiastici sic est scriptum, Prior omnibus creata est Sapientia, existimant autem per sapientiam significari naturam Angelicam, quam Deus statim ab initio scientiae et sapientiae plenissimam condidit.
But on this matter there is a great dispute among the Fathers. For nearly all the Greek writers, and of the Latins whoever lived before Augustine, judged that the Angels were founded by God many ages before this world. This Origen hands down in his work On First Principles (περὶ ἀρχῶν) and in homily 4 on Isaiah, Basil in homilies 1 and 2 on the Hexameron, Gregory Nazianzen in his oration on the Nativity of the Lord; Severianus and Diodorus are reported in the Catena to have been of the same opinion; the same John Damascene left in writing in book 2 of On the Faith, chapter 3. And of the Latins, Hilary too maintains this in book 12 of On the Trinity and in the booklet against Auxentius, and Ambrose in book 1 on the Hexameron, chapter 5, and in the Preface to the first psalm, Jerome likewise on the first chapter of the epistle to Titus, Isidore also in book 1 of On the Highest Good, chapter 12; indeed Cassian, in conference 7, chapter 8, says that no one of the faithful can doubt of this matter. For this opinion a twofold reason is brought forward: first, that the Angel, just as it excels the corporeal world in dignity, so it was fitting that it should also precede it in antiquity; and second, that in the first chapter of Ecclesiasticus it is written thus, Wisdom was created before all things, and they suppose that by ‘wisdom’ is signified the angelic nature, which God founded, from the very beginning, most full of knowledge and wisdom.8
Verum neutra ratio cogit. Non prior: nam homo post stirpes et cunctas animantes creatus est, quibus tamen dignitate multum antecellit. Nec sane posterior: quod eo loco per sapientiam non Angelus, sed Verbum divinum quod est sapientia Patris intelligi debet, ut ex aliis eiusdem loci circumstantiis liquido constat. Dicitur enim ibi Sapientiam esse investigabilem, et effudisse illam Deum in omnia opera sua, eamque semper fuisse cum Deo et ante omne aevum: quae in Angelorum naturam minime conveniunt. Dicitur autem Dei Sapientia, qui est Filius, creata, pro eo quod est producta seu genita. Solet enim Scriptura (teste Hilario) Filium Dei dicere genitum, nonnunquam etiam creatum, propterea quod productio Filii Dei habet in se quicquid est perfectionis in generatione et in creatione. Ex generatione quidem habet quod Filius non est productus ex nihilo, sed ex substantia Patris eique consubstantialis; ex creatione vero habet quod sit productus sine ulla Patris mutatione, variatione aut...
But neither reason compels. Not the first: for man was created after the plants and all the living things, which yet he far surpasses in dignity. Nor indeed the second: because in that place by ‘wisdom’ is to be understood not an Angel, but the divine Word, which is the wisdom of the Father, as is clearly evident from the other circumstances of the same passage. For it is there said that Wisdom is unsearchable, and that God poured her out upon all His works, and that she was always with God and before every age: which by no means befit the nature of the Angels. And the Wisdom of God, who is the Son, is said to be ‘created,’ in that it is produced or begotten. For Scripture is wont (as Hilary witnesses) to call the Son of God ‘begotten,’ and sometimes also ‘created,’ for the reason that the production of the Son of God has in itself whatever of perfection is in generation and in creation. From generation indeed it has that the Son is not produced out of nothing, but out of the substance of the Father and consubstantial with Him; from creation, however, it has that He is produced without any change, variation, or...9
...[innovatio]ne aut invocatione. Vel certe non aliud significatur illis verbis, Prior omnium creata est Sapientia, quam Sapientiam non coepisse simul esse cum creaturis, sed ante rerum omnium creationem fuisse ipsam apud Deum.
...renewal or [invocation]. Or else nothing else is signified by those words, Wisdom was created before all things, than that Wisdom did not begin to be together with creatures, but that before the creation of all things she herself was with God.10
GENNADIUS profecto et Acacius, ut traditur in Catena, derident et damnant supradictam opinionem tanquam fabulam e Platonis Timaeo sumptam, quo in dialogo fingit Plato Angelos, quos ipse vocat Deos iuniores, fuisse antiquiores mundi opificio; quin animos hominum vetustiores corporibus facit. Sibi vero aiunt isti verisimilius videri conditos esse Angelos post mundum corporeum, similiter ut prius formatum est corpus hominis, posterius autem ipsius animus est creatus: nam et Paulus docet prius esse quod est animale quam quod est spirituale. Nec defuere qui existimarunt Angelum esse creatum simul cum homine, quod apud Iob capite 40 Deus dixit Iob, Ecce Behemoth quem feci tecum, hoc est eodem tempore quo creavi te; per Behemoth autem multi de sanctis Patribus interpretantur diabolum. Sed huic opinioni maxime obstat quod ante creationem hominis facti sunt Caeli, qui motu suo sex dies illos primos definierunt, peregerunt atque distinxerunt; motus autem Caeli ab Angelo efficitur. Apud Iob etiam capite 38 dixit Deus ipsi Iob, Ubi eras, cum me laudarent simul astra matutina, et iubilarent omnes filii Dei? vel, ut habent Septuaginta Interpretes, Cum me magna voce laudarent omnes Angeli mei. Quo perspicue intelligitur ante quartum diem, quo creata sunt astra, fuisse iam Angelos: id quod bene colligit ex eo loco Iob Augustinus libro 11 De civitate Dei capite 9.
Gennadius indeed, and Acacius, as is handed down in the Catena, deride and condemn the aforesaid opinion as a fable taken from Plato's Timaeus, in which dialogue Plato feigns that the Angels—whom he himself calls ‘the younger gods’—were older than the fashioning of the world; nay, he makes the souls of men older than their bodies. But these men say that to them it seems more probable that the Angels were founded after the corporeal world, just as the body of man was formed first, and afterward his soul was created: for Paul too teaches that that which is animal is prior to that which is spiritual. Nor were there lacking those who supposed that an Angel was created together with man, because in Job, chapter 40, God said to Job, Behold Behemoth, whom I made with thee—that is, at the same time as I created thee; and by ‘Behemoth’ many of the holy Fathers understand the devil. But to this opinion it stands greatly opposed that, before the creation of man, the Heavens were made, which by their motion defined, accomplished, and distinguished those first six days; and the motion of the Heaven is effected by an Angel. In Job also, chapter 38, God said to Job himself, Where wast thou, when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? or, as the Septuagint translators have it, When all my Angels praised me with a loud voice. From which it is clearly understood that before the fourth day, on which the stars were created, there were already Angels: which Augustine rightly gathers from that passage of Job in book 11 of The City of God, chapter 9.11
ALTERA est sententia Augustini et fere omnium Theologorum qui post Augustinum Latine scripserunt, Angelos simul cum hoc mundo corporato esse creatos. Nam licet Augustinus 1 libro De incarnatione Verbi capite 6 incertum esse tradat quando Angeli fuerint creati, tamen nec Augustinus eius libri auctor creditur, et ipse libro 11 De civitate Dei, libro 12 Confessionum, libro 1 et 4 De Genesi ad litteram aliisque compluribus locis apertissime et affirmative docet Angelos simul cum hoc mundo esse factos; idemque sentit B. Gregorius, Beda, Rupertus, Hugo, Magister libro 1 Sententiarum, omnisque schola Theologorum. Probatur haec sententia duabus rationibus. Altera est, Mosen dixisse Deum creasse caelum et terram in principio, hoc est ante alia omnia: non igitur creati sunt Angeli ante caelum. Parum firma ratio est: responderi enim potest illud, In principio, significare principatum ordinis, non universe tamen et simpliciter, sed tantummodo comparatione rerum corporalium, quas conditas esse deinde narrat Moses. Altera ratio nititur illa sententia Scripturae quae in capite 18 Ecclesiastici, Qui vivit in aeternum creavit omnia simul. Verum nos supra luculenter ostendimus Simul eo loco non significare simultatem temporis, sed simultatem collectionis et universalitatis: significare enim Deum pariter, communiter, nulloque excepto creasse omnia. Theodoretus quaestione 3 super Genesim confir[mat]...
The other is the opinion of Augustine, and of nearly all the theologians who wrote in Latin after Augustine, that the Angels were created together with this corporeal world. For although Augustine, in book 1 of On the Incarnation of the Word, chapter 6, hands down that it is uncertain when the Angels were created, nevertheless Augustine is not believed to be the author of that book, and he himself, in book 11 of The City of God, book 12 of the Confessions, books 1 and 4 of On Genesis according to the Letter, and in very many other places, teaches most openly and affirmatively that the Angels were made together with this world; and the same is the view of the blessed Gregory, Bede, Rupert, Hugh, the Master in book 1 of the Sentences, and the whole school of theologians. This opinion is proved by two reasons. The one is that Moses said God created heaven and earth ‘in the beginning,’ that is, before all other things: therefore the Angels were not created before heaven. This reason is not very firm: for it can be answered that the phrase ‘in the beginning’ signifies a primacy of order, not however universally and absolutely, but only in comparison with the corporeal things which Moses then narrates to have been founded. The other reason rests upon that saying of Scripture which is in the eighteenth chapter of Ecclesiasticus, He who lives forever created all things together. But we have shown clearly above that ‘together’ in that place does not signify simultaneity of time, but simultaneity of collection and universality: for it signifies that God created all things alike, in common, and with nothing excepted. Theodoret, in question 3 on Genesis, confir[ms]...12
...[confir]mat eandem opinionem duobus argumentis. Tum quod, cum Angeli sint finitae ac determinatae naturae, non nisi loco aliquo definiti ac determinati constare possunt, quare ante mundum corporeum esse non potuerunt: cui rationi fortasse assentirer, si, quod plerisque Patrum est visum, Angelos esse corporeos crederem. Tum etiam quod Paulus docet in epistola ad Hebraeos cap. 1 omnes Angelos esse administratorios spiritus in utilitatem hominum: ante mundum autem Angeli nullo ministerio in usum hominis fungi potuerunt: quod argumentum quam sit infirmum, per se quivis etiam non admonitus a nobis facile intelliget.
...confirms the same opinion by two arguments. First, that since the Angels are of a finite and determinate nature, they cannot subsist except as defined and determined in some place, and therefore could not exist before the corporeal world: to which reasoning I would perhaps assent, if I believed—what has seemed so to most of the Fathers—that the Angels are corporeal. Second, that Paul teaches in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 1, that all the Angels are ministering spirits for the benefit of men; but before the world the Angels could discharge no ministry for the use of man: how weak this argument is, anyone will easily understand of himself, even without being told by us.13
S. Thomas 1 parte quaest. 61 art. 3 ad hunc modum argumentatur Angelos non esse factos ante mundum. Primo sumit Angelum esse partem universi, tum partem extra suum totum non esse perfectam: ad hoc, non fuisse conveniens ut naturam Angelicam Deus conderet imperfectam: ex his colligit ante mundum non esse creatos Angelos. Quae argumentatio fortasse apud doctos viros non multum haberet ponderis. Mitto cetera excutere, illud tantum dico: fore ut valeret conclusio B. Thomae, siquidem Angelus pars esset mundi vel integralis vel essentialis (sic enim hoc tempore in scholis loquuntur Philosophi): huiusmodi enim partes, quia non sunt per se completae naturae, sed in id institutae sunt ut aliam rem cuius partes sunt componant et consument, propterea extra totum imperfectas esse necesse est. Angelus vero non sic est pars mundi, sed ratione dumtaxat ordinis seu coordinationis omnium rerum: nec est pars mundi tanquam pendens a mundo, sed quae ipsum movet et regit, similiter ut consules, tribuni, praetores et censores partes erant reipublicae Romanae: huiusmodi autem pars extra totum naturam suam retinet, sicut extra navem gubernator, extra exercitum centuriones ac duces. Quid quod non ob aliam causam existimatur pars mundi esse Angelus quam quia cum eo cohaeret quodammodo et coniunctionem habet? At quam? non aliam certe quam quia movet, administrat et quodammodo gubernat mundum: huius autem muneris functio non est Angelo naturalis, sed voluntarie suscepta et ad tempus imposita ei a Deo, nempe cessura post diem iudicii.
St. Thomas, in the First Part, question 61, article 3, argues in this manner that the Angels were not made before the world. First he assumes that the Angel is a part of the universe, and then that a part outside its whole is not perfect; from which, that it was not fitting that God should found the angelic nature imperfect; and from these he gathers that the Angels were not created before the world. This argumentation would perhaps not carry much weight among learned men. I forbear to examine the rest; this only I say: the conclusion of St. Thomas would hold good, provided the Angel were a part of the world either integral or essential (for so the Philosophers nowadays speak in the schools); for parts of this kind, because they are not natures complete in themselves, but are appointed to compose and constitute another thing of which they are parts, must of necessity be imperfect outside their whole. But the Angel is not a part of the world in this way, but only by reason of the order or coordination of all things; nor is it a part of the world as depending on the world, but as one that moves and rules it—just as the consuls, tribunes, praetors, and censors were parts of the Roman commonwealth: a part of this kind retains its own nature outside its whole, like the helmsman outside the ship, the centurions and commanders outside the army. Indeed, for what other reason is the Angel reckoned a part of the world than because it coheres with it in a manner and has a conjunction with it? But what conjunction? none other, surely, than that it moves, administers, and in a manner governs the world; and the discharge of this office is not natural to the Angel, but voluntarily undertaken and imposed on it by God for a time, destined indeed to cease after the day of judgment.14
QUAENAM igitur est nostra sententia? Equidem iudico sententiam Augustini, ut ea maxime probetur, non esse tamen habendam quasi indubitatum et certum Fidei Catholicae dogma: Angelos enim esse creatos simul cum mundo nec usquam tradit Scriptura, nec evidenter ex ea colligitur, nec multum intererat Fidei Catholicae ut id ab Ecclesia decerneretur. Nec vero tot Patres antiquitate, doctrina sanctitateque praestantes, contraria fidei Catholicae docuisse et scripsisse fas est credere. Augustinus quidem certe, huius princeps et auctor sententiae, lib. 11 De civitate Dei cap. 32 ita suam probat opinionem ut contrariam non damnet, sed permittat cuique utram voluerit libere sequi, dummodo spirituales substantias nec a Deo creatas neget, nec Deo faciat coaeternas. Huius vestigia persequens Theodoretus in tertia...
What, then, is our own opinion? For my part I judge that the opinion of Augustine, although it is most approved, is nevertheless not to be held as an undoubted and certain dogma of the Catholic Faith: for that the Angels were created together with the world is nowhere delivered by Scripture, nor is it evidently gathered from it, nor did it much concern the Catholic Faith that this should be decreed by the Church. Nor indeed is it lawful to believe that so many Fathers, eminent in antiquity, learning, and holiness, taught and wrote things contrary to the Catholic Faith. Augustine indeed, certainly the chief and author of this opinion, in book 11 of The City of God, chapter 32, so approves his own view that he does not condemn the contrary, but permits each man freely to follow whichever he wishes, provided only that he neither deny spiritual substances to be created by God, nor make them coeternal with God. Following his footsteps, Theodoret, in the third...15
...tertia quaest. super Genesim, cum opinionem quae est Augustini aliquot argumentis comprobasset, subdit: Illud porro scire necesse est, omnia quaecumque exstant, excepta sancta Trinitate, naturam habere creationi obnoxiam. Hoc autem concesso, si quis Angelorum turbas ante caelum et terram conditas esse dixerit, non offendet verbum pietatis. Veruntamen, ut Angelos simul esse cum mundo factos libentissime credam et prope certum habeam, moveor plurimum auctoritate Innocentii tertii et Patrum Concilii magni Lateranensis, qui hanc sententiam aliis praeferendam conceptis verbis iudicarunt. Moveor item hac ratione: si Angeli multo ante mundum fuerunt, vel toto illo spatio fuerunt omnes in gratia, quare omnes essent confirmati nec ullus cecidisset; vel statim ut sunt creati, in secunda vel tertia morula (quemadmodum loquuntur Theologi scholastici) aliqui eorum peccaverunt. Hoc si concedatur (nec video tamen cur id concedi non debeat), quaerendum est: illi peccatores Angeli, tot saeculis ante mundum conditum, simulne fuerint cum Angelis bonis ab eorum societate et consortio non segregati? Sed hoc credere et pietas respuit et ipsa ratio. An vero statim atque peccaverunt, a bonorum societate exclusi, alio sunt allegati? Sed quonam? ante mundum enim nulla locorum disclusio et discretio esse potuit. Quin Dominus noster in Evangelio Matthaei cap. 25 dixit Ignem inferni diabolo et angelis eius fuisse comparatum; Ioannes quoque in Apocalypsi cap. 12 non obscure indicat Angelos malos et in caelo peccasse et de caelo fuisse deturbatos, cum ait, Factum est proelium magnum in caelo: Michael et Angeli eius proeliabantur cum Dracone, et Draco pugnabat et Angeli eius; et non valuerunt, neque locus inventus est eorum amplius in caelo. Sic enim hunc locum multi de sanctis Patribus et antiquis scriptoribus interpretantur. Auctoritas vero, quam paulo supra memoravi, Innocentii tertii affirmantis spirituales et incorporeas substantias simul esse ab initio temporis creatas a Deo, quomodo non hoc faciat omnino certum et indubitatum et quasi dogma fidei, plane intelliget lector si legat quae scribit B. Thomas in expositione illius decretalis Innocentii, quod est inter opuscula eius vigesimumtertium opusculum, ubi intentionem et sententiam Innocentii exponit. Legendus quoque est Caietanus in 1 parte S. Thomae super art. 3 quaest. 61, quo loco hac de re diligenter et accurate disputat.
...third question on Genesis, when he had approved by several arguments the opinion which is Augustine's, adds: This further it is necessary to know, that all things whatsoever exist, except the holy Trinity, have a nature liable to creation. And this granted, if anyone should say that the hosts of the Angels were founded before heaven and earth, he will not offend against the word of piety. Nevertheless, that I may most willingly believe, and hold for almost certain, that the Angels were made together with the world, I am moved most of all by the authority of Innocent III and of the Fathers of the great Lateran Council, who in express words judged this opinion to be preferred to the others. I am moved likewise by this reasoning: if the Angels existed long before the world, either through all that span they were all in grace—wherefore all would be confirmed and none would have fallen—or else, immediately upon being created, in the second or third instant (as the scholastic theologians speak) some of them sinned. If this be granted—and I see no reason why it should not be granted—the question arises: those sinning Angels, for so many ages before the world was founded, were they not segregated from the good Angels, from their society and fellowship? But both piety and reason itself refuse to believe this. Or were they, immediately upon sinning, excluded from the society of the good and dispatched elsewhere? But whither? for before the world there could be no separation or distinction of places. Indeed our Lord, in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, said that the fire of hell was prepared for the devil and his angels; and John too, in the Apocalypse, chapter 12, indicates not obscurely that the evil Angels both sinned in heaven and were cast down from heaven, when he says, There was made a great battle in heaven: Michael and his Angels fought with the Dragon, and the Dragon fought, and his Angels; and they did not prevail, neither was their place found any more in heaven. For thus do many of the holy Fathers and ancient writers interpret this passage. But the authority of Innocent III, which I mentioned a little above, affirming that spiritual and incorporeal substances were created by God together at the beginning of time—how this does not make the matter altogether certain and undoubted and, as it were, a dogma of faith, the reader will plainly understand if he reads what St. Thomas writes in his exposition of that decretal of Innocent, which is the twenty-third among his opuscula, where he expounds Innocent's intention and meaning. Cajetan, too, is to be read in the First Part of St. Thomas, on article 3 of question 61, in which place he disputes diligently and accurately on this matter.16
Sed finem ponamus huic libro: et Doctrinam de Astris secundum sacram Scripturam, et de divinatione astrologica, quam supra, cum exponeremus quarti diei opus, in proxime sequentem librum reservavimus, deinceps pertractemus.
But let us put an end to this book; and let us next treat the Doctrine of the Stars according to sacred Scripture, and of astrological divination, which above, when we were expounding the work of the fourth day, we reserved for the next following book.

Translator’s notes

  1. The closing disputation of Book I (see the opening sentence: ‘a question which closes this book’). ↩
  2. Psalm 148:5–6; the Canticle of the Three Children (Dan. 3, Benedicite); Apocalypse 4 and 10; Colossians 1:16; the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), canon 1 (Firmiter credimus); Proverbs 8:23ff; Ecclesiasticus 1:4; Colossians 1:15 (‘firstborn before every creature’). ↩
  3. Marginal gloss: "Primum quorundam responsum, quod maxime probatur auctoritate" (‘The first response of certain men, which is most approved by authority’). Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘mundi’). ↩
  4. Marginal gloss: "Alterum responsum Athanasii, Chrysostomi, Theodoreti." Jerome, Ep. 139 (al. 140) ad Cyprianum; ps.-Athanasius, Quaestiones ad Antiochum q.4; Chrysostom; Theodoret. The golden calf: Exodus 32. ↩
  5. Marginal gloss: "Tostatus refellit secundum responsum." Alonso Tostado (Tostatus / the Abulensis). The angelic apparitions to Hagar (Gen. 16, 21), Lot (Gen. 19), Abraham (Gen. 18), Jacob (Gen. 28, 32); the Cherub at Paradise (Gen. 3:24). ↩
  6. Marginal gloss: "Tertium responsum Augustini, quod non probatur Auctore." Augustine, Conf. 12; De civitate Dei 11; De Genesi ad litteram 1; Bede, In Hexaemeron; Severianus of Gabala (in the Catena). Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘divinis’). ↩
  7. Marginal gloss: "Quartum responsum" (the fourth response). Basil, Ambrose, John Damascene. ↩
  8. Marginal glosses: "Disputatio utrum Angeli creati sint ante hunc mundum corporeum" and "Prima opinio, fuisse creatos ante mundum." Origen, Peri Archon / De principiis (περὶ ἀρχῶν) and Hom. 4 in Isaiam; Basil, Hom. 1–2 in Hexaemeron; Gregory Nazianzen, Oration on the Nativity; Severianus, Diodorus (in the Catena); John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa 2.3; Hilary, De Trinitate 12 and Contra Auxentium; Ambrose, In Hexaemeron 1.5 and Praef. in Ps. 1; Jerome, In Titum 1; Isidore, Sententiae (De summo bono) 1.12; Cassian, Collatio 7.8. Ecclesiasticus 1:4. ↩
  9. Marginal gloss: "Explicatur locus Ecclesiastici cap. 1." Ecclesiasticus 1:1–4; cf. Proverbs 8:22–23. Hilary: the Son is called ‘created’ in the sense of ‘begotten.’ Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘ne aut’); the word completed there is printed ‘invocatione,’ evidently a misprint for ‘innovatione’ (renewal). ↩
  10. Completes the sentence broken at the foot of the previous page. Printed ‘invocatione’; the sense requires ‘innovatione’ (renewal of the Father). ↩
  11. Marginal glosses: "Secunda opinio, Angelos fuisse creatos post mundum corporeum" and "1.Cor.15." Gennadius and Acacius (in the Catena); Plato, Timaeus (the ‘younger gods’); 1 Corinthians 15:46; Job 40:15 (Behemoth); Job 38:7 (Vulgate: morning stars / sons of God; LXX: ‘all my Angels’); Augustine, De civitate Dei 11.9. ↩
  12. Marginal glosses: "Tertia sententia, Angelos simul cum mundo corporeo esse creatos" and "Non esse Augustini illum libellum de Incarnatione Verbi." The pseudo-Augustinian De incarnatione Verbi; Augustine, De civitate Dei 11, Confessiones 12, De Genesi ad litteram 1 & 4; Gregory, Bede, Rupert, Hugh of St. Victor, Peter Lombard (Sentences 1), and the whole scholastic school. Genesis 1:1 (‘in principio’); Ecclesiasticus 18:1. Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘mat’; signature B 3). ↩
  13. Continues Theodoret's two arguments (sentence broken at the previous page's catchword ‘confirmat’). Hebrews 1:14. ↩
  14. Marginal gloss: "B. Thomae argumentatio, quod Angeli non fuerint ante mundum corporeum." Aquinas, ST I q.61 a.3. ↩
  15. Marginal gloss: "Auctoris de hac quaestione iudicium et sententia." Augustine, De civitate Dei 11.32. Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘tertia’). ↩
  16. Theodoret, Quaestiones in Genesim 3; Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215, the decretal Firmiter); ‘morula’ = an instant (scholastic usage); Matthew 25:41; Apocalypse 12:7–8; Aquinas, opusculum 23 (on Innocent's decretal); Cajetan on ST I q.61 a.3. ↩