ARTICLE I

This Question Treats the Communication of Angelic Knowledge by Illumination and Speech; and, in the First Article We Ask: DOES ONE ANGEL ILLUMINE ANOTHER?

Difficulties:

It seems not, for

1. As Augustine says, only God can perfect a mind. But the illumination of an angel is, in a way, a perfecting of the mind of the person illumined. Hence, only God can illumine an angel.

2. There are no lights in angels other than those of nature and of grace. Now, one angel does not illumine another by the light of nature, because every angel has his natural powers directly from God, nor does one angel illumine another by the light of grace, because grace also comes directly from God alone. Consequently, one angel cannot illumine another.

3. As a body is related to material light, so is a spirit related to spiritual light. Now, a body illuminated by a very bright light is not illuminated simultaneously by a weaker light. For example, air illuminated by the light of the sun is not illuminated at the same time by the moon. Consequently, since God's spiritual light surpasses any created light more than the light of the sun surpasses that of a star or of a candle, it seems one angel is not illumined by another, simply because all angels are illumined by God.

4. If one angel illumines another, he does this either through a medium or directly. But he cannot do it directly, because then he would have to be joined directly to the angel he is to illumine; and only God can be joined to minds in this manner. On the other hand, he cannot illumine another angel through a medium. He cannot illumine by means of a material medium, because such a medium cannot receive a spiritual light. Nor can he illumine by means of a spiritual medium, because this medium would have to be an angel, and then an infinite series would arise, and illumination would be utterly impossible, for it is impossible to pass through an infinite. And, if we finally arrive at a point where one angel directly illumines another, this has already been shown to be impossible. Consequently, it is impossible for one angel to illumine another.

5. If one angel illumines another, he does this by giving him either his own light or some other light. But he does not do it in the first manner, because, in that case, one and the same light would be in two different illuminated beings; nor does he do it in the second manner, because that light then would have to be made by the higher angel; and from this it would follow that he created that light, since such a light is not made out of matter. Therefore, it seems that one angel does not illumine another.

6. If one angel is to be illumined by another, then the illumined angel must be reduced from potency to act, because to be illumined is a kind of becoming. But whenever a thing is reduced from potency to act, something in it must undergo corruption. Now, since nothing in angels can corrupt, it seems that one angel is not illumined by another.

7. If one angel is illumined by another, the light which one gives to the other is either a substance or an accident. Now, it cannot be a substance, because, as Aristotle says, when a substantial form is added to a thing, it changes the species of the thing, just as an added unit changes the species of a number; hence, it would follow that an angel, by the fact of being illumined, would undergo a specific change. Similarly, this light cannot be an accident, because an accident does not extend beyond its subject. Hence, one angel does not illumine another.

8. Our sensible and intellectual vision needs light, because its object is only potentially visible and potentially intelligible, but, by means of light, becomes actually visible and actually intelligible. Now, the object of angelic knowledge is actually intelligible, because it is the divine essence itself or co-created species. Consequently, angels do not need intellectual light in order to know.

9. If one angel illumines another, he illumines him with respect to either natural or gratuitous knowledge. However, he does not illumine him with respect to natural knowledge, because the natural knowledge had by both higher and lower angels is made perfect through innate forms; nor does he illumine him with respect to the gratuitous knowledge by which angels know things in the Word, because all angels see the Word directly. Consequently, one angel does not illumine another.

10. For intellectual knowledge, all that is required is an intelligible form and an intelligible light. Now, one angel does not give another angel intelligible forms, which are co-created, nor does he give him an intelligible light, because every angel is illumined by God, as we read in Job (25:3): "Is there any numbering of his soldiers? and upon whom shall not his light arise?" Therefore, one angel does not illumine another.

11. The purpose of illumination is to dispel darkness. But there is no darkness or obscurity in angelic knowledge. Consequently, the Gloss reads: "In the region of intelligible substances,"--clearly a reference to the regions where angels dwell--"the mind sees truth clearly, without any corporeal images, and not obscured by the mists of false opinions." Hence, one angel is not illumined by another.

12. An angelic intellect is more noble than the active intellect of our soul. But the active intellect of our soul only illumines; it is never illumined. Therefore, angels are not illumined.

13. We read the following in the Apocalypse (21:23): "And the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God hath enlightened it. . . ." The Gloss expounds this text as referring to the principal and minor Doctors of the Church. Therefore, since an angel is already a citizen of that city, he is illumined only by God.

14. If one angel illumines another, he does this either through the abundance of the light given to him by his nature or through the abundance of light given him gratuitously. Now, one angel cannot illumine another through the abundance of his natural light, because the angel who fell belonged to the highest angels, and possessed the highest natural gifts, which, as Dionysius says, remained with him in their full strength. Consequently, a demon would be able to illumine an angel, and this is clearly absurd. Nor does one angel illumine another through the abundance of light given him gratuitously, because some men still living possess more grace than the lower angels do; indeed, because of their grace, they will be elevated to the ranks of the higher angels. Hence, a man still living could illumine an angel, and this is equally absurd. Therefore, one angel does not illumine another.

15. Dionysius says: "To be illumined is to receive divine knowledge." Now, divine knowledge can be only that knowledge which is about God or divine things; and, in either case, angels can receive such knowledge only from God. Consequently, one angel does not illumine another.

16. Since the potency of an angelic intellect is entirely terminated by means of innate forms, these forms suffice for an angel to know all that he can know. Consequently, an angel should not need to be illumined by a higher angel in order to know something.

17. All angels, or at least those belonging to different orders, differ specifically from one another. Now, nothing is illumined by a light belonging to another species; for example, a material thing is not illumined by a light that is spiritual. Therefore, one angel is not illumined by another.

18. The light of an angel's intellect is more perfect than the light of our active intellect. But the light of our active intellect suffices for us to know all the species we receive from our senses. Therefore, the light of an angel's intellect is also sufficient for an angel to know all his innate species; consequently, no other light need be added to him.

To the Contrary:

1'. Dionysius says that the angelic hierarchy is divided into "those who are illumined and those who illumine." Therefore.

2'. Just as there is a hierarchy among men, so is there a hierarchy among angels. This is clear from what Dionysius has written. Now, among men, superiors enlighten inferiors. For example, St. Paul says in the Epistle to the Ephesians (3:8-9): "To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all men. . . ." Therefore, superior angels likewise illumine inferior angels.

3'. Spiritual light is more efficacious than material light. But higher bodies illumine lower bodies. Therefore, higher angels illumine lower angels.

REPLY:

We should discuss intellectual light in terms of its resemblance to material light. Now, material light is a medium by which we can see things, serving our sense of sight in two ways: first, it makes things actually visible that were previously only potentially visible; second, its nature helps the sense of sight to see. Consequently, light must be in the very composition of the organ.

Similarly, intellectual light can be said to be the power of knowing which the intellect possesses, or even that thing by which another thing becomes known to us. There are two ways, therefore, in which a person can be illumined by another: first, his intellect can be strengthened for the acts of knowledge; second, it can be guided by something to the knowledge of some other thing. Both of these actions are found together in the intellect; and we have a clear case of both of them happening together when the medium which a person mentally conceives strengthens his intellect to see some things which it previously could not see.

Accordingly, one intellect is said to be illumined by another in so far as the latter gives it some medium of knowledge, which strengthens it, and enables it to know some things which it previously could not know. Now, among men this takes place in two ways. First, it takes place through speech, as happens when a teacher, by what he says, gives some medium to his student that strengthens the latter's intellect, enabling him to know things which he previously could not. In this sense, a teacher is said to enlighten his pupil. Second, a person can be given a sensible sign, and this can lead him to the knowledge of some truth. In this sense, according to Dionysius, priests are said to enlighten the people, inasmuch as they display and administer to them the mysteries which lead them to divine truths.

Angels, however, do not arrive at the knowledge of divine truths by means of sensible signs; nor do they receive intellectual media in a successive and discursive way, as we do, but immaterially. This is also what Dionysius held; for, when showing how the higher angels are illumined, he writes: "The highest essences, the angels, contemplate, [not] by gazing on symbols that can be known by the senses or intellect, nor by being led to God by the elaborations found in the Scriptures, but by being filled with the higher light of spiritual knowledge." Consequently, for one angel to be illumined by another means simply this, that, through something seen in a higher angel, a lower angel's intellect is strengthened to know other things.

This can take place in the following manner. Just as among bodies, higher bodies are, as it were, act with respect to lower bodies (as fire is, with respect to air), so a higher spirit is act, as it were, with respect to lower spirits. Now, every potency is strengthened and made perfect by being joined to its act. For this reason, lower bodies are preserved in higher bodies, which are the place of the former. Similarly, therefore, the lower angels can be strengthened by their being connected with the higher, and this connection takes place through intellectual intuition. For this reason, the lower angels are said to be illumined by the higher.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. Augustine is speaking of that ultimate perfecting by which the mind is perfected with grace; and grace comes directly from God.

2. The illumining angel does not make a new light of grace or of nature; he merely shares his light. For, since whatever is known is understood by means of an intellectual light, the known as known includes in its notion a shared intellectual light that has the power to strengthen the intellect. This is evident if we consider the teacher who gives his pupil a medium of demonstration in which the light of the active intellect is contained as in an instrument; for, as the Commentator says, first principles are quasi-instruments of the active intellect; and the same is true of all second principles which contain their own means of demonstration. Consequently, when a higher angel shows his knowledge to another angel, the intellect of the latter is strengthened so that it knows what it previously did not. Hence, no new light of nature or of grace comes into existence in the enlightened angel, but the light that was there previously is strengthened by the light contained in the higher angel's knowledge.

3. Material and spiritual light are not entirely similar. For all bodies can be illumined by any material light whatsoever, since all material light is equally related to all visible forms; but not all spirits can be illumined by any light whatsoever, because not all lights contain intelligible forms in the same manner. The supreme light contains intelligible forms that are more universal. Consequently, it is not sufficient for an inferior intellect to be illumined by a higher light, since such an intellect is proportioned to receive its knowledge through forms that are more particular. To be led to the knowledge of things, this intellect must be illumined by an inferior light, as, of course, takes place in the case of men. For example, a metaphysician knows all things in their universal principles. A doctor, however, considers things especially in their particulars; hence, he does not take his principles directly from a metaphysician but directly from a philosopher of nature, whose principles are less general than those of a metaphysician. However, the natural philosopher, who considers things more universally than the doctor does, can take the principles for his science directly from the metaphysician.

Consequently, since the intelligible characters of all things are united in the highest degree in the light of the divine intellect, as in a single most universal principle, the lower angels are not proportioned to receive knowledge through such a light, unless there is joined to them the light of the higher angels, in whom the intelligible forms are made less universal.

4. An angel illumines another angel, sometimes through a medium, sometimes without a medium. Illumination through a medium (which is, of course, spiritual) takes place, for example, when a very high angel illumines an angel that stands halfway in the angelic hierarchy, and when the latter, by means of the light given him by the first, illumines an angel in the lowest part of the hierarchy. On the other hand, illumination without a medium takes place when, for example, a superior angel illumines an angel existing immediately below him in the hierarchy. It is not necessary that the angel who illumines be directly joined to the mind of the angel who is enlightened; the two are joined together simply by the fact that one intuits the other directly.

5. The medium that is known by the lower angel is numerically the same as that which is known by the higher; but the knowledge which the higher angel has of that medium is other than that which the lower angel has. Consequently, in some sense, it is the same light, and, in another sense, it is another light. But even in the sense that it is another light it does not follow that it is created by the higher angel, because things which do not exist substantially do not, properly speaking, come into existence, just as they do not exist substantially. For example, as we read in the Metaphysics, it is not color but a colored thing that comes into existence. Consequently, the angel's light does not come into existence, but the illumined angel, from being potentially enlightened, becomes actually enlightened.

6. Just as no form is removed but only the privation of light, namely, darkness, is removed when material illumination takes place, so does a similar removal take place in spiritual illumination. Consequently, it is not necessary for any corruption to take place when spiritual illumination occurs. There is merely a removal of a negation.

7. That light by which an angel is said to be illumined is not one of his essential perfections but a second perfection, which is reduced to the genus of accidents. Moreover, it does not follow that the accident extends beyond its subject, because the knowledge by which the higher angel is enlightened is not numerically the same as that which is in the lower angel. Their knowledge is the same merely in so far as it has the same nature and belongs to the same species, just as the light which is in illuminated air and that which is in the illumining sun is specifically, but not numerically, the same.

8. It is true that through light a thing which was potentially intelligible becomes actually so, but this can happen in two ways. First, it may be that that which is in itself only potentially intelligible becomes actually intelligible. This happens in our knowledge. But in this respect an angelic intellect does not need light, for it does not abstract species from phantasms. Secondly, it may be that that which is potentially intelligible to some particular knower becomes actually intelligible to him. This takes place, for example, when the higher substances become actually intelligible to us, that is, when we arrive at knowledge of them by reasoning. It is for such knowledge that an angel's intellect needs light, that is, so it can be led to the actual knowledge of those things which it knows only potentially.

9. The illumination by which one angel illumines another does not concern those things that belong to angels' natural knowledge, because, in that case, all the angels would have perfect natural knowledge from the moment when they first existed--unless we held that the higher angels caused the lower, and this position is contrary to faith. It concerns, rather, the knowledge that is revealed to angels and the things that surpass their natural knowledge, for example, mysteries pertaining to the Church in heaven or on earth. Hence, Dionysius also speaks of a hierarchical action among angels. Moreover, it does not follow from the fact that all angels see the Word that, whatever the higher angels see there, the lower also see.

10. When one angel is enlightened by another, new species are not infused into him, but, by the very same species which he had previously, his intellect is strengthened through a higher light, and, in the manner described,* it is enabled to know more things. Similarly, when our intellect is strengthened by divine or angelic light, from the same phantasms it can come to know more things than it could know if left unaided.

11. Although there is no obscurity or error in angels' intellects, angels do not know things which surpass their natural powers of knowing. For this reason, they need light.

12. No matter how material a thing is, it does not receive something else according to what is formal in itself, but only according to what is material in it. For example, our soul does not receive an illumination according to its active intellect but only according to its possible intellect. Similarly, material things do not receive impressions according to their own forms but merely according to their own matter. Yet our possible intellect is more simple than any material form. Similarly, an angel's intellect is illumined only with respect to that which it possesses potentially, even though it is more noble than our active intellect, which is not illumined.

13. That text should be understood as referring to the things that belong to the knowledge the blessed have. Without any intermediary God illumines all angels about these things.

14. The illumination of which we are speaking takes place through the light of grace, which perfects natural light. Moreover, it would not follow that a man, still in this life, could illumine an angel, because he possesses greater grace only virtually, not actually. He has merely grace, by which he can merit a more perfect state, just as, in the same sense, a colt, immediately after birth, is said to have greater strength than an ass, even though its strength is actually less.

15. When we say that to be illumined is to receive divine knowledge, this knowledge is called divine merely because it has its origin in a divine enlightenment.

16. Innate forms are sufficient for an angel to know all that he can know naturally; but, to know those things that are above his natural powers, he needs a higher light.

17. It is not necessary for the intelligible lights existing in angels, who are specifically different, to be specifically different themselves. For example, color existing in bodies that are specifically different is nevertheless specifically the same. The same principle is especially true of the light of grace, which is specifically the same both in men and in angels.

18. The light of the active intellect is sufficient for us to know those things that can be known naturally; but, to know other things, we need a higher light, such as that of faith or of prophecy.