Pars 2, Cap. 8
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/2/q/bon-brev-p2-c8
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### Chapter VIII. *On the confirmation of the good Angels.*

Concerning the *confirmation* of the Angels, however, this is to be held: that just as the angels *turned away from God* were at once made obstinate through impenitence, so those *turned toward God* were at once *confirmed* through grace and glory in will, perfectly *illumined* in reason according to *morning* and *evening* knowledge, perfectly *strengthened* in power whether *imperative* or *executive*, and perfectly *ordered* in operation whether *contemplative* or *ministrative*; and this according to a *threefold* hierarchy, namely the supreme, the middle and the lowest.

Now to the supreme belong the Thrones, the Cherubim and the Seraphim; to the middle the Dominations, the Virtues and the Powers; to the lowest the Principalities, the Archangels, the Angels. Of these very many are *sent into ministry* and appointed to the guardianship of men, to whom they minister by purging, illumining and perfecting, according to the command of the will of God.

Now the reason for the understanding of the foresaid is this: that since the Angels, on account of their express likeness and nearness to the first and highest principle, have a *deiform intellect* and *immutability* after consent out of freedom of choice; and since, divine grace supervening, being turned to the highest good, they tended wholly into God, they were through glory *confirmed* and *perfected* alike: therefore as regards *will* they were *stable and happy*; as regards *reason*,

*perspicacious*, so that they knew things not only in their *proper genus*, but also in the *art*, and through this had not only *evening* knowledge, but also *morning*, or even *daytime*, knowledge, on account of the fullness and the utter purity of that light, in respect of which every creature can deservedly be called darkness. — But as regards *power*, [they were] perfectly *strengthened*, whether in *commanding* or in *executing*, whether with a body assumed or even not assumed. — And as regards *operation*, [they were] most perfectly *ordered*, so that now they cannot be disordered, neither in *ascending* to the contemplation of God nor in *descending* to ministering to man; because, since they contemplate God *face to face*, wherever they are sent, they run within God.

For they are acted upon and they act according to the hierarchic order *begun* in them through nature and *consummated* through glory — which, by making stable the *vertibility* of free choice, illumined their *perspicacity*, ordered their *dutifulness* and strengthened their *power*, according to the four attributes named above. — Now the *perspicacity* of reason in contemplating looks principally either to the divine *majesty, to be venerated*, or to *truth, to be understood*, or to *goodness, to be desired*; and according to this there are three orders in the first hierarchy, namely the *Thrones*, to whom [belongs] *reverence*; the *Cherubim*, to whom *wisdom*; and the *Seraphim*, to whom *benevolence* pertains. — To perfect *power*, however, pertain *imperative* power, *executive* power and *expeditive* power. The first pertains to the *Dominations*, the second to the *Virtues*, and the third to the *Powers*, whose office is to ward off the contrary powers. — To perfect *dutifulness* pertain *to rule*, *to reveal* and *to relieve*. The first is of the *Principalities*, the second of the *Archangels* and the third of the *Angels*, because they guard lest those standing fall, and help those falling, that they may rise again. — And thus it is clear that all these things are in the Angels according to more and less, descending step by step from the higher even to the lowest. And an order ought to take its name from that which « it has more excellently received as a gift ».