Dist. 1, Part 2, Art. 2, Q. 2
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/2/d/1/q/bon-sent-II-d1-p2-a2-q2
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### QUESTION II. *Whether spiritual nature surpasses in dignity of nature [that which is] composed of spiritual and corporeal.*

Secondly, inquiry is made concerning the order of things to one another. For the Master touches on this in the *littera* — namely whether spiritual nature surpasses in dignity of nature [that which is] composed of spiritual and corporeal. For it is certain that each surpasses the corporeal. And that it is so, it seems:

1. In every genus «that is nobler on account of which the other is, as the end [is nobler] than that which is ordered to the end»; but man is for the sake of the Angel — for, as the Saints say, and the Master relates in the *littera*, man was made for the repair of the angelic ruin — therefore etc.

2. Again, the spiritual, absolutely speaking, is nobler than the corporeal: therefore that which is purely spirit, having nothing of body, is nobler than that which is spiritual and joined to body: therefore the angelic nature is nobler than the human.

3. Again, in every genus the immortal and incorruptible is nobler than the mortal and corruptible; but the Angel by nature is immortal and incorruptible, man on the contrary: therefore etc.

4. Again, «that which is more like the better is better, provided it be not more like in more ridiculous respects, as the ape [is more like] man than the horse»; but the Angel is more like and more God-formed than man; this is manifest; and not in ridiculous respects, but in the best: therefore the spiritual nature is absolutely better than the composite.

**To the contrary:**

1. Augustine: «Than the human mind God alone is greater». Whence in the eleventh book *On the Trinity* and in the book *Of Eighty-Three Questions* he says «that the mind itself is immediately formed by the first truth», and «between it and God nothing falls as a medium»: therefore the Angel is not above the human mind:

therefore it is of itself as good as the Angel. But the soul is not made worse by its conjunction with the body — rather it is a greater good, since the body is good: therefore the whole man is absolutely better than the Angel.

2. Again, in every genus that which holds the account of the end is the better; but in the genus of creatures man holds the account of the end, not the Angel. Whence Remigius says, and the Philosopher, that «we are in a certain way the end of all things that are»; this is not said of the Angel: therefore etc.

3. Again, if «the best in one genus is better than the best in another, and absolutely this is better than that»; but the best in the genus of men is better than the best in the genus of Angels, as is clear, because Christ: therefore etc. If you say that [this is] not insofar as he is man, but insofar as he is God; the objection is raised about the blessed Virgin, who is purely a woman, and yet the mistress of the Angels.

4. Again, greater is he who reclines [at table] than he who serves, by the Lord's testimony, Luke twenty-two; but the Angel serves man, to the Hebrews chapter one: *They are all ministering spirits*: therefore etc.

> **Conclusion.** The Angel and man, as regards the order to the end, which is beatitude, are equals; as regards dignity of nature the Angel is a creature superior to man.

**I respond:** It must be said that, when inquiry is made about the order of the rational spirit — whether united or separate — to the angelic spirit, it can be understood of a twofold order: either of the order as regards the *end*, or as regards *dignity of nature*. — If as regards the *end*, thus I say that they are equals. For they are immediately ordered to the same end, namely to eternal beatitude; and the measure of man is the same as that of the Angel, neither [is] man for the sake of the Angel, nor the Angel for the sake of man. Yet just as the law of charity brings it about, among the bodily members and among fellow-citizens of a city, that one member supplies the need of another — as is clear, because the eye sees the way for itself and for the foot, and the foot carries itself and the eye, and likewise it happens among the citizens of an earthly city — so likewise it is to be understood in man and Angel, who are citizens of the supernal city. For man has a proneness to falling frequently, and a possibility of rising again; the Angel, however, [has] when standing a perpetuity in standing, and when falling an impossibility of rising again: therefore the standing Angel sustains man, that is, human infirmity, and the rising man repairs the angelic ruin; therefore in a certain way the Angel [is] for the sake of man, and in a certain way man [is] for the sake of the Angel: and therefore in this order they are equals.

But if we speak of the order as regards dignity of nature, it must be said that, absolutely speaking, the Angel is a creature superior to man. For the angelic nature, as is clear from many places of Scripture, is nobler than the human and stands in a higher grade.

The reasons that show that the Angel surpasses man in dignity of nature are therefore to be granted, except the first, to which a solution has been given.

1. To what is therefore objected on the contrary, that nothing falls as a medium between the mind and God; it must be said that there is a medium according to *dignity of nature*, or according to *causality of influence*. In the first way a medium falls [between], in the second way, not. For God immediately flows into the mind, and the mind itself is immediately formed by the first truth.

2. To what is objected secondly, that man holds the account of the end; it must be said that something on account of which a thing is, either is for *supplying a need*, as a house [is] for the sake of man, and a shoe for the sake of the foot; or for *receiving its influence*, as man [is] for the sake of God. That which in the latter way has the account of the end is the nobler; that which [has it] in the former way, not. For since man needs all things, the Angel nothing except God; therefore all things [are] for the sake of man, not all things for the sake of the Angel. In sign of which thing the Angel was created in the beginning, but man on the sixth day.

3. To what is objected about the best, it is to be understood

in itself and precisely. But neither the blessed Virgin nor Christ exceed the Angels purely by reason of nature, but by reason of manifold grace.

4. To what is objected lastly about ministry, it will be made clearer below; for the present let it suffice to say that one is ministered to in two ways: either for his own sake, as a king and a lord, and such a one is nobler; or for the sake of another, as a soldier serves the king's *garcio* [page-boy]; and by this [the objection] is to be solved. For the Angel ministers to man for the sake of God, as a rich man [to] a poor man, and a strong man [to] a sick man.