Dist. 4, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/4/q/bon-sent-II-d4-a1-q1
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### ARTICLE I. *What the Angels were created like with respect to glory and grace.*

### QUESTION I. *Whether the Angels were created in blessedness or glory.*

It is asked, then, first, whether the Angels were created in blessedness or glory. And that [they were], it seems.

1. Ezekiel 28: *You were full of wisdom and perfect in beauty in the delights of paradise;* but to be in the delights of paradise and to be full of wisdom is blessedness itself, which we call eternal glory: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, Augustine in the book *On the Marvels of Sacred Scripture*: «An Angel, constituted in the highest honor of his order, fell» — he speaks of the Angel before the fall — but the highest honor of the angelic order is blessedness and glory: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, Augustine *On the Faith, to Peter*: «The angelic spirits, by the fact that they were made rational, received the gift of eternity and blessedness divinely in the very creation of their spiritual nature».

4. Likewise, the same, *On Ecclesiastical Dogmas*: «The Angels who persevere in that blessedness in which they were created do not possess [it] by nature, so as not to be changed»: therefore if they now have true blessedness, it is clear that they were created in blessedness.

5. Likewise, it seems by reason: because the Angel from his creation had the aptitude to love God for his own sake and above all things, therefore he had the aptitude to enjoy God; but he had no retardant on the part of the affection, nor anything obscuring on the part of the intellect: therefore he was borne wholly into God himself with the love of fruition: therefore, since such a state and act is blessedness and glory, it is clear etc.

6. Likewise, God made free choice changeable: therefore, since a rational creature can have it unchangeable, as is now evident in the holy Angels, he ought to have made [it so] for some in this way; but there is no unchangeableness of free choice in the Blessed except through glory: therefore etc. Or if you say that he ought not to have done [so]; this does not seem [right], because he ought to make things in the best way; but this is the best state of the Angel itself: therefore he ought to have made someone in this state.

**On the contrary:** 1. John 8: «He did not stand in the truth»; but blessedness is «a state made perfect by the gathering together of all goods»: therefore it is a state in the truth: therefore lucifer was not made blessed. But he was created perfect and noble among all: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, it is objected that perseverance or security is of the essence or substance of blessedness — for he is not blessed who can lose the good that he has — but the Angels could lose [it], since they did lose [it]: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, no one is praised or blamed for the things he has by nature or by condition; but just as blame is essential to damnation, so praise is essential to blessedness: therefore it is impossible that anyone be blessed from [his] condition; rather, it is a contradiction in the term.

4. Likewise, either God made all [the Angels] blessed, or some. Not all; it is established, since many of them fell. Not some, as it seems, because then those would surpass the others by a disproportionate pre-excellence: therefore lucifer would not have dared to set himself above them. But if he did dare, it seems that none were created blessed. If you say that he presumed a greater audacity, namely to be equaled to God, [and] how much more to be set above the Blessed; still that does not resolve [it]. For if God created the Angels blessed from their very condition, this was because it was consonant with their nature that they should be made under such perfection and so noble: if therefore lucifer, as the Saints say, and the Master says in what follows, had the most splendid natural endowments, it was the more fitting and congruous that his nature should be marked with glory. But if he, as is evident, was not made blessed, it is clear etc.

> **Conclusion.** The Angels were not created in a state of blessedness through the perfect vision of God, yet without the evil of fault and of punishment.

**I respond:** It must be said that, as was touched on above, it was the opinion of certain [people] that the Angels, because they are spiritual and actual, in the instant of their creation were in the act of conversion and aversion; and just as in the first aversion those who turned away were damned eternally, so in the first conversion those who turned [to God] were glorified eternally; and thus they say Augustine understood [it], and that it was his position, that some were created blessed and formed, since at the same time in time, though posterior in nature, the heaven and the light were made, that is, the angelic nature, unformed and formed. «For "light," as Augustine says in the eleventh [book] *On the City of God*, the Angels are called, because they were illumined so that they might live blessedly and wisely». — But nevertheless this position was disproved above as false and erroneous by reason of that part which says that at the first instant [some] were turned away. By reason of the other part it is disproved on a like ground, and its falsity is evident through Augustine *On Correction and Grace*, where he says «that, although the Angels were made blessed, there was still something to be added to their blessedness, if they had remained». It is established that nothing is added to blessedness and glory, since it is unchangeable; it is established also that he speaks in common of the good and the evil [Angels], when he says: «if they had remained».

And therefore it must be said otherwise, that blessedness can be spoken of in two ways. In *one* way, a state made perfect by the fullness of every good, and this posits the clear vision of God and perfect holding [of him]; and in this way the Angels were not created [blessed], neither some nor all, but certain of them had [it] in the confirmation itself. In *another* way blessedness is called a state made perfect by the privation of every evil, both of punishment and of fault; and in this way the Angels were created, since [they were] innocent and impassible. And of this blessedness Augustine speaks; but this is not perfect unless the other is added to it, and to this run the authorities proving that they were made blessed.

1. To that, then, which Ezekiel says: *You were in the delights of paradise;* it must be said that just as the first man was created and placed in the delights of paradise, which nevertheless were not the delights of perfect blessedness; and just as wisdom was given to him for knowing all worldly things, but not that [wisdom] which is the vision of God in the fatherland: in a like way it must be understood in the Angel.

2. 3. 4. What Augustine says *On the Marvels of Sacred Scripture* he understands with respect to the natural [endowments], because he had goods so [great] that he was not going to have better ones. Whence also he was created in that place in which he was to be beatified. — But the two following authorities speak of blessedness according to those two differences which I have stated.

5. To that which is objected, that they had fruition without retardation; it must be said that it is true; yet they did not have [it] in perfect completion, because they did not see God *face to face,* but knew [him] in *effects* and most of all in *themselves,* as will be shown better below.

6. To that which is objected, that he ought to have given to some [the gift of being] unchangeable; it must be said that, as far as concerns [their] condition, it *ought* to be given to none, although it *can* [be], because «God judged men and Angels better, if they served him freely»; therefore he placed both in the hand of their own counsel.