Dist. 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/2/d/8/q/bon-sent-II-d8-littera
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### Distinction 8.

### Part I.

### Cap. I. *Whether all Angels are corporeal.*

It is also wont to be debated among the learned, whether all Angels, namely both good and evil, are corporeal — that is, whether they have bodies united to themselves. *The opinion of certain men*: Some hold this, relying on the words of Augustine, who seems to say that all Angels before their confirmation or fall had airy bodies formed from the purer and higher part of the air, fit for acting, not for suffering; and for the good Angels who stood firm, such bodies were conserved, so that in them they could act and not suffer, [bodies] which are of such tenuity that they cannot be seen by mortals unless overclothed with some grosser form, in which assumed they are seen, and when [the form is] laid aside they cease to be seen; but for the evil angels their bodies were changed in their fall into the worse quality of denser air. For just as they were thrown down from a more dignified place into a lower place — that is, into the murky air — so those tenuous bodies were transformed into worse and denser bodies, in which they could suffer from a higher element, that is, from fire. And Augustine seems to have meant this *on Genesis*, thus saying: «*Demons are called airy animals*, because they thrive by the nature of airy bodies; nor are they dissolved by death, because in them the element prevails which is more fit for acting than for suffering. For to suffering, moisture and earth, [and] to acting, air and fire offer fitness». «But the angels who transgressed, with their prince — now the devil, then the Archangel — it is no wonder if after sin they were thrust down into this murk». «Neither indeed is it wonderful, if they were turned by their punishment into an airy quality, by which they can suffer from fire. Yet they have been allowed to keep only the murky [part] of the air, which to them is as a prison until the time of judgment». — Behold, by these words Augustine seems to hand down that which some hold concerning the bodies of Angels. *Others expound Augustine otherwise*: — But others maintain that he said these things not by holding so, but by reporting the opinion of others, which he wished to be judged by his own words. *Augustine*: He says: «Demons are *called* airy animals»; he does not say *are*; for thus some were saying. But concerning the inhabiting of the murky air, into which they were thrust down, they say that he handed [it] down not by opining, but by asserting the truth of the matter, which the distinction of his own speech shows. They also say that very many catholic doctors have agreed in this and have concordantly taught that the Angels are incorporeal and have no bodies united to themselves; but that they sometimes assume bodies, God preparing them, for the fulfillment of the ministry enjoined upon them by God, and lay them aside again after the fulfillment — in which bodies they appeared to men and spoke. And sometimes indeed they spoke from the person of God without distinction of any [trinitarian] person; sometimes from the person of the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

### Cap. II. *Of the forms in which God appeared, and of those in which Angels appear.*

Nor is it to be doubted that God appeared to men in bodily forms, as Augustine shows in the second book *On the Trinity*, by comparing diverse testimonies of Scripture from which he proves that God appeared to men in bodily figures, and that sometimes speech was made [to them] from the person of God without distinction, sometimes under a distinction of persons.

### Cap. III. *That God in the species in which God is never appeared to mortals.*

But where he asserts that God appeared to men in bodily images, he proposes a perplexing question, which he does not resolve, asking whether in those bodily appearances some creature was created for that work alone, in which God might appear to men; or whether Angels who existed before were so sent, [that] remaining in their own spiritual bodies, they assumed from the corpulent matter of the lower elements some bodily species, which fitted to them as a kind of garment they changed into whatever bodily species they would, true ones indeed; or whether they turned their own proper body into species fit for their actions, by virtue given to them by God. *Augustine*: For Augustine says thus in the third [book] *On the Trinity*: «It must be asked, concerning those ancient bodily forms and visions, whether a creature was formed for this work only, in which God, as he then judged fitting, might be shown to human eyes; or whether the Angels who already were [in being] were so sent, that they spoke from the person of God, assuming a bodily species from a bodily creature for the use of their ministry; or [whether] their own body — to which they are not subjected, but [which] subjected they govern — they were changing and turning into the species they would, accommodated and fit for their actions, according to the power attributed to them by their Creator»? «But I confess it exceeds the powers of my intention [to determine] whether the Angels, the spiritual quality of their body remaining, by it operating more hiddenly, assume from the more corpulent lower elements a body which, fitted to themselves as a kind of garment, they change and turn into whatever bodily species [they will] — and those true ones, as true water was turned into true wine by the Lord —; or whether they transform their own proper bodies into that which they will, accommodated to that which they do. But which of these it is, since I am a man, I can by no experience comprehend, as the Angels, who do this, [can]». — *The Master's judgment*: Notice, reader, that he did not resolve the proposed question, but left it undiscussed, whether the Angels who were sent, retaining their own proper spiritual bodies, were overclothed with some more corpulent species in which they could be seen; or whether they changed and transformed the body itself into whatever species they would, in which they could be perceived. In these words Augustine seems to attest that the Angels are corporeal and have their own proper and spiritual bodies.

*God in himself has not appeared to a mortal eye*: But leaving these things as too deep and obscure, let us undoubtedly hold this, that God in the species of his own essence has never appeared to mortals, as he says to his servant Moses: *Man shall not see me, and live*. And in the Gospel of John it is read: *No one has ever seen God*. *Doubt 1*: «For there is nothing visible which is not mutable». *Doubt 2*: «Therefore the substance or essence of God, since it is in no way mutable, can in no way be in itself visible. Hence all those things which were seen by the fathers, when God was being presented to them, it is manifest were made through a creature. And although it is hidden from us how God did these things through the ministering Angels, yet we say that they were done through Angels». *Doubt 3*: «I dare therefore confidently to say, that neither God the Father, nor his Word, nor his Spirit — who is one God — in respect of that which he is, and is the very same, is in any way mutable, and through this much less visible».

### Part II.

### Cap. IV. *In what way demons are said to enter into men.*

That also seems most worthy of consideration, whether demons — whether they be corporeal or incorporeal — *substantially* enter into the bodies of men and pour themselves into their souls; or whether they are said to enter [only] for this reason, that they exercise the *effect* of their malice there, by God's permission, oppressing and harassing them, or drawing them into sin by their own will. — That they do enter into men and, expelled by them, go out, the Gospel openly declares, recording the demons that entered into certain people and were cast out by Christ; but whether they entered *according to substance*, or are said to enter on account of the *effect* of evil, is not so clear. Concerning this, however, *Gennadius*: Gennadius in the *Definitions of Ecclesiastical Dogmas* says: «We do not believe that demons *substantially flow into* the soul by an energetic operation, but [that they] are *united* [to it] by application and oppression. To *flow into* the mind is possible to him alone who created [it], who, being by nature subsisting incorporeal, is capable of his own creation». — Behold, here it seems insinuated that demons do not *substantially* flow into or enter the hearts of men. *Bede* also, upon that passage of *the Acts of the Apostles*, where Peter says to Ananias: *Why has Satan tempted and filled your heart?*, says: «It must be noted, that nothing can *fill* the mind of man according to substance except the Trinity which created [it], because only according to operation and the instinct of the will is the soul filled by those things which are created. But Satan *fills* the heart of someone, not indeed entering into him and into his senses, nor going in by the entrance of the heart — since this power belongs to God alone — but by a cunning and fraudulent deception dragging the soul into the effect of malice through the thoughts and incitements of the vices, with which he himself is full. Satan therefore *filled* the heart of Ananias not by entering, but by infusing the poison of his own malice». The same: «The unclean spirit, a flame of vices driven from the hearts of the faithful, pours the poison of persecution into the teachers of the truth». — By these authorities it is shown that demons do not *substantially* enter the hearts of men, but on account of the *effect* of malice, on account of which they are said to be *driven out*, when they are not allowed to harm.

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