Dist. 8, Part 1, Art. 3, 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/8/q/bon-sent-II-d8-p1-a3-q1
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### Article III.
### *On the operation of the formed and assumed body.*

Consequently the third article is taken up, namely what operations the Angel exercises in the assumed body; and concerning this, two things are inquired.

First, whether he there exercises the operations of the vegetative soul.

Second, whether he there exercises the operations of the sensitive power.

### Question I.
### *Whether the Angel in assumed bodies exercises the operations of the vegetative power.*

*On the opposite side.* The procedure on the first [question] is as follows, and it is shown that he exercises the operations of the vegetative power in the assumed body — both the good Angel and the evil.

*On good Angels.* 1. To *be fed* or to *eat* is an act belonging to the vegetative power; but the Angels exercise this act in an assumed body, as is proved from what is written in Genesis 18, where Abraham set food before the Angels, and as is read in the same place, *they ate*.

2. Likewise, it is not fitting that the messengers of truth deceive by false displays the eyes of the man who beholds them; but the appearing Angels ate with those to whom they were sent, as is frequently read in Scripture: therefore they were truly fed. But this is an act of the vegetative power: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, the tongue is fitted for two works of nature: speech and feeding; but the Angels in assumed bodies truly and properly spoke with their tongue: therefore they were truly fed. The same point therefore returns, namely that the good Angels in an assumed body exercise the act of the vegetative power.

*On evil Angels.* 4. Likewise, this same point is shown of the evil ones. For to generate is an act of the vegetative power; but the demons, by means of assumed bodies, generate, as Josephus says when telling what is written in Genesis 6 about the generation of the giants: *The sons of God seeing*, etc.: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, it is the common opinion concerning Merlin that he was begotten by an incubus demon: but if the incubus demon could not have done this except by means of an assumed body, then the same conclusion as before.

6. Likewise, an act ordered to generation is by commingling with the female or male sex; but the succubus demon submits itself to a man with a submission in which there is an emission of seed, and the incubus demon lies upon a woman: therefore it seems that if they can have intercourse, they can also generate: therefore in an assumed body they exercise the act of the vegetative power.

*On the opposite side* it is argued thus, and it is shown that the act of feeding does not befit the good Angels — *Fundamenta*.

*On the good.* 1. For it is written at Tobit 12, and is the word of the angel Raphael: *I seemed indeed to eat and drink with you; but I use food and drink that are invisible*: therefore the Angel did not truly eat bodily food, although he seemed to eat.

2. Likewise, wherever there is true feeding, there is restoration of what is lost; but in bodies assumed by Angels no loss occurs, because there is no consumption of heat in them: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, where there is true feeding, there is separation of the pure from the impure; this, however, the blessed Angel does not do in an assumed body: therefore etc.

*On the evil.* 4. Likewise, that generation does not befit the evil angels seems to follow, because generation is between things alike in species; but the demon, assuming a body, is not made like to a man but to a demon: therefore it does not generate a man — and if it does generate, it generates a demon; which is plainly false: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, for generation to occur it is necessary, according to the medical authority, that a triple spirit concur — namely *natural*, *vital*, and *animal* — and, according to the Philosopher, a triple heat — namely *heat of the soul*, *heat of the heaven*, and *heat of the element*: therefore since the demon can have neither animal spirit nor animal heat in an assumed body, it seems that in no way can it generate.

6. Likewise, *to generate* is not an act of the soul and the body [taken separately], but of the conjoined whole; but from demon and body one being is not made: therefore it can never come into the act of generating through the body.

### Conclusion.

> The Angel in an assumed body does not have the operation of the vegetative soul, neither as to feeding nor as to generation, but operations to some extent conformed to these.

**I respond:** It must be said that — *Conclusion.* — the angelic spirit, whether good or evil, does not have in an assumed body the operation of the vegetative soul, neither as to feeding nor as to generation; because it has neither nutritive power nor generative power, yet it does have in some manner operations conformed to these, though not fully.

*Reason as to feeding.* And this is plain if the nature of feeding and of generation be considered. For in feeding there is *taking* and *consuming* of food, and there is moreover *conversion* and *union*; and as to the first, feeding or eating belongs to the Angel in an assumed body not feignedly but truly, because the food placed before them they truly took and consumed.

But the food taken was not restoring their need or loss, because such feeding is in the Angels by *power*, not by *need*; whereas in those things which are nourished, there is not only *power* but also *need*. And this is what Augustine says, that just as «the thirsty earth absorbs water in one way, the warming ray of sun in another», so in one way feeding befits man, in another it befits the Angel — or, in one way the wayfaring man, in another the blessed. — *Reason as to generation.* In this same way also, concerning the act of generation, the spirit that assumes a body conforms to it in some respects and not in others. For in the act of generation there is both the *constitution* of seed according to nerves and powers and heats appropriate to such a species, and there is the *transfusion* and *reception* of the seed thus made perfect. The first belongs only to him to whom God has given the power of propagation; and this in no way befits the demons assuming a body. The second, however — namely the *reception* and *transfusion* of seed — can befit them. For first they submit to men in the form of a woman and from them receive the seed of pollution, and by a certain craftiness preserve it in its own power; and afterwards, with God permitting, they become incubi and pour it into the wombs of women, by which transfusion human beings can be generated.

*Epilogue.* These things being seen, the question proposed and the arguments are easily answered: as to the question, because it must be straightforwardly conceded that they do not have the operations of the generative and nutritive power — which are to *generate* and to *use food* — as the arguments adduced to this point show. They have, however, some operations conformed to these, not wholly but in part; and this the arguments on the opposite side prove, namely showing that the good Angels eat, and that the evil ones generate. For it is true that the good Angels took food, but not for their own refreshment, but for the consolation of those giving; and therefore there was no error nor deception nor illusion there, as far as concerned the Angels themselves — although one ignorant of their nature might take occasion from this to opine something false.

*Solution of the opposed arguments.* 1, 2, 3. And so the answer to the first three arguments is plain.

4, 5, 6. It must also be conceded that the demons, according to the manner described above, can take up and pour over the seed, if God permits; but not that they can convert food into true seed by their own power. Therefore they are said in some manner to *generate*, as the three following arguments show. — Yet the last argument does not have force; for to *generate* is more than to *have intercourse*; and so it does not follow that if they can have intercourse with a woman, they can on that account impregnate her or generate offspring from her.