Whether an Angel Is Composed of Matter and Form?
Objection 1: It would seem that an angel is composed of matter and
form. For everything which is contained under any genus is composed of
the genus, and of the difference which added to the genus makes the
species. But the genus comes from the matter, and the difference from
the form (Metaph. xiii, text 6). Therefore everything which is in a
genus is composed of matter and form. But an angel is in the genus of
substance. Therefore he is composed of matter and form.
Obj. 2: Further, wherever the properties of matter exist, there is
matter. Now the properties of matter are to receive and to substand;
whence Boethius says (De Trin.) that "a simple form cannot be a
subject": and the above properties are found in the angel. Therefore
an angel is composed of matter and form.
Obj. 3: Further, form is act. So what is form only is pure act. But
an angel is not pure act, for this belongs to God alone. Therefore an
angel is not form only, but has a form in matter.
Obj. 4: Further, form is properly limited and perfected by matter. So
the form which is not in matter is an infinite form. But the form of
an angel is not infinite, for every creature is finite. Therefore the
form of an angel is in matter.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv): "The first
creatures are understood to be as immaterial as they are incorporeal."
_I answer that,_ Some assert that the angels are composed of matter
and form; which opinion Avicebron endeavored to establish in his book
of the _Fount of Life._ For he supposes that whatever things are
distinguished by the intellect are really distinct. Now as regards
incorporeal substance, the intellect apprehends that which
distinguishes it from corporeal substance, and that which it has in
common with it. Hence he concludes that what distinguishes
incorporeal from corporeal substance is a kind of form to it, and
whatever is subject to this distinguishing form, as it were something
common, is its matter. Therefore, he asserts the universal matter of
spiritual and corporeal things is the same; so that it must be
understood that the form of incorporeal substance is impressed in the
matter of spiritual things, in the same way as the form of quantity
is impressed in the matter of corporeal things.
But one glance is enough to show that there cannot be one matter of
spiritual and of corporeal things. For it is not possible that a
spiritual and a corporeal form should be received into the same part
of matter, otherwise one and the same thing would be corporeal and
spiritual. Hence it would follow that one part of matter receives the
corporeal form, and another receives the spiritual form. Matter,
however, is not divisible into parts except as regarded under
quantity; and without quantity substance is indivisible, as Aristotle
says (Phys. i, text 15). Therefore it would follow that the matter of
spiritual things is subject to quantity; which cannot be. Therefore it
is impossible that corporeal and spiritual things should have the same
matter.
It is, further, impossible for an intellectual substance to have any
kind of matter. For the operation belonging to anything is according
to the mode of its substance. Now to understand is an altogether
immaterial operation, as appears from its object, whence any act
receives its species and nature. For a thing is understood according
to its degree of immateriality; because forms that exist in matter are
individual forms which the intellect cannot apprehend as such. Hence
it must be that every individual substance is altogether immaterial.
But things distinguished by the intellect are not necessarily
distinguished in reality; because the intellect does not apprehend
things according to their mode, but according to its own mode. Hence
material things which are below our intellect exist in our intellect
in a simpler mode than they exist in themselves. Angelic substances,
on the other hand, are above our intellect; and hence our intellect
cannot attain to apprehend them, as they are in themselves, but by its
own mode, according as it apprehends composite things; and in this way
also it apprehends God (Q. 3).
Reply Obj. 1: It is difference which constitutes the species. Now
everything is constituted in a species according as it is determined
to some special grade of being because "the species of things are
like numbers," which differ by addition and subtraction of unity, as
the Philosopher says (Metaph. viii, text 10). But in material things
there is one thing which determines to a special grade, and that is
the form; and another thing which is determined, and this is the
matter; and hence from the latter the genus is derived, and from
the former the "difference." Whereas in immaterial things there is
no separate determinator and thing determined; each thing by its
own self holds a determinate grade in being; and therefore in them
genus and "difference" are not derived from different things, but
from one and the same. Nevertheless, this differs in our mode of
conception; for, inasmuch as our intellect considers it as
indeterminate, it derives the idea of their genus; and inasmuch
as it considers it determinately, it derives the idea of their
"difference."
Reply Obj. 2: This reason is given in the book on the _Fount of
Life,_ and it would be cogent, supposing that the receptive mode of
the intellect and of matter were the same. But this is clearly false.
For matter receives the form, that thereby it may be constituted in
some species, either of air, or of fire, or of something else. But
the intellect does not receive the form in the same way; otherwise
the opinion of Empedocles (De Anima i, 5, text 26) would be true, to
the effect that we know earth by earth, and fire by fire. But the
intelligible form is in the intellect according to the very nature of
a form; for as such is it so known by the intellect. Hence such a way
of receiving is not that of matter, but of an immaterial substance.
Reply Obj. 3: Although there is no composition of matter and form in
an angel, yet there is act and potentiality. And this can be made
evident if we consider the nature of material things which contain a
twofold composition. The first is that of form and matter, whereby
the nature is constituted. Such a composite nature is not its own
existence but existence is its act. Hence the nature itself is
related to its own existence as potentiality to act. Therefore if
there be no matter, and supposing that the form itself subsists
without matter, there nevertheless still remains the relation of the
form to its very existence, as of potentiality to act. And such a
kind of composition is understood to be in the angels; and this is
what some say, that an angel is composed of, "whereby he is," and
"what is," or "existence," and "what is," as Boethius says. For
"what is," is the form itself subsisting; and the existence itself is
whereby the substance is; as the running is whereby the runner runs.
But in God "existence" and "what is" are not different as was
explained above (Q. 3, A. 4). Hence God alone is pure act.
Reply Obj. 4: Every creature is simply finite, inasmuch as its
existence is not absolutely subsisting, but is limited to some nature
to which it belongs. But there is nothing against a creature being
considered relatively infinite. Material creatures are infinite on
the part of matter, but finite in their form, which is limited by the
matter which receives it. But immaterial created substances are
finite in their being; whereas they are infinite in the sense that
their forms are not received in anything else; as if we were to say,
for example, that whiteness existing separate is infinite as regards
the nature of whiteness, forasmuch as it is not contracted to any one
subject; while its "being" is finite as determined to some one
special nature.
Whence it is said (De Causis, prop. 16) that "intelligence is finite
from above," as receiving its being from above itself, and is
"infinite from below," as not received in any matter.
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