Whether the Angels Exist in Any Great Number?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels are not in great numbers.
For number is a species of quantity, and follows the division of a
continuous body. But this cannot be in the angels, since they are
incorporeal, as was shown above (A. 1). Therefore the angels
cannot exist in any great number.
Obj. 2: Further, the more a thing approaches to unity, so much the
less is it multiplied, as is evident in numbers. But among other
created natures the angelic nature approaches nearest to God.
Therefore since God is supremely one, it seems that there is the
least possible number in the angelic nature.
Obj. 3: Further, the proper effect of the separate substances seems
to be the movements of the heavenly bodies. But the movements of the
heavenly bodies fall within some small determined number, which we
can apprehend. Therefore the angels are not in greater number than
the movements of the heavenly bodies.
Obj. 4: Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv) that "all intelligible and
intellectual substances subsist because of the rays of the divine
goodness." But a ray is only multiplied according to the different
things that receive it. Now it cannot be said that their matter is
receptive of an intelligible ray, since intellectual substances are
immaterial, as was shown above (A. 2). Therefore it seems that the
multiplication of intellectual substances can only be according to
the requirements of the first bodies--that is, of the heavenly ones,
so that in some way the shedding form of the aforesaid rays may be
terminated in them; and hence the same conclusion is to be drawn as
before.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Dan. 7:10): "Thousands of thousands
ministered to Him, and ten thousands times a hundred thousand stood
before Him."
_I answer that,_ There have been various opinions with regard to the
number of the separate substances. Plato contended that the separate
substances are the species of sensible things; as if we were to
maintain that human nature is a separate substance of itself: and
according to this view it would have to be maintained that the number
of the separate substances is the number of the species of sensible
things. Aristotle, however, rejects this view (Metaph. i, text 31)
because matter is of the very nature of the species of sensible
things. Consequently the separate substances cannot be the exemplar
species of these sensible things; but have their own fixed natures,
which are higher than the natures of sensible things. Nevertheless
Aristotle held (Metaph. xi, text 43) that those more perfect natures
bear relation to these sensible things, as that of mover and end; and
therefore he strove to find out the number of the separate substances
according to the number of the first movements.
But since this appears to militate against the teachings of Sacred
Scripture, Rabbi Moses the Jew, wishing to bring both into harmony,
held that the angels, in so far as they are styled immaterial
substances, are multiplied according to the number of heavenly
movements or bodies, as Aristotle held (Metaph. xi, text 43); while he
contended that in the Scriptures even men bearing a divine message are
styled angels; and again, even the powers of natural things, which
manifest God's almighty power. It is, however, quite foreign to the
custom of the Scriptures for the powers of irrational things to be
designated as angels.
Hence it must be said that the angels, even inasmuch as they are
immaterial substances, exist in exceeding great number, far beyond all
material multitude. This is what Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. xiv):
"There are many blessed armies of the heavenly intelligences,
surpassing the weak and limited reckoning of our material numbers."
The reason whereof is this, because, since it is the perfection of the
universe that God chiefly intends in the creation of things, the more
perfect some things are, in so much greater an excess are they created
by God. Now, as in bodies such excess is observed in regard to their
magnitude, so in things incorporeal is it observed in regard to their
multitude. We see, in fact, that incorruptible bodies, exceed
corruptible bodies almost incomparably in magnitude; for the entire
sphere of things active and passive is something very small in
comparison with the heavenly bodies. Hence it is reasonable to
conclude that the immaterial substances as it were incomparably
exceed material substances as to multitude.
Reply Obj. 1: In the angels number is not that of discrete
quantity, brought about by division of what is continuous, but that
which is caused by distinction of forms; according as multitude is
reckoned among the transcendentals, as was said above (Q. 30, A. 3; Q. 11).
Reply Obj. 2: From the angelic nature being the nighest unto
God, it must needs have least of multitude in its composition, but not
so as to be found in few subjects.
Reply Obj. 3: This is Aristotle's argument (Metaph. xii, text
44), and it would conclude necessarily if the separate substances were
made for corporeal substances. For thus the immaterial substances
would exist to no purpose, unless some movement from them were to
appear in corporeal things. But it is not true that the immaterial
substances exist on account of the corporeal, because the end is
nobler than the means to the end. Hence Aristotle says (Metaph. xii,
text 44) that this is not a necessary argument, but a probable one. He
was forced to make use of this argument, since only through sensible
things can we come to know intelligible ones.
Reply Obj. 4: This argument comes from the opinion of such as
hold that matter is the cause of the distinction of things; but this
was refuted above (Q. 47, A. 1). Accordingly, the multiplication
of the angels is not to be taken according to matter, nor according to
bodies, but according to the divine wisdom devising the various orders
of immaterial substances.
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