Whether the Angels Are Incorruptible?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels are not incorruptible; for
Damascene, speaking of the angel, says (De Fide Orth. ii, 3) that he
is "an intellectual substance, partaking of immortality by favor, and
not by nature."
Obj. 2: Further, Plato says in the Timaeus: "O gods of gods, whose
maker and father am I: You are indeed my works, dissoluble by nature,
yet indissoluble because I so will it." But gods such as these can
only be understood to be the angels. Therefore the angels are
corruptible by their nature
Obj. 3: Further, according to Gregory (Moral. xvi), "all things would
tend towards nothing, unless the hand of the Almighty preserved
them." But what can be brought to nothing is corruptible. Therefore,
since the angels were made by God, it would appear that they are
corruptible of their own nature.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv) that the
intellectual substances "have unfailing life, being free from all
corruption, death, matter, and generation."
_I answer that,_ It must necessarily be maintained that the angels
are incorruptible of their own nature. The reason for this is, that
nothing is corrupted except by its form being separated from the
matter. Hence, since an angel is a subsisting form, as is clear from
what was said above (A. 2), it is impossible for its substance to
be corruptible. For what belongs to anything considered in itself can
never be separated from it; but what belongs to a thing, considered in
relation to something else, can be separated, when that something else
is taken away, in view of which it belonged to it. Roundness can never
be taken from the circle, because it belongs to it of itself; but a
bronze circle can lose roundness, if the bronze be deprived of its
circular shape. Now to be belongs to a form considered in itself; for
everything is an actual being according to its form: whereas matter is
an actual being by the form. Consequently a subject composed of matter
and form ceases to be actually when the form is separated from the
matter. But if the form subsists in its own being, as happens in the
angels, as was said above (A. 2), it cannot lose its being.
Therefore, the angel's immateriality is the cause why it is
incorruptible by its own nature.
A token of this incorruptibility can be gathered from its intellectual
operation; for since everything acts according as it is actual, the
operation of a thing indicates its mode of being. Now the species and
nature of the operation is understood from the object. But an
intelligible object, being above time, is everlasting. Hence every
intellectual substance is incorruptible of its own nature.
Reply Obj. 1: Damascene is dealing with perfect immortality, which
includes complete immutability; since "every change is a kind of
death," as Augustine says (Contra Maxim. iii). The angels obtain
perfect immutability only by favor, as will appear later (Q. 62).
Reply Obj. 2: By the expression 'gods' Plato understands the heavenly
bodies, which he supposed to be made up of elements, and therefore
dissoluble of their own nature; yet they are for ever preserved in
existence by the Divine will.
Reply Obj. 3: As was observed above (Q. 44, A. 1) there is a kind of
necessary thing which has a cause of its necessity. Hence it is not
repugnant to a necessary or incorruptible being to depend for its
existence on another as its cause. Therefore, when it is said that
all things, even the angels, would lapse into nothing, unless
preserved by God, it is not to be gathered therefrom that there is
any principle of corruption in the angels; but that the nature of the
angels is dependent upon God as its cause. For a thing is said to be
corruptible not merely because God can reduce it to non-existence, by
withdrawing His act of preservation; but also because it has some
principle of corruption within itself, or some contrariety, or at
least the potentiality of matter.
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