Whether the Evil of Fault Can Be in the Angels?
Objection 1: It would seem that there can be no evil of fault in the
angels. For there can be no evil except in things which are in
potentiality, as is said by the Philosopher (Metaph. ix, text. 19),
because the subject of privation is a being in potentiality. But the
angels have not being in potentiality, since they are subsisting
forms. Therefore there can be no evil in them.
Obj. 2: Further, the angels are higher than the heavenly bodies. But
philosophers say that there cannot be evil in the heavenly bodies.
Therefore neither can there be in the angels.
Obj. 3: Further, what is natural to a thing is always in it. But it
is natural for the angels to be moved by the movement of love towards
God. Therefore such love cannot be withdrawn from them. But in loving
God they do not sin. Consequently the angels cannot sin.
Obj. 4: Further, desire is only of what is good or apparently good.
Now for the angels there can be no apparent good which is not a true
good; because in them either there can be no error at all, or at
least not before guilt. Therefore the angels can desire only what it
truly good. But no one sins by desiring what is truly good.
Consequently the angel does not sin by desire.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Job 4:18): "In His angels He found
wickedness."
_I answer that,_ An angel or any other rational creature considered in
his own nature, can sin; and to whatever creature it belongs not to
sin, such creature has it as a gift of grace, and not from the
condition of nature. The reason of this is, because sinning is nothing
else than a deviation from that rectitude which an act ought to have;
whether we speak of sin in nature, art, or morals. That act alone, the
rule of which is the very virtue of the agent, can never fall short of
rectitude. Were the craftsman's hand the rule itself engraving, he
could not engrave the wood otherwise than rightly; but if the
rightness of engraving be judged by another rule, then the engraving
may be right or faulty. Now the Divine will is the sole rule of God's
act, because it is not referred to any higher end. But every created
will has rectitude of act so far only as it is regulated according to
the Divine will, to which the last end is to be referred: as every
desire of a subordinate ought to be regulated by the will of his
superior; for instance, the soldier's will, according to the will of
his commanding officer. Thus only in the Divine will can there be no
sin; whereas there can be sin in the will of every creature;
considering the condition of its nature.
Reply Obj. 1: In the angels there is no potentiality to natural
existence. Yet there is potentiality in their intellective part, as
regards their being inclined to this or the other object. In this
respect there can be evil in them.
Reply Obj. 2: The heavenly bodies have none but a natural operation.
Therefore as there can be no evil of corruption in their nature; so
neither can there be evil of disorder in their natural action. But
besides their natural action there is the action of free-will in the
angels, by reason of which evil may be in them.
Reply Obj. 3: It is natural for the angel to turn to God by the
movement of love, according as God is the principle of his natural
being. But for him to turn to God as the object of supernatural
beatitude, comes of infused love, from which he could be turned away
by sinning.
Reply Obj. 4: Mortal sin occurs in two ways in the act of free-will.
First, when something evil is chosen; as man sins by choosing
adultery, which is evil of itself. Such sin always comes of ignorance
or error; otherwise what is evil would never be chosen as good. The
adulterer errs in the particular, choosing this delight of an
inordinate act as something good to be performed now, from the
inclination of passion or of habit; even though he does not err in
his universal judgment, but retains a right opinion in this respect.
In this way there can be no sin in the angel; because there are no
passions in the angels to fetter reason or intellect, as is manifest
from what has been said above (Q. 59, A. 4); nor, again, could any
habit inclining to sin precede their first sin. In another way sin
comes of free-will by choosing something good in itself, but not
according to proper measure or rule; so that the defect which induces
sin is only on the part of the choice which is not properly
regulated, but not on the part of the thing chosen; as if one were to
pray, without heeding the order established by the Church. Such a sin
does not presuppose ignorance, but merely absence of consideration of
the things which ought to be considered. In this way the angel
sinned, by seeking his own good, from his own free-will,
insubordinately to the rule of the Divine will.
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