Whether There Can Be Strife or Discord Among the Angels?
Objection 1: It would seem that there can be [no] strife or discord among
the angels. For it is written (Job 25:2): "Who maketh peace in His
high places." But strife is opposed to peace. Therefore among the high
angels there is no strife.
Obj. 2: Further, where there is perfect charity and just
authority there can be no strife. But all this exists among the
angels. Therefore there is no strife among the angels.
Obj. 3: Further, if we say that angels strive for those whom they
guard, one angel must needs take one side, and another angel the
opposite side. But if one side is in the right the other side is in
the wrong. It will follow therefore, that a good angel is a compounder
of wrong; which is unseemly. Therefore there is no strife among good
angels.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Dan. 10:13): "The prince of the
kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty days." But this
prince of the Persians was the angel deputed to the guardianship of
the kingdom of the Persians. Therefore one good angel resists the
others; and thus there is strife among them.
_I answer that,_ The raising of this question is occasioned by this
passage of Daniel. Jerome explains it by saying that the prince of the
kingdom of the Persians is the angel who opposed the setting free of
the people of Israel, for whom Daniel was praying, his prayers being
offered to God by Gabriel. And this resistance of his may have been
caused by some prince of the demons having led the Jewish captives in
Persia into sin; which sin was an impediment to the efficacy of the
prayer which Daniel put up for that same people.
But according to Gregory (Moral. xvii), the prince of the kingdom of
Persia was a good angel appointed to the guardianship of that kingdom.
To see therefore how one angel can be said to resist another, we must
note that the Divine judgments in regard to various kingdoms and
various men are executed by the angels. Now in their actions, the
angels are ruled by the Divine decree. But it happens at times in
various kingdoms or various men there are contrary merits or demerits,
so that one of them is subject to or placed over another. As to what
is the ordering of Divine wisdom on such matters, the angels cannot
know it unless God reveal it to them: and so they need to consult
Divine wisdom thereupon. Wherefore forasmuch as they consult the
Divine will concerning various contrary and opposing merits, they are
said to resist one another: not that their wills are in opposition,
since they are all of one mind as to the fulfilment of the Divine
decree; but that the things about which they seek knowledge are in
opposition.
From this the answers to the objections are clear.
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