Chapter XXXV

., I.

[576] Tome xx. p. 41_a_.

[577] The _Vita_ of Thomas by Guilielmus de Thoco, _Acta sanctorum_, Martius, tome i. folio 657 _sqq._ (March 7), is wretchedly confused.

[578] _Vita_, cap. iii. § 15.

[579] One may see the truth of this by comparing the treatment of a matter in Albert’s _Summa theologiae_ with the corresponding sections in Thomas. For example, compare Albert’s _Summa theol. prima_, Tract. vii. Quaest. xxx.-xxxiii., on _generatio_, _processio_, _missio_ of the divine persons, with Thomas, _Sum. theol. prima_, Quaest. xxvii. and xliii.

[580] John of Damascus, an important Greek theologian of the eighth century, often cited by Thomas.

[581] Quaestiones are the larger divisions of the argument.

[582] _Pars prima_, Qu. xvi. Art. 3.

[583] _Pars prima_, Qu. lxxxii. Art. 3.

[584] _Prima sec._ Qu. iv. Art. 2.

[585] _Prima sec._ Qu. iv. Art. 3.

[586] _Sum. Phil. contra Gentiles_, iii. 37.

[587] One cannot avoid applying the masculine pronouns to God, and to the angels also. But, of course, this is a mere convenience of speech. Thomas ascribes no sex either to God or the angels.

[588] It will, of course, be borne in mind, that Thomas’s use of _videre_ and _visio_ to express man’s perception of God’s essential nature, does not mean a physical but an intellectual seeing.

[589] Given _ante_, pp. 290 _sqq._

[590] _Secundum quod est in actu_, _i.e._ in realized actuality as distinguished from potentiality (Aristotelian conceptions).

[591] The foregoing is taken from the thirteen _articuli_ into which Quaestio xii. is divided.

[592] _Pars prima_, Quaestio xxxii. Art. 1.

[593] _Quaestiones disputatae: De Veritate_, x. 6. Citing Rom. i. 20.

[594] Prooemium to Qu. xiv. _Pars prima_.

[595] Qu. xiv. Art. 2--a point which Thomas reasons out in interesting scholastic Aristotelian fashion, but in language too technical to translate.

[596] _Pars prima_, Qu. xiv. Art. 11.

[597] _Pars prima_, Qu. xv. Art. 1-3.

[598] _Pars prima_, Qu. xxvi. Art. 2.

[599] _Pars prima_, Qu. xliv. Art. 3.

[600] _Pars prima_, Qu. xlv. Art. 1.

[601] _Summa theol. pars prima_, Qu. l. As heretofore, I follow the exposition of the _Summa theologiae_. But Thomas began a large and almost historical treatment of angels in his unfinished _Tract. de substantiis separatis, seu de Angelorum natura_ (unfinished, in _Opuscula theol._). He has another and important tractatus, _De cognitione Angelorum, Quaestiones disput. de veritate_, viii.

[602] _Pars prima_, Qu. l. Art. 1. Thomas goes on to contradict Aristotle, in holding _quod nullum ens esset nisi corpus_.

[603] All that has been given concerning the knowledge of angels relates to what they know through their own natures as created. Further enlightenment (as with men) comes through grace as soon as they become _beati_ through turning to good. _Pars prima_, Qu. lxii. Art. 1 _sqq._

[604] _Ante_,