The Summa of Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas volume 1
1. The obscuration of their intelligence.
2. The obstinacy of their will.
3. Their suffering.
4. The place of their punishment.
Article 1 - The obscuration of their intelligence
Objections:
1. It seems that the intelligence of the demon is obscured by the deprivation of all knowledge of the truth. For if the demons knew some truth, it is above all themselves that they should know, and this would be for them to know the separated substances. Now this knowledge does not suit their misery, because it constitutes such a beatitude that some have seen in it the supreme happiness of man. Demons are therefore deprived of all knowledge of the truth.
2. That which is most manifest in nature must also be manifest in the angels, whether good or evil. The fact that this is not the case for us comes from the weakness of our intelligence, which only knows from images: this is how the weakness of its eyesight prevents the owl from seeing the sun. But the demons cannot know God, who nevertheless is in himself the most obvious reality, since he is the sovereign Truth, this comes from the fact that they do not have a pure heart, the only one capable of seeing God. So they don't know the other truths either.
3. Angelic knowledge is twofold, in the opinion of St. Augustine, that of the morning and that of the evening. Now, the knowledge of the morning is not suitable for demons who do not see things in the Word; and no more that of the evening, because it relates the known things to the praise of the Creator (this is why Genesis places the morning after the evening). Demons therefore cannot have any knowledge of things.
4. According to S. Augustine, the angels knew by virtue of their condition the mystery of the kingdom of God. But the demons were deprived of this knowledge, because, according to the Apostle (1 Cor 2:8), “if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory”. For the same reason they were deprived of all other knowledge.
5. A truth can be known either by nature as the first principles, or by the teaching of others, or by long experience. But demons cannot know the truth naturally, because they are separated from the good angels as darkness is from light, according to St. Augustine, and all manifestation of the truth is by illumination. Likewise, they do not know it by revelation or by receiving it from good angels, because, according to the word of the Apostle (2 Cor 6,19) “there is no union between light and darkness ”. Finally, a long experience can only come from the senses. Therefore there is no knowledge of the truth in demons.
On the contrary , according to Dionysius, “the angelic gifts granted to demons have not changed; they remain in their integrity and splendor.” Now, among these natural gifts is the knowledge of the truth. It is therefore that it exists among demons.
Answer:
There is a double knowledge of the truth, that which comes from grace and that which comes from nature. The first, in turn, is either speculative, as when divine secrets are revealed to someone, or emotional, and it is this which produces the love of God and which, strictly speaking, relates to the gift of wisdom.
Of these three knowledges, the natural one is neither removed nor diminished among demons. It is in fact a property of angelic nature which, as such, is intelligence and spirit. Now, because of the simplicity of the substance, nothing can be withdrawn from the angelic nature for its punishment, as it happens that man is punished by the removal of the hand, the foot or another member. It is in this sense that Dionysius affirms that natural gifts remain in their integrity among demons. Their natural knowledge is therefore not diminished. As for the speculative knowledge which comes from grace, it is not taken away totally, but diminished, for the divine secrets are revealed to demons only to the extent necessary, either through the good angels or through the “ temporal manifestations of divine power,” says S. Augustine. However, this knowledge does not have the extent and clarity of that of the holy angels who see the revealed truths in the Word. But as for the emotional knowledge resulting from grace, they are totally deprived of it, as well as of charity.
Solutions:
1. Happiness consists of the application of intelligence to a higher reality. Separate substances are beyond us by nature; this is why there is a certain happiness for man in knowing them. But perfect happiness is found in the knowledge of the first of substances, that is to say, of God. Now, the knowledge of separate substances is connatural to angels, just as it is connatural to us to know sensitive natures. Therefore, just as the happiness of man does not consist in the knowledge of sensible natures, so the happiness of the angel does not consist in the apprehension of separate substances.
2. What is most obvious in itself is hidden from us because it is out of proportion to our intelligence, and not only because our intelligence draws its ideas from images. Now the divine substance is out of proportion both with angelic intelligence and with human intelligence. This is why the angel himself, by nature, cannot know the substance of God. However, he can naturally achieve a knowledge of God greater than that of man, due to the perfection of his intelligence. This knowledge also remains with demons; for, although they do not have this purity of gaze which grace gives, they have that which comes to them from nature and which is sufficient for their knowledge of God.
3. The creature is darkness, compared to the excellence of the divine light: this is why the knowledge we take of the creature in its own nature is called evening knowledge. For if evening is associated with darkness, it still has some light; otherwise it would be night. So the knowledge of things in their own nature, when we refer it to the praise of the Creator, as with the good angels, can be called evening. If, on the contrary, we do not refer it to God, and this is the case with demons, it is said not to be evening, but nocturnal. This is why we read in Genesis that God “called darkness” when He separated it from the light.
4 . All the angels, in the beginning, knew in some way the mystery of the kingdom of God which was to be accomplished by Christ; but especially those who were beatified in the vision of the Word, which demons never had. However, not all the angels grasped this mystery perfectly or equally; and much less did the demons have perfect knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation at the time of Christ's coming into this world. “This mystery,” writes St. Augustine, “was not known to them as it was to the holy angels who enjoy the eternity shared by the Word; they only had to perceive with terror certain temporal effects. ” But if they had known perfectly and with certainty that he is the very Son of God and what the fruits of his passion would be, they would never have sought to have the Lord of glory crucified.
5. Demons know a truth in three ways. First, because of the insight of their nature, for although darkened by the deprivation of the light of grace, they are nevertheless lucid because of the light of their intellectual nature. Secondly, by revelation received from the holy angels, to whom they certainly do not resemble by rectitude of will, but by a similarity of intellectual nature which makes communication possible. Third, as a result of long experience. They do not receive it from the senses, but at the moment when the entry into the existence of concrete things, the representation of which they naturally have in their intelligence, completes its resemblance, they know as present events which they could know in advance when they were future. We explained this above regarding angelic knowledge.
Article 2 — The obstinacy of their will
Objections:
1. It seems that the will of demons is not obstinate in evil. For free will belongs to the intellectual nature, which dwells in demons. But free will, of itself and by priority, is ordered to good rather than evil. The will of demons cannot therefore be so obstinate in evil as to be unable to return to good.
2. The infinite mercy of God is greater than the malice of the devil, which is finite. Now, it is only through the mercy of God that we can move from the evil of fault to the goodness that justifies. Demons can therefore return from the state of malice to the state of justice.
3. If demons had their will anchored in evil, this obstinacy would mainly be aimed at the sin they committed. But this sin, which is pride, no longer exists in them, because it no longer has a motive, namely their own excellence.
4. S. Gregory writes that “man can make repairs through the means of another, since it is another who caused him to fall.” But the lower demons were led into evil by the first angel, as we have just seen. Their fall can therefore be repaired by another angel. They are therefore not fixed in evil.
5. Whoever is stubborn in evil never does any good work. But the devil does some good works, for example when he confesses the truth by saying of Christ: “I know that you are the Holy One of God” (Mk 1:24). S. James also writes in his epistle (2, 19): “The demons believe and they tremble. ” Finally, according to Dionysius, they desire what is good and even what is better, namely being, life, intelligence.
On the contrary , we read in the Psalm (74, 23) this word which is applied to demons: “The pride of those who have hated you is continually exalted. ”It is therefore that the demons persevere in their malice.
Answer:
According to Origen any created will, due to free will, can turn towards good and evil; there is no exception except for the soul of Christ, because of its union with the Word. But such a doctrine removes all truth from the beatitude of angels and blessed men, because eternal stability is an essential condition of true beatitude; hence its name eternal life. Furthermore, this doctrine contradicts the authority of Holy Scripture which states that demons and sinners must be sent to “eternal punishment,” while the good must be introduced into “eternal life.” This is why such a position must be regarded as erroneous, and it must be firmly held, according to the Catholic faith, that the will of the good angels is confirmed in good, while the will of demons has become obstinate in evil.
The cause of this obstinacy must be taken not from the gravity of the fault, but from the natural condition of their state “What death is to men, writes S. John Damascene, the fall is to the angels. . ” Now, it is manifest that all the mortal sins of men, whatever their gravity, are forgivable before death; but after death, they are irremissible and subsist perpetually.
To discover the cause of such obstinacy, we must consider that the appetitive power, in the creature, is, in relation to the apprehensive power which moves it, like the mobile in relation to the engine. The sensitive appetite has for its object a particular good; the will, the universal good; and in the same way the senses have as their object the particular, the intelligence, the universal. Now, the apprehension of the angel differs from that of man in that the angel immutably apprehends the object by his intelligence in the way in which we immutably grasp the first principles of which we have intuition. Through reason, on the contrary, man apprehends the truth in a progressive and mobile way, passing from one proposition to another, keeping the path open towards one or other of the opposing conclusions. This is why the human will, too, adheres to its object with a certain mobility and inconstancy, being able to turn away from it to adhere to the opposite object. On the other hand, the will of the angel adheres to its object in a fixed and immutable way.
Consequently, if we consider the angel before his accession, he can freely fix himself on a particular object or its opposite (unless they are naturally desired objects); but after joining, he fixes himself immutably on the object of his choice. Also it is customary to say that the free will of man is capable of acting on opposite objects, both after the election and before; while the free will of the angel is capable of moving towards opposite objects before the election, but not afterward. Therefore, the good angels always adhering to justice, are confirmed in it; the bad angels, by sinning, persist in sin. As for the obstinacy of damned men, we will deal with it later.
Solutions:
1. Good and evil angels possess free will, but according to the mode and condition of their nature.
2 . God's mercy delivers those who repent from their sin. But those who are not capable of repentance, because they steadfastly adhere to evil, cannot benefit from divine mercy.
3 . The sin committed at the beginning remains in the devil insofar as it involves the desire for its object, although the devil knows very well that it is impossible to achieve it. It is the same for someone who believes he can commit homicide and wants to commit it, but then no longer has the possibility; his will, however, remains within him, in the sense that he would want to do it if he could.
4 . The reason why man's sin is forgivable does not come only from the fact that this sin was suggested by another. This is why the argument is irrelevant.
5 . The demon's activity is twofold. First there is that which comes from a deliberation of one's will; it’s really its own activity. Such activity is always bad in the demon, for although he can do something good, yet he does not accomplish it in a correct way; thus when he speaks the truth to mislead, or when he believes and confesses the divinity of Christ, not voluntarily, but forced by the evidence of the facts. The other activity of the demon is that which is natural to him; it can be good and attests to the goodness of nature. And yet, even this good activity, demons abuse to do evil.
Article 3 - The suffering of demons
Objections:
1. Suffering and joy are opposed and cannot be found at the same time in the same subject. Now there is joy among demons. S. Augustine writes in fact: “The devil has power over those who despise the precepts of God, and this unfortunate power delights him.” There is therefore no suffering among demons
2. Suffering causes fear, because the things to come that we fear are those that cause us pain when they are present. But the demons do not know fear, according to this word in Job (41, 25): (Leviathan) “has come to fear nothing”. They therefore do not experience suffering any more.
3 . It is good to suffer from what is bad. But demons cannot do what is good. They cannot therefore suffer, at the very least from the evil of fault, as when one is eaten away by what is called the worm of conscience.
On the contrary , the sin of the devil is more serious than that of man. But man is subjected to suffering as a punishment for the pleasure he took in sin, according to this word from Revelation (18, 7): “As much (Babylon) glorified itself and immersed itself in pleasures, you might as well give him torments and misfortunes. ” Much more is the devil, who has glorified himself sovereignly, punished by his lamentations and his suffering.
Answer:
Fear, pain, joy and other similar things, if considered as passions, cannot exist in demons; they properly relate to the sensitive appetite, and this is a power which presupposes a bodily organ. But if we consider them as simple acts of will, in this respect we can find them among demons. And it is necessary to affirm that there is suffering in them. Because suffering considered as a pure act of will, is nothing other than the repulsion of the will for what is, or in the face of the absence of what is not. Now, it is obvious that demons would like many things that exist to not exist, and many things to exist that do not exist; so, because they are jealous, they would have those who are saved be damned. We must therefore recognize that there is suffering in them, especially if we consider that it is part of the nature of pain to thwart the will. Likewise they are deprived of the bliss which they naturally desire; and, in many of them, the perverse will is prevented from doing all the evil it wishes.
Solutions:
1. Joy and pain are opposed on the same object, but not on different objects. Nothing prevents the same individual from suffering from one thing and rejoicing at the same time about another; and this is especially true when pain and joy are simple acts of will; because, not only with regard to different things, but with regard to the same reality, we can want this and not want that.
2. Among demons, suffering has for its object what is present, and fear what is to come. When we read this word: “He came to the point of fearing nothing”, we must understand it as the fear of God which keeps us away from sin. Moreover, it is written (Jas 2:19): “The demons believe, and they tremble. ”
3 . Suffering the evil of fault for its own sake attests that the will is good since the evil of fault is opposed to it. Suffering the evil of sorrow, or the evil of guilt because of the sorrow that follows, attests to the goodness of nature and its opposition to suffering. This is why S. Augustine writes that “the pain of good lost in torture attests to the goodness of nature.” From all this, it follows that the demon, because of the perversity and obstinacy of his will , does not suffer from the evil of fault.
Article 4 - The place of the punishment of demons
Objections:
1. The demon is a spiritual nature which has no relationship with the place. punishment of demons.
2. The sin of man is not more serious than that of the devil. But the place of punishment, for man, is hell. even for demons. It is therefore not the dark air. 3
The
demons are punished with the punishment of fire. But there is no fire in the dark air. writes that “the dark air is like the prison of demons until the day of judgment.”
Answer:
Angels, because of their nature, hold the middle between God and men. However, the plan of Providence includes. procure the good of inferior beings by means of superiors. As for the good of man, it is provided in a twofold way by Providence: either directly when man is inclined to good and turned away from evil; and it is appropriate that this be done through the ministry of the good angels; or indirectly when man is tested, fought by the attack of the adversary. And this way of obtaining his human good, it is appropriate that it be entrusted to the bad angels so that after their sin they do not lose their usefulness in the order of nature. Thus a double place of punishment is attributed to demons; one because of their fault is hell; the other because of the ordeal they put men through, it is the dark air.
On the other hand, it is until the day of judgment that we must procure the salvation of men. It is up to this point, therefore, that the ministry of angels must continue as well as the trials inflicted by demons. All this time, the good angels have been sent here below to be with us; demons reside in the dark air to test us. However, some of them are even now in hell to torture those who are led to evil; just as certain good angels are in heaven with holy souls. But after the last judgment, all the wicked, men and angels, will be in hell; all the good ones, to heaven.
Solutions:
1. The place is not a punishment for the angel and the soul in the sense that it would alter their nature; but he afflicts their will by saddening it, because the angel and the soul are aware that they are in a place which does not correspond to their will.
2. According to the condition of their nature, souls are all equal, and one need not be preferred to the other. But demons have a higher degree of nature than men; this is why the comparison is not valid.
3. Some have claimed that the punishment of sense is deferred until the day of judgment, both for demons and for souls; and it would be the same for the happiness of the saints. But this is an erroneous doctrine, and which goes against what the Apostle says (2 Cor 5:1): “If our earthly home is destroyed, we have a home in heaven. ” Others, while not granting it for souls, accept this theory with regard to demons. But it is better to recognize that the same judgment applies to evil souls and angels, as the same judgment applies to holy souls and good angels.
What must be said is first of all that the place of heaven is part of the glory of the angels, but this glory is not diminished when they come to us, for they consider this place to be theirs ( as we say that the prestige of the bishop is not diminished when he does not sit on his episcopal throne). Similarly with regard to demons, we must affirm that, although they are not actually bound to the fire of Gehenna, while they are in the dark air, nevertheless, from the fact that they know that they are bound to this captivity , their sentence is not diminished. And this is why we read in the Gloss (on James 3:6) that “they take with them the fire of Gehenna”. And against this way of seeing, we cannot oppose the passage from Luke (8.31), where it is said that “they begged the Lord not to send them into the abyss”. For the reason for their request is that they considered it a punishment to leave the place where they could still harm men. Hence these words in S. Mark (5, 10): “They begged him earnestly not to drive them out of the country.”
After the spiritual creature, we must consider the corporeal creature. In its production, Scripture makes mention of three works: the work of creation, when it is said: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"; the work of distinction, when it is said: "He separated the light from the darkness" and "the waters which are on the firmament from the waters which are under the firmament"; the work of ornamentation, when it is said: "Let there be lights in the firmament."
We must therefore consider: I. The work of creation (Q. 65). II. The work of distinction (Q. 66). III. The ornamental work (Q. 70).