is said that angels, compared to God, are material and
corporeal, not, however, as if anything corporeal existed in them.
Reply Obj. 2: Movement is there taken in the sense in which it is
applied to intelligence and will. Therefore an angel is called an
ever mobile substance, because he is ever actually intelligent, and
not as if he were sometimes actually and sometimes potentially, as we
are. Hence it is clear that the objection rests on an equivocation.
Reply Obj. 3: To be circumscribed by local limits belongs to bodies
only; whereas to be circumscribed by essential limits belongs to all
creatures, both corporeal and spiritual. Hence Ambrose says (De Spir.
Sanct. i, 7) that "although some things are not contained in
corporeal place, still they are none the less circumscribed by their
substance."
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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 50, Art. 2]
Whether an Angel Is Composed of Matter and Form?
Objection 1: It would seem that an angel is composed of matter and
form. For everything which is contained under any genus is composed of
the genus, and of the difference which added to the genus makes the
species. But the genus comes from the matter, and the difference from
the form (Metaph. xiii, text 6). Therefore everything which is in a
genus is composed of matter and form. But an angel is in the genus of
substance. Therefore he is composed of matter and form.
Obj. 2: Further, wherever the properties of matter exist, there is
matter. Now the properties of matter are to receive and to substand;
whence Boethius says (De Trin.) that "a simple form cannot be a
subject": and the above properties are found in the angel. Therefore
an angel is composed of matter and form.
Obj. 3: Further, form is act. So what is form only is pure act. But
an angel is not pure act, for this belongs to God alone. Therefore an
angel is not form only, but has a form in matter.
Obj. 4: Further, form is properly limited and perfected by matter. So
the form which is not in matter is an infinite form. But the form of
an angel is not infinite, for every creature is finite. Therefore the
form of an angel is in matter.
_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv): "The first
creatures are understood to be as immaterial as they are incorporeal."
_I answer that,_ Some assert that the angels are composed of matter
and form; which opinion Avicebron endeavored to establish in his book
of the _Fount of Life._ For he supposes that wh
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