not fully but partially; thus holy men are called gods by
participation. Therefore, if anything is to be called by a name
designating its property, it ought not to be named from what it
participates imperfectly, nor from that which it possesses in excess,
but from that which is adequate thereto; as, for instance, when we
wish properly to name a man, we should call him a "rational
substance," but not an "intellectual substance," which latter is the
proper name of an angel; because simple intelligence belongs to an
angel as a property, and to man by participation; nor do we call him
a "sensible substance," which is the proper name of a brute; because
sense is less than the property of a man, and belongs to man in a
more excellent way than to other animals.

So we must consider that in the angelic orders all spiritual
perfections are common to all the angels, and that they are all more
excellently in the superior than in the inferior angels. Further, as
in these perfections there are grades, the superior perfection belongs
to the superior order as its property, whereas it belongs to the
inferior by participation; and conversely the inferior perfection
belongs to the inferior order as its property, and to the superior by
way of excess; and thus the superior order is denominated from the
superior perfection.

So in this way Dionysius (Coel. Hier. vii) explains the names of the
orders accordingly as they befit the spiritual perfections they
signify. Gregory, on the other hand, in expounding these names (Hom.
xxxiv in Evang.) seems to regard more the exterior ministrations; for
he says that "angels are so called as announcing the least things; and
the archangels in the greatest; by the virtues miracles are wrought;
by the powers hostile powers are repulsed; and the principalities
preside over the good spirits themselves."

Reply Obj. 1: Angel means "messenger." So all the heavenly spirits,
so far as they make known Divine things, are called "angels." But
the superior angels enjoy a certain excellence, as regards this
manifestation, from which the superior orders are denominated. The
lowest order of angels possess no excellence above the common
manifestation; and therefore it is denominated from manifestation
only; and thus the common name remains as it were proper to the
lowest order, as Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. v). Or we may say that
the lowest order can be specially called the order of "angels,"
forasmuch as they ann