A. The Opinion of Others

198. [First way of speaking] - As to the first question [n.189], one assertion [from Thomas Aquinas] is that an angel is in place precisely through his operation.

199. For proof of this Damascene ch.13 is adduced, who says, “Incorporeal nature operates where it is; and it is not corporeally contained but spiritually;” and later in the same chapter, “it is said to be intelligibly circumscribed where it also operates;” and in ch.16, “they [sc. incorporeal things] are intellectually present and operate where at least they have been commanded to be.” Thus it seems that ‘an angel’s being in place’ is always conjoined with his ‘operating’ - as if being in place were for an angel the fact that ‘he operates in place’.

200. Against this [sc. an angel is in place by his operation] is that the opinion has been condemned as a certain condemned and excommunicated article by the bishop of Paris.Vatican Editors: by Bishop Stephen Tempier on March 7, 1277. To the extent the articles condemned by Bishop Tempier touched on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, the condemnation was revoked by Stephen de Bourret, Bishop of Paris, in 1325, so that Thomas’ doctrine could be left to free discussion in the schools. ²⁶

201. But if it be said that ‘an excommunication does not pass beyond the sea or beyond the diocese’Vatican Editors: William of Ockham tells of a certain Dominican doctor who claimed there was no problem his holding an opinion condemned by Bishop Tempier because the condemnation did not pass beyond the seas. ²⁷ - yet, if it was condemned as an heretical article, it seems to have been condemned as heretical not only by the authority of the diocese but also by the authority of the lord Pope [Gregory IX],Decretals 5.7 ch.9, “In order to abolish the depravity of the diverse heresies that have begun to burgeon in many modern parts of the world, the vigor of the Church should be stirred up... Therefore do we rise up...against the heretics. by the general sanction of the present decree, and we condemn by apostolic authority every heresy (under whatever name it is held) one by one in this decree. And in general all those who have been judged heretics by the Roman Church, or by individual bishops in their dioceses, we bind with equal bond of perpetual anathema.” ²⁸ in his Extra ‘On Heretics’ ch. ‘In order to abolish’.a Or at least the opinion is suspect, because it has been solemnly condemned in a university.

a.a [Interpolation from Appendix A] and in canon law, d.15 last chapter, in the paragraph ‘Montanus’ [Gratian, p.1 d.15 ch.3 n.81] where it is said that “all heresies that bishops and their disciples have taught or written down we confess to be not only things repudiated but also things eliminated by the whole Roman Church and to be, along with their authors and these authors’ followers, eternally condemned under bond of anathema.”

202. [The second way of speaking] - Others [Henry of Ghent, Richard of Middleton], not wishing to use a suspect statement (namely that an angel is in place through operation) say that an angel is in place through an application of himself to place.

203. But these thinkers seem to hide the same opinion under different words. For ‘application’ does not seem it can be understood as anything other than first act [sc. act of essence] or second act [sc. act of power]. Not first act, as is plain. Nor second act, because if second act is understood, it is operation; and not an immanent operation (as understanding or volition), because the immanent operation of an angel abstracts from place just as does the essence of an angel; therefore ‘application’ is a transitive operation on a body, and so an angel will be in place through his operating on a body in place.