On the Celestial Hierarchy

of divine hymns, On the intelligible and sensible, On the theological outlines, On symbolic theology. ^A

It should be known also that some external philosophers, especially Proclus, have frequently used the contemplations of the blessed Dionysius, and indeed even his very own expressions. Whence it is permissible to surmise that the older philosophers among the Athenians, seizing his works for themselves, concealed them so that they might appear as the fathers of his divine discourses. That it was habitual for them to claim our things as their own is also taught by the divine Basil in his commentary *In the beginning was the Word*, ^B discoursing in this way regarding that word: "I myself have known many of those who, being strangers to the word of truth, boast in worldly wisdom, both to admire and to dare to insert into their own writings; for the devil is a thief, and spreads our things abroad to his own interpreters." And these things indeed from the divine Basil. But now it is time for us to begin the word-for-word paraphrase, of which a fuller account is presently to be given, as we explain the hidden sense, partly from ourselves, but partly from the interpretation of the ancients. See the Prologue of St. Maximus in the Works of St. Dionysius, at the beginning of the following Volume. ^C

VARIOUS EPIGRAMS WRITTEN TO SAINT DIONYSIUS

Iambic verses on the blessed Dionysius concerning the Celestial Hierarchy, by Christopher the Patrician of Mitylene.

On the same, concerning the Celestial Hierarchy itself.

On the book On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.

You resolved into a unity the single splendor of the one Light. ^A

On the book On the Divine Names

On the book On Mystical Theology

Another on the book On Mystical Theology

These poems exist before the Scholia of St. Maximus on the books of blessed Dionysius, published in Paris in the year 1562; they were rendered into Latin by Father Bonifacius Finetti, of the Order of Preachers.

OF DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE, AMONG THE SAINTS, CONCERNING THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY

CAPUT I. TO THE CO-PRESBYTER TIMOTHY, DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER

^AThat every divine illumination, according to [its] goodness, proceeding in diverse ways toward those things which are ruled by providence, remains simple: and this is not its only quality, but it also unifies those things which are illuminated.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER

§ 1. ^BEvery good giving, and every perfect gift, is from above, descending from the Father of lights (Jas. 1, 17). ^B But every procession of light-manifestation moved by the Father, beneficially overflowing into us, again as a unifying power, simplifies us by recalling us to the heights, and converts [us] to the unity of the gathering Father, and to the deifying simplicity [of the Father].

For "from him and to him are all things," as the sacred word says.

§ II. Therefore, invoking Jesus, the paternal light, the true light ^A "which enlightens every man coming into the world," by whom we have obtained access to the source of light, the Father, let us according to our power look up to the illuminations transmitted by the most sacred oracles from the Fathers, and let us, as far as we are able, contemplate the hierarchies of the celestial minds which have been revealed to us by them symbolically and anagogically; and let us receive, with other and untrembling eyes of the mind, the original and super-original ray of the Thearchic Father (which manifests to us the most blessed hierarchies of the angels in representative symbols), and from it let us again be lifted up to its simple ray. For it never departs from its own unifying unity, but for the sake of the anagogical ^B and unifying mixture of those who are governed by providence, it is benevolently multiplied and goes forth, while remaining within itself firmly in an immovable identity, fixed in a unified manner; and those who look up to it, as is fitting, it raises up according to their capacity, and unifies them by means of its simplifying union. For the divine-principal ray cannot otherwise shine upon us unless it be anagogically covered by the variety of sacred veils and adapted in a manner suitable and natural to us by paternal providence.

§ III. For this reason, the most holy institution of rites, deeming our most holy hierarchy worthy of a supermundane imitation of the celestial hierarchies, and having variegated the aforementioned immaterial hierarchies with material forms and formative compositions, has ^C handed them down, so that we, in proportion to ourselves, may be led up from the most sacred fictions to simple and formless anagogies and assimilations; since it is not possible for our mind to be stretched toward that immaterial imitation and contemplation of the celestial hierarchies unless it uses the material guidance appropriate to it, considering the visible beauties to be likenesses of the hidden elegance; and sensible fragrances to be figures of the intellectual distribution; and material lights to be an image of the immaterial outpouring; and the elaborate sacred instructions to be [images] of the contemplative fulfillment according to the mind; and ^D the harmonious [arrangement] of the divine and...

ordered affection, the grades of the orders that are here; and the communion of the most divine Eucharist, participation in Jesus; and whatever other things have been handed down to us supermundanely in the case of the celestial natures, but symbolically in our case. For the sake, therefore, of this deification of ours, proportionate to our capacity, the benevolent primary initiation, ^A while exhibiting to us the celestial hierarchies and initiating as a coadjutor of them our own hierarchy by the assimilation of their deific priesthood to our own capacity, described those supercelestial minds with sensible images in the sacred scriptural compositions of the utterances, so that it might lead us up through sensible things to intelligible things, and from the sacredly fashioned symbols to the simple summits of the celestial hierarchies. ^B

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

§ I. From the canonical Epistle of James, he teaches that every good thing, as much of nature as of grace, is attributed to God the Father, the origin of all things, and thus also the origin of light and illumination. Although the Son also and the Holy Spirit are light, they are not, however, the original light which the Father alone is, but light from light; although they are the same light, because they are of the same substance. Concerning which St. Damascene says beautifully in his poems: The immutable light, he says, the Word of the light of the unbegotten Father, in thy light seen today on Tabor, we have seen the Father as light, and the Spirit as light illuminating every creature. And Gregory the Theologian: In the light, he says, of the Lord, see the light, and in the Spirit of God embrace the Son, the triune and impartible light. From this light, therefore, all light comes to us, and thus also sacred Scripture; since this too is a light, according to that: Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my paths; and II Peter 1[:19]: To which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star (that is, that clear doctrine of the Gospel) rises in your hearts. Moreover, the emanation of this light, or, as the Saint here says, *Patrophantou photophaneias*, that is, an illumination moved from the Father, beneficently overflowing into us *agathodotos* (which some, indeed, not badly, translate as "good gift" or "benevolent bounty": but I have preferred a single word equivalent in Latin), (for although this benefit is granted to us also by the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is originally attributed to the Father alone, from whom they received, along with their essence, the propensity for bestowing benefits), once again, as a unifying power (for every divine illumination has this power, that it gathers the mind distracted by various phantasms of an inferior order), it simplifies by calling us back to higher things. In Greek, *anaploi*. Thus three Caesarean Viennese codices, besides four others which Morellius consulted, which renders the sense more fully than the word *anapleroi*, which most interpreters have read and translated. This indeed happens when there are no schisms among us, but we are perfect in the same sense and in the same judgment, as the Apostle commands: which indeed happens through participation in the divine light, and that is fulfilled which is in the Gospel of John: That they also may be one in us.

Moreover, every illumination is moved from the Father. Saint Thomas in the *Summa*, q. 9, art. 1, ad 2, citing this passage of St. Dionysius, says that divine Wisdom is said to be mobile metaphorically, according to the way that it diffuses its own likeness even to the last of things. For nothing can exist that does not proceed from divine Wisdom by a kind of imitation, just as from a first effective and formal principle, just as artifacts proceed from the wisdom of an artificer. Thus, therefore, in as much as the likeness of divine Wisdom proceeds gradually from the highest things, which participate more in its likeness, to the lowest things of all, which participate less, it is said to be a certain process and movement of divine Wisdom into things. Just as if we were to say the sun proceeds as far as the earth, in as much as the radius of its light reaches to the earth. And in this way he says this passage of Dionysius is to be explained.

§ II. The source of light having been indicated, he applies prayer for obtaining light, according to the precept of the Lord, in the name of Jesus; who is the true paternal light. First, because as the Word of the Father, the radiance of his glory and the figure of his substance, he is naturally and essentially light, while others are so by participation (thus it is understood

by the first epistle of John v, 20), and secondly, because it is true and opposed to the false doctrines of the gentiles and philosophers. Thirdly, because it illuminates us more truly and perfectly than any corporeal light, so that this is a metaphor: just as Christ is called the true vine; thus the Eucharist is called the true bread.

"He who illuminates every man." Because, says Cyril, he gives to all the light of reason in act. But understand this better regarding spiritual light. For the Word of the Father illuminates every man, ^B supplying as much as is in him. Whence those who are not illuminated should blame themselves; because they are unwilling to receive the light of faith and grace offered by Christ: so the same Cyril, along with Chrysostom and Theophylact.

"Through whom we have obtained access" to the [Greek: ἀρχίφωτον], that is, to the Father, the origin of light (for there is one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus), "let us contemplate as best we can the illustrations of the most sacred Oracles handed down by the Fathers," that is, of the holy Scriptures; and not only those, but also the hierarchies of celestial minds manifested to us symbolically and anagogically by them. For, as Chrysostom says in homily 26 on John: "Everything that falls under the senses cannot declare the substance of the angels, but a body that has thickness and triple dimension." Whence it happens that, while Scripture, for our comprehension, attaches corporeal figures to incorporeal spirits, to those indeed who are worthy, and who transcend to the anagogical sense, it becomes known, while to everyone else it is left in mystery and ^C concealment: what is deeply signified by those visions. And the principal and supra-principal illumination of the Father, who is the beginning of Divinity, that is, the Scripture (see above, General observations), which elucidates to us the most blessed hierarchies of the angels in figurative signs, that is, describes the angels under material symbols and figures, introducing into the immaterial and untrembling eyes of the mind, conceiving abstractly from matter by the intellect, from the same, namely Scripture, insofar as it is symbolic and variegated with figures, let us again stretch toward its simple ray, that is, let our simple literal sense, or the truth hiding under those figures, be considered: although Scripture itself, in the part where it is symbolic, is never devoid of its intimate unity; that is, it is never without its intimate literal sense, which ever underlies every sense, even the figurative and mystical: but for the subliming and unifying tempering of those who are governed by providence; that is, so that men may be led from earthly and divided thoughts to meditate on celestial things with a collected mind: while, as is fitting, it is benignly multiplied and emanates; that is, while Scripture in a decent manner, with God benignly accommodating himself to our capacity, contains figurative and diverse senses, both allegorical and moral and anagogical, it also stays stably within itself; that is, it always has its intrinsic literal sense, established in an immovably uniform identity, ^D that is, which is never varied; for the literal sense primarily intended by the Holy Spirit is always the same, however much the accommodative senses are multiplied or clothed in tropes and figures; and to itself, as is right, those attending, according to each one's capacity, through its simplifying union, namely its simple truth which it contains, it raises and unifies, namely by leading from earthly to celestial, and from divided thoughts to the collection of the mind and conjunction with God. For that principal ray of God, that is, the intimate sense of Scripture, when it deals with divine and purely spiritual things, cannot otherwise shine upon us unless veiled anagogically by a variety of sacred coverings. For, as the divine Maximus says in this place, without types and symbols we cannot, while we are in the body, look upon incorporeal things and those devoid of matter. Since in this state of life the soul is indeed clothed with the body, but reason with imagination, and finally the mind with reason. Hence the imagination, by which we use and live most of all, constantly clothes the notions of intelligence with the images of sensible things; wherefore to our cognition, they do not appear so much bare, as clothed and accommodated. Therefore the wise rightly clothe, as we have said, intelligible things with sensible things; and divine things with these. Thus also Plato providently orders that a man reared under a dark cave should not be compelled suddenly to look upon the meridian light, but the sun should be shown to him, first indeed by the light of a lamp in water; then in the moon, under a serene night, and finally in the very serenity of the daytime air. Through similar stages he wishes the rude mind to be led to contemplate the Divinity.

"Symbolically and anagogically manifested to us." 5 Hence Saint Thomas, 1st part, q. 1, art. 9, in the body, concludes that, in sacred doctrine, since it is proposed to all men in common, it is most fitting that divine things be explained by metaphors and corporeal likenesses. For God, he says, provides for all according to what is fitting for their nature. It is, however, natural to man to come to intelligible things through sensible ones; because all our cognition has its beginning from sense. Whence it is conveniently handed down to us in holy Scripture that spiritual things are under the metaphors of corporeal ones. And this is what Dionysius says a little later below, that the divine-principal ray cannot otherwise shine upon us, unless veiled anagogically by a variety of sacred coverings. And he calls the divine-principal ray the very truth of divine things.

Furthermore, that it is most convenient for divine things to be signified to us by corporeal likenesses, the divine Thomas proves by four reasons in book 1 Sentent., dist. 34, q. 3, article 1. The first and principal one is because of the sublimity of the matter, which exceeds the capacity of our intellect. Whence we cannot grasp the truth of divine things according to its mode, and therefore it is necessary that they be proposed to us according to our mode. It is connatural to us to arrive from sensible things into intelligible ones, and from posterior things into the knowledge of prior ones; and therefore intelligible things are proposed to us under the figure of sensible ones, so that from these things which we know, our mind may rise to the unknown. The second reason is because, since there is in us a double cognitive part, namely the intellective and the sensitive, Divine Wisdom has provided that both parts, as far as could be done, should be reduced to divine things. And therefore it employed corporeal figures, which can be grasped by the sensitive part, because it could not reach the very intellectual things of divine matters. The third reason is because in God we know more truly what he is not, than what he is. Whence St. Dionysius in the following chapter, § 5 P, says that negations in divine things are true, but affirmations are incongruous. And therefore, since it is to be understood regarding all things that we declare about God, [that] they do not belong to God in that way in which they are found in creatures, but by some mode of imitation and likeness, such eminence of God was expressed more clearly by those things which are more manifest to be removed from him. These, however, are corporeal, and therefore it was more convenient that divine things be signified by corporeal species, so that the human mind, becoming accustomed to these, might learn.

We should attribute nothing of those things which are predicated of God to Him, unless through a certain similitude according to which the creature imitates the Creator. The fourth reason is on account of the concealment of divine truth; because the depths of the faith must be concealed from the unfaithful, lest they mock them, and from the simple, lest they take occasion to err. Dionysius assigns these causes in Chapter 2 of the *Celestial Hierarchy* and in the *Epistle to Titus*.

Note also from the cited St. Thomas that in the knowledge of intellectual things two things are to be considered: namely, the beginning of speculation and its end. The beginning is from sensible things, but the end is in intelligible things, according as in natural knowledge we receive universal intentions from species accepted by the sense through the light of the agent intellect. And therefore it must be said that for the end of speculation, the beginning must rise from some sensible species in divine matters, according to the rule prescribed here by St. Dionysius in § 5. From these things, however, as St. Thomas well proves (I Part, q. 88, art. 2), our intellect will never arrive at a perfect and quidditative knowledge of immaterial things, since the quiddity of a material thing, which our intellect abstracts from matter, is of an entirely different nature from immaterial substances, as he proves more fully in the same place, and as St. Dionysius does in *The Divine Names*, ch. 1, § 1.

...imitate the hierarchy of the angels, he described it with material symbols and figures accommodated to our capacity as if in a mirror and in a riddle, so that, assisted by these sensible figures, we might dispose spiritual ascents in our heart as if by certain steps. Since it cannot be that our mind be directed toward immaterial contemplation unless it has used a material guiding by the hand nearby. For as Gregory the Theologian says in the second book on Theology, it is impossible for him, even one who makes great haste, to pass his own shadow (for he always anticipates the shadow just as much as he is anticipated): or just as it cannot be that a fish swims outside of water; so it cannot be that those who are in the body are entirely without corporeal things, together with those things which the intellect grasps. For always something of our own affairs intervenes, even if the mind withdraws itself as much as possible from those things which are seen, and, collected alone with itself, attempts to attain to its kindred and invisible objects by intelligence. Namely, by thinking of these apparent beauties, etc. He proposes an exemplar of how we ought to transcend from sensible things to spiritual ones in our mind; for this reason, God painted in the Scriptures the angels for us in sensible forms, so that from feigned symbols we might ascend by contemplating toward the simple summits of the celestial hierarchies.

Unless it has used a material guiding by the hand nearby. For the condition of this life needs such aids, so that our mind may be raised to the contemplation of celestial things. For it is for this reason that the Word was made flesh, so that through the assumed visible humanity, He might more aptly instruct and inflame us regarding invisible things, as Saint Gregory teaches beautifully in the Preface which is recited in the sacred office of the Mass: *Through the mystery of the incarnate Word*, he says, *a new light of Thy brightness has shone upon the eyes of our mind: so that while we know God visibly, we may be snatched through Him to the love of invisible things*: thinking, namely, that these apparent beauties are the images of the decorum of mysteries, etc., that is, that our intellect might think that sensible beauties and these exterior ornaments are merely images, or rather, obscure representations of interior and intellectual beauty, reasoning thus: If a corruptible body, which is mixed and so foul within, appears so beautiful on the outside, how much more beautiful, beyond comparison, must the rational and immortal soul be, the image of the supersplendid and super-beautiful Trinity? If, likewise, this sun, so sensible, is so lucid, specious, and delightful to the eyes to behold, how infinitely more beautiful, more splendid, and more pleasant to behold must the Sun of wisdom Itself be, the superexcellent God? And it is to be argued similarly in other cases.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES

Since the title is *Hierarchy*, it is to be known that hierarchy is the beginning of the constitution of sacred things themselves, and as it were a care; and that a hierarch is the moderator and curator and provider of sacred things, yet not of the priests, but of one who distributes both sacred things and the order of them and of the Church and of the mysteries, yet he is not the prince of the priests. The great Dionysius himself also places this explanation in the book *On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*. Nor is it allowed to say otherwise in this manner: that hierarchy is a certain sacred regimen, by which one sacredly rules and is ruled: so that there is neither tyranny in the regimen nor violence in the subjection. Furthermore, to complete this definition, we say that he is not ruled by those whom he rules, but is indeed ruled by others, while he rules others, as he accepts in the fifteenth chapter of the present book. He calls it "celestial" for the sake of distinction from our hierarchy, concerning which he composes another book separately.

§ I

§ II. Since, therefore, every good thing is from God and tends toward God, come, let us invoke the Savior Lord, the light and radiance of the Father, who is, and who is the true light. Or we may read it in conjunction: because our own things are also said to "be," but by participation, and not essentially. Or with punctuation: "Light." What kind of light? The one that "is"; for it does not lack subsistence, as does our light. What kind of light? "True," according to the evangelist John...

for he adds: "Which enlightens every man coming into the world," through whom we also gained access to the Father, the Prince of Light. By "Prince of Light," I mean either as the Principle and Cause of light—namely, of the Son and the Spirit—or as the One who is Light from the beginning; but nothing is higher than the Principle. Come, therefore, invoking the Lord, let us reach—as far as possible—toward the illuminations of the Scriptures handed down by the Fathers, and toward the hierarchies of the divine powers handed down by them symbolicaly and anagogically (for they did not manifest the heavenly things naturally, but through certain signs). These they also call "minds," to distinguish them from us, who live by sense-perception; for thus even in Isaiah, the "great mind" is the Assyrian; and again, a "great mind" is the prince of Babylon, that is, the devil. Let us, then, gaze upon the hierarchy of the divine minds, as far as we are able, and let us observe, as far as is permitted, that illumination which is from God—without which it is not possible to know even the heavenly powers themselves, let alone God—the ^A Prince of Light, I say, as existing from the beginning and being supra-principle; because nothing can be said of God with sufficient meaning, but rather every word and every thought falls short, as do also "being" and "superessential" and "God" and "above God." Receiving this illumination from God, therefore—which expresses the hierarchies of the angels in typical symbols and images—with immaterial and unshaken eyes, that is, fixed or tranquil ones (for the Divine loves tranquility, just as the contrary power loves turbulence), let us again gaze from this very illumination toward the divine ray, according to the first proposition we made: that from Him is the good, and into Him, and let us be unified in the divine simplicity. For He Himself, while being multiplied in those who receive Him, does not depart from that proper, unique, and simple intimacy and hiddenness of His (since He remains unknown to all outside). But when, through goodness, He is multiplied and varied according to the capacity of those who are governed by His providence, He nevertheless remains firmly within Himself in immovable identity, and unifies those who gaze upon Him, remaining the same in Himself; just as light, while it brilliantly illuminates, remains the same in itself according to its simplifying and unifying union and identity, and renders those who receive it enlightened according to the capacity of each, insofar as they "reach up." Observe here that while our reaching up is our own, ^B the elevation and illumination are from God. For unless we have emerged from worldly things and looked up, how will elevation and illumination come to us? According to that which says: "I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence my help shall come." For he says it is not possible for that divine ray to shine upon us unless it has been veiled by certain coverings of things familiar to us (for who could endure the unbearable light of His power?), and unless it is, by the providence of God, naturally and properly adapted ^C to our senses from things that are our own. Just as it is evident that we speak of the bodiless in bodily terms—for instance, human limbs attributed to God, and passions, and sleep, and similar things; ^D for these are the coverings. Since, then, the things beyond sense are in-typed for those subject to sense...

^A after the manner of our senses, when we bodily set forth things that are incorporeal—as, for example, when we speak of human members, or angers, or slumbers, and other such things—these are indeed coverings. When, therefore, we explain those things that surpass sense through things sensible, then this hierarchy of ours is similar to the celestial and hidden one; for it has pleased the Prince of sacred mysteries so to constitute it, which is the order and tradition of our sacred rites: seeing that initiation, or perfection, is called the communication of sacred mysteries, as it perfects those who are initiated; and the Apostle calls those who are consecrated "perfect," saying: "Whosoever therefore are perfect, let us mind this" a.

§ III. It has pleased the Prince of sacred mysteries, therefore, to expose the immaterial and celestial hierarchies through material figures and forms, ^B so that, according to our capacity, we might be led from these holy efformations to those anagoges that are void of forms and figures. "See," He says, "thou make all things according to the pattern shewn to thee" b; since it is impossible for our mind to be raised up to that immaterial constitution immediately, unless it be led by the hand, as it were, by certain forms and figures, and from them conjecture those things. And indeed the apparent beauties—I mean the magnificence and comeliness of the temple—bear before them images of that hidden beauty; and the sweet odors of the incense are effigiations of that spiritual tradition: for there is given an illumination there, just as here a fragrance of odor. Moreover, the lights of candles and oil are images of that illumination, and of that contemplative, mental ^C saturation: for that which is in part shall one day be done away for us, according to the Apostle c: the broader demonstrations of things seen and of arguments being diffused. But what is the contemplative saturation of the mind? It is clearly this: when the mind searches concerning divine things, and observing whatever it touches, it is filled and satisfied by that. For what is there among divine things which does not elevate the mind, and stop and satisfy its affection, which is a kind of hunger? As it is written: "I remembered God, and was delighted" d; and again: "My soul hath thirsted for thee, my flesh how manifoldly" e. The soul thirsts and is filled, as possessing suitable vessels for divine thoughts; the flesh thirsts, but how manifoldly with respect to the soul! For it has no aptitude for receiving, being entirely ^D alien to divine and spiritual insinuations: wherefore, as being in need, it always has an intent appetite, but the mind is always full of that which it apprehends. The images, therefore, of this satisfaction are the demonstrations by word, dilated by arguments. Now, of the habit which always and in the same manner is rightly ordered toward divine things—for there is no disorder there, but an entirely harmonious constitution, inasmuch as divine things always remain the same, while they appear to us in a perpetual flux—of these, I say, ordered habits, we have here the images of the orders, the priestly ranks, the stations, the seats, the stoles, and whatever is of this kind, which have the order unchangeable, and finally the divine participation in Christ’s presence, which he also calls the Eucharist, as our Lord when He handed down...

are those which we have here, the orders, the sacred grades, the stations, the cathedras, the stoles, and whatever things of this kind there are, which possess an immutable order, and finally the divine communion of the participation in Jesus, which he also calls the Eucharist: for the reason that our Lord, when he delivered that divine mystery, gave thanks; and that we too must offer thanks, because we have obtained such great goods, and whatsoever other things to others indeed have been delivered in a supermundane way and above man, but to us symbolically, and through signs; for it is not otherwise possible to learn those things while we carry about this thick flesh. ^A And thus, for the sake of this divinization of ours according to analogy (for in the way we can, in that we are initiated; sensibly, indeed, in so far as we live by sense, in a manner convenient to us through symbols; but spiritually, in so far as we are governed by the mind, in a manner accommodated to us through the manifest mystagogy and illumination: for he calls that illumination divinization, which is indeed most perfect: for through the lower objects we learn the higher, and through them we are unitively divinized; ^B for these reasons, therefore, that benevolent priestly order, manifesting those hierarchies figuratively, and associating this our own hierarchy with that one according to the likeness that could be granted, has inscribed invisible things in sensible images in certain places of the sacred and divine Scripture, in order that it might lead us through sensible things to the intelligible, and through these signs to those simple and compositionless heights and summits of the celestial beings—for we are accustomed to call the most excellent part of any essence a summit; as, for example, the mind is called the summit of the soul, and the fervent desire is called the summit of love, and thus our hierarchy’s summit is not unworthily called that celestial one. ^C

CHAPTER II.

That divine and celestial things are aptly manifested even through dissimilar signs.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. 1. He sets forth the distribution of this work. 11. He teaches that the figures by which celestial and spiritual things are described should be dissimilar to the things themselves; and at the same time he meets an objection, and renders the reason why it was more expedient that these celestial things be delineated by the forms of ignoble things rather than of noble ones. III. He shows that the mode of sacred description is twofold: one, namely, by similar, another by dissimilar figures: as also that some things are predicated of God through affirmations, and some through negations; and he says that negations are superior to affirmations, and that discordant likenesses are more apt for elevating our mind. IV. He delivers that some good can be gathered from all things, and at the same time explains how the passions of anger, concupiscence, and similar things are to be understood when they are attributed to angels. V. He shows how even God himself is denominated in the Scriptures sometimes from the highest, sometimes from the middle, sometimes even from the lowest things.

§ I. My own opinion is that, first, we must expound what we judge the scope of every hierarchy to be, and what it profits each of its own contemplators; next, indeed, to celebrate the celestial hierarchies according to their own mystical explanation in the Oracles; ^D then finally to say with what sacred forms the celestial...

^A descriptions of the Oracles delineate these orders, and to what simplicity it behooves us to be led through these figures, so that we also, in the manner of the vulgar, may not sacrilegiously imagine them to be, as it were, many-footed and many-faced celestial and deiform intelligences, or fashioned into the cattle-like forms of oxen [f], or the wild beast shapes of lions, or the curved-beak species of eagles, or the shaggy feathering of birds, or that we fancy above the heaven certain fiery wheels, or material seats accommodated for the King of gods to recline upon, or certain multicolored horses, or spear-bearing army commanders [i], and whatever other things have been handed down to us by the Oracles in the variety of explanatory symbols, in a manner of sacred fiction. For indeed, the theology has openly used poetic sacred fictions ^B for the formless minds, having regard for our own mind, as has been said, and providing for its proper and connatural upliftment, and having fashioned thereon the anagogical scriptures.

§ II. But if it seems to anyone that these sacred compositions are indeed to be approved, because the simple realities are in themselves unknown and un-contemplatable to us; but that the delineations of the holy minds in the Oracles are nonetheless dissimilar, and, if I may so say, this whole crude shadowing of the angelic names; and if he says that the theologians ought, ^C when coming to the embodiment of entirely incorporeal things, to fashion and explain them by means of forms proper and as kindred as possible to them, taken from the most noble and immaterial things among us, and not to drape these earthly, extreme, and manifold forms upon the celestial and deiform simplicities. For this would have been more conducive to our upliftment, and would not have brought down the super-mundane manifestations into unbecoming dissimilarities; but the other way both unfairly insults the divine powers, and perhaps causes our own mind to wander, ^D settling it into their unholy compositions; and perhaps one will even think that the super-celestial regions are filled with certain leonine and equine swarms, and with bellowing hymns of praise, and with avian herding, and with other and baser animals and materials, all of which, having declined toward the absurd, the spurious, and the passionate, are depicted by the Oracles that are in every way dissimilar to the things they seemingly represent.

The investigation of truth, however, as I believe, demonstrates that the most sacred wisdom of the Oracles has, in the depictions of the celestial intelligences, provided most excellently for both: so that it has neither insulted the divine Powers, as one might say, nor has it sunk us into the groveling and passionate lowliness ^A of these images. For, as to why, with good reason, symbols of the non-symbolic and shapes of the shapeless have been set forth, one might attribute it not only to our own proportion—being unable to be raised directly to intellectual contemplations and needing appropriate and natural aids to lift us up, which present the images we have perceived to the formless and supernatural visions—but also, as this is most appropriate for the mystical Oracles, that they might be hidden by secret and sacred riddles, and that the sacred and hidden truth of the supermundane intelligences be rendered inaccessible to the many. For, as the Oracles declare, "not everyone is holy, nor is knowledge of all things." ^B If, however, anyone finds fault with the seemingly absurd iconographies, arguing that one ought to be ashamed to attribute such shameful shapes to godlike and most holy adornments, it suffices to reply to him that the mode of holy manifestation is twofold. The one, as is fitting, proceeds by way of similar sacred images; the other, by way of dissimilar shape-makings, is fashioned into that which is altogether extraneous and seemingly absurd. ^C Indeed, the mystical traditions of the illuminating Oracles sometimes praise the revered blessedness of the superessential Divinity as Word, and Mind, and Being, signifying its god-fitting rationality and wisdom, and true existence, and true cause of the existence of entities; and they fashion it as Light, and call it Life. Such sacred images, while they are more appropriate and seem in some way to excel the material figures, nonetheless fall short of the truth of the divine likeness, since it exceeds all substance and life, and no light expresses it, and every reason and life falls incomparably short of its likeness. Sometimes, however, it is celebrated by the same Oracles in a supermundane way through dissimilar manifestations, ^D calling it invisible, and infinite, and incomprehensible, and indicating what it is not, rather than what it is. For this, as I believe, is more proper to it, since, as the hidden and priestly tradition has taught, the one is not § III. One method is that which, as is fitting, proceeds through similar images of sacred figures; the other is that which is fashioned through dissimilar formations toward every manner of dissimilitude and discrepancy. Finally, the mystical traditions of the illuminating Oracles sometimes praise the venerable blessedness of the superessential Deity as Word, Mind, and Substance, declaring its god-fitting rationality and wisdom, and its truly existing being, and its being the true cause of the existence of all things, and they fashion it as light and call it life: such kinds of sacred figments, while indeed they are more congruent and seem in some way to excel material figures, nevertheless even so fall short of the truth of the divine likeness; since it transcends all essence and life, nor does any light express it, and every reason and life falls incomparably short of its likeness. Sometimes, however, it is celebrated by the same Oracles with dissimilar elucidations in a supermundane manner, while they call it invisible[l], and infinite, and incomprehensible[m], and from these things it is signified not what it is, but what it is not. And

Since, therefore, the negations in divine things are true, while the affirmations are incongruous, the explanation of invisible things through dissimilar fashions is more appropriate for the obscurity of the mysteries; for the sacred descriptions of the oracles do not disgrace, but truly adorn the heavenly hierarchies, setting them forth through dissimilar fictions of forms, by these very means declaring that they transcend all material things in a supermundane way.

That even our own mind is led upwards more by these incongruous likenesses, I do not think any man of sense would contradict. For it is likely that some might be deceived regarding the more honorable sacred moldings, supposing the heavenly essences to be certain golden-colored beings, or certain shining men, resplendent, handsome, clothed in radiant garments, and harmlessly darting forth fire, or whatever other similar forms theology has fashioned for the supercelestial minds. ^B In order that this should not happen to those who have comprehended nothing higher than those beautiful and specious things which appear, the elevating wisdom of the holy theologians descends in a holy manner to the incongruous dissimilarities, not allowing our material nature to remain and rest in such unseemly images; but, by the very deformity of the figures, it arouses and spurs on the higher portion of the soul, so that it may not seem acceptable or true—even to those most attached to matter—that the supercelestial and divine visions truly resemble such unseemly things as are looked upon with admiration in the symbols. ^C Otherwise, one must also understand this, that not one of those things which exist is altogether deprived of a participation in the beautiful, since, as the truth of the oracles says, "everything is very good." (Gen. 1, 31).

§ IV.

It is therefore possible from all things to grasp good contemplations; because it is permitted even to intellectual and spiritual men to form the aforementioned dissimilarities from material things, since spiritual things possess these in a different mode than they are attributed to sensible things. ^D For the passion of anger in irrational creatures arises from an impetuous impulse, and their irascible movement is full of all irrationality; but in spiritual things one must consider the irascible power in a different way, denoting, as I suppose, their manly reason, and their unyielding disposition in those deiform and immutable foundations. Likewise, we say that desire is, in irrational creatures, a certain unthinking and

^A indiscriminately generated tendency, caused by innate motion or habit toward the mutable things of the material world, and an irrational predominance of bodily appetite, which urges the whole animal toward that which is desirable for the senses. When, therefore, we attach dissimilar likenesses to spiritual realities, and attribute desire to them, we must understand by this a divine love, which loves an immateriality superior to intellect and reason, and a stable, constant longing for a superessentially pure and impassable contemplation and communion—a true, everlasting, and spiritual communion, and a most sublime and pure clarity, and an infallible and beauty-making splendor. And by “impotence” ^B or incapacity, we must understand an unbroken intensity of soul, which can be shattered by no one, on account of a love for divine beauty that is unmixed and immutable, and an all-embracing tendency toward that which is truly desirable. Furthermore, we call that same irrationality and insensibility in brute animals or inanimate matter a privation of reason and sense; but in the case of immaterial and intellectual natures, we confess that their superiority—inasmuch as they are supermundane—transcends, in a holy way, our transitional and bodily discourse, and surpasses the sense that is material and foreign to those incorporeal minds. It is therefore not incongruous to fashion forms for the celestial beings even from the lowliest parts of matter; ^C since matter itself, having its existence from Him who is truly beautiful, holds through all its material arrangement certain traces of intellectual beauty. It is possible, through these, to be led upward to the immaterial and primary forms, if we receive the likenesses—as has been said—dissimilarly, and distinguish them by not understanding them in the same way, but by fittingly and properly discerning between spiritual and sensible properties.

§ V.

We shall find that the mystic theologians have applied these things not only to the explanations of the celestial hierarchies, but also to the God-head’s own manifestations. At times, they celebrate the Godhead ^D itself by means of bright lights, as the "Sun of justice," as the "morning star" rising sacredly in the mind, and as light radiating openly and intelligibly. At other times, they use intermediate things, such as fire shining harmlessly, or water as the provider of vital fullness—and, to speak symbolically, entering the belly and gushing forth streams that flow unceasingly. Sometimes they use the lowest things, such as a fragrant ointment or a cornerstone. Indeed, they even surround the Godhead with animal forms, and attribute to it the character of a lion or a panther, and say that it will be like [alt-version omitted] a leopard or a bear.

^A I will add also that which is thought to be the most contemptible of all and more unseemly, that which they who are skilled in divine things have handed down, namely, that [the Word] has even fashioned for itself the form of a worm. Thus, all those who are wise in the things of God, and the interpreters of secret inspiration, keep the Holy of Holies in an undefiled manner separate from those who are uninitiated and profane, and they honor that dissimilar holy shaping, so that divine things may neither be easily accessible to the profane, nor may those who are fond of viewing holy images dwell upon these types as if they were true; and so that divine things may be honored by those true negations, and by those dissimilar resemblances to the furthest reaches of their own echoes. There is nothing strange, then, if they also fashion the heavenly ^B essences from dissimilar likenesses that seem unseemly, according to the stated reasons. For perhaps we ourselves would not have come to the investigation of these things out of perplexity, or to an anagogy by means of the accurate searching of holy things, if the deformity of the explanatory shaping of the angels had not agitated us, not allowing our mind to dwell upon the discordant formations, but inciting it to renounce material passions, and habituating it to look reverently through the things that appear unto supermundane anagogies. Let so much have been said by us concerning the material and unseemly angelic likenesses that are in the holy oracles; next, it is necessary to define what we consider the hierarchy itself to be, and what those who have been allotted the hierarchy may gain from the hierarchy itself. May Christ lead the discourse—if it is permitted for me to say so—my Mind, the inspiration of every hierarchical manifestation! But you, O son, according to the holy ordinance of our hierarchical tradition, ^C listen yourself in a holy manner to what is sacredly spoken, becoming divinely inspired in the initiation of divine things, and by the secrecy according to the mind, wrapping the holy things away from the unholy multitude, preserve them as uniform; for it is not permitted, as the Oracles say, to cast before swine the pure and light-bearing and beauty-producing order of intelligible pearls.

ADNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

Since in the first chapter he taught that we come to the knowledge of spiritual things through sensible signs; he now aptly subjoins that celestial and divine things are explained in the Scriptures by dissimilar signs and figures, since they cannot be known to us in this life through their own likeness and species.

§ 1. And first, indeed, he makes a distribution of his work, and expounds what he aims at in the present treatise; and he cautiously warns that we ought to be led through the depicted forms of the angels to the contemplation of their simple nature; so that, when Scripture, for example, attributes to an angel the depicted form of an eagle, we may know that through this formation of an eagle, which is not of a simple but of a composite nature, we are recalled to understand what is simple in the angel; namely, we are recalled to ^D understand that there is in the angels a certain extremely keen sharpness of spiritual and sublime perception: and it is indeed necessary to know this, lest that which is common befall us, such that we might perhaps think that angels have feet, faces, wings, and similarly in other depicted forms through which Scripture invites us to the anagogical ascent suited to us.

*Poetic depictions in a holy manner.* Hence it is clear that all symbolic theology has something depicted, whether it be in words, or in names, or even in forms subject to the senses. But most especially it is proper

^A to symbolic theology, which is occupied with things perceived by the senses, to fashion and clothe itself in forms from animals that are seen, or from parts of them; and not only from such things, but from colors of every kind. All of which that true theologian Dionysius called by one word "divine sights," distinguishing them from profane and accidental visions. Furthermore, symbolic theology is declared in three ways, most especially in the prophets and other blessed ones, namely, either by the formation of a thing falling under the sense of sight, or under the sense of hearing, or by the translation of a word signifying something spiritual. See these things more fully in Cyparissiota, Decad I, cap. 6.

§ II. Lest we be deceived, he warns that those figures are unlike the angels; and he meets the objection of some who think that nobler forms should have been assigned to them, and shows that by these base figures, it is better served not only for our condition, but also for the honor of the angels, so that as long as they are covered by these sacred and secret enigmas, the approach to that sacred truth of divine minds may not lie open to the common people. But it is most especially proper to symbolic theology, which is occupied with those things that are perceived by the senses, to fashion and clothe itself in forms from animals that are seen, or from their parts, and not only from such things, but from colors of every kind; all of which that true theologian Dionysius, in chapter 1 of *On the Divine Names*, called by one word "divine sights," distinguishing them from profane and accidental visions. Nor should we adhere too tenaciously to the vileness of images creeping as if with hooks. ^B From these things it is clear that we ought not to linger in symbolically depicted forms, however they are fashioned—whether in a species falling under the sense, or in words that seem to have much that is discordant and absurd—but rather, with all study, we should recur to more sublime thoughts. For he who, says Basil, does not ascend from words to higher notions, but remains in the very delineations of bodies made by the composition of words, will hear from Moses that God is fire [z] and will be twisted to other opinions by the wise Daniel [a]; and so it will happen that he gathers not only false thoughts, but thoughts at variance with one another, from the very things themselves.

Ibid. *That there is a twofold mode of that sacred manifestation.* ^C From these things it is inferred, says Cyparissiota, Decad II, cap. 1, that there is a twofold demonstrative theology: one, which is affirmative and is induced from effects; the other, which is negative and privative. And the former is indeed fashioned from similar forms, the latter from dissimilar ones. This is seen, however, in affirmative theology, that it also progresses through forms made in Sacred Scripture, yet more honorably than through those things which are told symbolically; in both kinds of formations, which the Fathers called *prosylous*, we shall call them earthly, inasmuch as even if the other part of theology, namely, symbolic, proceeds in translated and shadowed words, much that is discordant and dissenting appears in them.

§ III. *He teaches that there is a twofold mode of that sacred mystical manifestation.* For in two ways, says Maximus, is God praised: either as similar to all (for all things consist in Him), or as dissimilar (for there is nothing of those things that exist). Dionysius then explains how these modes of naming God through similarities are formed, as when God is called "the Word," and "mind," and other similar things in Scripture. But when he says the θεοπρεπῆ λογιότητα, that is, "reasonableness agreeable to God," he signifies that God is not called rational as a participant of reason, but because He is whole, self-subsistent reason itself. See the things said in Observation 8 and 9. He calls those things dissimilar which are said of God through negation, and which declare not what He is, but what He is not. See there above, Observation 8. For this, says Nyssenus, is the most proper mark of His notion: that His nature is above every mark designating a notion. Wherefore, since negations agree with God more properly than affirmations, holy Dionysius rightly concludes that those mystical descriptions are more conveniently made through dissimilar forms than through similar ones, as being more apt for anagogical leading and less liable to deception. ^D

Since, therefore, negations in divine matters are true, but affirmations are incongruous: note from the divine Thomas in 1 Sent., distinct. 22, quest. 1, art. 2, that since in a name there are two things—namely, the mode of signifying, and the thing itself signified—it can always be removed from God according to one or the other, or according to both, but it cannot be affirmed of God except according to one of them only. Since, therefore, for the truth and propriety of an affirmation it is required that the whole be affirmed, but for the propriety of a negation it is sufficient if one of them is lacking, for this reason Dionysius says that negations are absolutely true, but affirmations are only "in a certain respect." Because it is only in regard to what is signified, and not in regard to the mode of signifying. Whence that same divine Thomas well observes in *Quaestiones disputatae*, quest. 7, art. 5, that holy Dionysius says that negations in God are true in such a way that he does not, however, assert that affirmations are false, but incongruous. For as far as the thing signified is concerned, they are truly attributed to God—what is in God in some way—but as far as the mode which they signify is concerned, they can be denied of God. For each of these names, according to our mode of conceiving, signifies some definite form, and thus they are not attributed to God 18 and therefore can be denied of Him, because they do not agree with Him according to the mode which is signified, or according to how they are in our intellect. For they agree with God in a more sublime mode. Whence an affirmation is called incongruous, as if not entirely agreeing with Him, on account of the different mode; and therefore, according to the doctrine of Dionysius, these things are enunciated of God in three ways. First, indeed, affirmatively, as when we say, "God is wise," because doubtlessly the archetype of wisdom flowing from Him is in Him. Yet because wisdom of the kind we conceive and name is not in Him, it can be truly denied, so that it is said, "God is not wise," namely, according to the wisdom understood by us. Again, because wisdom is not denied of God as if He Himself were deficient in wisdom, but because it is supereminently in Him in a way that is spoken or understood; for this reason it must be said, "God is supersapient." And thus, through this triple mode of speaking, Dionysius perfectly explains how these things are attributed to God. See chapter 2 and 3 of *On the Divine Names*, and chapter 1 of *Mystical Theology*, and our general observations, especially v and viii.

Ibid. *The explanation through dissimilar depictions is more proper for the obscurity of invisible things, etc.* Conformably to these things, Hugh of Saint Victor says thus: "Dissimilar figurations are probable not only because they show the excellences of supermundane things, but also because they lead our mind away from material and corporeal things more than similar figurations do, nor do they allow it to rest in them." The reason for this is that any created things, however perfect they are, are distant from God by an infinite interval, as one who surpasses them without any proportion; wherefore that knowledge of God is more perfect which, by denying all such perfections of God, delivers what God is not, than that which, by affirming them through such meager perfections, attempts to explain to us what God is. Since, therefore, for having negative knowledge of God, dissimilar figurations are more apt than similar ones (in that dissimilarity denies, while similarity affirms), according to the mind of holy Dionysius, in order to acquire the true knowledge of God—which in this life is obscure—that explanation through dissimilar depictions is more proper and more accommodating. Proving this same thing more fully in the following sections, and extending, as it were, a hand to the student in *Mystical Theology* so as not to stumble on this path, he shows...

^A that these dissimilar and contrary ways of speaking have great power to stimulate our mind, lest it should cling to material and sensible things; but the more it sees them to be discordant and less proportional to divine things, the more promptly it frees itself from such forms and refers everything to an understanding that is purely spiritual and divine. Nor does he mean only that such discordant likenesses are more suitable, but also that they are safer; for those likenesses which seem in some way plausible occupy and detain our intellect not without some danger, nor do they allow it to pass freely to what is spiritual and intelligible, toward which it ought to have tended directly along with its affections. Whence, the holy Dionysius says, in fashioning more noble forms, it is credible that some err who think that celestial natures exist as some kind of golden entity, etc. Since, forsooth, they hear that angels are described as shining like youths in golden, lightning-bright, and white robes, etc., there is a danger that they might err, thinking that such things truly exist in the angels. Lest this happen to those who have comprehended in their mind nothing higher than those beautiful and specious things that appear, he says, the wisdom of the holy theologians, which has the power of leading upward, holily descends to discordant dissimilarities, not permitting that which is material in us to remain fixated by adhering to those unseemly images.

Mystical theology, therefore, prudently encounters this inconvenience by means of those imperfect, improper, and discordant forms, which continuously stimulate the mind to investigate the spiritual understanding that underlies them. For while we are not satisfied by hearing or conceiving such things about God or the angels, we understand at the same time that sensible things can in no way attain to the representation of the perfection of an intelligible and invisible reality, and thus all comparisons and representations of this kind are assumed so that they may signify to us rather what He is not than what He is; we immediately accustom our mind to turn away from material things; and we prepare ourselves most excellently for mystical theology when we attempt to reach invisible and intelligible things not erroneously through vision or understanding, but truly through a vacuity of vision and intellection; when, after a moderate investigation of celestial things (such as is permitted to us—where, before the sheer magnitude of their light, we, being utterly unable to contemplate them directly, begin to grow blind), we finally captivate our intellect in obedience to God and faith, truly understanding and sensing that these things are far more sublime and excellent than that they can in any way be conceived or understood by us as to what they are.

For a fuller resolution of the primary difficulty raised in this chapter, ^B namely, whether spiritual and divine things are more truly and conveniently designated by negative and dissimilar terms than by affirmative and more noble ones, it should be noted here briefly and answered, as with Dionysius the Carthusian, that, indeed, directly, and as far as the nature of the matter goes, and on the part of the object and medium, immaterial divine things are recognized more truly, clearly, and eminently through affirmative and nobler terms; but on the part of the weakness and thinness of our intellect, and thus indirectly, the opposite happens. For our knowledge proceeds gradually from the imperfect to the more perfect, and is prone to error; therefore, at first, we grasp more easily what God and those deiform minds are not, than what they are. Whence Aristotle says in Book I *On the Soul* that the understanding or knowledge of simple things occurs through negation; for we grasp more easily that God and the angels are not extensively great or small, figured or circumscribed, colored or sensibly bright, than what that simplicity of theirs is, or how the essence of an angel is determined in itself or in a place, in such a way that while it is in some space of a place, it is not in the entire space of the universe.

Furthermore, since many are unable to lift themselves above sense and imagination and above all material things, they could easily be induced to think that God and separate substances are some sort of most splendid and beautiful material entities, or corporeal lights; to avoid this, they are sometimes better described by lower things, which it is clear do not substantially agree with them at all. Yet knowledge through affirmative and worthier terms, through those that are more similar and closer, is in itself more perfect and more distinct, indeed closer to a perfect knowledge of the thing according to its species. Nor does it hinder that Saint Dionysius in the book *On Mystical Theology* teaches that the most perfect contemplation of God in the present life is that by which we are united to Him as to one altogether unknown, and in which all things are removed from Him. For this happens on our part, and because this very thing which truly agrees with God, and which we conceive affirmatively of Him, applies to Him infinitely more excellently and perfectly than we are able to understand. And thus we remove and deny those things from Him, not simply and absolutely regarding what they are in their own nature, but regarding the way in which we can grasp them in this life, as we said above, and these things will be explained more fully in the following books.

§ IV. He says that from all these things, good contemplations are to be elicited; and at the same time he explains how the passions of anger, concupiscence, and the like, when they are uttered concerning angels, are to be accepted.

§ V. He shows that not only angels, but God Himself is designated in the Scriptures partly by most noble things, such as the sun; partly by intermediate things, such as fire; partly by the vilest, such as a worm: but by these, he almost always understands Christ; and in the sun, he alludes to Malachi ch. IV, 2; Wisdom V, 6; Isaiah LX, I, where it is said: *The Sun of justice shall rise for you*. In star, he alludes to Numbers ch. XXIV, where it is said: *A star shall rise out of Jacob*, namely Christ, as a star and sun illuminating and inflaming us, and gladdening us with every grace, and leading us into heaven. In light, he alludes to John: *He was the true light*—see the things said in the preceding chapter. In fire, he alludes to Exodus ch. III, where Moses saw the bush burning with an innocuous fire, designating Christ, who would illuminate the Virgin Mother with the fire of the Divinity in conception and birth, the flower of virginity being not in the least damaged. In water, he alludes to John ch. VII, 37, where Christ says: *If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink*, that is, let him draw the gospel teaching and spirit; and rivers, that is, a great abundance of living water, that is, of grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, shall flow from his belly, that is, from the heart and mind, which is as it were the belly of the soul: they shall flow, I say, through the acts of virtues, the operations and effects of grace, by which he may not only help himself, but also others. In ointment, he alludes to the Song of Solomon: *Thy name is as ointment poured out*. In stone, to Ephesians II, 20, where Christ is called the cornerstone, as one who contains and embraces the whole structure of the Church. In lion, leopard, bear, he alludes to Hosea ch. XIII, 7: *And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians. I will meet them as a bear robbed of her whelps.* In worm, he alludes to Psalm XXI: *But I am a worm*, because of the humility of the flesh, and the emptying in the passion: all of which lead to the anagogical ascent.

PARAPHRASIS OF PACHYMERES (8).

§ 1. Expedit utique, meo judicio (dubitanter accipiens propter securitatem, vel etiam affirmati-

- ^A οἶμαι παλαιοὺς), πρῶτον ἐκθέσθαι, τίνα μὲν τὸν τῆς ἁπάσης καὶ γηΐνης καὶ οὐρανίου Ἱεραρχίας σκοπὸν οἰόμεθα· (οἰόμεθα δὲ εἶπε, κατὰ φιλόσοφον ἢ φιλόθεον μᾶλλον μετριασμόν)· καὶ τί ὠφελεῖ ἑκάστη τῶν ἱεραρχιῶν, κἂν τὴν οὐρανίαν εἴπῃς, κἂν τὴν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς, τοὺς τελεστὰς αὐτῆς· καθεξῆς δὲ εἰπεῖν περὶ τῶν οὐρανίων ἱεραρχιών, κατὰ τὴν αὐτῶν ἐκφαντορίαν καὶ δήλωσιν τὴν ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις Γραφαῖς. Τὸ γοῦν εἰπεῖν περὶ τούτων ὑμνῆσαι λέγει, ὅτι τὸ περὶ καλοῦ εἰπεῖν ὕμνος καλοῦ ἐστιν· ὥσπερ τὸ περὶ κακοῦ λέγειν, ψόγος κακοῦ ἐστι. Ταὐτὸ γοῦν τὸ εἰπεῖν καὶ ὑμνῆσαι περὶ τῶν ἀγγελικῶν καὶ θείων δυνάμεων. Μετέπειτα δὲ χρὴ εἰπεῖν, ὁποίαις εἰκόσιν αἱ ἱεραὶ Γραφαὶ τὰς οὐρανίας διακοσμήσεις σχηματίζουσι, καὶ πρὸς ποίαν ἁπλότητα διὰ τῶν πλασμάτων τούτων δὴ τῶν συνθέτων ἀναγόμεθα· οἷον, λέγομεν τυχὸν ἀετὸν, σύνθετόν τι λέγομεν· νοοῦμεν τὸ ὀξυδερκὲς καὶ ὑπερηρμένον, πρὸς ἁπλότητα ἀναγόμεθα. Ὅτε γὰρ λέγοι τις, ἵνα νοήσωμεν, πάντως λόγους συντίθησιν· ὅτε δὲ τὸ ῥηθὲν νοηθείη, ἁπλοϊκὴ κατὰ τὸν νοῦν ἡ ἔννοια γίνεται· καὶ μᾶλλον, ὅτε ἁπλὰ εἰσὶ καὶ ἀσχημάτιστα τὰ περὶ ὧν λέγομεν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν οὕτω νοοῦμεν κατὰ ἁπλῆν τινα ἐπιβολὴν, πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τῶν νοητῶν; Διὰ τί δὲ ζητοῦμεν, ὅπως πρὸς ἁπλότητα ἀναχθείημεν; ἵνα μὴ πάθωμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς ταὐτὸν τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀνιέρως νοοῦσι τὰ ἱερὰ, ὥστε πολύποδας καὶ πολυπροσώπους ὑπολαμβάνειν, καὶ κατὰ κτῆνη καὶ θηρία τετυπωμένας τὰς οὐρανίας δυνάμεις, ἢ καὶ ἀετῶν εἶδος ἐχούσας, ἢ καὶ πτηνῶν πτεροφυΐαν, καθὼς ἐν τῷ Ἰεζεκιὴλ εὕρηται· καὶ τροχοὺς πυρώδεις ὑπερουρανίους φαντάζεσθαι, καὶ θρόνους πρὸς ἀνάκλισιν ἐπιτηδείους, καὶ ἵππους, καὶ δορυφόρους, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα παρὰ τῶν ἱερῶν προφητῶν διά τινων ποικίλων παραδέδονται. Καὶ γὰρ ἐπιτηδείως ἡ θεολογία τοῖς τοιούτοις ἱεροῖς σχηματισμοῖς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσχηματίστων ἐχρήσατο, ἅμα μὲν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἡμετέρου νοὸς σκεψαμένη, ἅμα δὲ καὶ τοῦ οἰκείου καὶ συμφυοῦς τῆς ἀναγωγῆς προνοήσασα. Ἐν ὅσῳ γὰρ λέγει τυχὸν ἀετὸν, δύο κατασκευάζει τὰ μέγιστα, καὶ ἡμῖν τοῖς συνήθεσι γνωρίζει τὰ πράγματα, καὶ τούτοις φυλάττει τὸ συμφυές· τὸ γὰρ ὀξυδερκὲς καὶ τάχιστα καὶ οἷον ὑπερηρμένον τῶν οὐρανίων δυνάμεων παρεδήλωσε· καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων δὲ ὡσαύτως. The translation refers to: I think, according to the ancients, to set forth first what we consider to be the goal of the entire earthly and heavenly hierarchy (he says "we consider," out of philosophic or rather godly humility); and what benefit each of the hierarchies—whether you mean the heavenly or our own—confers upon its initiates. Then, to speak in order concerning the heavenly hierarchies according to their manifestation and revelation in the holy Scriptures. To speak about them, he calls "to hymn them," because to speak about the good is a hymn to the good, just as to speak about evil is a vituperation of evil. Thus, to speak of the angelic and divine powers is the same as to hymn them. Afterward, one must say with what images the holy Scriptures fashion the heavenly hosts, and to what simplicity we are led back through these composite plasms. For example, we say "eagle"—we speak of something composite—but we understand the sharp-sighted and sublime, and thus we are led back to simplicity. For when someone speaks, in order that we may understand, he necessarily puts together words; but when what is said is understood, the apprehension in the mind becomes simple, and all the more so when the subjects of which we speak are simple and formless. For if we understand [things] in this way even in the case of objects of sense through a simple act of the mind, how much more in the case of intelligible [realities]? And why do we seek to be led back to simplicity? So that we might not suffer the same fate as the many who irreverently interpret the holy things, supposing the heavenly powers to be many-footed or many-faced, or modeled after beasts and wild animals, or having the appearance of eagles or the wings of birds, as is found in Ezekiel; or to imagine fiery wheels beyond the heavens, and thrones suitable for reclining, and horses, and bodyguards, and whatever other things are transmitted by the holy prophets through various symbols. For theology fittingly used such holy figurings for the formless essences, at once considering the capacity of our mind and providing for what is natural and connatural to our ascent. For in so far as it says, for instance, "eagle," it accomplishes two great things: it makes the realities known to us who are accustomed to such things, and it preserves their connatural state for them. For it has revealed the sharp-sightedness, the swiftness, and the, as it were, sublime nature of the heavenly powers; and likewise for the others.

^C § I. Thence he concludes how it is necessary to interpret the heavenly [realities] even through dissimilar and humble [images]. And he says: If to anyone it seems [appropriate] to accept the scriptural compositions and plasms, as if there were no other way for things that are simple and remain in themselves, and are unknown and unobservable, to be known; but he thinks such compositions are absurd, and [thinks] the whole of this rough scaffolding of angelic names—for just as on a stage there are those who are present, while others act out parts, so here too the subjects are one thing, and they are spoken of in a different manner—is an absurdity. And he says it is fitting for the theologians, wishing to represent the unrepresentable, to use appropriate...

and cognate ^A figures, and things that are among us most precious—at least the most immaterial ones—using human figures, and not those of irrational or inanimate things. And they ought not to attach material multiformities to the supernal simplicities. For if they had done this, they would have accomplished two goods: they would have drawn us toward a better and more sublime conception, and they would not have brought down and dishonored the supermundane things. But now, by describing them with entirely alien figures, they commit two very bad faults: both by treating divine things contumeliously and by leading our understanding into error, forcing it to cling to ^B sacrilegious compositions. And perhaps someone might suspect that heavenly things are of such a kind that there are lions and horses, and they low praises after the manner of oxen, and that there exist there directorships of troops and avian principalities, and other animals, and other viler materials, and whatever else shifts toward the absurd, the strange, and the passionate; such dissimilar likenesses and strange images present these to our thoughts. If someone objects to these things and is indignant, nevertheless the investigation of truth and our own interpretation and explanation find in such formations that wisdom has provided for both parts: both for us, I say, the hearers, ^C as well as for those of whom the discourse is instituted: so that neither should injury be done to them, nor should we tenaciously cling to such abject forms. But what is that viler material, and what is that absurd, strange, and passionate thing? Ezekiel says he saw a likeness of a throne and as it were a likeness of a lion. A throne is a viler material than a lion, because the former lacks a soul, while the lion is alive; and it is strange, absurd, and passionate, because the lion-like form signifies a certain irascible power, and the bovine species that of desiring—which are passions, and indeed vehement ones. One must not, therefore, understand these in a way subject to passion. And first of all ^D they show that the wisdom of God has provided for both in this way, both for us and for those heavenly ones: for us, because we were not able to learn these things otherwise; for them, however, because it was befitting that, as being mystical, they should be shown forth in such an ineffable way and no other. After these things, he will show how the incongruity and dissimilarity of the images does not harm the things themselves. For he says that these types of the typicaless, and shapes of the shapeless, are rightly and deservedly set forth, not only on account of our weakness, which of its own is unable to rise immediately and without types to their intelligible contemplations, but because of the intermediate formations, connatural and familiar to us, which the Scriptures set forth for those supernatural visions; but also because it is most befitting to the mystical Scriptures that the enigmas of arcane things be hidden, and that the hidden truth be rendered inaccessible to the many. For not everyone is holy, nor is the knowledge of all things for everyone, just as the Lord says to the apostles: To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. b

^A § III. But if someone should accept such a grasp of intelligible realities through sensible images, but should blame only the absurd iconographies, saying that it is shameful to attribute such base figures to deiform beings, it is sufficient to reply to him that the mode of manifestation is twofold: the one formed from similar things, the other through dissimilar shapes. And see first, in the case of God, what the mystical traditions of the Scriptures say: sometimes they praise Him through similar things, such as Word and Mind, according to the text: Who has known the mind of the Lord? and Essence, according to the text: I am who I am; and Wisdom itself, and not simply reasoning, but reasoning itself, the truly existing Essence, and the cause of the existence of all other things, and Light and Life, as it is in the holy Gospels. ^B All these names, although they are more noble and related to higher realities, nonetheless fall far short of the true likeness, since He is above all these, inasmuch as they fall short of that blessed nature without any comparison. At other times, the divine Numen is praised through dissimilar declarations by way of negation, being called invisible, and infinite, and incomprehensible; by which it is signified not what He is, but what He is not. Thus, of these two modes of expression, it demonstrates that the one from dissimilar things is more appropriate. For we know that He is not any of existing things, but we are ignorant of His superessential lack of definition and His unintelligibility, or, if I may so say, His "mindlessness"—mindlessness, I say, not in the sense of a privation of mind, but because no mind can grasp the knowledge of Him; just as other things, such as His invisibility and infinity, are to be understood not privatively, but negatively. Since, therefore, ^C negations in divine matters are true, while affirmations are discordant, the enunciation and demonstration through dissimilar things is more appropriate in these cases.

Since things are thus in the case of God, it follows that we should rather honor the holy Scriptures and by no means say that they bring any disgrace upon those divine arrangements through such portrayals of dissimilar forms—of the ox, the eagle, and the rest—indicating clearly that they exist supermundanely above all these material things. For if He who is said to have the form of a lion, and many feet and wings, is also endowed with reason and is devoid of matter, how does He not also supermundanely exceed these material things which are understood by us? Observe how beautifully he has given the reason why mention is made of animals, or their images, in heavenly matters. For just as God, existing in all things, ^D has nothing in all things that is of the same genus as Himself, and therefore nothing of all things is truly revelatory of Him—for which reason we speak of God by another method, saying that God is not this or that, which he calls speaking through dissimilar things—so also in the case of the heavenly powers, the theologians have acted rightly, having skillfully compared them to none of these things, but having taken from sensible things, which he calls base, the perfect likeness; and they have done this for their honor, so that the imitation of them might become notional and not true. From this he wishes to show, by a forceful argument, that dissimilar images are far more appropriate than similar ones. For in the case of the more honorable and similar [images], it is likely that one might be led astray...

as we were saying earlier. For people will ^A think that they are golden and shining men, and that they wear bright clothing, and are fiery without burning and without harm; for the so-called flames of fire are not destructive, but life-giving, and [so with] all the other things that the Scriptures say. Now, in order that those who are unable to imagine anything higher than the things that appear might not suffer this, the high wisdom of the theologians descends to dissimilar and seemingly absurd images, not allowing our intellect to rest in ugly and unbecoming fabrications, but rousing the upward-tending part of the soul by the deformity of the shapes, as it is clear, of course, even to those who are very materialistic in their thinking, that divine things are not such as these. Having understood accurately, then, that they are not such, we shall seek the truth, [which is] that they are something other than these. Furthermore, one must also understand ^B this: that nothing of what exists is wholly deprived of participation in the Good; since all things are witnessed by Scripture to be "very good."

It is possible, therefore, from all these things, to devise beautiful contemplations appropriate to the intelligible [realities], which we might indeed call "dissimilar similitudes," because the intelligible [realities] possess in one way those things which are assigned in a different way to sensible [things]. For instance, anger, in the case of things below, arises from a passionate impulse, and such a movement of anger is full of all irrationality; but in the case of intelligible [realities], we understand anger in another way, calling it an unwavering, rational movement, and a firm, unchanging disposition in the foundations of the Good. The same is the case with desire; in the case of irrational [creatures], it is a certain thoughtless passion, often arising from an innate movement—that is, when we have the movement from natural accidents—or often from habit—that is, from certain customs in accordance with the irrational dominance occurring in those susceptible to change, with the physical appetite driving the animal toward what is sensible and, thus, according to [its] perception, desirable. But when we attribute desire to intelligible [realities], we must understand it as a divine love ^C for the immaterial beauty that is beyond reason and mind, and as an unwavering yearning for the passionless contemplation and for the truly eternal and intelligible communion with that pure radiance and the hidden and divine splendor. Again, as for incontinence: in us, it is that towards which we are driven without restraint; but in the case of those [intelligible ones], it is steadfastness, and being cut off by nothing, because of their unmixed, pure, and unchanging love of divine beauty, which is occupied with nothing else and is a total impulse toward what is truly lovable. Again, we speak of irrationality, and insensitivity, and senselessness in the case of irrational and inanimate things—as we speak of the insensitivity of a stone—by way of privation; but in the case of intelligible and immaterial [beings], by way of negation. And because they surpass them, as beings ^D that transcend our way of expressing...

[our thoughts]—a way that is transitory, because it passes from the speaker to the hearer, and bodily, because it is produced by means of bodily organs—we call them irrational. ^A For in that realm it is not so; rather, being devoid of body, they move toward one another and away from one another, and they grasp each other’s thoughts more clearly than any speech; they converse with one another, as it were, through silence, communicating their thought to each other. In this sense, therefore, we say the celestial orders are devoid of speech. But because they surpass the material—which is alien to bodiless beings—and sensible, we call them insensible, as being higher than sense, and intelligible. He concludes by saying: It is therefore not unreasonable to fashion images even from the most dissimilar and ignoble parts of matter, since this matter itself exists around the truly beautiful God, and possesses its own specific adornment, and refers to certain vestiges of spiritual beauty; just as it is in the nature of light to illuminate, and of fire to consume and penetrate, if only the like things are taken in a dissimilar and different way, and in many ways. For the sun illuminates sensible eyes and gives them the faculty to discern colors; but God gives power to the soul, and grants it to look upon the beauties that are there. For the same things are not taken in the same way, but are defined and understood according to the natural property of the subject. For this reason these things are also called vestiges or indices of them; whence also, regarding those things that participate in dissimilar ways or appear to participate, there is the proverb, "an echo is a repeatable voice." ^B For what an image is in the realm of sight, bearing a certain likeness to the prototype, this an echo is in the realm of hearing, bearing a certain likeness to the voice; for what has arrived from the sound to the least degree, that is what it is. Consider, then, the intelligible beauty of God, having a certain reason of an echo that is altogether extraordinary and ineffable; from which echo—and from which beauty—certain reverberations, and as it were likenesses of the sound, are carried to the creatures, even though they are received dissimilarly. ^C For this reason, we find that the holy prophets declare not only the celestial powers through such symbolic portrayals, but sometimes even the God-bearing essence itself. And sometimes they praise it from things that appear of great estimation, as the sun—not simply the sun, but the Sun of justice, according to the prophet Malachi; as the morning star, but rising in the soul, according to the great Peter in his catholic Epistle, saying: "Until the day-star rises in your hearts"; and as light, but shining without covering, as in: "I am the light of the world"; and: "It was the true light." At other times, [they praise it] from intermediate things, as fire, but illuminating harmlessly and without burning, as it was seen in the bush; as water, but as a source of life.

^A It provides vital fulfillment and satiety; and, to speak symbolically, it penetrates into the belly—that is, the soul—and stirs up rivers flowing forth with free eruption, according to that saying: "Rivers of living water shall flow out of his belly." Sometimes [they praise it] from the lowest and most humble things: as a fragrant perfume, as with Solomon: "Thy name is as ointment poured forth"; or as a corner-stone, as with Daniel. They even clothe it in the forms of wild beasts—lion, panther, leopard, and the confused bear—as they are found in the prophets. I will add, moreover, the form and name of a worm, according to [the text]: "I am a worm, and no man." Indeed, those who are wise in divine things have approved the form of the worm more, because of his conception from a Virgin without seed, and the perfect form of man, and ^B the perfect nature which he assumed.

So all who, excelling in divine wisdom, interpret divine inspirations, distinguish the Holy of Holies from imperfect and profane things, and approve the dissimilitude in the making of sacred figures: that divine things may not be easily understood by the profane, nor the studious contemplators of sacred things linger upon such figures as if they were the truth. This, moreover, is taken from the pagans: for they used to make, as it were, certain statues lacking hands and feet, which they called "Hermes" figures, because ^C they secretly hid an image within; for they were wont to attribute mysterious things to Hermes. They made in them doors and hollow spaces, and inside they placed images of the gods whom they worshipped. Thus, these Hermes figures appeared common, but contained within themselves the ornaments of the gods; therefore, the studious contemplators of these did not attend so much to the statues themselves as to the inner images. By these means, therefore, divine things are to be celebrated through true negations; for even if you say something of such a kind, yet according to apophatic theology, that is not the Godhead. And again, this is stated according to affirmative theology, not simply and truly, but through an affinity with earthly things and ^D through various similitudes of the "resonance" of created things. For just as a resonance is that which is heard lingering in the ear after a sound—a certain faint remnant of a voice—so too are created things a certain obscure manifestation of the divine super-essentiality; for this sort of image is imprinted, not from those things which are in Him, but from those things which are from Him. Our own [symbols] are the ultimate resonances or species, in comparison with the angelic ones: since even in our own affairs, by a certain proportion, divine likenesses are found; just as even in herbs and metals that which is beneficial and vivifying is found, and in other things other divine and miraculous things. There is, therefore, nothing absurd when even [the scripture], since the same happens in the case of God, fashions the heavenly powers from the lowest and most dissimilar likenesses; for this [mystery], having perhaps disturbed us due to the uncouthness of the indicative and revelatory fashioning, has moved us toward such an examination of it.

in God it is done, if the celestial virtues are also expressed through the lowest and most dissimilar likenesses. For this perhaps struck us because of the strangeness of the imagery by which they were manifested and declared, and at the same time moved us to such an inquiry, not allowing our mind to dwell on the figures by which they were described, but exciting it to reject them, and urging us to extend our reach from the things that appeared toward anagogy, or senses that lead us away from earthly things.

These things ^A be said concerning likenesses of this kind. Rightly, however, did he call them "angel-like" and not "angelic," for they are not depictions of the angels as they are in themselves, but they show a certain appearance of the shaping of incorporeal things. Moreover, it must now be defined and declared what we believe the hierarchy itself to be, and what gain the hierarchs obtain from it through the sacred ceremonies and mysteries. But would that Christ, my mind—if it is lawful for me to say this, appropriating to myself what is common—who is the inspiration and tradition of the entire priestly institution, might open the way!

But you, O my child ^B (he speaks to Timothy), according to the tradition of our law (for the holy things are for the holy), listen yourself in a way befitting the holy and not according to earthly reason, having become divine in the explanation of divine things, and hiding in your mind those things that are sacred from unholy men, preserve them as uniform and simple, as things that require no complex wording or veils. And observe how he has added "uniformity" to "multitude"; for holy things unify, but profane things distract. For it is not right, according to the sacred Gospels, to throw before swine the pure and bright splendor of spiritual pearls, clear of all earthly admixture. He calls the apostle Timothy his child, either because he was more advanced in years, or because he had been requested by him to teach these things, since the Ionian philosophers were causing him great disturbances. Or, as some ancients have recorded in their history, they used to call those who were studious of innocence "children," and he was famous for his praise of innocence. ^C

CHAPTER III. What hierarchy is, and what its utility is.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER.

§ I.

Hierarchy is, in my judgment, ^D a sacred order, and science, and energy, approximating as far as is lawful to the likeness of God, and being raised in due proportion toward the imitation of God by the illuminations divinely granted to it. For the beauty that befits God, as it is simple, as it is good, as it is the source of perfection, is admixed with no dissimilarity at all, but according to each one’s merit, it imparts its own light to each, and in the most divine sacrament, it brings it to completion by transforming it to the image of its own immutability.

^A The purpose of hierarchy, therefore, is the assimilation to and union with God, as far as is attainable, having Him as the guide of all sacred knowledge and operation; by constantly gazing toward His most divine beauty and, to the extent possible, being imprinted by Him, it perfects its own followers as divine images—most clear and unspotted mirrors, capable of receiving the light of the primal-light and God-ruling ray. Filled with the sacred splendor imparted to them, they in turn, according to the God-ruling ordinances, pour this forth generously to those below them. For it is not permissible for those performing sacred rites, ^B or for those being sacredly initiated, to act at all in ways contrary to the sacred orderings of their own sacred ministry; nor, indeed, to exist otherwise, if they yearn for that contemplative brightness and look toward it in a manner becoming to things sacred, and are being fashioned according to the proportion of each of the sacred laws. Therefore, he who speaks of Hierarchy denotes a certain entirely sacred disposition, an image of the God-ruling beauty, which celebrates the mysteries of its own illumination in sacred orders and knowledges, and is fashioned, as is permissible, like unto its own Principle. For the perfection of each of those who have been allotted a sacred order is this: to be led up, according to one's own proportion, to the imitation of God. And, what is indeed more divine than all—as the Oracles say—to become a co-worker with God, and to show forth the divine operation shining in oneself so far as is possible. For instance, since the order of Hierarchy is for some to be purified and others to purify, for some to be illuminated and others to illuminate, for some to be perfected ^C and others to perform the perfection, to each one the imitation of God will be appropriate in this manner. The divine beatitude, if I may speak as men do, is devoid of all dissimilarity, and is full of eternal light, perfect and lacking no perfection, purifying, illuminating, and perfecting; or rather, it is sacred purification, illumination, and perfection—more than purification, more than light, the pre-perfect self-perfecting Principle, and the cause of every hierarchy, yet transcendentally excepted from every sacred thing.

§ III. ^D It is necessary, therefore, as I think, that those who are being purified be made entirely pure and be liberated from every mingling of dissimilarity; that those who are being illuminated be filled with divine light, being raised toward a contemplative state and power with the most chaste eyes of the mind; and finally, that those who are being perfected, having been transferred from what is imperfect, become participants in the perfecting knowledge of those sacred things which they have contemplated.

^A Furthermore, it behooves those who are the purifiers to impart to others of their own purity; and those who are illuminators, as having more perceptive minds and as being naturally adapted for both the reception and the communication of light, and being fully filled with the sacred radiance, to channel the light which overflows from them toward those who are worthy of light; and those who are perfectors, as being most expert in the perfecting discipline, to perfect those who are to be perfected by the most holy initiation into the knowledge of those sacred things which they have contemplated. Therefore, each rank of the hierarchic arrangement is led, according to its own proportion, toward the divine cooperation, perfecting those things ^B which, by the grace and God-given power of the Godhead, are naturally and supernaturally within it, and which are wrought by It superessentially, and which are manifested hierarchically according to the attainable imitation of the deific laws.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS.

Where he shows generally the reason regarding how we must arrive at the knowledge of celestial and spiritual things, he passes to the explanation of hierarchy, etc., and he distributes it into order, knowledge, and action; designating office in order, discernment in knowledge, and ministry in action, by which three parts, as it were, the whole hierarchy, both angelic and human, or the method of governing, is contained. For, as Hugo rightly says on this passage, without order, action is presumption; without action, order is negligence; but without knowledge, both action is reprehensible and order is useless. *Taxis*, moreover, or order, is the same thing here as *exousia* or power, concerning which Paul says to the Romans (xiii, 1): "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no power but from God; and those that are, are ordained of God." Let every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power, except from God; and those that are powers, are ordained by God. Where the Apostle says two things: first, that powers are from God; second, that they lack *ataxia*, that is, confusion, and are distributed and subordinated in an apt order by God or under God. Therefore, the first hierarchy is the power of the Divinity, which is called *taxarchia*; the second and middle one is angelic, and it is called *taxonomesis*, that is, adornment, made in the likeness of the first power, and constituted under the first power; the third and last is human, made in the likeness of the angelic, and constituted under it, and through it under the first and supreme. By these hierarchies the whole world is governed. The first therefore constitutes the second and third hierarchy after itself in angels and men, so that they might be conformable to it by the participation of virtue, and as cooperative agents by the fellowship of power; and it has divided the gifts of virtues, and according to the divisions of the gifts, it has distributed the offices of the powers; and it has given many gifts, and has established many powers, and all gifts from one, and all to one, and in one, according to that saying: "There are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all" (1 Cor. xii, 4). For "of him, and by him, and in him, and to him are all things" (Rom. xi, 36).

"Hierarchy is a sacred order," etc. Saint Thomas asks in II Sent., dist. 9, a. 1, whether this definition, given by Dionysius, is appropriate. He answers: Since hierarchy signifies a certain sacred principality, and in every principality a degree of power and an end is required, it behooves such sacred things to be holy and divine in a sacred principality. And therefore just as in a secular principality the end is that the subject multitude be peacefully disposed toward the good intended by the prince (as is evident in an army, which, according to the Philosopher, is ordered toward the good of the leader as toward the ultimate end) (Metaph., text 2), so it behooves the end in a sacred principality to be assimilation to God. But angels cannot attain this end, except through ordered action, for which an ordered power and directing knowledge is required; and therefore in the definition of hierarchy order is placed, in which the degree of power is expressed; and knowledge, as directing; and action, as leading to the end; and likeness to him, as the intended end. But since the end is the cause of causes, therefore the definition which is taken from the end is more formal among all definitions, and is the medium demonstrating them; and therefore that description, "hierarchy is unity and likeness to God," is as it were a definition which is the medium of demonstration: but this, "hierarchy is order, and knowledge, and action," if nothing is added, is as it were the conclusion of a demonstration, because it includes the essential principles of hierarchy: whence Dionysius concludes it from the aforesaid: but that which is placed here at the beginning of the chapter is perfect, because it comprehends both, whence it is as it were a demonstration differing by position.

31 It must be noted, moreover, that order can be taken in two ways, namely, either according to that which designates one degree only, as for example, those who are of one degree are said to be of one order; and thus order is a part of hierarchy: or according to that which relates to the relation which is between different degrees, so that it is the same as ordination itself; and thus it is taken abstractly: and in this way it is placed in the definition of hierarchy; but in the first way it is taken concretively, so that order is the same as one ordered degree.

^A § II. He assigns the scope of hierarchy, which is the assimilation to God as far as is possible, not only in virtue, but even in the power of governing. For it was fitting, says Hugh, that that creature should exist as a participant of the divine power in its own disposition, which in its own condition had received the participation of likeness, so that it which had been made solely for the likeness of its Creator, might retain the image of Him solely in its own ordination. Yet it could not have been a participant of power unless it had first become a sharer in virtue through grace; nor could it be able to do what He is able to do, unless it had first deserved to be from Him what it is. The omnipotent Creator, therefore, is not a governor of the things made by Him through a foreign usurpation or a perfunctory title; but by the virtue innate to Him, and by the goodness implanted, He cherished and nourished all things, ruling and disposing the universe, and through the virtues and goodness dominating under Him, He distributed them in many ways according to the measure of participation and the reason of ministry, through orders and degrees. Wherefore Dionysius rightly warns that the greatest subordination must be observed in the hierarchy, and one must take care that no one should attempt anything above his grade and order; but that each one in his grade and order should strive that he might promote the divine imitation in himself and in others, and might exist as a cooperator of God, both by purifying, and by illuminating, and by perfecting. And these are the distributions of lights, descending into all things, which it has been given to participate in from the Father of lights (whom he calls here *teletarchian* and *autoteletarchian*, that is, the origin of perfection, and through Himself the origin of perfection), so that they might shine and illuminate; the subjects indeed in that which they learn, and in that which they illuminate, the prelates.

§ III. That some may be purified, others may purify, etc. On the occasion of this place, Saint Thomas disputes in II *Sentent.*, distinct. 9, quest. 1, art. 2, whether one angel purifies another. Where it must be known that the purification which is in the angels is not from uncleanness, but (as is said in § 3) from a commixture or confusion of dissimilitude, or from ignorance, which comes to the same thing. For the confusion of the intellect is from the fact that it is in potency with respect to many things, in which it is dissimilar to the first intellect, namely the divine, to which no possibility is admixed. Therefore, through a light received from God by means of a superior angel, the intellect of the inferior angel is liberated from this confusion of dissimilitude, in that it is terminated to one, to which it adheres so much the more strongly, the more efficacious it is as a medium of cognition. As is clear in him who does not know which part of a contradiction to choose, but having found a probable medium, is drawn more to one: but when a demonstrative medium is added, he is confirmed in it. It must be said, therefore, with divine Thomas cited above, that an action cannot be except according to the exigency of the thing to which the action belongs; since however hierarchy is perfected in science, as is clear from the definition, it is necessary that the hierarchical action consists in the transfusion of science. Whence divine Dionysius, cap. 7, says that purification, illumination, and perfection is the assumption of divine science. To the acquisition of science, however, two things concur, namely the expulsion of the contrary or privation, and the consummation of it, just as it happens also in the acquisition of any form whatsoever. Insofar, therefore, as it concerns the removal of privation, it is purification; insofar as it concerns the influence of light, it is illumination; and insofar as it concerns the consequent cognition, into which the light directs, as the ultimate term, it is perfection. See more in the cited Saint Thomas, and in the first part, q. 108, where he discusses angelic illuminations at length. Also in *Quaestiones disputatae*, quest. 9, *De cognitione angelorum*, articles 1, 2, 3, which are found in volume VIII of his Works.

§ IV. He explains what the task is of those who are purified, illuminated, and perfected, as well as those who purify, illuminate, and perfect, all of which occurs through light. And this is the hierarchy, which the supreme Hierarch formed according to Himself, and constituted under Himself to dominate and preside in His works, according to orders consigned under one principle and one power from which is all power, and all virtue, and all light spiritually shining, and illuminating all things spiritually shining. And this is, says Hugh, the height and sublimity and admirable dignity of the rational creature, that it earned the right to dominate in the works of its Maker, having received virtue from Him, and holding power with Him. Which virtue, because it is distributed from one virtue and one power according to the measure of largesse and participation, in various and manifold ways, to the decoration and beauty of the works which Wisdom has ornamented, many virtues and powers become many. But lest the multitude again generate schism and division, and the world fight against itself with contrary domination, there is one principle, and one moderator of all things, from whom they have what they are, and under whom they are moderated in what they can do, and refer to Him everything that they accomplish; so that unity may remain in all things, and peace may persevere in the kingdom of God who creates and governs all things.

32 PARAPHRASIS PACHYMERÆ

§ 1. ^A In this chapter he defines the hierarchy, and shows what its utility is. There is, therefore, he says, hierarchy, in my opinion, a sacred order, and science, and operation. For there is an order which is also of natural number, as first and second. There is also an order of institution, which partly regards something corporeal, as royal dignities; but partly something sacred, as sacerdotal constitutions: which order he also calls science and operation. For unless iron were already ignited by a habit, it would by no means burn that to which it is applied: so also the priest or hierarch, unless he were supernally illuminated by a habit, would by no means breathe light onto others. For since the illuminator is referred to the illuminated, and the initiator to the initiated, and the teacher to him who is taught; therefore hierarchy is not called science alone, but

^A but also operation, so that it may operate the illumination in others according to its own habit. Therefore, it is also referred to deiformity; for according to the illuminations imparted to it, it is proportionately led to the imitation of God, in operating the illumination for those who are exterior. Since hierarchy is assimilated to the deiform, it states how this comes to pass. The beauty, then, which is god-befitting and appropriate to God, stands aloof from all earthly dissimilarity; for it has no participation with things that are in generation. For that is simple, whereas all these are composite, consisting of elements, or of matter and form; and because that is good, and goodness itself—but all things desire the good, while the good desires nothing other than itself: the divine Numen, therefore, is indeficient, whereas creatures are needy. And also because that beauty is the principle of perfection, being indeed its author and origin—and every mystery is a perfection, in as much as it perfects the soul; but creatures not only do not give the beginning of such perfection, but they themselves are the ones that are perfected. Therefore, the divine beauty is in no way commingled, since it is uniformity itself, and equality, and identity; nay, it is one and unific, ^B as being simple, and uncommingled, and incomposite. But what is deformed, and unequal, and is otherness, and small, and in mutability, that is also material. What is one, therefore, is uncommingled with the multitude; yet not so as not to communicate its own light to each according to their dignity; for this is why God is also called "approaching," as one who by His nature is far from us. And furthermore, in the most divine sacrament—both of baptism and of priesthood—He bestows that perfection by which the souls of those being initiated are informed and adorned with an immanent and stable holiness. For if that which exists as a participant of another should differ or vary from that which it participates in, it would never be in concord with it. Wherefore, all the rising motions of the body and the inequalities of the mind must be abraded, and one must persist in the single simplicity, or equality of mind, who is to be admitted to the consortium of God. And this is that imitation of God toward which hierarchy strives with all its powers, since it, too, renders those who are its devotees participants of its own light.

§ II

the very movement of nature itself is its leader and author: in the divine hierarchy, however, both science and the function are from God. Mirrors, indeed, receive illuminations, but through reflection they transmit them to those outside; and so it is possible to see in the divine institutions: the high priest, receiving the illumination from the hierarchy itself, transmits it to the presbyters and deacons; ^B and they, having been filled with the brightness, pass it on to others; for that which is less is blessed by the greater. Nor is it permitted for those who have been initiated into the sacred to act contrary to the sacred ordinances; for example, for a deacon to offer [the sacrifice], or for a presbyter to confirm. For observe in the Acts of the Apostles how Philip does not give the Holy Spirit. But neither does he assert that sanctification is available to them in any other way than according to the order originally handed down by the holy apostles, if indeed they desire the participation of the sacred splendor by which they are transformed according to the order of the celestial powers: for there, too, are the first and the second, and that which is near to God, and that which is remote, so that that order embraces both the celestial and the terrestrial. Therefore, he who names "hierarchy" says nothing other than what has been said above, namely its definition and its end, that is, the ultimate end, which itself, as a part, pertains to the definition; just as, for example, if you define a dish as "a vessel of such a kind accommodated for the serving of food," this is the end. He gathers together, then, into one what hierarchy is, and what is its utility; and he says that he who names it says nothing other than "sacred ordering." He concluded by saying that it reflects both the celestial and this human image of divine beauty and holiness; ^C for this also distributes its light according to the orders; since in proportion to the difference and preeminence of the orders, the faculty of knowing must also be accommodated: for one is the order of the priest, another of the bishop, and another of the deacon; and by hierarchical sciences—namely, exorcisms, initiations, and sacred rites—they execute the mysteries of illumination in a holy manner. Thus far, therefore, you have what order, science, and function are; the remainder is the scope, by which he who, being from God, from whom all good flows, is assimilated to God, and this is the hierarchy. For it is the perfection of each of those who are being consecrated that, according to their capacity, they are led to the imitation of God, and, which is the greatest thing, that they exist as a coworker of God, according to the great Apostle; ^D for he who is being initiated, through the illuminative prayers, receives the illumination which is from God, and must demonstrate in himself the power of divine participation—that is, the divine functions—partly by teaching, partly by initiating, and by practicing similar things to the extent of his power toward those who are to be instructed; for these are the works of God. Next, he sets forth in detail the order of those who initiate and those who are initiated. Some, indeed, purify, while others are purified (those, certainly, who are still subject to passions), through the instruction of the deacons, perhaps. And some illuminate, while others are illuminated (certainly those who are moderate) through the prayers of the presbyters, clearly. And some perform the sacred mysteries, while others are perfected, as it were, deified.

^A by the anointing of the high-priests, and by other sacred rites. Indeed, it will be appropriate for each of these who perform the God-mimicking functions; for our God teaches this. It is evident both from the Old Testament, as in the passage, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one," and from the New and from the Gospel, where he illuminates, as in the passage, "I have come as a light into the world," and he deifies, as in the passage, "I said, you are gods." This is the manner in which they imitate the divine blessedness, which not only purifies, and illuminates, and perfects (which are the very operations, for they are also the operations of the hierarchs by participation), but it is also itself purification, and illumination, and perfection; nay, rather, it is even above these, and is the cause of all hierarchy, and is incomparably removed from every sacred thing.

§ III. Next, he sets forth what is appropriate for those who receive these sacred things, and also what is fitting for those who perform them. And first, as regards those who are being initiated, those who are purified must be freed from every stain of defilement; for to this end is the purification, according to the passage: "You shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Those who are being illuminated must not be illuminated only in part, but be filled with light, and be led toward a more excellent contemplation in the pure eyes of the mind; for such is illumination, according to the passage: "Lighten my eyes," and "Reveal my eyes, and I shall contemplate the wonders of your law." Those who are being perfected must change from being imperfect to being perfect, and be participants and spectators of the perfecting and sacred knowledge; for this is the perfection in every science, to reach the participation and inspection of those things which are discerned, and to fall short in nothing, according to the passage: "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." ^B

Next, he speaks of those who perform the sacred rites. Those who are tasked with the duty of purifying must not be instructed with such a slight and meager purity that, because of a lack of purity, they become defiled by the approach of unclean things, and contract rather than expel impurity; but they must abound in a certain flow of purity, so that they may be able to communicate it to others. Those who perform the task of illuminating must be prepared both for the reception of the divine light and for the transfusion of the same in like manner, and must thoroughly cleanse their nature, so that, filled with illustrious splendor, they may transfuse the light into those who are worthy of it. Those who perform the duty of perfecting must by no means initiate those who are to be perfected unskillfully, but rather prudently, through the communication of such great good, in the instruction and knowledge of the mysteries which they have beheld; since the inspection (the *epopteia*) does not belong to those who purify, nor to those who illuminate, but to those who perfect. For those are the preliminary rites, and those things which are done externally; but the inspection is for those who are perfect and those who perfect, just as the one singing to the bridegroom says: "Show me your face."

and let me hear your voice. For each order of the priesthood, according to its own proportion (for one order belongs to the presbyter, and another to the deacon), is raised up toward divine cooperation, performing those things which are present in it by nature, super-naturally and incomprehensibly, and which are wrought by It in an incomprehensible way—namely, purification, illumination, sanctification, and deification—these very things being manifested to us according to the imitation of the hierarchy of the God-loving angels, and through these intermediaries, from the divine beatitude itself. ^A

CHAPTER IV.

What the name of the angels signifies.

^B SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. 1. It teaches that God, in His goodness, has communicated Himself to His creatures, and that all creatures exist as participants in God. II. It explains how Angels participate in God more excellently than others, and at the same time expounds from whence the Angels received their name, and how divine things are revealed to us through them. III. It declares that God, as He is in Himself, has never appeared to anyone, but only under a created similitude which was called a theophany; and at the same time it teaches how the inferior are led to God through the superior, and that every Hierarchy has its first, middle, and last orders. IV. It shows that the mystery of the Incarnation was first announced by Angels, and that many things were revealed by Angels to Christ Himself while He lived in this life.

§ I. Since, therefore, the hierarchy itself—whatever it may be—is, I think, correctly defined by us, it remains to celebrate the angelic hierarchy; and we must contemplate its sacred formations described in the Scriptures with supermundane eyes, so that we may be raised up to their most deiform simplicity through mystical representations, and may praise the source of all hierarchical knowledge with the veneration befitting God, and with holy thanksgivings. First of all, it is true to say this: that the superessential Deity, through goodness, having caused the essences of all beings to subsist, has brought them forth into being. For this is the property of the Cause of all and of the goodness beyond all, to call things to the communion of Itself, ^C according to the capacity and measure of each. Therefore, all things participate in the providence which flows forth from the superessential and all-causing Deity; for they would not even be, unless they had participated in the Essence and Principle of all beings. Those things which are inanimate participate in It by the mere fact of their existence, for the Being of all is the Deity which transcends being; living things participate in Its life-giving power, which is above all life; those which are rational and intellectual participate in Its self-perfect and pre-perfect wisdom, which is above all reason and intellect. ^D It is evident, then, that those essences are nearest to It which have participated in It in many ways.

^A Therefore, the holy arrangements of the heavenly essences surpass those things that merely exist, and those that live irrationally, and those that partake of human reason, by their participation in and gift from the Godhead. For, by intellectualizing themselves toward the imitation of God and contemplating the primordial likeness of God in a supermundane way, and by desiring to form their own nature into that same image, they justly and deservedly enjoy a more abundant participation in It; for they are assiduous, and always extend themselves—as far as is lawful—toward those things that are before them, with a striving of divine love that never tires, and they receive the primordial illuminations immaterially and clearly, are conformed to them, and possess their whole life as intellectual. These, then, are they who participate in God primarily and manifoldly, and who manifest the mystery of the Godhead primarily and in many ways; and for this reason, above all others, they have worthily merited, by excellence, the name of "angel," because the divine illumination is given to them first, and through them the revelations that are above us ^B are transmitted to us. Thus, therefore, the Law, as the divine Word states, was given to us through angels; and the glorious fathers of ours, both before the Law and after the Law, were led to God by angels, who either explained what was to be done, turning them from error and profane life to the straight path of truth; or who manifested sacred orders, or the hidden visions of mysteries that are above the world, or certain divine predictions, explaining them as messengers and ministers.

§ III.

If any man says that God has appeared to certain holy men immediately and of Himself, let him learn this clearly from the sacred Scriptures: that the hidden thing of God is something that no man has ever seen, nor will see; but God appeared to the holy men by certain visions, which were sacred ^C and appropriate to those who saw them, showing Himself as it became Him to do. The divine Word, full of all wisdom, calls that vision which exhibited the divine likeness in that which was seen—as if in a figure of those things that cannot be figured—a "Theophany" or "Apparition of God," justly and deservedly, because of the leading of those who beheld it toward God; for it implants divine illumination in those who look, and teaches them something of divine things in a sacred manner. Through these divine visions, our glorious Fathers were initiated by the ministry of the angels. Does not the divine Scripture also teach that the sacred legislation was handed down to Moses by God Himself, ^D that it might truly teach us of its divine and holy nature? It teaches also

^A that this has dawned upon us through the angels, as that divine order itself has decreed that through the first things the second should be led up to the Divine. For indeed, this law has been defined by the supersubstantial ordinance of all things, not only regarding superior and inferior minds, but even among those of equal rank, so that in every hierarchy there are first, middle, and last orders and powers, and the more divine are mystagogues and guides of the lesser ones ^B toward divine approach and illumination and communion.

§ IV.

I see also that the divine mystery of Jesus’s love for mankind was first made known to the angels, and then through them the grace of this knowledge came down to us. Thus, for instance, the most divine Gabriel instructed Zacharias the high priest that he would have a son born of him by divine grace beyond hope, who would be a prophet of the manhood of Jesus, which was to appear to the world in a way worthy of its goodness and for its salvation; and he instructed Mary as to how the mystery of that ineffable divine formation would be born within her. Another ^C angel instructed Joseph as to how what was divinely promised to his ancestor David had been truly fulfilled. Another still brought the good news to the shepherds, as they were purified by the withdrawal and silence of the masses, and with him a multitude of the heavenly host handed down that highly-praised doxology to those on earth. Let us also look upon the most sublime illuminations of the oracles; for I see that Jesus Himself—who is the supersubstantial Cause of the supercelestial beings—when He descended amongst us without change, did not at all shun the human rank ^D which He had ordained and chosen, but rather obediently submitted Himself to the arrangements made by God the Father through the angels; and through their ministry the departure of the Son to Egypt, as ordained by the Father, and again the return from Egypt into Judea, were announced to Joseph. And through angels I see Him placed under the paternal ordinances; for I omit speaking—as to one who already knows what is set forth in our priestly traditions—of the angel who strengthened Jesus; or that Jesus Himself, in accordance with our saving plan, having come into an order of manifestation, has been called the Angel of the great counsel; for indeed, as He Himself says in a manner befitting an angel, whatever He heard from the Father, He has made known to us.

^A

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

§ I. Having defined the hierarchy in general, he moves on to celebrate the angelic hierarchy, according to the figures expressed in the Scriptures. And first, he proves that angels excel other creatures by the fact that they participate more in God. For since God calls all things to communion with Himself, those things become closer to the One calling them which participate in more ways—not only simply in His substance and life, but also in His reason and wisdom, and in His other spiritual gifts according to the proportion of the supreme minds: for those which have participated more in knowledge and wisdom approach God more; and such are the angelic orders; for, as Saint Maximus says, their substance is a ^B living mind. An angel, according to Damascene, is an intellectual substance, always in motion, free in will, incorporeal, serving God, immortal. "Substance" is posited in this definition as the genus, and it is posited in contrast to accident. One may also understand here a substance that is in some way composite—namely, composed of that which it is and that by which it is. It is called "intellectual" rather than "rational," because ratio is a virtue that compares cause and effect, and is therefore composite; but intellect, by its very nature, does not have composition and comparison, but functions without inquiry or composition, and therefore this is more suited to a simpler nature, such as an angel; but ratio is the differentia of a nature less simple, namely, man. "Always in motion"—I do not speak of motion from place to place, but "motion" here denotes a threefold mutability in an angel: namely, of nature, of intelligence, and of will. For it has mutability of nature, because every created thing is convertible into nothingness unless it is held by the hand of divine omnipotence. Similarly, the angel has mutability of intelligence; because, although in an angel there is no vicissitude of intelligence regarding things known in the Word, since it possesses a deiform intellect, according to Dionysius, yet there can be in it, regarding the cognition of things in its own nature, a vicissitude of intelligence regarding things to be learned. And this is what Saint Augustine says, that every created being possessing an intellect understands one thing after another. Also, the angel is mobile in will, because it does not will this and that at the same time. Also, it can be called "always in motion" by the motion of love. "Free in will." This is not said because of an indifferent inclination toward good and evil, but on account of the free choice of those things which it has willed. Whence the good angel always freely chooses the good, and the evil angel freely and without coercion chooses the evil. "Incorporeal." Because it is a spirit devoid of corporeal nature. "Serving God." Ministry is used here for every kind of service; and according to this mode, the attendants as well as those who are ministering, and even the demons, minister. "Immortal." Because it lacks matter and form, from the dissolution of which death follows. Angels, according to Isidore, are "spirits, created changeable in nature, but made immutable by contemplation, impassible in soul, rational in mind, secure in happiness: they rule the world when commanded, when sent they assume airy bodies, they dwell in the heavens." Concerning them, St. Bernard says: "Let us investigate the investigable, and first that spirits are powerful, glorious, blessed, distinct in persons, arranged in dignities, standing in their order from the beginning, perpetual in immortality, pure in mind, kind in affection, pious in religion, individual in unanimity, secure in peace, devoted to divine praises and services." Also in angels there is the dignity of creation, the grace of confirmation, love of the Creator, and vision of the Godhead. There is also in the angels, as was said above, the subtlety of essence, the perspicacity of intelligence, the faculty of free will, and the speed of agility. They all obey promptly. The greater ones preside without pride, the lesser ones submit without vice; those who go out to external things do not recede from interior contemplation; the superiors participate in every virtue of the inferiors, not the other way around. Those who excel in nature excel in grace and in glory. In the same order, it is believed that some are worthier than others. They have a twofold vision—namely, morning and evening. The illuminations which they receive from those superior to them, they bestow upon others.

§ II. He says they are called angels because they indeed announce, and as far as possible, manifest the hidden things of God; and he shows that visions and divine manifestations are wont to be represented always through the mediation of angels. For by them the Law was given, Gal. 3: "The Law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator"; and Acts 7: "Who have received the Law by the disposition of angels." And before the Law, Abraham and Manoah and others; and after the Law, Joseph and Peter and others successively were led by angels to do the will of God, as in Matthew and Acts 11, and they announced what needed to be done, as in the cases of Joshua, Gideon, and others; and they turned men away from error, as Cornelius, Acts 11, and others. And they manifest the sacred orders, as in Dan. 7; Ezekiel saw ten hundred thousand standing before the face of God, the cherubim, c. 1; Isaiah saw the seraphim, c. 6. Likewise visions of mysteries, as in Exod. 3 to Moses and the bush; and in Paul being rapt, II Cor. 12, and in the Apocalypse of John. Or divine predictions, as in Manoah and others. In many ways they manifest the mystery of God. A beautiful question regarding this place is raised by D. Thomas in ^C Quæst. disput., quæst. 11, art. 3, whether a man can be taught by an angel. And he resolves that an angel operates in relation to man in a twofold way: namely, in one way, ours, as when it appears to man sensibly, either by assuming a body or in any other way, and instructs him through sensible speech, and so the angel teaches no differently than a man. In another way, proper to itself: namely, invisibly, and thus, since the angel is a medium between God and man, a medium of teaching also befits it, lower indeed than God, but superior to man. To clarify this, it must be known that there is this difference between the intellect and the corporeal vision: that for the corporeal vision all its objects are equally accessible to be known, but for the intellect not so; rather, it can behold some things immediately, but others not, unless from other observed principles. Thus, therefore, man receives knowledge of the unknown through the intellectual light and through primary conceptions known by themselves, which are compared to the light of the agent intellect as instruments to the workman.

As for both, God is the cause of man's knowledge in the most excellent manner, because He has both endowed the soul itself with intellectual light and impressed upon it the knowledge of primary principles, which are as it were certain seminaries of the sciences, just as in other natural things He has implanted the seminal reasons of all effects to be produced. Man, however, since his nature is equal to another man in the species of intellectual light, cannot be the cause of knowledge for another by infusing or increasing the light, but only insofar as knowledge of the unknown is caused through principles known by themselves; he exists in a way as a cause of knowing for another, not as if drawing out the knowledge of principles, but just as that which was contained implicitly and in a way potentially in the principles, he reduces to act through certain sensible signs shown to the exterior sense. An angel, however, since it has by nature part of the intellectual light more perfect than man, can from both parts be a cause of knowing for him, yet in a way lower than God and higher than man. Indeed, on the part of the light, although it cannot infuse it as God does, it can nevertheless constrain that which is already infused, for more perfect cognition. ^D

^A principiorum potest hominem docere. Not by handing down the knowledge of the principles themselves—as God does—nor by deducing conclusions from these principles, proposing them under sensible signs; but by forming certain species in the imagination, which can be formed from the agitation of the corporeal organ, as is evident in those who are sleeping or are mentally impaired, who, according to the diversity of the phantasms ascending to the head, undergo diverse phantasms. And in this way, through the commingling of another species, it can happen that the angel shows to the one with whom he is commingled those things which he himself knows, through images of this kind, as the divine Augustine says in Chapter XI of his work *On Genesis, Literally Interpreted*. Whence it must be said that, although an angel teaches internally if compared to a man who merely proposes doctrine to external senses, if he is compared with God, who infuses light into the mind, his doctrine is considered external.

§ III. He says that God never appeared immediately by Himself, and that no one has seen that hidden aspect of God. Note here with Saint Maximus how Saint Dionysius interprets what Saint John says in his 1st Epistle, Chapter IV, 9: "No man hath seen God at any time." For because he knew that He appeared to man in Scripture—as to Adam in paradise, to Abraham at the oak of Mambre, and to him setting out for Sodom, and to Moses and others—he says now that no one has seen, nor will see, the hidden aspect of God, that is, that which is His very substance. Or more profoundly: no one could ever comprehend with his intellect, nor express, what God is, nor will be able to. However, when it is said in Scripture that He appeared or was seen, it must be understood in this way: that each of those men, according to the proportion of his faith, was considered worthy of a certain vision which represented God to him; through which vision he received an illumination of divine knowledge that came upon him. He calls such a vision a *Theophany*, or an "appearing of God," because indeed in it an angel sustained the person of God. For they assume, says Athanasius in his *Questions to Prince Antiochus*, the figures of an angel for whomever the Lord God wishes, and in that manner they appear to those who are worthy, and reveal divine mysteries to them. From this it can be perceived that vision, likeness, and *theophany* represent the same thing. To this is also added that through intermediate angels, having assumed figures according to God’s nod, such likenesses are formed.

If anyone should say, however, that God appeared immediately to certain saints, etc.—hence divine Thomas in his II *Sentences*, distinction seventeen, article four, raises the question whether the species of visible mission were formed by the ministry of angels. There are two opinions on this. Some indeed say that the missions of the New Testament differ from the apparitions of the Old Testament in this: that the apparitions of the Old Testament were made through angels, as the saints commonly hold; but the missions of the New Testament were made immediately by the divine Persons; wherefore in those species, the divine Persons are said to be sent, and not angels. ^B Others, conversely, say that both are rendered perfect by the ministry of the angels.

Both appear to say something true in a certain respect: inasmuch as in the apparition of the Old Testament, as well as in the visible mission of the New Testament, two things must be considered, namely that which appears externally, and that which is effected or signified internally—but nevertheless in different ways; because in the apparition of the Old Testament that which appears externally is not referred to as a sign of that which is internal, but to something else, such as to signify the Trinity, or something of this kind: whence that which is internal is nothing other than the very knowledge or illumination of the soul concerning the things which are signified through external signs. And because divine illuminations, according to Dionysius, descend into us through angels, therefore in those apparitions both things were done by the ministry of angels, namely that which is external and that which is internal: and therefore in no way is there a mission of a divine Person, which is only considered according to the immediate effect of the Person Himself. But in the visible mission, that which appears externally is a sign of that which was effected internally, either then or beforehand; whence internally there is not only proposed some knowledge, but some effect of grace-making grace, which is immediately from the divine Person, by reason of which this is said to be sent. Whence in the visible mission, that which is internal is effected immediately without the ministry of angels, by reason of which the divine Person is said to be sent. As for that, however, which is external, angels have the ministry. Thus Saint Gregory in the third book of his *Moralia*.

§ IV. He says that our Lord Jesus Christ was also announced by angels; and that many things were revealed concerning Him, and to Him Himself, through the mediation of angels. Note here certain sublime forms of speaking used by Dionysius. When he says that through the angel it was manifested to Zechariah that the child to be born from Him would be a prophet of ^C "the benign and saving appearing to the world of the manly theurgy of Jesus" (thus the codex of the Caesar, better than the printed *Moretti* *hierourgias*), he signifies the human and divine dispensation of Jesus, appearing to the world as benign and at the same time healthy; because God was performing divine works in human flesh, which elsewhere he names *theandrica*, that is, God-man-ly. And so by saying *manly*, he teaches that He was perfect man; by saying *divine*, he teaches that He was at the same time perfect God. But for Mary, it is signified "how in her will be brought about the God-ruling mystery of the ineffable God-forming," how in her that other divine, ineffable mystery of the God-forming was being consumed, it is said that He was formed, God in the womb of the Virgin and mother, in the same sense as it is said that the Word was made flesh. And a little later he says that Christ Himself did not refuse this order, that is, he did not consider it unworthy, if, although He was the Lord of angels, He nevertheless obeyed them. And so this Dionysius said "He did not refuse," just as Paul said in his Epistle to the Philippians, ch. II: "Who, when He was in the form of God," that is, true God, "thought it not robbery," that is, he did not consider it unworthy, if, being otherwise equal to God in nature, and not falsely claiming divinity for Himself, as one who steals what belongs to another, He nevertheless became man; ^D "but obediently submits Himself to the dispositions of the Father and of God through the angels," but rather He obediently submits Himself to the forms effected by God the Father through the angels. Indeed, we see Him also subject to paternal laws through the angels. Since Christ was made under the law, as the Apostle says to the Galatians IV, and the law was given through the angels, as it says in Galatians III, for that reason Christ is said to have been made under the law through the angels. "For I omit to say, as one knowing those things which have been transmitted in our priestly traditions concerning the angel confirming Jesus." For I omit to say, as knowing what are expressed in our sacred traditions concerning that angel confirming Jesus. Saint Maximus says that Dionysius signifies that this mystery concerning the confirming angel had been handed down to him and Timothy *agraphos*, that is, without writing; which was indeed later written by Luke in the Gospel which Paul was preaching, and had learned from Paul.

PARAPHRASE BY PACHYMERES

§ 1. Since the Hierarchy itself, in its entirety and universality, whether you call it the celestial or our own, has been rightly defined, as I think, according to the mode of philosophizing, come now—at least for the present—let us investigate and learn of the angelic hierarchy alone as it is, since this surely redounds to the praise of God, the author of these things. ^A For if the knowledge of God is glorified even in the case of humans, according to the text: *Thy knowledge is become wonderful from me* (Ps. CXXXVIII, 6); how much more shall the super-essential Godhead be magnified and praised in that which we contemplate regarding the angels? But not with sensitive eyes, but with supramundane and intelligible eyes, that through the mystical images expressed in the Scriptures, we may be led to their simplicity. ^B For we hear in the Scriptures of oxen and lions, and certain other compositions, which, as we revolve them in our mind, we consider according to their proper character; and thus what is composite to the senses becomes simple to the intellect; and the cause of the hierarchical discipline, that is to say God, is magnified with the thanksgivings competent to the Founder of rites. For just as a king is magnified by royal words, which indeed befit royal dignity; so too are thanks rendered to that Nature which establishes sacred rites, with ritual words congruous to It.

We say, first of all, in accordance with the truth, so that no one, hearing of the greatness of the powers, might judge them to be above creatures, that God established all of them by goodness, and not by necessity. For it is the property of this goodness of God, the cause of all things and above all, to invite existing things to the communion of Himself, according to the definition of each one's capacity. ^C For according to the measure by which each thing is what it is, it also participates in the divine Numen; so that if it is inanimate, it has existence alone; but if it is an animal, it also possesses life; but if it is also a participant in reason, it possesses the faculty of reasoning and understanding, as he posits in the course of his discourse. Therefore, all things that exist participate in the divine providence, which flows from the super-essential Deity. Hence, indeed, says Gregory the Theologian, "The good had to be diffused": because evil has neither subsistence nor existence, as it does not participate in God and appears according to the privation of habit, but does not exist even exemplarily in essence. ^D For how could anything be, if it did not participate in the essence of things? By "Existent" he here calls the most holy Trinity, which, being the creator, beginning, and cause of created things, is said to be participated in by those very things which have come into existence through It.

Therefore, all things that are inanimate, since they only are, participate in the divine Numen according to their being, although the Numen of God is above that being; but as for those things which act and live, besides participating in entity, they also participate in the vivifying and divine power, even if It is above all life;

^A For those which are rational, as we are, and spiritual, as the angels are, partake of that self-perfect wisdom: for this is the Word and Intellection of God, even if these things are above word and mind. We gather, therefore, from these things that the spiritual beings approach God in every way; for they partake of Him in many ways—both as they exist, and as they live, and as they are rational, and further, as they are spiritual.

§ II. The holy and heavenly orders, therefore, are above those things which merely exist or are inanimate; they are above those that live without reason, and above those that are rational according to us—namely, human beings. For the former partake of the divine gift simply, the latter twofold, and the others threefold; but these spiritual and heavenly natures partake of it fourfold and in many ways. ^B Yet, just as it is for us to observe that we are named from the higher qualities—and it is said that we are rational more properly than we are merely animals or beings—so it is also in the case of the divine powers. For they are beings, and they live, and they possess reason, and yet they are called spiritual. And just as it brings us honor to move according to reason, so for them it provides an imitation of God; for they are moved spiritually and gaze upon the divine likeness, and from thence they desire to fashion their own spiritual form. And for this reason, they naturally have more unions with It—in that they exist, in that they live, in that they are rational, and further in that they are spiritual and remain near and are not ^C scattered by diverse opinions, as happens to us (for those who are in God are gathered together, as we learn from the divine Scriptures. When the first of the disciples was about to move according to the world, he said: "I go fishing," clearly meaning, "I am separated from you." But when the faithful believed and were in accordance with God, he says: "They were gathered in one place"), and they are always extended toward the things above in intensity of divine and unswerving love. For who among us has ever sought or had a desire to receive the motion of cattle or some property of a stone? Rather, the desire is always toward the things above. This is the case also with the angelic and divine powers; they are always desiring and receiving the primordial and divine illuminations, and they are ordered ^D according to them, and they possess their whole life as spiritual. For their essences are a living mind. Therefore, as they are near, they receive the first participation; but as they possess many natural aptitudes for participation, they become partakers of the Divine in many ways, and again they manifest in a primary and manifold way the divine-ruling secrecy. For this reason they are also called angels: namely, because the divine secrecy of God is manifested through them—that He is, that He lives, that He is mind, even if He is incomparably above these things—or because the divine will is ferried across to us through them. For in this way even the Law was spoken by angels, according to the great Apostle, and to the glorious ones before the Law, such as Abraham and Manoah and the rest; and after the Law, as to Joseph, to Peter, to those who...

the rest of our Fathers, the angels guided them to the divine will, partly by teaching them what was to be done and turning them away from error, as in the case of Cornelius; and partly by leading them to sacred orders, as in the case of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah; of whom the one saw ten thousand times ten thousand angels standing by, another saw the throne and the things that the Cherubim held, and another saw Him who sits upon the throne, and the Seraphim in a circle; or [they revealed] visions of mysteries, as in the case of Moses at the bush; or they manifested divine predictions, as in the case of Manoah and Daniel. ^B

§ III. Here he solves an objection, saying: If any one should say that there have been divine apparitions to some people even without angels, according to the text: "The Lord appeared unto Abraham," and "God said to Jacob," let him learn this clearly, not from us, but from the Scriptures themselves: that the hidden essence of God itself no one has seen or shall see, according to the Evangelist John, and what was said to Moses. Divine apparitions were made to the holy ones, not because God himself appeared as He is in Himself (for this is impossible), but because those who saw, being rendered worthy of divine illumination, saw through certain holy visions, proportionate to themselves, the things which they saw. ^C

Therefore, that vision which mirrored the divine likeness through the leading and illumination of those who beheld it towards the divine Numen, the all-wise Theology calls a "theophany," inasmuch as through this very vision the divine illumination was brought to pass, and those who saw were sacredly instructed in other divine matters. And our Fathers learned these visions through the mediation of the heavenly powers. For do we not learn from the sacred writings that the holy legislation given to Moses by God Himself was [also mediated], so that Moses might instruct us in the truth that this legislation was an effiguration of another divine and holy legislation, namely, that which is through Christ and the divine incarnation of the Word? ^D

Indeed, the great Paul declares that this was promulgated through angels, and holy Stephen makes this clear, saying: "Who received the law for the dispositions of angels, and did not keep it." For the law and the order of the law require this; for the law was made for the sake of order. Therefore, both the law and its order require that those who are posterior should be led to the divine Numen through those who are prior, just as the legal regulations provide, by which the priests of the people are constrained. This also has its place in the heavenly powers. For it is possible to see such a regulation of order not only in the more sublime and lower powers—that is to say, of the three supreme orders, the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones, and of the three that follow these, and of the three that are beneath them—

^A but also among the equals themselves, that is to say, the three alone, so that there are orders first, middle, and last; for in all of them there are three, and three, and three powers; and in each single equal order, all three are present, so that both there and here the first, the middle, and the last are discerned. It was appropriate, then, that even in the lower illuminations, the mysteries should be transmitted from God to men through others, that is to say, through the angelic orders; for there too the more divine initiates are the guides of those who are lesser toward divine communion and illumination.

§ IV. I perceive also that the mystery regarding the incarnation and humanity of Jesus was first disclosed to the angels, and then the grace of this knowledge passed through them to men; for thus ^B Gabriel instructed Zacharias that the child to be born of him contrary to hope would be a prophet. And a prophet of what subject? Of the appearance of the Son of God in the flesh. For he calls Christ the Lord’s incarnation a "virile operation" of God, according to which, being God, He wrought divine things in the flesh. And he instructed the Virgin Theotokos as to how the ineffable mystery of the divine formation would come to pass within her. He calls it "divine formation" because, being God, He was formed in the womb of the most pure Mother of God, in so far as He became man. Another angel likewise taught Joseph how He who was promised to David, from the fruit of his loins, to be placed upon his throne, was already receiving his temporal beginning according to the body; ^C and another brought the good news to the shepherds, as men who were withdrawn from the many and living in quiet, with whom also a multitude of the heavenly host glorified the One who was born. All these things are proofs that divine manifestations occur through certain powers, and not immediately, as some might suppose.

Now our discourse, proceeding further, reaches the Savior Himself; for He, the super-essential Cause of the heavenly powers, having come to our state without change, does not depart from the human disposition, in that what pertains to Him is revealed and ordered by God and Father through angels; for through their mediation is announced to Joseph the withdrawal into Egypt ^D and the return again from Egypt to Judea. And through angels we see Him placed under the Law; for such a law was given through angels, under which, having been placed, He surely receives the sanction of the Law through angels. I omit to recount to you, as one who knows, O Timothy, the mysteries of the Scriptures, and concerning the angel who strengthened Christ the Lord in the time of the passion; for what the great Luke relates in the Gospel was handed down as a mystery to them by the apostle Paul. One thing moreover surpasses these, that He Himself is called by Isaiah the Angel of the Great Counsel, having come in His turn into a manifesting order for the sake of our salvation, and speaking in the manner of an angel: "Whatever I have heard from the Father, these things I have declared," and "I have manifested Your name to the

I have heard from the Father, these things I have spoken (John xv, 15), and that other: I have manifested thy name to men (John xvii, 6); for this is the manifestation.

CAPUT V. Why all celestial essences are called by the common name of angels.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER.

^B This, then, is the cause—insofar as we can grasp it—of the angelic designation in the Scriptures; yet I judge that we must also inquire why the theologians call all the celestial essences together "angels," but when they come to the explanation of their supermundane orderings, they call that order specifically "angelic" which closes the fulfillment of the divine and celestial ranks; and before this one, they rank the archangelic dispositions, and the principalities, and the powers, and the authorities, and whatever spirits the tradition that explains the Scriptures recognizes as higher than these. We assert, therefore, that according to every sacred ordering, the superior ranks possess also the illuminations and powers of the lower orderings, but the lowest are not in turn participants in those superior to them. Therefore, the theologians ^C call those most holy hosts of the supreme spirits "angels" also, because they too manifest the divine illumination. But there was no reason to call the lowest order of the celestial intelligences by the name of principalities, or thrones, or seraphim: for it does not participate in those most excellent powers, but just as this order leads our divine high priests toward the illuminations of the Godhead that are appointed for it, so also the most holy powers that precede these spirits raise that particular differentiation—which fills the angelic hierarchies—up to the divine Numen. Unless, perhaps, someone might say that all the angelic appellations are common, according to the participation of all the celestial powers in the Godlike quality and the illumination from God, whether that communication be more remiss or more eminent. But so that our discourse may proceed more distinctly for us, let us contemplate with a pure mind the sacred properties of every celestial order, as they have been elucidated for us in the Scriptures.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS.

^A And yet, it is necessary to inquire for what reason the theologians call all the heavenly powers by the common name of angels; and yet, when they come to the manifestation and declaration of the orders, they properly call only the lowest order—the one which completes and finishes the heavenly orders—angels. Above this order is that of the archangels, and beyond that, the principalities, and beyond these, the powers, and whatever other superior essences the traditions of the Scriptures acknowledge. He solves the difficulty from this point, saying that through every sacred distribution, according to the three ternaries of orders, the higher ones indeed possess the illuminations and powers of the lower ones, but not the contrary; the lower ones do not share in all things with the higher, just as it happens among us. For the rational human being possesses also the irrational and vegetative powers, but it does not possess these as having specifically the rational power. For this reason, then, the theologians call even the highest essences, and those which follow after them, by the name of the inferior and lowest ones—namely, angels—for they also manifest and announce the illumination from God. But as for the angels themselves, the lowest order, there is no reason to call them Seraphim or Thrones; for they do not in every respect participate in the fullness of those most sublime illuminations, but rather, just as the order of angels [receives] those who… ^B

PARAPHRASIS OF PACHYMERES

Replying to what has been said, he says: "This, indeed, as far as concerns us and according to our capacity to speak, is the cause of the angelic denomination." It must be inquired further for what reason the theologians call all the celestial virtues alike "angels"; but when they come to the manifestation and declaration of those orders, they properly call "angels" the innermost order, which completes and terminates the celestial orders; while the one that is above this they acknowledge to be that of the archangels, and then of the principalities, and above that, of the powers and virtues, and whatever other superior essences the traditions of the Scriptures recognize.

He solves the doubt by saying that through every sacred distribution, according to the three ternaries of orders, the superior ones indeed possess the illuminations and virtues of the inferior ones, but not vice versa, that the inferior ones should communicate with the superior ones in all things: just as it happens also among us. For a rational man has, to be sure, also irrational and vegetative virtues, yet these do not, as such, properly possess the power of reasoning. Therefore, the theologians call even the supreme essences and those which follow upon them by the name of the inferior and innermost ones, "angels"; for indeed they also manifest and announce the illumination of God. But as for the angels themselves, or the lowest order, there is no reason to call them Seraphim or Thrones; for they do not participate in all the most sublime illuminations of these, but just as the order of angels [is to] those who...

to the divine things among us, leads them to the illuminations which they themselves have received from God, so also do these natures bring about this distribution, which evidently completes the angelic order. Unless, perhaps, one might say, according to another solution, that the nine orders share ^A a common name, because they also have a common illumination and divine participation, though not equal, but rather lessened or more excellent; just as it happens that, among us, both the swan and the snow are commonly called white, because they share in whiteness, albeit in greater or lesser degree; for the heavenly orders also announce the divine illumination in the manner in which they receive it; but they receive it, some indeed more, others less. In this respect, therefore, all may ^B rightfully be called angels. But that the discourse may be clearer, let us look with reverence upon the sacred things that are in the Scriptures, I mean the holy properties of every heavenly order.

Chapter VI. What is the first distinction of celestial essences, what the middle, and what the last.

SYNOPSIS CAPITIS. 1. Docet, solum Deum exacte nosse quæ ad omnes ordines angelorum spectant. II. Tradit, novem ordines angelorum in tres hierarchias esse distributos.

§ I. How great indeed are the dispositions of the supercelestial essences, and what sort they are, and in what manner their sacred orders are initiated, I deem ^C to be known exactly only by that divine principle by which they are consecrated; besides this, they themselves have clear insight into their own powers and illuminations, and their own sacred and supermundane order: for we are not able to understand the mysteries of these supercelestial minds, and their most holy perfections, unless perhaps someone asserts that we know those things which, through their ministry—for they know their own affairs well—the Godhead Itself has taught us. Therefore, we shall say nothing of our own motion; but being instructed as to what angelic spectacles have been seen by the holy theologians, we ^D shall set them forth as best we are able.

§ II. Theology has called all the heavenly substances by nine explanatory names: these our divine initiator has distinguished into three ternary distributions. And he says that the first is that which is always around God, and is handed down to be joined to Him continually and more immediately than the others: for, indeed, the most holy thrones, and the many-eyed and many-

-winged orders, named in the Hebrew tongue Cherubim and Seraphim, the explanation of the sacred oracles asserts, are established immediately around God with an eminence of proximity above all others. This ternary distribution, therefore, as one, like-ordered, and truly first hierarchy, our glorious instructor mentioned; than which there is no other more godlike, nor more immediately close to the primal illuminations of the Godhead. He states that the second is filled by the Authorities, Lordships, and Powers. And the third, and the last of the celestial hierarchies, he says is the arrangement of the Angels, Archangels, and Principalities. ^A

CORDERIUS' ANNOTATIONS.

§ I. Note the noteworthy humility of St. Dionysius, who, before he explains the angelic orders more distinctly, professes himself unequal to understanding them, let alone explaining them; and therefore, that he will say nothing of his own motion, but will only set forth those visions which he had learned to have appeared to the Apostles and other writers of Holy Scripture. As to how angels cannot be precisely known by us in this life, see what has been said in the annotations to the first chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy, § 2, where we show that our mind cannot contemplate the angels through itself.

§ II. Note that St. Dionysius calls the celestial spirits "substances" or "essences," namely by excellence, as those who hold the primacy among other substances; elsewhere he calls them powers or “operations.” See what has been said above in chapter three, § 1, and below in chapter 11 [of the original work]. Note that he divides the nine orders into three hierarchies, each of which comprises three orders: the first, namely, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim; the second, powers, lordships, and virtues [the text here discusses the hierarchy of the orders; note that St. Dionysius in the two latter hierarchies has inverted the order].

St. Gregory, in *Moralia*, lib. II, recounts the celestial hierarchies in a somewhat different order, namely: in the first, Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, whose first contemplate God's goodness, the second His truth, and the third His equity. And in the first, indeed, God loves as Charity, in the second He is known as Truth, and in the third He sits as Equity.

In the middle he places Lordships, Principalities, and Powers, of which the first govern the duties of the angels, the following preside over the heads of peoples, and others restrain the power of demons. Likewise, in the first, God holds dominion as Majesty, in the following He rules as Principality, and in the last He protects as Salvation.

In the final hierarchy he places Virtues, Archangels, and Angels: to the first of whom pertains the working of miracles; to the second, the announcement of great matters; to the third, the solicitude of human guardianship. Likewise, in the first, God works as Virtue; in the second, He reveals as Light; in the third, He speaks as an Inspirer.

We, however, must be assimilated to the Seraphim through charity, to the Cherubim through knowledge, and to the Thrones through equity; likewise to the Lordships by subduing the flesh; to the Principalities by exhibiting reverence to our superiors; to the Powers by resisting diabolical temptations; likewise, we must be assimilated to the Virtues through compassion, to the Archangels through instruction, and to the Angels by the exhibition of obedience. ^B

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES.

§ I. Just how many the celestial distinctions and divine orders are, and of what quality, and how the mysteries of the hierarchy are accomplished according to them, I say is known only to the divine principal of initiation who founded them, and who is the beginning of all initiation and all mystery; moreover, that they themselves know their own virtues and illuminations, and their sacred organization, but not one another; for those of a lower order do not possess the capacity to know the things of those that are superior, but each one knows his own things; for this reason he said "their own virtues," for it is impossible for us to know their things, unless we speak of those things which we have received through them, by God’s revelation. But since they know their own things precisely, they shall also fittingly minister to us for such a mystagogy. ^C

^A § II. Theology has called all the heavenly substances and their orders nine, by names which reveal and announce the mysteries of God—or rather, the angelic ones. Our illustrious Initiator—or if it be the divine Hierotheus, or rather he who was caught up to the third heaven and snatched from there into paradise, namely the great Paul—divides these into three triadic orders. Concerning the first, which is around God and is united to Him immediately and proximately, he speaks of the most holy Thrones, and of the many-eyed ones—as possessing a fullness of knowledge—and the many-winged ones—as being most active and burning; these the Hebrew language is accustomed to call Cherubim and Seraphim, the reason for which shall be stated in what follows. ^B The tradition of the oracles asserts that this first distribution is placed immediately around God; our illustrious Master also used to say that this was one and of the same dignity, than which there is no other distribution more attentive to the primal and divine illuminations. The second is that of the Powers, the Dominations, and the Virtues; and after this, the third, which completes the disposition of the Angels, Archangels, and Principalities. ^C But notice this, that some, prompted by this enumeration, arrange the first distribution thus: first the Thrones, then the Cherubim, and afterwards the Seraphim; and for this reason they say that the inscription of the seventh chapter, and also the teaching of these three orders, is to be compared with the two subsequent triadic orders: for in those he recounts them from above to below, but here not so, but from below to above. And some indeed do it this way, while others place the Seraphim first, then the Cherubim, and next the Thrones; becoming moved to this by Isaiah, who says that the Seraphim stand in a circle around God, and more so by the inscriptions of the eighth and ninth chapters, saying that the Saint, according to the order of those, thus also inscribed the title of the seventh chapter. But if anyone says that the Thrones were exalted, let them know that the Seraphim are also fiery and borne upwards. ^D Otherwise, these three orders also have one eminent proximity. But he recounts them in this way here, and begins from the Thrones, so that he may in some way provide for unity, either according to the reason of our knowledge and illumination (for how often is there a transition from the lower to the higher?), or according to the manner of describing and defining; for by ascending we contract the multitude into one, just as by descending we divide the one into many. Since, therefore, he unites the three into the one, for this reason he makes such an enumeration.

enumerates: thus far, however, he assigns nine orders, which he divides into three distributions—namely, the first, the last, and the middle; so that the three also have one supereminent nearness.

CHAPTER VII. Concerning the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones, and concerning their First Hierarchy.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER.

§ I.

Approving this order of the holy hierarchies, we profess that every appellation of the celestial intelligences contains a declaration of the Godlike property innate in each of them. And the holy name of the Seraphim, as those skilled in the Hebrew tongue say, signifies either "burners" or "heaters"; and [the name] Cherubim [signifies] "a multitude of knowledge" or "an outpouring of wisdom." With good reason, therefore, the first of the celestial hierarchies is administered by the most sublime natures, [as] it possesses an order higher than all, ^B and to it, as being nearest, the primary theophanies and initiations are conveyed more principally by God. They are named "Heaters," therefore, and "Thrones," and the "outpouring of wisdom," by a name indicative of their Godlike dispositions: for the Seraphim name clearly signifies their unceasing and indomitable motion about things divine, and their warmth, and sharpness, and the boiling-over of an intense and never-intermitted or declining motion; and their faculty for uplifting those who are beneath them to the heights and ^C truly exciting and inflaming them to like fervor, and likewise the power of burning them up thoroughly and whole, and [their] openness and unquenchableness, and [their] having always, in the same manner, a light-formed and illuminating property, being a dispeller and extinguisher of all dark gloom. And the name of the Cherubim [teaches] of their knowing and God-seeing [power], and [their] susceptibility to the highest outpouring of light, and [their] power to contemplate in the primary origin ^D the beauty of the Godhead, and [that they are] replenished with the wisdom-making participation, and are communicable, without envy, to those below, in the outpouring of the imparted wisdom. And the name of the most high and exalted Thrones denotes that which is removed precisely from all low-lying depression, and [their] upward-tending, super-mundane ascent, and [their] being situated, without inclination, far from the lowest extremities, and [their] being established unshakeably and firmly with total powers around the truly Most High, and [their] susceptibility in all impassibility and immateriality to the divine visitation, and [their] being God-bearing and therapeutically opened for the reception of things divine.

^A And this is the interpretation of the names themselves, as far as we are able to grasp it; but we must now state what we conceive their hierarchy to be. For that the aim of every hierarchy is the constant dependence upon the imitation of the divine deiformity, and that every hierarchic function is divided into the sacred participation and communication of purificatory purity, of divine light, and of perfective knowledge, I consider to have been sufficiently said by us already. But now, for the sake of these supreme minds, I desire to express in what manner their sacred order is explained by the Scriptures. It is to be considered that these first essences, which are placed after their substantial Godhead, and as if situated in its vestibule, transcend every created power, both invisible and visible, and occupy a peculiar and uniform hierarchy. They are to be deemed pure, not as if they were freed from impure stains and defilements, or because material impressions do not fall upon them, but because they are altogether higher than every falling away and every sacred thing subjected to them; because, above supreme purity, they are set before all virtues, even the most deiform, and constantly maintain the proper and equable motion of their own order through the love of God, ^B invariantly, and acknowledge no diminution into what is worse, but have an unshaken and forever immovable seat of their own deiform property. They are also contemplative, not as spectators of symbols which are perceived by sense or mind, nor raised to God by the variety of the contemplation of the sacred Scriptures, but as filled with a light higher than all simple knowledge, and, as far as is lawful, satisfied with the contemplation of that beauty which is the maker and origin of beauty, and which is above substance and shines in the Trinity. They are likewise made participants of the communion of Jesus, not as if they were in sacredly fashioned images which express a deifying similitude as if they were forms within them, but as truly approaching Him in the very first participation of the thought of His deifying lights; and indeed, because the manner of imitating God is granted to them in a most sublime way, and they share in His divine and human virtues in the primary power, as far as is lawful for them. ^C They are likewise perfect, not as if they were illuminated by a science of resolving these sacred varieties, but because they are satisfied by the first and preeminent union with God, according to that supreme discipline of divine works of which angels are capable: since they are not initiated into sacred things by other holy spirits, but by the Godhead Itself, as they are led to the immediate extension toward It, ^D by the power and order that surpasses all things, and are established toward the all-holy and all-impassible, and are led to a vision of the immaterial and intellectual beauty, as is lawful, and are established regarding the scientific reasons of the divine works, as primary and about God.

^A

§ III.

This the theologians clearly declare: that the lower orders of the celestial essences are taught the theurgic sciences in an orderly fashion by those that have preceded them; but those that are the highest of all are initiated, as is lawful, by the Godhead Itself, and are illuminated by It. For they introduce some of them as being sacredly initiated by their superiors regarding who the Lord of the celestial powers is, and the King of glory, who was assumed into heaven in human form; and others as questioning about Jesus Himself, and longing for the science of that theurgy of His which was for our sake, and as being directly initiated by Jesus Himself, for He reveals to them His own philanthropic goodness. For, He says, "I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation." And I marvel that even the first of the celestial essences, and as much as they excel all others, yearn with holy fear for the divine illuminations just as the middle ones do; for they do not ask of themselves ^B immediately, "Why are thy garments red?" but first they hesitate within themselves, amazed, showing that they are eager to learn and desire the cognition of the divine operation, but do not anticipate the divine illumination which is granted to them according to the divine procession. Therefore, the first hierarchy of the celestial beings, being hierarchized by the principle of initiation itself, through that by which it is directly raised to It, is filled according to its capacity with the most holy purgation of the clear light of that pre-perfecting initiation; it is purified, and illuminated, and perfected, being free from all baseness, and full of primary light, and made a partaker of primary cognition and science. ^C And, in short, I would say not inappropriately that the participation of the divine science is a purgation, and an illumination, and a perfection: for it purifies from ignorance, in a way, through the science of perfect mysteries, which is granted to each according to his worth; it illuminates through the divine science, by which it also purifies the mind—that which before had not seen those things which are now being revealed to it through the higher illumination; and it perfects again by that same light, through the habitual science of the most manifest initiations. ^D

§ IV.

And this is indeed, as far as I can grasp, the first order of the celestial essences, which in the circle of God

and around God stands immediately, and simply and unceasingly orbits His eternal knowledge, according to that most supreme, ever-moving stability which is always in the angels; so that it enjoys many and blessed contemplations, and is illuminated by simple and immediate irradiations, and is sated with divine nourishment—abundant indeed by that first-given effusion, but one by the unvaried and unifying unity of the Godhead’s banquet. And it is deemed worthy of much communion with God and cooperation, through its assimilation to Him, as far as possible, of the most excellent dispositions and activities; and it knows many of the divine things in an eminent way, becoming a participant, as far as is lawful, in the Godhead’s science and knowledge. Wherefore theology has also handed down to those on earth its praises, in which the preeminence of its most supreme illumination is sacredly revealed. For some of it, to speak in a way accommodated to the senses, cry out like the voice of many waters: "Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place;" while others cry out that most celebrated and most venerable song of divine praise: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory." These most supreme hymnologies of the super-heavenly ^C minds—or rather, celebrations of praises—we have already explained, as far as we were able, in those works which we wrote concerning the divine hymns, and it has been said there concerning them sufficiently and more than enough according to our measure. For the sake of memory, it may suffice to repeat at present, from those things, that the first order, having been illuminated by divine goodness, as is fitting, with theological science, then subsequently transmitted this, as a beneficent hierarchy, to those following after it, teaching that—to speak in summary—the venerable and super-blessed and all-praiseworthy Godhead ought rightly to be known and hymned by God-receiving minds, as far as is possible, for these are, as the oracles say, the God-like places of the Godhead’s repose; and furthermore, that He is a Monad and a Tri-hypostatic Unity ^D, extending His most good providence from the super-heavenly essences down to the lowest parts of the earth, as being the super-essential principle and cause of every essence, and as one who super-essentially encompasses all things in His incomprehensible embrace.

ADNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS. § I. He treats of the celestial orders distributed into three hierarchies, namely the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, recounting them in reverse order. And first indeed interpreting their names, he says that the seraphim are interpreted as "burners" or "heaters," because they as it were burn with fire and divine love, and set others on fire: for *seraph* in Hebrew signifies "to burn": whence also those fiery serpents, which God sent among the Israelites (Num. xxi, 7), are called *seraphim*; but the *cherubim* signify a fullness of knowledge or a diffusion of wisdom: for which reason in Ezekiel chapter 1, they are described as full of eyes, to signify their perspicacity: which is also attributed to the thrones, whose name insinuates a state that is altogether sublime, elevated above all things, and close to the supreme Deity itself, no differently than a seat is to the one sitting, being moreover distinguished by immobility and firmness.

^A § II. The excellence of this hierarchy is shown, first, by the sublimity of its order and place; second, by its eminent purity; and third, by its preeminence in contemplation, inasmuch as it receives its illuminations immediately from the Divinity itself. For it is proper to the Seraphim to burn with the love of God, to urge others on to the conflagration of divine love, and to impart an ordered form to that love; and because they are joined immediately to God, the theophanies are in them more principal and perfect, and they do not divert themselves to any other strange object of love. The Cherubim also shine primarily and principally with the beam of divine light, for the reason that they are joined more closely to the first truth. Their office is to promote others to divine knowledge; for this reason they are said to shine more than others, because they communicate and transmit the fullness which they receive to other inferior beings. Thrones, indeed, are so called because God in a certain way sits upon them and discerns His judgments; wherefore the rectitude of divine judgment shines forth within them in particular. These also transmit the virtue of God, which they receive from above, to those beneath them.

§ III. He teaches that the inferior spirits are initiated by the superior ones, and the supreme ones by God Himself; and he shows at the same time, by the example which Isaiah sets forth regarding the angels enlightened concerning the economy of Christ, with what reverence those supreme spirits receive illumination, and how by it they are cleansed, illuminated, and perfected. Now the passage of Isaiah which he cites is from chap. LXIII, 1: *Who is he that cometh from Edom?* etc., where the victory of Christ over sin, the world, and the devil, although mystical and bloodless, is nevertheless described by way of a victory and a bloody slaughter. Hence, to the wondering angels, Christ replies that his stola—that is, his garment—is stained, not by his own blood (although many may accept this more in this way than literally), but by the blood of his enemies. He says also that he overcame them by his own virtue and trampled them as it were in a wine-press. And this victory is not unlike that in 2 Kings XII, which David achieved over the Ammonites who had violated his messengers, while he caused iron chariots to pass over them, by which they were cut asunder and crushed. Figuratively, therefore, Christ is said there to come from Edom and Bozrah, the city of the Moabites, as if from the region of his enemies; because the Idumeans, descendants of Esau, and the Moabites, descendants of Lot, were the most bitter enemies of the Jews. In response, therefore, Christ says that he is the Messiah, who procured the justice and salvation which he promised by fighting and conquering.

§ IV. He explains from Ezekiel and Isaiah how that first hierarchy is intent upon the constant praises of God. But what reverence they show in adoring God, he reveals from the vision of Isaiah, who says (ch. VI) that he saw the Lord in some corporeal guise, such as he could be seen by the prophet in that state, sitting upon a throne; and above the throne, or, as the Septuagint has it, "beside" or "in a circuit," the Seraphim were winged, also in a perceptible guise: *Six wings to one, and six wings to another; with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet*—that is, their own; for the Hebrews often do not distinguish reflexive pronouns from non-reflexive ones. Therefore, let it not be said that they covered the face or the feet of God, although some might wish it so, but rather that they covered their own faces and their own feet out of reverence—that is, their thighs or the whole lower part of the body; just as the Cherubim seen by Ezekiel covered their bodies, so that nothing indecorous might be presented to the eyes of God or the prophet who was seeing. Tropologically, the Seraphim here exhibit the type of humble, prompt, and blind obedience, while with covered faces and eyes, as if their own judgment were renounced, and with the lower part of the body covered (by which the affections are designated), they retain two wings ready for flying—that is, for the carrying out of divine commands. See more in the Opusculum of St. Bonaventure on the wings of the Seraphim, where he hands down the mystical explanation of each. *And one cried to another*, that is, with alternating voices, or *antiphonally*; for Damascene, in his work on the *Trisagion*, that is, the Thrice-Holy, hands down that the Church learned from these Seraphim to sing psalms with alternating voices; and Dionysius insinuates this here when he says that from them was transcribed this formula for celebrating God, which follows hereafter. Hence also the Church in the Preface of the Mass says: *And the blessed Seraphim.* Where note the neuter gender, which the Septuagint also use; although Seraphim, like Cherubim, are of the masculine termination and gender, and indeed the Hebrew language lacks a neuter gender. The foundation of this matter seems to be that the four Cherubim seen by Ezekiel had the form of animals, and therefore in chapter I they are called "animals," and consequently this word is used now in the masculine, now in the neuter, with the name "animal" either understood or not understood. But now, since this vision of Isaiah is very similar to that of Ezekiel, so that by some they are even thought to be the same, the Greek translators of the Septuagint, whom the Church follows, set forth the names Cherubim and Seraphim in the neuter gender. They exclaim, moreover, *Holy, holy, holy*, where some think that God, or Christ appearing in such a manner to Isaiah, is called *tersanctum*, that is, "thrice-holy," by the Seraphim; but others hold more commonly and more truly with St. Dionysius that in this vision the image of the entire Most Holy Trinity was presented to the prophet: and because of the Trinity of Persons, he is called "thrice-holy," but because of the unity of essence, he is called "Lord God" in the singular. Which is proved from Isaiah himself: First, because in ch. VI, VIII, God, as if deliberating about sending the prophet, says: *Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?* Second, because the Son, here seen by Isaiah, is clearly spoken of by St. John in ch. XII, 41. St. Paul indeed (Acts XXVIII, 26) says that this mission was performed by the Holy Spirit; behold, clearly two persons. St. Damascene says that the Father also appeared here sitting upon the throne; and the Epistle to the Hebrews confirms this sufficiently, where it says generally that God at sundry times spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. Add that otherwise there are few testimonies in the Old Testament concerning the Most Holy Trinity.

PARAPHRASIS PACHYMERAE

§ I. The seventh chapter, which is about the first and supreme group of orders, embraces the Seraphim and Cherubim and Thrones. Celebrating this, therefore, he says, we declare that every denomination of the celestial orders is pronounced in terms of our own understanding, but contains in itself the anagoge (or upward leading) of the superlative property of each underlying nature; for not only are they depicted locally and perceptibly ^B

^A but they are also described perceptibly, as far as the hearing can grasp. ^B If, however, someone says that the interpretation of the names is also spoken in a way that the ear can grasp, and that we are left with the question of what is intelligible and higher (for we know the name, for example, "the burning ones," but we also know the explanation, which declares what "the burning ones" means), and asks what it signifies for the name to be spoken perceptibly, in preference to the explanation of the name—let him know, first, that the name is more easily grasped than the rational explications, for the sake of understanding. In other words, it is easier to say "the burning ones" than to provide their explanation, just as it is easier to say "man" than to give his definition. For the former is obvious to sense, while the latter requires reason and interpretation. What is strange, then, if, since both the name of the heavenly beings and the explanation of the name fall under the sense of hearing, we still say that we demonstrate something more perceptibly through the name than through the explanation of the name? This is, then, our first point. Secondly, we do not linger so much on the explanation as if we had nothing higher to contemplate, but rather we pass the explanation on to the intellect. Hearing "the burning ones," we understand the efficacious and luminous power, and we then lead this very power of efficacy and illumination to a higher contemplation. Hence, we rightly said that they are not only depicted perceptibly, but are also spoken of perceptibly.

The holy name of the Seraphim, as the Hebrew tongue intends, signifies either "the burners" or "the warming ones." These names are both the same and different. They are the same because both are derived from fire—namely, from burning and from what might be called total consumption (for this word signifies, from *empero*, that which passes through it entirely) and from warming. They are different, again, because it is one thing to denote total burning, and another merely to warm. ^C The name of the Cherubim signifies a "multitude of knowledge" or an "outpouring of wisdom." This means that they know many things, wisely and firmly, not superficially—as one might say, things that are established in themselves.

Rightly, therefore, the first distinction is sacredly effected by the most excellent essences (for "it is sanctified" insinuates this), because they have an order superior to all, being placed immediately next to God (for there is no other order before them) and remaining immutably fixed, from whence the initiation or perfection is derived primarily unto them as to that which is nearest. He calls them "primordial theophanies" because it is in them that the theophanies first exert their power in their operation. For they grasp the divine illumination and become wise; thence comes to them both the being illuminated and the knowing. Hence, also, they are said to have six wings, because they are highly elevated. For the number six is a perfect number, because it is composed of its own parts—that is, its half, which is three; its third, which is two; and its sixth, which is one. Three and two and one are, again, six. ^D The Cherubim, however, are called "many-eyed," as possessing a multitude of knowledge. Thus, such names are named according to the manifestation and declaration of their states, which are their settled dispositions. For the divine powers possess the Godlike according to a state, and a state is a settled quality, and such a state is...

^A its essence through divine grace, and is not as an accident in a subject, because of their immateriality and incorporeity; for thence every material composition, as well as the unformed state of matter, is banished. Wherefore we cannot say that, existing first in some other state, they later received such virtues (for this belongs to composite things), nor that, being unformed matters, they were later endowed with form through such virtues; but they were created such from the beginning by divine grace. And this is clear both from Saint Dionysius himself, saying at the end of the fourth chapter of *The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy* that such states are substantial, and from the fact that he who fell, having cast off the virtues, was transferred into another, as one might say, state of nature — dark and full of envy and malice, and in all respects contrary to the divine and angelic mode of life; for such is the substantial state of the angels, just as the burning of fire is according to ^B its state.

We interpret the name of the Seraphim, therefore, in that fire is always moving, is hot, is sharp (for it penetrates the pores of even stone itself), and is an elevator of things that are beneath it; and it is clear from exhalations how they are raised by the heat of the sun. It is active towards the likeness of things that approach it, for it makes those things which draw near fiery, it burns them up completely, it purifies; it is uncovered, it has its light-giving and illuminating quality inextinguishable, and it drives darkness far away. The Seraphim possess these states in a way that transcends the world; they are tireless and ^C more than fervent, and they are moved towards God by an incessant movement, and they lead up the orders that are beneath them, and they rouse them in practice, and they assimilate them to the like fervor and the divine desire, and they act entirely as fires that purify; and the light-giving quality which they have from God, and the illuminating quality by which they illuminate others, they possess uncovered and inextinguishable; for divine desire is to them as matter, and they are beyond all darkening, as being kindled by the divine brightness.

But the Cherubim are named according to the ^D principle of our knowledge; for our knowledge is both cognitive from itself and receptive of instruction from without. For just as ignorance is twofold—the one being according to negation, when we do not know a certain thing, yet we know that we do not know, which they call simple ignorance; the other being according to a disposition, when we are deceived while being ignorant, and we think that we understand, and we do not even know this fact, that we do not know, which they rightly call double ignorance, from the fact that one does not know, and from the fact that one does not know that one is ignorant—so also knowledge is twofold: the one, in that it knows, according to which it is called cognitive; the other, in that it learns and receives knowledge, and knows that it has been benefited, according to which it is called

^A cognitive. Our knowledge is also speculative, as if investigative of things above it. It is also communicative, from the abundance of the concepts with which it is filled, pouring out instruction to those who are lower. The Cherubim possess all these things: they are cognitive and contemplative of the divine brightness, having a movement of knowledge toward that which is truly desirable, and being receptive of illumination from God through the powers prior to themselves; they are also investigative of divine beauty, but in a primordial power, according to which, manifestly, they possess the manifestations prior to others, as do the Thrones and, further, the Seraphim. For these three ranks are one certain hierarchy, and possess a primordial power over all; for the first three orders are greater than every invisible and visible power. The Cherubim are also communicative, in that they distribute the sapientific gift with which they are filled to those who are second in rank, in accordance with the outpouring of their wisdom.

Come, let us also consider the name of the holy and most high and exalted Thrones. A throne is high, raised up from earthly things; a throne is upward-bearing, and makes those who are on ^B it to be carried upward, steadfastly and firmly; a throne is capable of that which it bears, and is a receptacle for its sitter. The same may be observed regarding these holy Thrones: for they are removed from all groveling subservience and are carried upward toward that which is above, so that no abject inclination or impulse, nor inclination toward lower things, holds them. But note well that our throne makes its sitter be carried upward, whereas the most holy Thrones are so named from the fact that they are carried upward, and dwell unceasingly on high, and are established unshakably near the Most High, and prove receptive to the divine immanence. But understand these things without passion, and immaterially (for this is what "super-mundanely" means), ^C lest anyone think the journey upward is corporal, or that God might be thought to be circumscribed within them. And they are God-bearers (theophoroi), not by essence, but by grace, and are disposed in a ministering manner toward the divine receptions. I did not say "God-bearer" by essence, because the blessed Basil called the flesh "God-bearing"; but the Lord's flesh was united in essence and hypostasis to the Word of God Himself, as bearing the God Word through an inseparable union, so that it is properly and truly called, and is, His flesh; but the Thrones are called God-bearers not by essence, but by grace, as has been said, having God in themselves in an ineffable way.

§ II. This, then, is the explanation and clarification of these names, as far as we are able to speak and according to our capacity; but after this, it must be said what we consider their hierarchy and mystagogy to be. For the goal of every hierarchy—whether one calls it our own or the celestial—is to depend unswervingly ^D upon God-mimicking deiformity, and the fact that every priestly operation is divided into these two things, into...

participation and transfusion (since we first participate, and then we distribute, both we and the angels. But what do we participate in, and what do we distribute? Without question, a pure and immaterial purification, or divine light, or a perfective and mystical knowledge; for we are first purified, then illuminated, and afterwards we are perfected with knowledge and are deified; just as, in turn, we first purify, then illuminate, and afterwards we perfect scientifically)—this ^A has already been sufficiently demonstrated. Now, however, I desire to discourse worthily upon the matters proposed, namely how the hierarchy according to them is revealed to us by the holy and divine Scriptures. One must presume that to the first essences, which are established after the divine, substance-making, and creative essence, and are as it were stationed in its vestibules, and which surpass every created visible and invisible nature—that is, the first ordering of divine powers—belongs a hierarchy proper and in every way uniform to them. Next, he sets forth the properties of the hierarchy, how they are pure, how they are contemplative, how they are perfected, by pre-eminence, that is, and not according to the human way, so that the hierarchy might be proper to those natures. Therefore, they are pure, not according to the human way; for among men they are called pure who have been purified from stains and defilements, or those who have remained from birth incapable of admitting any material phantasies. ^B The first powers, therefore, are not called pure in this way, but rather as being higher and beyond every polluting down-sinking, and as being holier than every pure and holy thing that has been placed below them, according to a most exalted and incomparable purity. And just as light is established in illuminating powers, and there is no other power more proper to light than the light itself as it appears; so too these are super-established in most deiform powers, and they hold fast according to their immutability, which they obtained by the grace of God. But understand this, not as if they were immutable by nature (for only that which is immutable by nature belongs to God), but because, through an excessive striving toward the good, having inclined themselves toward the divine, they have remained in this state, possessing immutability as it were a habit; for this is their God-loving immutability. From the fact, therefore, that they love God completely, they hold fast to their own ever-moving and self-moving order, which is as it were unchangeable, immutable, and holding itself in the same way; and their motions are ceaseless operations of ^C thoughts, for they are unslumbering minds. The word "holding fast" (ἀντεχομένας) is written, and also "sustaining" (ἀνεχομένας); and they sustain, because they have no satiation, nor heaviness, nor dizziness, due to the fact that they are always moving around the same thing, which happens in our case, according to that which has been said: "Change of all things is sweet." But they sustain their own order without any inclination, and have altogether remained ignorant of any diminution toward the worse; for they possess the foundation of their own deiform property unshaken and immovable, and most unmixed with things toward the worse and the contrary state and operation. He stated how they are pure, and now he says how they are contemplative, because this also is not according to the human way; for among men, those are called contemplators who are seers of the mysteries ^D through things said symbolically, or those performed in the sensory realm concerning God. And the saints also had certain in-

^Aapparitions of God, both through sensory symbols, as Abraham and Jacob, and through intelligible ones, as one of the prophets said, And behold, the house of the Lord is full of glory; for what that glory was, we shall understand. The heavenly powers, therefore, are not contemplators in this way, nor are they led up to the divine radiance by a variety of scriptural contemplation; but they are called contemplative, as being filled with a more sublime light, and they are full not only of sensory, but of every immaterial knowledge of that which is truly and properly good, I mean the divine contemplation of the most holy Trinity; they rejoice also in the communion of Jesus himself, that is, in the participation of the glory and splendor of the body of Christ; for as the Son and his Word, he sits with the Father in the flesh.

Since, however, the hierarchy has been defined as a sacred order, and science, and operation, approaching as far as is lawful toward deiformity, and being led up to the imitation of God in proportion to the illumination divinely given to them, consider here that part of the hierarchy which is science or contemplation: how it is structured toward deiformity, and in what way it is led up to the imitation of God: for they are not conformed to deiformity by images fashioned in a sacred manner after the manner of the prophets, expressing a divine likeness (the Greek uses the masculine for the feminine, according to Attic custom, as ^B in "an illustrious Hippodamia"), but rather they are contemplative as those who truly approach Him, and are without sacred formations; for this is what is involved in the primary participation of knowledge, as though immediately and without symbols portraying the likeness. For what would the sapphire, and the electron, and whatever is of that kind, contribute to them for the contemplation of the divine radiance, when they participate in the knowledge of it immediately?

But how do knowledge and contemplation assimilate the one who knows to the deiform? Because the one who contemplates admires, and admiring desires, and desiring is purified, and being purified ^C (in proportion to the heavenly essences, he intuits the purification, as was said above) he becomes deiform, and is assimilated to the deiform. And how, he says, is he led up to the imitation of God? It has been granted to them, and they participate in it, not in its totality, but as much as is lawful for his benevolent virtues, which, according to the prophet, cover the heavens with the contemplations toward which they are led up, namely, in the primary power; for they receive the illumination from God one through another, but their tendency, and contemplation, and desire toward him, they perform as if all were primary, or in a primary power, as if in a primary order—for they were set as primary. Similarly, again, they transmit the illumination to those below them, and towards men, not with envy or any sort of stinginess, but abundantly and most fully, as if they were all primary recipients of the illumination. For this was also called earlier "theata"—the imitation of God—namely, that which is capable of bestowing upon the needy and worthy; and now this is said, because in this they participate in the benevolent virtues of God. For just as the God-befitting beauty is communicative according to desert

of its own light, so also do they distribute this illumination to the worthy, abundantly and most fully. ^A He now also says how the divine powers are called perfected. Since, therefore, we are perfected through analytical knowledge—that is, through the unfolding, explanatory, and anagogic method, and the recollection of the sacred series of symbolic visions—the divine powers are not perfected in this way, but rather as being filled by the primary and not by the intermediate symbolic surpassing theosis, according to the highest knowledge of the works of God, which indeed every hierarchy has as the guide of its knowledge and operation. But what are the divine knowledges and energies? To purify, to illuminate, to perfect; as he said regarding the angels, since such energies also occur among humans, yet for these, the illumination and perfection are given through a different kind of knowledge. These surpassing powers are not initiated by other holy essences, ^B but by the Thearchy itself, as they are stretched directly towards it in their power and order. For they do not possess their stretching toward God from the order alone, but also from the power. And this is just what the Theologian Gregory says: "I do not know whether they have their order from their splendor, or their splendor from their order; for they possess a surpassing power, and an order that is surpassing and most high." And because of this, in that they possess power, they are established toward the all-holy and immovable, and are not shaken—for this is what "immovable" means—and in that they possess a most high order, they are brought to intelligible beauty and contemplation. As far as is permissible and possible, they also receive instruction in the scientific reasons of the energies, as being primary and those that are near to God, from the Initiating Principle itself, that is, from God.

^C § III. This the prophets also clearly declare. What is this? That the primary orders are immediately illuminated by God, while the subordinate ones are [illuminated] through the surpassing ones. He therefore offers scriptural proofs for what has been said, that some of the theological prophets introduce the subordinate ones as being instructed by the former regarding Him who was assumed into the heavens in human form, saying, as they asked, "Who is this King of glory?"—just as David says in the twenty-third Psalm, "The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory." ^D Other [interpreters] introduce their persons as being in doubt around the Lord Himself, and yearning to learn the mystery of the dispensation for our sake, which is the work proper to God; for this is

true, that all things concerning the dispensation were the works of God. ^A Therefore, Isaiah says: "Who is this that comes from Edom?" and "Why are your garments red?" The former he says to themselves, the latter to the Savior Christ. To them the Savior, acting primarily by Himself and not through another, unfolds His own philanthropic beneficence. "For I," He says, "who speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation."

For the present, however, since the holy one takes the questioning Powers to be, not some other inferior orders, but the very supreme and first ones, which indeed even immediately receive the things of divine instruction, he says: I marvel how the first of the celestial essences, and as they are so far superior to all the rest, referently desire the divine illuminations so much that they learn even from one another, just as if they were of the middle order, which ought to receive illumination from the more sublime. For as we said, the middle ones have indeed an unfailing contemplation toward God and their yearning; but that which they doubt regarding what they contemplate, this they learn from the more sublime, just as if someone were borne toward the King with the whole affection of his heart, yet concerning that which he saw and doubted, received the solution from a prefect. ^B The same thing appears entirely here, as if the Virtues were of the middle order, and while they saw the One ascending, they were in doubt and sought the solution from others, according to the order which the divine Virtues possess. For, he says, they do not straightway ask the Lord, "Why are your garments red?" but first they doubt among themselves, amazed, saying: "Who is this that comes from Edom?"

Having marveled, therefore, the holy one resolves the doubt, saying that it is indicated that they are avid for learning, and desire to know the divine operation—the ineffable manner, I say, of the dispensation—yet that they do not at all forestall the divine procession of the illumination granted to them. For even if that first and supreme triad of those who were in doubt did not straightway doubt regarding the Lord—since the procession of the illumination was destined to occur in order to the three supreme ranks—what wonder is it if the Cherubim were in doubt toward the Seraphim, or the latter toward the Thrones, since the first illumination was destined to come to these, and thus through them to the Cherubim? ^C Why, then, should they forestall it and not await the illumination according to the divine procession? Then he resolves his question.

And his question was: what do we deem the hierarchy of the first essences to be? The first hierarchy of the celestial intelligences, therefore, is not governed by any other power, but by the initiating principle itself is consecrated and governed by the mystical and divine illumination; in this very act, by which it is raised toward the hierarchy of those first celestial minds, it is filled with a most holy purgation and is purified; filled again with immense and infinite light, it is illuminated; and filled again with most perfect consecration, it is perfected according to the condition of its order. For this hierarchy...

^A of the first heavenly minds is devoid of all inferiority and subjection (for the thrones are lifted up) and is full of the primary light. For the seraphim are called "the burning ones," and the cherubim partake of primary knowledge and wisdom. Yet these things do not belong to each one individually, but all things to all according to the grace given to them from God. For this reason he mentioned first the property of the thrones, second that of the seraphim, and then the cherubim, who are in the middle between them, just as if the middle had been taken by the extremes, and a single order had been formed. For this reason, the height of these is said to be devoid of all inferiority, the light as primary, and the knowledge as first-given, because all three orders are gathered into one rank, and a single triad is constituted, sharing in that which is transcendent and higher than all inferiority, sharing also in the primary light, and possessing the primary knowledge. Therefore, one must think of it in this way concerning the first arrangement: that the three orders are gathered into one rank, and those things which are individually distributed to them by grace are possessed by them in common and primarily. And this order is called the first, as one can see from the inscription of this seventh chapter; for he posits the first hierarchy as those three together. And what do I say, he asks, when I state that by being filled with purification, it is purified; and by illumination, it is illuminated; and by perfection, it is perfected? For this carries with it an idea of extended operation, and imparts a sense of some incomplete movement. But I say in summary, and perhaps not without reason, that this itself is to approach and partake of the divine science. He calls these three—purification, illumination, and perfection—science, because they approach God ineffably by habit, or rather beyond habit. Thus, this very partaking of divine science is ^B purification, illumination, and perfection; purifying ignorance by the knowledge of more perfect initiations according to the order of its station (for the seraphim have other, more perfect initiations, and the angels others; for perhaps the seraphim possess habitually, by divine grace, those very illustrations which the angels have as more perfect and sublime); and illuminating in this very knowledge, through which it also purifies the power that previously did not understand those things which it now knows through the higher illumination; and perfecting again in that very same light in the habitual knowledge of the sublime and most brilliant intellections. But you, observe that in knowledge the heavenly power is both purified and illuminated; and when it is illuminated by habit, and remains in that state, immutable and unchangeable, then it is indeed perfected. But why is it not perfected in the habitual purification, if not in the habitual illumination? Because purification clears away ignorances, and not everyone who is purified has already arrived at the summit; but to the one who has been purified, the illumination arriving subsequently perfects him, which is a more perfect illumination and illustration. For such is also the text: "In thy light we shall see light," clearly meaning that perfection is in illumination. ^C And it ^D

^A § IV. Such, then, according to my own contemplation and knowledge—which is also called understanding—is what is to be said from the proposed discourses regarding the celestial powers: that the first of the celestial essences, which stands immediately in the circuit of God and about God, is initiated by means of habitual knowledge into the most radiant things. And it must be noted that theology does not attribute to the divine powers a straight position, but a circular one, according to that which is written: "In his circuit is his tabernacle." It attributes to them also a circular movement, and a straight one, and a spiral one, as he himself says in the fourth chapter of the book *On Divine Names*: circular, when they are united to the beginningless splendors of the Beautiful and the Good, and incline toward God; straight, when they proceed to the providence of those things that are below, for then they tend straight toward them; spiral, when even while providing for those of lower degree, they remain unyieldingly in their identity, ceaselessly revolving about the Beautiful and the Good, the cause of their identity. For this is also the "revolving dance" of the angels: a perpetual knowledge of God, which is established in an ever-moving circular motion toward the same, as it is from Isaiah: "And the Seraphim stood in the circuit of him," and continuing, he says: ^B "And with two wings they flew." How then do they stand and move at the same time? It is clear, therefore, that they stand about the same, but move toward that illumination. For just as this whole, so to speak, in that it moves circularly, is at once perpetually mobile and immobile—immobile indeed according to the whole, for it does not shift from place to place; but perpetually mobile according to its parts—so he understands also the celestial circuit; for it, too, is established by perpetual motion, as if it remained fixed, always turned toward the same, and inclining toward that, which never happens in straight motion. Since, therefore, it always inclines in this way toward the Divine Numen, it sees many and blessed contemplations, and this purely according to its own habit, and not according to the emanation of the divine rays as they are in themselves, since these are also shrouded, according to the prophecies of Scripture. But just as one who has healthy eyes sees the sun purely according to his own habit, with no obstacle intervening on the part of his eyes—but if there is any obstacle, it happens to the emission of the rays of the sun, so that they cannot fully enter into the eyes—think the same also concerning the divine powers. And thus it ^C indeed purely contemplates the contemplations, but is illuminated by simple and immediate coruscations, and by no means by intermediary symbols, which he previously called compositions. Furthermore, it is satiated with divine food, at once manifold and one: manifold, according to the diffusion; one, because the eating is unvaried and unifying. Moreover, the eating and food of the angels is illumination and instruction; for if even instruction is called food for the one who feeds, according to the Theologian and great Gregory, much more would instruction be called food for the one who is fed. How then

is this eating devoid of variety and unifying? Because it is simple, and not composed of various things—now perhaps of pleasant things, now of things that are not—but is entirely pleasant, and good, and deifying, and entirely ignorant of instability, as we said before. ^A Nor is it of lesser importance to understand the circular movement of the intellect. We say, therefore, that everything that is mind either is intellect or possesses intellect; that which is intellect understands primarily, while that which possesses intellect understands secondarily. Insofar as it understands as it is intellect, it might be said to be moved; but insofar as it collects itself by a reflex act and understands itself, and that from which it proceeds, this is understood as circular movement. Since, therefore, it has gone forth from God as He willed, it will revolve around the longing and love of God as if around a center; for secondary things are not unified with those prior to them, but what has been produced is likened ^B to a dance, as those things which are produced desire to embrace their producers; they are not only gathered in a circle, but are also filled with the beauty from thence. Therefore, that which in its understanding turns toward that which is before it, introduces the concept of circular movement. Since, therefore, the Divine is everywhere, those things that everywhere follow it, and always desire to understand it, rejoice in this and dance around it, as if circling through their understanding. It is said, therefore, that the mind is in itself and hastens toward itself; insofar as it is in itself, it has stability, but insofar as it hastens toward itself, it is moved, not wishing to be dissipated into thoughts that are earthy and alien to it; accordingly, in respect to self-movement it is moved, but in respect to its substance it has stability and not movement. There is, therefore, also in the divine and celestial minds an impulse and movement, which is the longing toward the Divine Numen, and that dance around it as around a center, just as a circle moves around a point or center from which it was drawn. ^C For indeed, even according to natural necessity, every existing thing leads a dance around God, desiring its own Cause in respect to being. Thus, therefore, all things are around the King of all, and for his sake all things exist, and he is the cause of all good things. Since it tends toward God, it is accounted worthy of much communion and cooperation, in that assimilation to him which is possible; for since in God there is both habit and operation—that is, purity and purification, light and illumination, perfection and that which perfects (for one of these is habit, and the other is operation)—the mind also is rendered worthy of the communion of these good habits, so that it too, by grace, might be pure, and light, and perfect; and it is further accounted worthy of cooperation, so that it also purges, and illuminates, and perfects; and it knows many things, but in a transcendent manner, and not according to man, and it comes to be in participation of divine knowledge and understanding, so far as it is possible. Wherefore, because it knows many things, theology has delivered hymns to those on earth; for if they did not perceive, they would not sing; and if they were not illuminated according to that which is transcendent, their voice would not have been, to speak perceptibly, as the voice of many waters. For they cry out, according to the most inspired Ezekiel, "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place," and others cry out the hymn of many praises: "Holy, holy, holy Lord Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory." ^D These things are

^A in the treatise on Divine Hymns, as far as was possible, we have investigated and explained, and enough has been said there concerning these matters, according to our ability. From which discourses it suffices for the present to say this much: that the first rank [of angels], having been illuminated with this theology of the hymns as far as was permitted by the goodness of God, has transmitted this selfsame theology as a goodness-imparting hierarchy and order. For "hierarchy" is said not only of their habit, knowledge, and operation, but also of the distribution itself: just as priesthood is said both of the dignity itself and of those who participate in it; in this way we say that this or that priesthood has received this or that benefit, and has undergone this or that experience. Therefore, such an order and distribution, as goodness-imparting, transmits this theology to those below it; for this is the nature of goodness—to make others participants in one's own good. And it has, so to speak, transcribed it by explaining it in epitome and summary; that it is altogether fitting and just that the venerable, super-praiseworthy, and all-praiseworthy Deity be both known and celebrated by all God-receptive powers ^B as far as is possible, so that it may be glorified in one movement through all things; for these are, as is fitting for God, the divine places of His rest, as it is said in the Scripture: "What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?" For He Who possesses these holy and blessed essences as places, as it were, receptive of His own brightness—for just as a place is receptive of a body, so also are these of the divine brightness. But how, when the Scripture says everywhere that the Divine is uncircumscribed (as when it says: "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool"; and again, "He weighed the mountains in scales, and the earth in a palm"; and again, "If I go up into heaven, you are present; if I go down into hell, there is your hand"), what kind of place did Ezekiel imagine for God? This is understood in a manner worthy of God; for the Lord also says in the Gospels: "I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him," so that the intellectual powers ^C and the souls of the saints might deservedly be called the place and rest of God. The construction is taken in common. And again, the first rank transmits to the one after it, in a goodness-imparting manner, this mystery: that the blessed and all-holy Trinity is a Monad and a Henad three-personed, and a Monad, distributing and sending forth its own most-good providence from these first heavenly essences upon all things, even to the most minute, according to the word: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance," ^D as the super-princely beginning of all essence, and an authority above every beginning, and grasping all things existing in a super-essential manner, in an unconditioned hold. By "unconditioned hold," he means the encompassing which is entirely removed and disconnected from the things encompassed; for even if the Divine also grasps all things and encompasses all things...

in accordance with His own most good providence, but is also transcendently excepted from all things by nature, because He is none of the things that exist, but is incomparably beyond all of them. The holy and blessed Trinity is a Monad and a Henad: a Monad, as simple and uncompounded; and a Henad, because He is naturally united to Himself, and unites all those who draw near to Him, according to that which is said in the Gospels: "That they may be one, even as We are one."

CHAPTER VIII. On the Dominations, and the Virtues, and the Powers, and on the Middle Hierarchy of them.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. 1. It explains what the dominations, virtues, and powers signify; and in what way this middle hierarchy is initiated or illustrated. 2. It declares by example how the illustration is derived from the superior spirits to the inferior.

§ 1.

We must now pass to the middle order of the celestial intelligences, contemplating those dominations with supermundane eyes, as far as is possible, together with the truly powerful spectacles of the divine powers and virtues. For each of the designations of the supra-mundane natures manifests their God-imitating, deiform properties. I think, therefore, that the revealing name of the holy dominations signifies a certain noble and exalted movement, free from any servile groveling, not in any way bowed down by any of the tyrannical dissimilitudes of the world, but freely and sternly independent—a dominion which is superior to every demeaning servitude, unyielding to any base inclination, set apart from all dissimilitude, yearning unceasingly for the true domination and authority, and, as far as is possible, beneficially configuring both itself and those things after it unto its own sovereign likeness, not toward any of those things that appear emptily, but totally turned toward the truly-existing, and always participating, as far as it is able, in the sovereign God-likeness. And the appellation of the holy virtues denotes a certain manly and unshakable fortitude, flowing into all their deiform operations, toward no—

weakness ^B or fainting in the reception of the thearchic illuminations infused into them, but powerfully ascending to the imitation of God, not failing in its own manliness regarding the God-like motion, but unswervingly looking toward the superessential and power-making power, and becoming an image of this power as far as is possible, both powerfully turned toward it as the arch-power, and proceeding power-givingly and God-like toward those things which are secondary. And the order of the holy Authorities, being of the same rank as the divine Lordships and Powers, signifies the well-ordered and unconfused arrangement regarding divine receptions, and the set order of the supermundane and intellectual authority—not tyrannically abusing the powers of its authority toward worse ends, but uncontrollably ascending toward divine things with order, and guiding those after it in a God-like manner, and being assimilated towards the power-making Authority-principle as is lawful, and as far as possible, shedding the light of it upon angels, in the well-ordered ranks of the authoritative power according to it. Having these God-like qualities, the middle hierarchy of the heavenly intelligences is purified and illuminated and brought to perfection, in the way that has been described, by the thearchic illuminations infused into it secondarily through the first hierarchic order and, through that middle order, transmitted in a secondary manifestation.

§ II. Let us consider the intelligence said to pass from one angel to another ^C as a mark of its perfection having been provided from afar, and through progress and diffusion arriving at the inferiors somewhat obscurely. For just as those skilled in our sacred mysteries believe that direct manifestations of divine lights are more perfect than those through the mediation of others, so I think that the immediate participation of the angelic orders which are primarily stretched toward God is clearer than that of those perfected through a medium. For this reason also, in our priestly tradition, the primary intelligences are called perfecting and light-bringing and purifying powers of those that are of a lower order, since by them they are lifted up to the superessential principle of all things, and become ^D partakers of mystical purifications, and illuminations, and perfections, as far as is lawful for them. For this has been universally established by divine ordinance, that those things which are secondary should partake of divine illuminations through those that are first. And you will find this expressed many times by the theologians. For when the divine and paternal kindness, educating the Israelite people for the sake of its conversion and salvation, and delivering it to avenging and untamed nations for the sake of correction, [in its] multi-

-^Atude, it benignly recalled those who were in captivity to their former status. A certain theologian named Zechariah perceived in a vision one of the first, as I suppose, of those angels who are near to God (for, as I have said, the designation of "angel" is common to all) receiving from God himself, as has been said, words of consolation concerning this very matter; and another angel of an inferior order marching to meet the first, for the purpose of receiving and sharing in the illumination, and then, having understood the divine counsel from him as from a high priest, instructed the theologian, in accordance with his assigned duty, that Jerusalem ^B would be inhabited fruitfully by a great multitude of people.

Another theologian, Ezekiel, asserts that this was most sacredly ordained by the super-glorious Deity herself, who transcends the Cherubim; for, in order to lead the Israelite people—as has been stated—by paternal clemency through discipline to a better fruitfulness, He judged that the guilty were to be separated from the innocent with an equity worthy of God. This is first taught to him who is after the Cherubim, whose loins were girded with sapphire and who was clothed in the long robe, the insignia of the high priesthood. The divine order then commands the remaining angels, who carried axes, to be taught the divine judgment concerning this matter by the former; for to him, indeed, He commanded to go through the midst of Jerusalem ^C and to place the mark upon the foreheads of the innocent men; but to the others He said: "Go into the city after him, and strike, and do not let your eyes spare, and upon all those upon whom is the mark, do not draw near."

But what could one say of the angel who said to Daniel: "The word has gone forth"? Or of that first one, who took the fire from the midst of the Cherubim? Or of the event that more clearly confirms the angelic distinction—that the Cherubim casts the fire into the hands of him who was clothed in the holy robe? Or of him who called the most divine Gabriel and said to him, "Make him understand the vision"? Or of all the other things that have been mentioned by the sacred theologians concerning the entirely God-like order of the celestial hierarchies? To the image of this, if our sacred order ^D composes itself and conforms to it as much as it can, it will truly express that angelic beauty as if in figures, taking from it its form; and through it, it will be raised up to the super-essential origin of all sacred order.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

§ 1. He describes the middle hierarchy, which contains the Dominations, Powers, and Virtues, and explains its mysticism and its interpretation and property. Dominations are so called because they dominate other angels and are free from all oppression.

Their duty, according to Dionysius, once servile fear is cast aside, is to be moved toward God and to serve him unceasingly: according to Gregory, however, their duty is to provide instruction in spiritual warfare, on how the office of authority should be exercised, and how those in subjection should be ruled. ^B Virtues are tireless in the execution of things to be done, and robust in the reception of gifts. Their duty, according to Dionysius, is to teach those in authority that they may easily and perseveringly execute what pertains to their office and bear its burdens patiently; furthermore, through them miracles are performed, and the power of working miracles is granted to the perfect. Hostile powers are subordinate to the Powers, so that they may not harm the world as much as they desire. Their duty, according to Dionysius, is to conform the inferior angels, as far as possible, to the divine power: and, according to Gregory, to confirm those who struggle in spiritual combat, and to defend them, lest they lose their spiritual kingdom. ^C § II. He shows that illuminations, the further they are transmitted through many, become the more obscure in the last of them. That inferior angels are illuminated by superiors, he proves from Zechariah ch. 1, where the prophet is shown in a double vision the concern of the guardian angels and of God for Jerusalem and the Jews; and at the same time, how one angel is taught by another what was to happen to Jerusalem. And in chapter 2, Zechariah sees an angel with a measuring cord, to measure Jerusalem which was to be rebuilt by Nehemiah and Zerubbabel: since from the tiny cord, being wound up, he guessed and feared that the new Jerusalem would be small, he soon hears another angel promising that Jerusalem would be inhabited without a wall because of the multitude. Here this superior angel is seen recalling the intention of the former, who had come to measure the size of the city with a measuring cord: for before the city was surrounded by a wall after the restoration, it had to bear the type of the Church; which, after the world was redeemed by Christ, lay open to all nations without exception. Therefore the latter angel instructed the former, and as a superior taught an inferior. How, moreover, angels are taught certain things immediately by God himself, he shows from Ezekiel ch. 9, where God commands an angel to mark a Tau on the foreheads of those who were to be spared from the slaughter of Jerusalem; and commands six other angels to spare those who were marked, while all the others were killed. Likewise from Daniel ch. 9, 25, he declares how Gabriel was sent to the prophet, signifying not only the liberation of the Jews from captivity, but also that of the whole human race through Christ, after seventy weeks of years. Similarly, again from Ezekiel ch. 10, where God ^D commands the man clothed in linen to take coals from the midst of the cherubim's chariot and to scatter them over Jerusalem, that by this sign he might portend the burning of the city by the Chaldeans; and again from Daniel 7:16, where Michael commands Gabriel to explain the vision to Daniel. From all of which places it is clearly gathered that superior angels instruct their inferiors in many things of which they were ignorant.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES (13).

§ 1. Our discourse must now be redirected to the middle order of the celestial virtues. He did not say "order," but "adornment," ^A because this itself again holds three ranks. Since the order is spoken of as a "cosmos" or ornamentation, and since the preposition *dia* signifies passing through or distinction, he called it an "adornment," that is, an ornamentation or distribution, namely, an order distributed into three. Let us see, therefore, with supra-cosmic and intellectual eyes, as far as it is possible, the Dominations, the Virtues, and the Powers. These two ranks, then—the Virtues and the Powers—since they have received their name from "virtue" (power); for power is nothing other than a habit which possesses a virtue congruent to a congruent will. I said "congruent," because one who is powerful could also will impossible things, but he will not obtain what he desires; and for that reason he called the things visible to both of these "sights." But he did not say "thoughts"; for a thought is an unstable movement of the soul; but "sights," that is, existing things, visible, as far as is attainable, to supra-cosmic eyes and beyond sense. For every appellation of the divine minds reveals and shows the God-imitating properties of their God-like nature. The God-imitating property of the angels is one in one and another in another, whether it be that in the Virtues it is the power, and in the Dominations the freedom—which in God are incomparable and supreme; for the Divine is self-free and self-powerful, and yet is commonly all things to all. Meanwhile, that which is its own is distributed to each one more fully by the Creator ^B

so that the things of their order might be preserved according to their own property. ^A Therefore, I assume that the name designating the holy Lordships signifies a certain ascent and an unenslaved bearing back, free from every base humility; for it is noble and free, and not in any way at all, to speak collectively. For do not say that he spoke in a general sense because it inclines in some partial way; it does not, therefore, incline in any way to any of the tyrannical dissimilitudes. The modes of servility ^B and inclination are either fear, or reverence, or flattery, or need, or passion, or even all together, or some of them; from all of which the Lordships are far removed, whereby they might perhaps be humbled to things inferior or be cut off from such an ascent. For he calls these things inferior—that is, material—and tyrannical inequalities, according to which he who is now perhaps high is low through fear, or through something similar; and he who is now low is again high through passion, for he also is tyrannized by passion. Such ^C also are material things, as they never remain in the same state, but are always changing. From all these tyrannical inequalities, both material and random, the Lordships are free, as being impassive and superior to every servility. So let no one say to me, "What then? Do they not have fear and servility toward God?" For let him hear that he does not speak of such fear and such servility, but of that which is towards the inferior, namely, sensible and corporeal things. For these do not allow one to contemplate things that are truly real. For by whatever one is defeated, to that he is also enslaved; this he also calls demeaning. For this reason, ^D they are also unyielding to any lessening or degradation, and are exempt from every inequality, so that they might not be high at one time and completely lowered at another. But they aspire to the true Lordship and to the Principle of the Lordships, that is, the Divinity; and they always, in a goodness-like manner, fashion not only themselves, but also those after them, as much as is possible, toward the image and true likeness of Him, that is, of the Sovereignty. Observe, however, that they do not at all aspire to a higher rank; for they would have had an aspiration toward the first order, and passion would have been in them, and they would have become enslaved by a tyrannical passion. This, therefore, is not the case, but they aspire to, and in a way obtain through love, the Lordship and the likeness of the Principle of the Lordships, so that they would not be Lordships otherwise than by being affected towards their Creator in this way, so as to receive thence the constitution of the Lordship. They turn toward none of the things that seem to be at random, that is, towards corporeal and improper things, but toward the truly existing One, God, and they come to be in the participation of the sovereign God-likeness according to their own capacity, so that these too are lordly and Lordships. He calls the ascent of them an impassive lordship, as it were uninfluenced by flattery, unswerving, and bowing to no stimulation of matter. Here he also resolves a certain error of the Greek philosophers, and piously rebukes it; for they called certain powers of theirs "three impassive [powers]," which proceeded into existence from some other three powers prior to themselves, but not properly created by God; and

they say that these impassive ones were placed beneath those spiritual virtues from which they had been produced, in order to restrain and, in a certain manner, to sustain and contain those prior ones so that they might not slip into matter. And because they must contain themselves lest they fall, they are weaker than those which produced them. ^B These are, in summary, the opinions of those men, but this holy man wisely hands down everything contrary to them; for he asserts that they were produced by God through creation, and that they possess in their domination a certain likeness to Him. Yet he says that they possess this "impassive" quality in relation to every declension, by the reason of their domination, cutting off, as it were, and severing, and not allowing the desire for sensible things to prevail, though they do not restrain those prior to them. Is he saying, then, that they are also impassive toward what is worse, and that they possess this domination, and on account of this they do not depart from those prior to them, lest they fall into matter? ^C I believe the designation of the holy powers signifies, in common, a masculine and steadfast virility—unmoved, invincible, unyielding. For do not imagine, upon hearing them named by a feminine term, that you should demote the divine powers to something feminine. For the meaning and expression of the masculine is used regarding women who are manly and have a masculine mind, or who possess the strength of men. And do they possess this virility? To what end? It is not toward the difficulties and sorrows that arise, as happens in us; for these do not befit the divine powers, and they are moved from without, so that such virility could not appear otherwise than if a difficulty were to arise. It is not, then, toward these things only that they possess this virility, but toward all their God-like operations. ^D I said "their own," because every one of them has its own proper divine operation, so that it does not fail in receiving any of the illuminations given to it, nor suffer anything from them, just as the stone which is not consumed by fire: it is heated, but is not burned. So also the power which is here, though powerfully lifted up toward the imitation of God, is nevertheless not overcome, nor does it desert its God-like motion through lack of manliness, but looks steadfastly toward the Power which is above every essence, which also created the powers themselves, and becomes, as far as it is possible, an image of it, being powerful. For as the divine nature gives it power, so this one gives it to those below it. And according to the fact that this is a power in the primary sense, in order to distinguish it from those that are after it (for this is what "arch-power" means), it is able, by the grace given to it by God, to be turned toward its own source of powers, God. And in so far as they are powers placed beneath it, it proceeds toward them, granting the power in a manner of total divine imitation. I think that the name of the holy Dominions indicates the manifestation of the orderly and unconfused arrangement around the divine illuminations—for this is proper to the Dominion: to order things as they happen according to rank, and without any confusion or mixture. For since the Dominion is a power according to its own appropriate will, so that the one exercising dominion does not say or perform anything in a disorderly or confused manner, it can only hold to that which it has the power to do, and...

at the time when no external circumstance intervenes to interrupt that power; for then the power belongs not to the one exercising it, but to time, or perhaps to an enemy, or to grief, or to some other thing). This is also the case with the divine Powers. For since all these things are foreign to them, and they possess their power by divine grace, unsevered and uninterrupted, they receive the divine illuminations in a well-ordered and unconfused manner, ^A and are well-ordered toward their intellectual and super-mundane free will; for they are always possessed of their own free will, and are not one way at one time and another way at another. And since of power, one part is lawful and another is tyrannical (for power carries with it the risk of tyranny, according to the saying, "It is not easy to revere a tyrant"), and when power is held lawfully, it is invincible toward ^B the good; but when it is held unlawfully and tyrannically, it abuses its own strength toward the worse: the saint makes here a division of power, and says that the holy Powers do not tyrannically abuse their strength toward the worse, but rather toward divine things, without being overcome, which is the property of a power joined with good order, which is also that of a lawful power. They not only ascend themselves, but they also lead those beneath them toward the good in a godlike manner (for there is no envy, nor any stinginess, nor any parsimony in the Good), and they are assimilated, as far as is permissible, to their Cause, whom he calls both the Maker of powers and the Principle of power (the former, because it founded and created the powers; the latter, because it governs the powers). For this is their perfection: the assimilation to God, as far as it is attainable. ^C And this divine assimilation, as far as it is possible among the angels, they kindle in their own most orderly ranks of the powerful virtue—that is, in the Virtues and the Dominions—for these are of the same order as they. For if we remember, we said earlier that whatever belongs to all universally is distributed to each in a more particular way, so that from this the order might be preserved; for this is what "kindling" signifies. Or, "kindling" may be taken in another way, because of the property of light; for light tends upward, even if its illumination also reaches to lower things. Having completed the godlike properties of the intermediate rank, he passes on to their hierarchy: their purification, their illumination, and their perfection. They are therefore purified, ^D and illuminated, and perfected in the manner spoken of regarding the first rank, because both that one and this one are under the divine illuminations, although this one is so secondarily through the first; for through that intermediate rank, which possesses the perfections in a primary way, the illuminations are brought across in a secondary way. For this reason, § 11. the knowledge which, through another, is brought to another...

as is said to happen by the angel in the case of Zechariah, and Daniel, and Ezekiel the prophets, we shall take as a symbol of the perfection which is achieved from afar, and mediated through another order, which is dimmed because of its procession into a secondary state. He calls the perfection "dimmed," not because of any deficiency of its own, but because of the inferiority of those who receive it; for this is what he signifies by calling it a "secondary" initiation, that is to say, that the secondary ranks are perfected in a more dim fashion. He takes the analogy for his argument from human initiations, and he posits this not of his own authority, but from those who are versed in our sacred rites. For just as they say that the self-manifest plenitudes and illuminations (according to the saying, "Of his fullness have we all received") ^B are more perfect than those which are drawn through other divine participations (for the divine apostles were perfected, let us say, by our Saviour himself, Jesus Christ and God, or by the holy and life-giving Spirit at the time of Pentecost, and the high priests were perfected through them, yet that perfection is altogether more perfect than theirs): just as those who are skilled in divine matters say this concerning them, so, I think, the saint says that the immediate participation of the first order is more evident than that which is conferred through other intermediaries. Therefore, we also have it from priestly tradition that the first are called the perfecters, illuminators, and purifiers of those who follow, as those who are led by them to the principle of all things, and who participate in divine purifications, illuminations, and consecrations: for this has been established by a divine law even for the divine orders by God, that those things ^C which are secondary should participate in divine illuminations through the primary ones; for order holds together both heavenly and earthly things. He confirms his argument, that the secondary are illuminated through the mediation of the first, from the divine and holy prophets, whom he also calls "theologians," as those who announce the words of God to us. You will find this, he says, clearly stated by the theologians; and first by Zechariah. For when the loving-kindness of God (for the punishment of God is also loving-kindness, according to that saying, "Correction is also a paternal kindness," for like a father he led and instructed Israel, sometimes by promises of good things, and sometimes by threats and punishments)—when, I say, the loving-kindness of God, instructing Israel through the captivity of the ^D Babylonians (this, moreover, happened for sake of their sacred salvation; for all salvation from God is sacred, because it saves not only the body but also the soul), in order that they might be turned back to the Creator himself, delivered them to avenging and fierce nations to be corrected; and in order to bring them to a better fruit, he sometimes delivered them to the nations, and at other times liberated them from captivity, and restored them to their former fortune kindly, mercifully, and magnificently; that theologian Zechariah sees one of the first (I believe he speaks thus because of the reverence due to the matters under discussion) of the angels around God (I say "angels" because of the common name, since otherwise they are the lowest, not the first order) who learned from God himself the words of consolation; and another of the

inferior ^A angels ^B going forth to meet this first one—perhaps to meet the prophet, or perhaps before the greater angel came to him, the preposition denoting a certain interval of time, and he went to meet him to receive the illumination; afterwards, he also received the divine counsel from him as if from a supreme priest, and was commanded to teach the theologian that Jerusalem would be fruitfully inhabited by a multitude of men. For the most perspicacious of God-seers, Zacharias, says: "And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man, and in his hand a measuring line. And I said to him, Where are you going? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length. And behold, the angel who spoke in me stood, and another angel went forth to meet him, and he said to him, saying: Run, and speak to that young man, saying: Jerusalem shall be inhabited as a fruitful land by reason of the multitude of men." And these are the words of the prophet; but you, consider how the prophet says "went forth," while this divine man says "proceeded." Know also that he who speaks the words of consolation in Zacharias is the one who learned the divine will immediately, just as he says: "And the Lord Almighty answered the angel who spoke in me with good words and comforting speeches," ^C at whose standing, another went forth—that is, departed—to whom he who was speaking said, "Run, and say this and that."

Another of the prophets, Ezechiel, says that a similar or such an order was divinely decreed by the very Deity who transcends the Cherubim; for when, as has been said, by way of punishment he was leading the Israelite people in a fatherly and humane way toward a better state, he judged it right to separate in a manner worthy of God the innocent from those who were responsible [for their sins]. The first to be instructed in this, after the Cherubim, is he whose loins were girded with sapphire, and who was clothed in a long robe like a high priest; for that is priestly attire, and it was not that of those who punish, but of those who deliver those worthy of salvation. The divine hierarchy then commands the other six angels armed with axes to be instructed in the judgment of God by him who wears the long robe; for he commanded him who wore the long robe to go through the midst of Jerusalem and to give a sign upon the foreheads of the innocent; but to the others he said: "Go after him, and strike, and do not spare; ^D but upon all those on whom there is the sign, do not draw near." The phrase "Go after him," therefore, what else does it signify but "Consider him as your leader in the things to be done, as someone who also knows my will?" The words of the prophet are as follows: "And behold, six men coming from the way of the high gate that looks toward the north, and each one had a weapon of destruction in his hand. And one man in the midst of them, clothed in a long robe, and with a sapphire belt upon his loins. And they entered, and stood clinging to the altar of brass; and the glory of the God of Israel went up from the Cherubim."

And the Lord called to the man who was clothed in the long robe, who had the belt on his loins, and the Lord said: “Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who are groaning and grieving over all the iniquities that are being done in the midst of it.” And He said to those, as I heard: “Go into the city after him, and strike, and let not your eyes spare, and have no pity; slay old man, and youth, and virgin, and infants, and woman for ruin; but upon all those on whom is the mark, do not draw near.”

What, then, is one to say concerning the angel who said such and such to Daniel? For it is recorded in the tenth vision of Daniel: “And behold, the man Gabriel, whom I saw in the vision at the beginning, flying, touched me ^B about the time of the evening sacrifice, and instructed me, and spoke with me, and said: ‘Daniel, now I have come out to give thee understanding. At the beginning of thy supplication the word went forth, and I have come to declare it to thee, for thou art a man of desires.’”

Or again, what would one say concerning him who received the fire, as it is related in Ezekiel? For he says: “And it came to pass, when He had commanded the man who was clothed in the holy robe, saying: ‘Take fire from the midst of the wheels, from the midst of the Cherubim,’ he entered and stood beside the wheels, and the Cherub stretched forth his hand into the midst of the fire that was in the midst of the Cherubim, and took it, and gave it into the hands of him who was clothed in the holy robe, and he took it and went out.” The saint speaks of this to confirm more clearly the principle of the angelic order: that while it was commanded to the one clothed in the robe to take the fire, as he went to receive the fire, a certain Cherub ministered to him, and handed the fire that had been taken into his hands.

Again, what would one say concerning the One who called the most divine Gabriel, as is commemorated in the ninth vision of Daniel? “And it came to pass, when I, Daniel, saw the vision, and sought understanding; and behold, there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man, and I heard the voice of a man between the Ubal; ^C and he called, and said: ‘Gabriel, make him understand the vision.’ And he came, and stood beside my station; and when he came, I was troubled, and I fall upon my face, and he said to me: ‘Understand, son of man.’”

What, indeed, is one to say further of all those other things which have been spoken by the holy prophets concerning the comely order of the heavenly beings, to which this sacred hierarchy of ours is, as far as possible, assimilated? For the rites performed in the Church are a certain imitation of that higher mystical hierarchy, and these are so many images of their comeliness; for this hierarchy of ours is formed by that one and is led up to God Himself, who is the supernatural ordinance of all hierarchy, and the Author of all sacred order.

CHAPTER IX. Concerning the Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels, and concerning their final hierarchy.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. I. Sets forth what the Principalities signify. II. What the archangels and the angels are; and what their office is. III. Shows that it is not to be imputed to the angels if some do not make progress under their direction: for they, and God on His part, are wanting to no one, as he proves by examples. IV. Declares the divine providence toward all; and in what sense Israel is said to be singularly the portion of the Lord.

§ I. There remains for our contemplation that sacred order which concludes the angelic hierarchies, adorned with the deiform Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels. And first, I deem it necessary, as far as I am able, to explain the meanings of their holy names. For the name of the celestial Principalities signifies their power of presiding and governing in a deiform manner, with a sacred order and with virtues that are most proper to the principal station, and also their tendency to turn themselves wholly toward the super-substantial Principle, and to lead others as well in a principal manner, and—as far as is lawful—to express the form of the principial Principle within themselves, and to manifest in the disposition of their principal virtues His super-essential ordering power. ^{A B}

§ II. The order of the holy Archangels is indeed equal to these celestial Principalities. For there is, as I have said, one hierarchy and distribution of them and of the angels; yet since there is no hierarchy which does not possess first, middle, and last powers, the holy order of the Archangels, by a certain common hierarchical right, holds the extremes within its own mediation. For it communicates both with the most holy Principalities and with the holy Angels: with the former, because it is turned in a principal manner toward the super-essential Principle and is shaped to It as far as is attainable, and it unites the angels according to its own comely, orderly, and invisible leadership; ^C and with the latter, because it also belongs to the order of heralds, receiving the divine illuminations hierarchically through the primary powers, and benevolently announcing them to the angels, and through the angels manifesting them to us, according to the sacred capacity of each of those who are illuminated by the divine rays. For the angels, as we have already said by way of completion, ^D

capacitate. For the angels themselves, as we have previously stated, by fulfilling all the orders of the celestial intelligences, bring them to a ^A conclusion, as those who, being last among the celestial essences, have attained the angelic property. And for this reason, they are more rightfully called "angels" by us than the higher ones, in that their hierarchy touches upon more evident and worldly things. Indeed, one must consider that the highest distinction—as has been stated—is, as it were, secretly and in the first rank near to that most holy order, and is to be thought of as governing sacred things more occultly. The second order, however, which is filled by the holy Dominations and Virtues and Powers, presides over the hierarchy of Principalities, Archangels, and Angels; more manifestly indeed than the first hierarchy, but more occultly than the one following it. Furthermore, the order of Principalities, Archangels, and Angels is an explanatory hierarchy presiding in turn over human hierarchies, so that in this order there may be an ascent to God, and a conversion, communion, and union, which is also graciously breathed by God into all the hierarchies, and inserted by a certain communication, and which flows forth with most holy decorum. Hence, theology attributes our hierarchy to ^B angels, when it calls Michael the prince of the Jewish people, and sets others as princes of other nations; for the Most High set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.

§ III.

But if anyone should ask why the people of the Hebrews alone were raised up to divine illuminations, one must answer that this is by no means to be imputed to the upright governances of the angels; but rather that the other nations, in their defection to false gods, wandered by their own impulses from the straight path that led to God, through self-love and their own stubbornness, and by the absurd worship of things in which they fancied some divine quality to reside. This ^C is confirmed by the fact that the same thing happened to the people of the Hebrews: "For you have rejected," it is said, "the knowledge of God, and walked after your own heart." For we have a life that is not forced, nor is any necessity imposed upon us; nor are the divine rays of illumination, which flow from Providence, blunted by the free choice of those who are provided for. Rather, the dissimilarity of the eyes of the mind causes the outpouring illumination of paternal goodness to be either entirely void and useless on account of their resistance, or its participations to turn out unequal—small or great, obscure or bright—although that fontal ray, which is eternally expanded, is one and simple and always remains the same. Especially since ^D even regarding the other nations (from whom we ourselves have also turned back to the all-

-absorbing and abundant sea of the thearchic light, which is spread out in readiness for all to partake), it was not some alien gods who presided, but one Principle of all things, and it was to this that the angels who presided over each nation were leading those who followed them. ^A We must understand Melchizedek as being a most god-loving hierarch, not of gods that do not exist, but of the truly existing Most High God. For the theologians have called Melchizedek not merely a friend of God, but also a priest, in order to show clearly to those with insight that he not only had turned himself toward the truly existing God, but also served as a leader to others in their ascent to the true and sole supreme Deity.

§ IV.

And we shall also remind your hierarchical understanding of this, that even as regards Pharaoh through the angel presiding over the Egyptians, and as regards the prince of the Babylonians through his own [angel], ^B the providential and sovereign care of the common providence was channeled according to the manifestations; and to those nations, the ministers of the true God were appointed as leaders for the interpreting of those appearances fashioned by the angelic manifestations, which were revealed to holy men similar to the angels—to Daniel, I say, and to Joseph—by God through angels. For there is one principle and providence of all. And it should by no means be thought that the Thearchy was allotted specifically to the Jews, while angels, or gods of some other kind, either ^C equally, or in opposition, or in some other way, presided over the other nations. Rather, this utterance must also be understood according to this sacred sense: not as if God had divided the rule over us with other gods or angels, and had been allotted Israel as a nation and a people to govern, but that, while the one providence of the Most High for all things has distributed salvation to all mankind through the guiding led by their own angels, Israel alone, above all others, turned toward the light-giving and knowledge of the truly existing Lord. ^D Hence theology, while indicating that Israel had dedicated itself to the worship of the truly existing God, says: "The Lord's portion became His people" (Deut. xxxii, 9); and while indicating that he too, with equal right of the other nations, was assigned to one of the holy angels so that through him he might recognize the one Principle of all things, it says that Michael was appointed over the Jewish people, clearly teaching us that there is one providence of all things, which superessentially presides over all invisible and visible powers; and that all the angels who preside over each nation lead those who follow them, of their own free will and as much as they are able, toward that Principle as if it were their own.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

§ 1. He explains the names and properties of the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, who constitute the final hierarchy. The Principalities preside over the subordinate angels and dispose them to fulfill divine ministry. To them belongs, according to Dionysius, universal governance—for instance, the guidance of a single kingdom, or a nation, or a reign—in the likeness of God; according to Gregory, their ministry is also to teach men and to show reverence to each individual according to his rank. It is also their task to promote men so that they may perform justice not for their own benefit, but for the love and honor of God alone. Archangels are called chief messengers, because they announce supreme things. Their office, according to Dionysius, is to reveal prophecies; they also announce to those below the illuminations they receive from those above, and through them, to us. According to Gregory, however, their duty is to make men more certain regarding those things that pertain to the promotion of the faith and to the principal mysteries, such as the Nativity of Christ and the like, and to remove demons from men. Angels are the lowest in the heavenly disposition, and are closer to men. The name "angel" is a name of office, not of nature. They announce lesser things, lead men to divine knowledge, and instruct them to live justly; these are stretched upward through the love of God, and are strengthened in themselves through the guardianship of themselves, and proceed below themselves to the aid of their neighbor.

§ II. Since there are three orders in every hierarchy, namely the first, the middle, and the last, he shows in what manner the archangels, who are the middle ones between the angels and the principalities, communicate with both; and he says that the angels moderate human affairs. For the angels, deputed to us for our guardianship, hold us up when we are standing, so that we do not fall; and when we are falling, they lift us up so that we may rise; nor do they ever desert us, even when we sin, but are always ready to render aid, if we are willing.

The effect of angelic guardianship is manifold. The first is to remove obstacles to the good and occasions for evil; Exod. XXIII, 2: "I will send an angel before you, who will cast out the Jebusite." The second is to mitigate temptations; Dan. III, 49: "But the angel of the Lord descended with Azarias and his companions into the furnace," etc. The third is to assist against visible enemies; IV Reg. XIX, 35: "The angel of the Lord struck in the camp of the Assyrians," etc. The fourth is to present our prayers and alms to God, and to pray for us; Tob. XII, 12: "When you were praying with tears, etc., I offered your prayer to the Lord." The fifth is to show the way; Tob. V, 20: "I myself will lead him and bring him back." The sixth is to teach in the conduct of affairs; Zachary I, regarding the angel who instructed him. The seventh is to reveal himself and other secrets; Tob. XII, 15: "I am Raphael the angel," etc. The eighth is to avert from sins; Gen. XIX, 15: "And when it was morning, the angels urged him, saying: Arise, lest you also die in the iniquity of the city." The ninth is to excite to fervor; III Reg. XIX, 7: "Arise: for you have a long way to go." The tenth is to console; Tob. V, 13: "Be of good courage, shortly you will be healed by God." The eleventh is to avert contrary powers, so that they may not be able to do as much harm as they might wish; Tob. VI, 3, where the angel bound Asmodeus. The twelfth is to rebuke for sin; Jud. II, 2: "The angel said to the people of Israel: Why have you done this?" etc.

§ III. He provides the reason why, although angels are the presiding and titular rulers of men, still so many infidel nations are found and perish: he shows that this results from the malice of men, who are unwilling to follow the gentle guidance of the angels, and from the perverse use of liberty. For God and the angels, for their part, are not lacking to anyone, but like the sun, they expand their beneficial rays to all, by which he confesses that by the grace of God he emerged from the darkness of paganism. He also proves this by the example of Melchizedek, who not only emerged from the nations to the light of truth but also shone for others, and being made a high priest, existed as a type of Christ himself.

§ IV. He shows how great is God's providence for all, such that tutelary angels are given not only to the Jews but also to other nations, as he proves in the case of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, to whom visions occurred through angels, which Joseph and Daniel, taught by angels, explained to them. And at the same time he explains that passage of Deut. XXXII, 8: "When the Most High divided the nations, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob the lot of his inheritance." This, he says, is not to be understood as if God gave the other nations to be ruled by angels, reserving only Israel to himself—that is, to his own providence and government—in such a way, for instance, that he himself would rule Israel without angels, or the angels would rule the remaining nations (since Michael is also read to be the prefect of Israel, and God is mentioned in the Scriptures as possessing and ruling all the nations); but it is to be understood in this way: that although God gave angels to all nations so that they might arrive at the light of truth by their guidance, only Israel in reality was converted to the true God.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES (14)

§ I. It remains that we also speak of the final triad of orders, which consists of the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, by which it is fashioned and adorned. And it would be good, first, to explain the significance of their names as best as possible. Thus, the name of the Principalities declares power of leading and governing in a way conformed to God and according to the likeness of God. Now that leadership also appears in the order—I say, in a sacred order, fitting for such a beginning and powers—and since it refers to the Principle...

^A that lies truly beyond all principles, being turned toward it in its entirety (for just as a luminous object is turned toward the sun, so too are the Principalities that look toward the super-principal Principle). Or alternatively, it is because they lead others—I mean the Archangels and Angels—toward such a conversion, and because they are formed in the likeness of that very super-principal Principle, the one which created and made the principalities themselves, and are beheld, according to the Apostle, through the things that are made, as His invisible things are understood. We have no way of knowing that superessential principle of all the orders. They are named "Principalities" as those who manifest that Principle, possessing it [this knowledge] powerfully and habitually, attaining to such a principal order and state.

§ II. The order of the holy Archangels is indeed of the same rank as the aforementioned celestial Principalities (for the hierarchy is one, that is to say, of the Principalities themselves, and of the Archangels, and furthermore of their Angels, and for this reason they are included in a single order; for what else are the Archangels, if not an order composed of Principalities ^B and Angels?). But since there is no hierarchy that does not have first, middle, and last powers, for this reason the order of the Archangels, as a middle element, takes hold of the extremes through a certain communion with both. It communes with the Principalities because it, too, is turned in its entirety toward the superessential Principle, God, and is formed in His likeness, just as the Principalities are. And since the Principalities are leading and unifying, not allowing the orders to be scattered, they unify the angels as well in an orderly fashion and arrange them. It communes with the Angels ^C again, in that they too belong to the revelatory order, and they receive illuminations through the first powers. And the middle ones commune with the Angels in another way: because they announce these divine illuminations to the Angels, and make them manifest to us through the angels. Wherefore they also commune with the angels in this respect, that they use the angels for manifestations to us, according to the analogy of those who are illuminated by God. For the angels, that we might also speak about them, are the ones who complete the entire celestial arrangement, except for what is last and final; for the Thrones also complete it, but as that which is first, and for this reason they possess the angelic name in a unique way, and all the more so since ^D they draw near to human beings, who in turn imitate divine things through them. For this is the more manifest part of their hierarchy; for we have no need of others again for the illuminations and messages from them. If this were the case, they too would be very hidden, and the last and world-encircling [degree] would not be in them. But now, since there is no other order lower than them, it is necessary for the order of the angels to be the last and world-encircling one. The saint explains how he said that the hierarchy is more manifest to the angels—that is to say, more manifest to us; for the supreme order, as it draws near to the hidden God, is more hidden to the extent that it is related to the second

^A hierarchy; and the second, which is of the middle hierarchy, presides over the last hierarchy, more manifestly than the first, yet more occultly than the one that follows; and the last order presides over the human hierarchies. But since there are three orders, they manifest the illuminations to one another. Nevertheless, it must be asked how the first rank communicates the manifestation to the one after it, and not one through another, and in like manner the second; but the third, however, imparts the illuminations to us one through another. One may say, therefore, that in the former orders, because both the givers and the receivers are angels, there is not among them much difference by nature, so that for this reason the illumination might be somewhat broken up, and become ready for reception by the later ones. Here, however, since the difference between us and the angels is great, for this reason one receives the illumination and message through another, that it may thus ^B more easily and briefly reach us, and the decree of God may be more clearly declared to us. Therefore this saint says that in this order there is an ascent to God through contemplation, and a conversion through action, and communion through illumination, and also union through deification by grace. We have, therefore, an ascent to God by degrees; and that there may be, in return, a process infused by God according to order to all all the hierarchies toward us, overflowing communicatively through goodness: for this reason, also, the divine Scripture distributes to the angels the things that pertain to us; for sometimes it is found to have called Michael the prince of the people of the Jews in Daniel, as also others for other nations; and sometimes it says: "The Most High set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God," as is found in the second canticle of Moses.

§ III. Hence he solves a certain question that arises. The question is this: "How," he asks, "since good angels are set over the nations, did Israel alone know God, while the others adhered to idols?" The solution is this, that the defection and deception of the other nations toward idols is by no means to be imputed to the righteous governments of the angels (observe, indeed, how he opposes the right government to the defection), but to those people themselves, because by their own spontaneous motions they turned away from the straight path which led to God, through a ^D private, refractory love, and through their own obstinacy, they turned away to worship that in which they thought some divine thing resided. For not only did they deviate from the path which led to God, but they even attributed divine worship to those who were not gods, according to their own pleasure. Which very thing is also recorded to have happened to the Hebrew people, when they sinned and fashioned the calf. "For you have rejected the knowledge of God" (namely, when he deviated from the path of God) "and walked after your heart" (namely, that in their self-love and obstinacy they attributed worship to those who were not gods). For our life is not one to which force is applied, or

^A nor should we say on account of this very self-determination that the divine lights of the providence of God are dulled. But take an image of these words from the light of the sun: for just as it is possible to see there that in transparent bodies the distribution of rays occurs, and this more or less, according to the capacity of the subject to receive the light; but in denser bodies it is not so, being either entirely blocked or obscure; so does the inequality of our self-determined inclination operate in divine illumination. For suppose our life to be a mental vision, yet an unequal one, because of the freedom of the will; while the illumination of the divine goodness is one and the same, superabundant, indeficient, simple, and always existing in the same manner. Therefore, the self-determination of the visions makes the divine ray either completely unparticipated in—in those cases, that is, where there is resistance, because of which the ray is not distributed at all—or it makes the participations different, small or great, obscure or bright. The "small and great" refers to quantity: a small grace is perhaps that of instruction, a great one that of prophecy. But "obscure or bright" refers to quality, when perhaps prophecy befalls two people, and to one it is fuller, to the other weaker. Furthermore, because over the other nations (from whom we also, being Greeks, have emerged) there were set ^B not some strange and monstrous gods, but rather [there was set over them] the infinite sea of the divine light, spread out for all who willingly and through goodness desire participation in it—for God is the one source of all—therefore the angels appointed over each nation led those who followed them freely and not under compulsion. Melchizedek is a witness, who was king of Salem in the times of Abraham, yet was acknowledged as a priest most dear to God from among the nations and in the midst of the nations. For the Scriptures do not hand him down simply as one who loved God, but also as a priest of the God who truly is, so that they might by all means declare to those of understanding that he was not only a lover of God, but also led others toward the love of God. And how could that have been, if the knowledge of God had departed ^C generally and altogether from the nations?

§ IV. I shall also recall this to your hierarchical sagacity (he says to the Timothy of Ephesus), namely, that even the visions in dreams to Pharaoh and to Nebuchadnezzar came to pass through the angels who are appointed peculiarly over the nations, through which visions the care of God’s providence and lordship over all was conveyed. For He is the Lord and provider and God of all, as Paul also declared in many places, saying: "Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one." ^D But the visions were through the angels, while the interpretations were from another source and not through them, inasmuch as those who interpreted the dreams were servants of God and near to the angels, so that the interpretations came from God through them. For Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh for the sake of the Egyptians, and Daniel those of Nebuchadnezzar for the sake of the Babylonians. Because of this...

niel indeed of Nabuchodonosor against the Babylonians. ^A Therefore, I say, there is one principate of all, and thus one Providence. And it must in no way be thought that God presided over the Jews in a lot-drawn or peculiar fashion, while over other nations there presided either angels of a sort peculiar to themselves and insubordinate, or those equal to God, or contrary to God, or even other gods. Moreover, even that saying in the Canticle, which declares: *The Lord's portion is his people Jacob, the cords of his inheritance Israel*, must be understood according to this sense, not as if God had divided this world of ours with other gods or angels, and Israel had been assigned to Him as a lot. But how? Since the very highest Providence of all things distributed all human affairs to its own angels, through leadings that were indeed salutary toward them but upward-lifting toward God; and from all these nations, Israel alone turned to the illumination of the true God. Whence the sacred Scripture, signifying that Israel had destined itself for the ministry of the true God, says: *He became the Lord’s portion.* ^B But to show again how Israel, like the other nations, had also been committed to a particular angel, through whom he might be led to the knowledge of God, provided he himself were willing, it calls Michael the leader of that people; openly teaching from this that there is a single providence that presides over all things, both visible and invisible, and that all and individual nations have had a particular angel, who would direct toward God, the principle of all things, those who follow voluntarily and of their own accord.

CAPUT X. Repetition and conclusion of the angelic order.

SYNOPSIS CAPITIS. 1. It teaches that more sublime angels are illustrated in a more sublime manner. II. That in illustrations, subordination is likewise preserved. III. That all, whether angels or men, have a threefold power.

§ I. We have concluded, therefore, how that most ancient order of intelligences, ^D which is present to God, consecrated by the light that originally initiates it, and by immediately attending to Him, is purified, illuminated, and perfected by the more secret and at the same time more manifest illumination of the divine principate. More secret, because it is more spiritual and more simplifying and unifying; more manifest, however, because it is primitive and prime-luminous and more universal, and more poured out unto it, as being transparent.

^A And the second is proportioned to the first, and the third to the second, and our own hierarchy to the third, according to the same law of well-ordered distribution, in divine harmony and analogy, being led up hierarchically toward the super-original principle and consummation of all good order.

§ II. ^B All are messengers and interpreters of those who precede them: the first, of God who moves them; the others, in like manner, of those moved by God. For the super-essential harmony of all things has so provided for the sacred and well-ordered guidance of each of the rational and intellectual beings, that it has established suitable orders for each hierarchy, and we see every hierarchy divided into first, middle, and last powers. Nay, even each individual disposition, if I may so speak, it has distinguished by the same divine harmonies; for which reason the theologians say that the most divine Seraphim cry out one to another, clearly manifesting in this, as I believe, that the first communicate the divine knowledge to the second.

§ III. ^C I would also add this, not without reason: that each celestial and human mind, taken by itself, contains within itself its own primary, middle, and final orders and powers, which shine forth in the same way as the proper leading lines of the sublime illuminations of each hierarchy, by which each one becomes a partaker, according to its capacity, of the most pure cleansing, of the most abundant light, and of the most perfect consummation. For nothing is of itself absolutely perfect or destitute of all need for perfection, except that which is truly self-perfect and pre-perfect.

ADNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS. § 1. From the preceding chapters he concludes that angels, the more sublime they are, are illuminated in a more sublime and secret manner, inasmuch as they are nearer to God and therefore participate more in God, as he teaches below in Chap. 5, *On the Divine Names*, and above in the other chapters of the *Celestial Hierarchy*, where see our adnotations. Only observe here how we are cleansed, illuminated, and perfected by the angels. The angels, therefore, cleanse us by removing the phantasms which hinder the illumination that the angel intends to effect in us; whence they remove three things from the soul: namely, ignorance, the clouds of phantasms, and false opinions contrary to the revelation of reason. They illuminate the soul in a threefold manner: namely, for the sense, as is clear when something is manifested in an assumed body (and the devil also has this power).

and further, as to the intellect, and such illumination is alone perfect. It must be noted, however, that an Angel does not illuminate the intellect by producing cognition within the soul, because it cannot create either a new species or a habit of new light within the intellect, nor even an intention, for three things are required for our intellect to know anything: namely, the species by which it is known, the light in which it is known, and the intention by which the intellect is turned toward the species. Rather, an angel illuminates our intellect by exciting and preparing it, and by pouring into us divine light; for it creates (as has been said) in the imagination a transmutation of species, composing and dividing them according to the requirement of the thing it wishes to reveal. Item, it radiates the light of its own intellect upon them so that they may move our intellect, and thus more and more subtle things can be seen in the doubled light; item, it excites the intention of the soul by some motion, by which it reflects itself upon these phantasms, abstracting itself from others. They also perfect, that is, they promote to a better state.

Whether an angel can inflame human affection can be understood in three ways: namely, by acting, by moving, or by exciting and aiding. In the first way, God alone can inflame the affection; in the second way, the desired object itself inflames the affection, namely by enticing and moving; in the third way, an angel can inflame our affection, namely by exciting and aiding its movement through a suitable proposal. We have an example of these in nature: because in the first way, fire sets wood aflame; in the second way, the wood inflames the fire; and in the third way, he who applies the wood to the fire kindles the fire. But there is a difference between inserting a thought, and inflaming and illuminating; for to insert a thought is to create and make a thought within; but to inflame is to set an already conceived thought afire; but to illuminate is to provide a revelation concerning some hidden intelligible thing.

Here, for a fuller understanding of this angelic illumination, note from Saint Thomas, in the First Part, Q. 106, Art. 1, that one angel illuminates another insofar as it makes known to it the truth that it knows: either by strengthening its intellect, or by means of the likeness of the intellectual object. Since two things concur for understanding, namely the intellectual power and the likeness of the thing understood, according to these two, one angel can notify another of a known truth. First, by strengthening its intellectual power. For just as the power of a less perfect body is comforted by the natural proximity of a more perfect body, as for example, a less hot object increases in heat from the presence of a more hot one, so the intellectual power of a lower angel is comforted by the conversion of a superior angel toward it. For the order of conversion does in spiritual matters what the order of local proximity does in corporal ones. Secondly, one angel manifests a truth to another by way of the likeness of the object understood. For the superior angel receives the knowledge of the truth in a certain universal conception, to grasp which the intellect of the interior angel 96 would not be sufficient; but it is connatural to it to receive the truth more particularly. The superior angel, however, distinguishes the truth that it conceives swiftly in a certain way, so that it may be grasped by the inferior one, and thus proposes it to it to be known. Just as also among us, those who grasp many things in few, distinguish them in multiple ways, providing for the capacity of others. And this is what Saint Dionysius says below, ch. 15, § 5, that every spiritual essence, by a provident virtue, divides and multiplies the one-fold intelligence that it has received from a more divine source, for the guidance and grasp of the inferior. See below our annotations on ch. 12, § 2.

^B § II. He notes that in the transmission of divine illuminations, a subordination is preserved, namely in such a way that those supreme spirits are the intermediaries of God Himself, and thus in turn those following them [are intermediaries] of the preceding angels, as he taught above in ch. 8, and we noted there in § 2.

Saint Thomas provides the reason for this mutual communication and illustration in the First Part, Q. 106, Art. 4. Because, indeed, all creatures participate in the divine goodness, they diffuse the good that they have onto others. For it is of the nature of the good that it communicates itself to others. Hence also corporal agents pass on their likeness to others as much as they can. And therefore, the more some agents participate in divine goodness, the more they endeavor to transfuse their own perfections into others, as much as they can. Whence blessed Peter advises those who participate in divine goodness through grace, saying: "As each has received grace, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Pet. iv, 10). By much more, therefore, do the HOLY angels, who are in the fullest participation of the divine goodness, impart whatever they receive from God to those subject to them. Yet this illumination is not received by the inferiors as excellently as it is in the superiors, ^C and therefore the superiors always remain in a higher order, and have a more perfect cognition; just as a master understands one and the same thing more fully than the disciple who learns from him. Hence, although in the society of angels all things are possessed in common, yet some things are held more excellently by some than by others. And each thing is held more perfectly by him who can communicate it, than by him who cannot. Just as that which is hot is more perfect if it can heat, than if it cannot; and he who can teach knows more perfectly than he who cannot; and the more perfectly one can communicate a gift, the more perfect a grade he is in; as he is in a more perfect grade of mastership who can teach a higher science. And according to this likeness, the diversity of grades or orders in angels must be considered, according to their diverse offices and acts.

§ III. He observes that every mind, whether angelic or human, has primary, middle, and last powers, which are capable of expiation, illumination, and perfection. See this explained in Pachymeres. To which add from Saint Thomas, in the First Part, Q. 108, Art. 2, that the very nature of hierarchy requires a diversity of orders, which diversity of orders is considered according to diverse offices and acts; just as among men in any city there are different orders according to different acts. For there is one order of judges, another of soldiers, and another of those laboring in the fields; and so on for others. ^D But although there may be many orders in one city, all can nevertheless be reduced to three, according to the fact that every perfect multitude has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Whence also in cities a threefold order of men is found. For some are supreme, such as the nobles; some are innermost, such as the common plebeians; some are intermediate, such as the honored populace. So therefore also in any angelic hierarchy, the orders are distinguished according to diverse acts and offices; and all this diversity is reduced to three, namely to the highest, the middle, and the lowest; and for this reason Saint Dionysius places three orders in every hierarchy.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES (15). § 1. The Saint repeats here what has been said, and says: It is therefore concluded by us, how that one [order]...

^A of those which are around God and in the circuit of God—the most ancient (not according to time, but according to order) distribution of those intelligences (according to the text: *In circuitu ipsius tabernaculum ejus* [Ps. XVII, 12, referring to the LXX or similar, though the Latin cited is Ps. XVI, 12]; even if the Divine Being is above every bound and infinity)—is consecrated by that illumination which is the source and cause of all initiations, being initiated (because there is no other order before it, but it itself extends immediately toward Him, being drawn as it were by the Self-Good and by nature toward the Good, which all things desire—for this is what it means to extend; for that ineffable ray shining upon it does not allow it to remain solitary and, as it were, to slumber), and is purified, illuminated, and perfected by a divine illumination ^B that is both more secret and more manifest. From this it is clear that they possess a greater illumination by virtue of their order. For if it were created in such a way as to be the first, it would have need of neither purification nor illumination, having been fashioned in such a way as to be worthy of the first order. He called this same illumination both more secret and more manifest; these terms appear in a way to be contrary regarding the same thing. For what is secret is not manifest, and what is manifest is not secret, according to this manner of speaking. Yet even if they are contrary regarding the same thing, they are understood in relation to different things. For it is more secret to us, because it is more intelligible (for the illuminations of the lower orders are also intelligible), but the illumination of the first is still more ^C intelligible and more unknown to us; for this reason it is also unitive (as it is not comprehended through any of our earthly things, which are indeed composite), and even more so, it is unifying. For by as much as our mind departs from matter, by so much does it proceed toward the One, and, if one might say so, it apprehends the intelligible in a more immaterial way. And why do I say this, when this happens to the senses regarding sensible things? For seeing something from afar, we think it is either an animal, or perhaps a stone, or a tree, or something else; but approaching it, we learn that it is an animal, and such an animal, for example a man, and precisely this man. And children at first call all men fathers, and all women mothers; but later the knowledge of these is ^D unified, and they recognize their true parents. You see how the sense becomes unified; the same thing the mind also experiences when it enters into intelligible things. But from this, a necessary question arises: how does the sense become more unified regarding that which is nearer, but the mind regarding that which is further, and which he himself calls more secret? And it is possible to say that, in truth, the mind possesses that which is nearer as that which is beyond all material composition and sensation; for this is what is appropriate to the mind and to the operations of the mind. For those things which in any way fall under sense are further off. Therefore, according to proportion (since the illumination of the first is more secret and more intelligible compared to the illuminations of the second), it is more unitive, and in this way it is more secret to us and to our mind; but it is more manifest, again, to that which receives the illumination; for the illumination poured into it is more primordial and more first-manifested and more total. And if the same is also superabundant, yet—

it varies according to the condition of those who receive it; for which reason he also added: "And as if more liquid," to indicate that the diversity of the subjects brings about a certain variation in the illumination. From this first arrangement, again, the second receives its share, and from the second the third, and from the third this hierarchy of ours, which I do not call human (for it too is divine, and receives divine illuminations), but that which among us humans is consecrated by divine grace. What then does the second receive from the first, and what does the third receive from that, and this of ours from that one? It receives the fact that it is altogether directed in sacred matters. For every hierarchy receives from God, through those before it, the holy gifts: purification, illumination, and perfection. Thus, to say that the second ^B is hierarchically led by the first is to say that it is led to the super-principial principle itself, and to the consummation of all good order; for the divine Divinity limits and defines all good things, since there is no good outside of it, nor is any spoken of or ever conceived. This occurs according to the same law of well-ordered rank: that even if they are led through these, they receive their illuminations from the Divinity, the principle and cause of all order, not only of the first, but also of the second, and the third, and any other that there may be. For this is the law ^C of the Producer, as one might say, immutable and well-ordered, that things should be preserved and perfected by Him, even if such a thing happens to them through certain others.

§ II. But all are revealers, even the angels themselves, that is, the lowest order; for in proceeding he speaks about the angels alone, but now he speaks about the three orders. They are therefore interpreters of those who precede them; for they reveal through others the will of God, which had been manifested to them by those prior to them, and to these again through others. And the first in order are the revealers of the God who moves them; but those who follow, whom he also calls the rest (that is, the second order), are revealers of those who have been moved by God. You have, therefore, three orders of the celestial powers. But so great was the concern of the good God—of the super-essential ^D Harmony and Order, I say (for the Lacedaemonians called their leaders "concinnators," as those who unify and order everything)—of the God of all things, therefore (who is not a simple concinnator, but is Himself super-essential harmony)—so great was His concern for the holy arrangement of each of the celestial bodies, that they might have both order and an upward leading, so that the later ones might be led up through the prior ones: since each hierarchy constitutes three sacred orders. For the first has thrones, cherubim, and seraphim; and the others likewise exist in succession, and are divided into first, middle, and last powers. And furthermore, note the more minute arrangement of them, in that he again called each peculiar disposition a distribution—though he used the term "distribution" improperly—that is, he distinguished each rank of the one triadic order by the same harmonies and good orders. The saint says this, deriving the proof from the prophecy of Isaiah; for the most divine seraphim one to the other cries out the unceas—

able hymnology, Scripture hereby demonstrating that the first impart the theological notions themselves to those who follow. He calls the thrice-holy hymn a "theological notion," for they learned that the three holy Hypostases come together into one lordship and Divinity, and we learn it through them.

§ III. He adds also a more subtle demonstration concerning the well-ordered constitution in all things, and says that every celestial and human mind, even by itself, possesses distinct primary, intermediate, and final powers toward the aforementioned leadings and manifestations; understand by these: purification, illumination, and perfection. For thus also do the illuminations appear proportionately, according to which each becomes—as far as is lawful and possible for him—a participant of God. For as much as befits the order of each, so much does he obtain of the purification, illumination, and perfection of the good God Himself. And thus, the purification of God is more than most pure, the light more than full, and the perfection more than perfect. But since the direct illuminations are infinite, according to each individual illumination, every celestial mind is ^B first purified, then illuminated, and afterwards perfected. For it is not absurd if he who is perfect in one respect is purified in another, and if he who is illuminated in one respect is perfected according to the same, while being purified and illuminated again in another. For nothing is self-perfect or in no need of perfection except that which is truly self-perfect and truly more-than-perfect. And in this way, the celestial mind possesses these three orders and powers. But how does the human mind possess these, if it also moves toward God? For our discourse is not concerning worldly movements. We say even now that every mind possesses an essence, according to which it first exists; then a power, according to which it endures; and finally an operation, according to which it acts piously in its own proper way; these things he explains clearly in the following chapter.

Moreover, we know of no one among men, neither prophet nor righteous man, who has not stood in need of his own cooperation in order to approach God. For observe what he says, who reached as far as the third heaven: "I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage, lest by any means, after having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Cor. IX, 27). And these are the first and intermediate orders: for the buffeting of the flesh is the first, the subjection of the impulsive desire is the second, while being ^C approved is the last and perfect. Or, we are led up from the simpler initiations—which the Apostle called the drink of milk—to the intermediate ones, and from these to the greater ones, that is, the food of the perfect, which the Lord also signifies in the Gospels, saying to the holy apostles: "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." If you wish, observe also the reception of the all-holy Spirit in the apostles: for this was given, first in the form of signs, second through the breathing, and third in tongues of fire, substantially, as one might say, according to the me—^D

^Agnum Theologian Gregory. But this is perfection. It is permitted to consider this also in another way, and to say the first order is an extension toward that which is superior; the middle, a conversion to the same and a collection; and the last, that which raises up what is more lowly. For if someone, by loving, is not extended toward divine things, he will not be converted and collected toward them, and thus he will not even be led up. For unless the heart has been warmed by constant meditation upon the thing loved, and by conversion and collection, the fire of elevation and perfection will not be kindled, according to that saying: "My heart was hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall be kindled" (Ps. XXXVIII, 4): which will also square with the heavenly mind.

CAPUT XI.

Why all celestial natures are called by the common name of celestial virtues.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER.

^B§ I. His ita definitis, illud consideratione dignum, cur omnes simul angelicas essentias, virtutes cœlestes appellare soleamus. Neque enim, ut in angelis dicere possumus, sanctarum illam virtutum novissimam esse distributionem: atque superiorum quidem essentiarum dispositiones, sanctam et decoram novissimarum illustrationem participare, secus quam ultimæ primarum. Ob eamque causam, cœlestes quidem virtutes omnes, divinos spiritus appellari, seraphim autem et thronos atque dominationes nullo modo; novissimæ siquidem superiorum proprietates haud universim participant. Angeli itaque, et ante angelos archangeli et principatus ac potestates, cum post virtutes a theologia collocentur, frequenter a nobis una cum aliis naturis sanctis, cœlestes passim Virtutes appellantur.

§ II. ^DVerumtamen negamus, nos, cum communi cœlestium virtutum nomine in omnibus utimur, confusionem ullam cujusque ordinis proprietatum introducere; sed quoniam in tria omnes divinæ mentes cœlesti ratione sua divisæ sunt, in essentiam videlicet, et in virtutem, et in operationem, cum omnes, aut aliquas earum, indiscriminatim cœlestes essentias, aut cœlestes virtutes

we must think that we are periphrastically calling them by the names of those regarding whom the discourse is, from the essence or power which is in each of them. For it is not permitted that the eminent property of the holy powers, already rightly distinguished by us, should be attributed to 102 inferior natures in a general way, from which that unconfused order of angelic distinctions would be disturbed. For according to the reason already often rendered by us, those superior distinctions abundantly contain the sacred properties of the inferior ones, but the last ones lack these eminent universalities of the older ones, as these are distributed to them according to each one’s capacity through the primary illustrations.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

§ I. It is to be noted here from Dionysius that "virtues" are spoken of in angels in two ways: for sometimes the name of virtue is appropriated to one order which, according to him, is the middle order of the middle hierarchy, but according to Gregory, hom. 14 in the Gospels, it is the highest of the lowest hierarchy. In another way, it is taken generally, namely for all celestial spirits, insofar as they are in participation of the divine virtue. St. Thomas followed this distinction in the first part, quæst. 108, artic. 5, ad 1: "Virtue," he says, "can be taken in two ways. In one way, generally, according to which it is the middle between essence and operation: and thus all celestial spirits are called celestial virtues, just as they are celestial essences. In another way, according as it imports a certain excess of fortitude: and thus it is the proper name of an order." Whence Dionysius, chapter 8, said that the name of virtues signifies a certain manly and unshaken fortitude, first indeed toward all divine operations fitting to them, secondly toward undertaking divine things; and thus it signifies that they approach the divine things which pertain to them without fear, which appears to pertain to the fortitude of the soul.

§ II. Note: through virtues and energies or operations, one is not, as in us, to understand any accidental qualities; but, as St. Maximus says at the fourth chapter of *The Divine Names*, the minds themselves are intellectual and intelligent, and they are substances, and virtues, and energies: for they are both minds and substances, created by the supreme mind; indeed, the energies there are subsisting by themselves and are substances. And at chapter 7 of *The Celestial Hierarchy* the same Maximus says that there are no such habits in angels as an accident in a subject; which is not only true in material habits, as St. Thomas interpreted in 1, 11, q. 5, in resp. ad 1, because such habits, as he also says, are dispositions to natural being; the nature of which habits has no place in angels, because they lack matter, which such natural properties are, which are found in animate and inanimate beings, and pertain to the second species of quality, which are also called natural powers. Not only, I say, is this true in such habits and accidents, but also in habits that are qualities and pertain to the first species in the predicament of quality; which the same St. Thomas said were excluded by St. Maximus in angels. That this is not so can be seen from the Scholium of the same St. Maximus on the same Dionysius. For where Dionysius—whom St. Thomas cites—in *The Celestial Hierarchy* chapter 7, says there are deiform habits in angels, that is, those by which they are assimilated to God, he wrote a Scholium in these words: "Note that the divine powers possess the godlike according to habit; and habit is an abiding quality. Hence it is therefore manifested that they are self-determining, acquiring virtues by habit." This is portrayed more broadly by Ammon of Adrianople in the discourses written by him against Origen regarding the resurrection. He says, note, that the divine powers (he calls them angels) have the likeness of God according to habit; but a habit is a stable and fixed quality. Hence therefore it is patent how they are of free will, if indeed they have virtues according to acquired habits. This Ammon of Adrianople teaches more amply in those things which he wrote against Origen on the resurrection. Thus far St. Maximus. These habits, therefore, St. Maximus says are not like an accident in a subject, as in us; and he gave the reason: because angels lack matter and all material composition. 103 It must be said, therefore, in summary, how in us there are habits of knowledge and virtues as if they were accidents in a subject, as St. Maximus rightly said. A habit of knowledge in us is acquired in the beginning through a turning to phantasms, which are in the material powers of the senses; whence, as St. Thomas says, by participation and dispositive, the act from which the habit is generated is in the sensitive powers. Therefore, the habit of knowledge can be corrupted in the intellect through oblivion on the part of the memory, in which are saved the phantasms of sensible things, from which intellectual species are abstracted; and through the deception of false argumentation, by which one is persuaded of the contrary of what was previously known. Neither of these can happen in an angel, who can neither be forgetful nor be deceived, because, being free from all matter, through species of things implanted and congenital by God, by which it is habitually perfected, as St. Thomas says, it can know all natures of things. Wherefore such a habit is not in him an accident such as is in us, as St. Maximus said, nor is the angel himself the subject of such an accident; but rather such a habit is in him as the power of heating is in fire, as the same St. Maximus says. Similarly, the habits of the virtues which we take through the senses, as St. Diadochus says in the book *On Spiritual Perfection*, that is, through the just use of the senses and of those things which fall under the senses, which Isaac the Syrian calls those of another order, that is, of the exterior order—can exist and be absent in us as accidents; because they are materially in the sensitive powers, and as if in a sub-

subordinate capacity, which it is permitted to obey or not to obey reason. Whence we are called just in hearing and sight, and similarly in other things, as Saint Peter said in his second Epistle, chapter 2, concerning Saint Lot: *For he was just in seeing and hearing.* ^A And the composition from the subject of these virtues and from the virtues themselves is a material composition, because of the bodily organs. Even those virtues of the interior order, which are theologically called faith, hope, and charity, are also accidents in us, because they can be present and absent, on account of the flesh, which can be subject or not subject to the law of the spirit. *For the flesh is one thing, and the wisdom of the flesh is another, which the Apostle says is not subject to the law of God.* But in angels there are not virtues as mutable qualities, which are called and are accidents, as indeed they would be if there were matter in angels and composition from matter, as in us; but they become, rather, as it were, their natures. For so says Saint Diadochus, bishop of Photice in Epirus, whom Saint Maximus is accustomed to cite and follow, in his golden booklet on certain questions concerning the separate soul and angels, which he entitled *Apocalypsis*: «Ἐπεὶ γὰρ τῶν ἀσωμάτων φύσεων, ὅπερ ἂν κτήσηται ἡ ἐνέργεια, τοῦτο ὥσπερ τῆς φύσεως διὰ πολλὴν, ὡς ἔφην, λεπτότητα γίνεται.» That is: «For in incorporeal natures, whatever the operation acquires, this becomes as it were of the nature on account of, as I said, much subtilty.» He calls subtilty *apheleia*, that is, immateriality. It was therefore the purpose of Saint Maximus to interpret how what Dionysius said was to be understood, that there are deiform habits in angels; lest anyone should err, if he suspected these to be virtues of the angels, as certain mutable qualities, as in our case, after the manner of accidents. For since these can be present and absent without the corruption of the subject, they are properly called, and are, accidents. ^B It is also to be noted that Saint Maximus, in chapter 8 of *On the Divine Names*, calls these habits of virtues *epitēdeiotētas*, which we interpret as habilitations or aptitudes. Saint Thomas says they are participations of divine wisdom and goodness, when he says in the first part, question 5, article 6, in the response to the second objection, that in order to attain God through intellect and will, they need to participate in something from the exterior, namely, divine wisdom and goodness, as he says in the same place: *Therefore, he says, it is necessary to posit habits in them.* Dionysius calls these habits, in chapter 4 of *On the Divine Names*, that which the angels who fell corrupted, in that they wandered from the operation congruent to these habits, whom the Apostle Jude in his Epistle says did not keep their beginning, or, as the old interpreter translated, *tēn archēn*, their principality; for they were created, as Saint Maximus says, for good works. Their creation he called the beginning. Thus Dionysius interpreted the passage of Jude, as Saint Maximus observed. Wherefore what Dionysius said, that the angels corrupted their beginning, is taken from Ezekiel 28, when he says of the devil: *Thy wisdom was corrupted with thy beauty.* Thus far concerning the habits in angels, which are also accustomed to be called by the common term *dynameis*, that is, powers, by Dionysius, as Saint Maximus noted in chapter 5 of *On the Divine Names*, because through them we can act promptly. We must now speak of their powers, which are so properly called *dynameis*, and which the same Saint Maximus excludes from the category of accidents. For he says, if that being of one thing in another, as an accident in a subject, had a place in the powers of an angel, it would follow that the angel would not live of itself, but by accident, and *to zōtikon*, that is, the vital power through which it lives, would not be substantial in the angel, but accidental, nor would it be deified of itself so far as it is possible to be, if the intellectual power of the angel were an accident, as it is in us, and did not rather pertain to the essence of the angel. Now, however, since the power of an angel to live or to understand is not an accident—as in our case it is an accident of the individual which follows matter, which is the principle of individuation—but rather an accident *per se*, and proper to the species, which Saint Thomas (P. 1, q. 54, art. 3, resp. ad 2) says pertains to the form, speaking of the power of the angel, it does not follow that the angel lives by accident, or is beatified by accident; because to operate through a proper power which pertains to the form itself and the substance of the thing, whence it is accustomed to be called *ousiōdēs*, that is, substantial, by philosophers, is not an operation by accident; because, as the same Saint Maximus noted in chapter 5 of *On the Divine Names*, as I said before, philosophers, he says, referred the properties of each substance, whether living or lacking life, to the predicament of substance, and comprehend them by this name of substance, otherwise the proper definitions of substances and properties would not be confused. Thus learnedly Turrianus to Cyparissiotes, Dec. 10, chap. 2.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES (16)

but a deacon is not permitted to perform the duties of priests. ^A Let no one therefore think, on this account, that all angelic essences are called Virtues, because perhaps the Virtues are the last order; for the angels, and before them the archangels and principalities, and furthermore the powers of the second ternion, are placed by theology after the Virtues; nevertheless, in common speech, these lower orders are also called Virtues.

§ II. We say, therefore, that when we use the name of "Virtue" generally for all, we do not introduce any confusion of each order, as, for example, saying at one time that the Virtues in the second order are properly called so according to their rank, and at another time that all the heavenly orders are called Virtues; but the name of Virtues is ^B equivocal, for both the specific order and, in common, all the orders are so named, inasmuch as they are endowed with some virtue. Since, therefore, according to their sublime reason, they are divided into three (for sublime things ought to be spoken of in a sublime way, and supermundane things in a supermundane way), the divine minds are divided into essence, into virtue, and into operation, as in an example: essence is the nature of fire, virtue is the power of illuminating and burning, and operation is the result of the virtue, such as to illuminate and to burn. Since these are often called by their essence, when they are called minds or spirits; and they are called by their operation, when they are called angels: ^C not undeservedly are they also called Virtues from their virtue. When, therefore, we call all or some of them, without any distinction, heavenly essences or heavenly Virtues, it must be understood that we are pointing out and demonstrating those of whom we are speaking, according to a certain redundant phrase; for instead of saying "angels," we say "heavenly essences" or "heavenly Virtues," from their common essence, or even from the virtue which shines in each of them. However, it must not be thought that we attribute the property of the well-distinguished holy Virtues to the lower essences ^D (for the holy Virtues are superior to those below). For this is my point, that no one should think of anything like that, as if we were confounding the superior with the inferior. And hence we solve the question or doctrine regarding why the heavenly orders are commonly called angels. But concerning the superior ones—and indeed the Virtues themselves—no such statement is mine, even if these also are called Virtues; for they indeed, as the superior, possess in a plenary way those things which are in the lower ones, but the lower ones do not possess those things which are of the superiors in a plenary way, but only partially. Hence we do not overturn our own doctrine; for according to the account we have often given regarding them, the higher ones indeed possess the properties of the lower ones, but eminently, so that they also possess something more; but the last ones do not at all possess the totalities of the higher ones, but through the first ones, the primal illuminations are apportioned to the lower ones in proportion to their capacity. It seems in some way here to say that, according to merit, the angelic decorations...

first primal illuminations are infused into the lower ones according to their capacity. He seems, however, in a certain manner here to say that the angelic dispositions were ordered by creation according to their dignity, yet he does not explicitly set this forth; for above, in the preceding chapter, he clearly says that their affection and understanding are the causes of their superior order, namely, because he said that they are cleansed, illuminated, and perfected. It is permissible, therefore, to say with pious conjecture that God, having foreseen the movement of their affection, brought forth their orders as worthy, from which no one would say they could fall away, because they acquired a certain habit toward the good through vehement desire. This is from the holy and great Maximus. As for the angels, that is, the last ^A orders, perhaps He permitted them to be converted even to evil; for he said they are concerned with the world, from which I suppose the devil also to have been before he fell. And if anyone knows something more perfect than these things, I ask him to teach it. This also I believe to be of the most divine and wisest Maximus.

Chapter XII.

Why the leaders of men are called angels.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. 1. He asks, since the lower orders do not attain the perfections of the superior ones, why in Malachi ch. 2, v. 7, the priest is called an angel of the Lord Almighty. 2. He answers: the lower ones, although they do not at all attain to the equality of the superior perfections, yet they express their likeness by imitating them and emulating their office, and therefore also share in their name. 3. He confirms this from the fact that both angels and men, for the same reason, are sometimes also called gods.

§ I. But this also is asked by those who are diligent contemplators of the spiritual oracles; for if what is most recent ^C does not at all attain the entire reasons of its superiors, for what cause is our leader called by the oracles an angel of the Lord Almighty?

§ II. But this argument is not contrary to those things which were defined before; for we say that the most recent do not attain the entire and eminent virtue of the more ancient dispositions; for they are participants of a part according to their own capacity, according to the one harmonious and unifying communion of all. For example, the order of the holy Cherubim is a participant of higher wisdom and knowledge, but the distributions of the natures ^D subordinated to them are indeed themselves also possessors of wisdom and knowledge, but only partial, according to their capacity and that of the lower order. And all, indeed, possess an acquaintance with wisdom and knowledge

^A but not as a common thing, but rather as it is defined for each according to his proper proportion. Nor would anyone be wrong to define this also regarding all the divine minds; for just as the first ones possess in superabundance the holy properties of the lower ones, so the last ones possess those of the former, not, however, in the same way, but in a lower degree. There is nothing absurd, therefore, I believe, if theology also calls the hierarch who is among us an angel, as one who participates according to his capacity in the annunciatory property of the angels, and reaches out toward their revelatory likeness, as far as is possible for men. ^B

§ III.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS.

§ I. Note from Father Cornelius on the passage of Malachi cited: seven reasons why a priest may be called an angel of God. First, because he is a messenger of God to men; whence the Tigurina version translates: "For he is the legate of the Lord of hosts." For just as a legate announces nothing other than the will of the prince who sends him, and can neither add to it nor take away from it; so the priest announces the will of God to the people, and can neither add to it nor take away from it, says Saint Chrysostom, hom. 2, in Epist. ad Rom. And in turn, he carries the prayers of the people back to God. He is therefore as much a legate of the people to God as of God to the people, that is, an internuncio, mediator, and sequester between both. Second, because just as angels minister to God, so also do priests; whence the Chaldean version translates: "Because he is a minister before the Lord of hosts." But God, says Tertullian in lib. contra Judæos, cap. 9, is accustomed to call those angels whom He has appointed ministers of His virtue. Third, because just as angels constantly stand by God praising Him, so the priest must pray and sing psalms constantly, according to that of Ps. CXXXVII: "In the sight of the angels I will sing psalms to thee." Fourth, because he must imitate the virtue and purity of the angels; whence Isidorus, chastising the levity of Dorotheus the presbyter, lib. 1, epist. 519, says: "For the priest is an angel of the omnipotent Lord; but an angel knows no laughter, ministering to God with fear and trembling." Fifth, the priest is an angel by divine consecration, by which he has received greater power than the angels, as Saint Chrysostom proves beautifully and at length in the books *De sacerdotio*. Sixth, because there are three offices of the angels, namely, to purge, to illuminate, and to perfect, which are likewise the offices of the priest. Seventh, because it is the way of angels to persevere in holiness and sanctification, as Basil says, homil. *De Spiritu sancto*; for those who did not persevere in it became demons; thus, perseverance in his work and office is necessary for the priest; concerning which the golden sentiment of Saint Gregory Nazianzen in *Apol.* is: "Truth, he says, the prelate and defender is with the class and order of the angels, with the archangels he celebrates God, he transmits sacrifices to the superior altar, and at the same time he functions as a priest with Christ, he restores the structure, he presents an image to the Creator, and he acts as an artificer for the world, and, what is more, I shall say, he is God, and makes others gods." § II. The holy Cherubim is a participant in higher wisdom and knowledge, etc. From this place, divine Thomas, in the first part, question 55, article 5, proves that the higher angels are, the more universally they understand via species. "For this, he says, are in things some higher ones, by which they are united to the one first, which is God..."

and from which all things are known. This intelligible plenitude, however, is found in intelligible creatures in an inferior mode and less simply. Hence it is necessary that what God knows through one, an inferior intellect must know through many, and through so many more, the more inferior the intellect is. Thus, therefore, just as an angel is superior, so it will be able to comprehend the universality of intelligible things through fewer species, and therefore its forms or species must be more universal, as extending themselves to more things. And we seem to have some example of this in ourselves. For there are some who cannot grasp intelligible truth unless it is explained to them bit by bit, through singulars. And this indeed happens from the weakness of their intellect. Others, however, who are of a stronger intellect, can grasp many things from a few. But if this passage of Saint Dionysius is considered more exactly, it only teaches that inferior angels know fewer things than superior ones; and therefore he called their knowledge partial with respect to the knowledge of superiors. Dionysius does not treat here of the species which the scholastics attribute to angels as the principle of their cognition.

§ III. Furthermore, you may find that theology also calls them gods, etc. Thus, Psalm XCIV says: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods, where he also understands the angels. And the angel who wrestled with him calls himself God, Gen. c. XXXII: "Thy name," he says, "shall not be called Jacob, but Israel: for if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?" ^B Idem: To which also the holy men who are among us belong. Psalm LXXXI: I have said, You are gods, and all of you the sons of the Most High. Which Christ himself interprets concerning men, to whom the word of God was spoken, in the tenth chapter of John. And in Exodus, chapter VII: The Lord said to Moses: Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharaoh.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES (17)

§ I. The holy man discovers here that our high priest is also called the angel of the Lord by the most divine Malachi; for, he says, "he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." ^A Since, therefore, he has shown that superiors are rightly named by the name of inferiors, by demonstrating in what way all the celestial orders are commonly called angels; where he resolves the opinion of some regarding the celestial powers, that they are called powers—all the orders, ^B as well the superior as the inferior—according to some other equivocal power by which they are empowered; he also questions here how our high priest, although he is the last among all the celestial orders, is called by the name of a superior, and is named an angel. It is questioned, therefore, by the zealous contemplators of the sacred oracles, which speak of intelligible things, ^C as in the fourteenth chapter he calls the spiritual prefecture a "prefecture of spiritual things." But why does he call the oracles "intelligible" here, but there a "spiritual prefecture"? Who, although the oracles are about spiritual things, are not correctly called spiritual or mental; ^D for they are not spirits and minds, and the oracles are directed by the mind. However, he calls the prefecture of the angels "spiritual" because it attends to spiritual things, and the mind which attends to them is spiritual. It is therefore sought by the studious contemplators of the oracles, who probe deeper than what appears: for they are "spectators" who only observe that which is obvious, but those who are studious are "contemplators" who are amorously affected toward the vision, and are held by a desire for knowing something more. This, therefore, is the question: If those things which are the newest do not at all reach the full properties of the superiors, for what reason is our bishop called the angel of the Lord.

^A He solves the question here, therefore, and says that this is not contrary to the things previously defined, as he will demonstrate. For we say that the lowest do not possess the total properties of the superiors, but participate in them partially, according to their capacity; because all things are under one dominion, by which they are harmonized and joined together. For example, the Cherubim participate in a higher wisdom and knowledge, and those that are below them participate also in wisdom and knowledge, but in a partial way relative to those. And indeed, participation in this is common to both the Cherubim and the others; but that which is primary and direct, or again secondary and lower, is no longer common, but as is defined for each according to its own proportion. ^B He said "defined," not implying a certain fate and unchangeable necessity, as many are accustomed to say, but a limited proportion of virtue, perhaps of intellect, beyond which one ought not to think. And one would not err if he said this, which is spoken regarding the Cherubim and those beneath them, about the others as well. For even as the first possess most fully the things of the lower, so also do the last possess the things of the prior, though not in the same way, but in a lower degree. There is nothing, therefore, strange in my opinion, if even our bishop is called an angel, because according to his own power he participates in the property of the angels, which is the interpretation of divine things, in which office he is perfected, and because he is extended—as far as is possible for men, and not as much as befits the angels—to the interpretive likeness of the angels. ^C For as the angels manifest the divine will, so also do the bishops through their own teachings. But if also through action, according to "whatsoever they did, and whatsoever they taught," this is even better and more perfect.

§ III.

"I have seen the end of all completion; thy commandment is exceeding broad." ^A Such as these are also deemed worthy of the divine name, if it is permissible to say so, through a divine imitation according to their capacity; for by imitating God, as far as is possible for man, they are deemed worthy of the divine name.

CHAPTER XIII.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. I. He inquires why it is said that Isaiah was purified not by an angel of the lowest order, but by one of the highest. II. He replies that it may be said with probability that it was not a seraph, but was called by this name because of the manner of purification by fire. III. He relates another opinion, which holds that this angel was indeed from an inferior order, but attributed the task of purification to that supreme order because he purified by its power, just as, for example, a high priest is said to ordain through bishops and to baptize through priests, because they do this by authority received from him; this opinion he favors more. IV. He describes the vision of Isaiah, where he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, and the seraphim around him, and relates how Isaiah was purified, and explains the individual items mystically.

§ I. Come then, let us also investigate according to our capacity ^B why a seraph is said to be sent to one of the theologians. For someone might well doubt and hesitate as to why it was not one of the lower angels, but he who is numbered among the most ancient essences that purified the prophet.

§ II. Some, indeed, say that, in accordance with the definition already given regarding the communion of all the intellectual beings, the Scripture does not mean that one of the first spirits who are attendants upon God came to purify the theologian, but that one of the angels set over us, because he was performing that sacred office of purifying the prophet, was called by the name of seraph on account of the wiping away of the sins that had been recounted by fire, and the resuscitation of the purified man to divine obedience; and they say that the Scripture simply called one of the seraphim not as meaning those who dwell around God, but those purifying powers that are set over us.

§ III. Another has also provided me with an altogether not inappropriate solution to this question: for he said that that great ^C angel (whoever he may have been) who fashioned this vision, in order to instruct the prophet in divine things, referred the task of purification—which was his own responsibility—to God, and after God, to the primordial hierarchy. And could this statement perhaps be true? For he who asserted this ^D said that the divine power

^A emanates and reaches out to all things, traversing through all without restraint, and yet it remains invisible to all, not only because it is superessentially transcended above all things, but also because it secretly diffuses its own providential energies upon all. Yet, it also manifests itself proportionately to all intellectual beings, and by extending its own gift of light to the most venerable essences, through them, as primary, it distributes itself in good order to those that are secondary, according to the theoptic symmetry of each order. Or, to speak more clearly and by way of familiar examples—though they fall short of God, who is removed from all things, yet they are clearer to us—the diffusion of the solar ray ^B passes most easily into the primary matter, which is more subtle than all others, and through it shines forth its own brilliance more clearly; but when it strikes thicker materials, it is seen to have a dimmer diffusion of light, because of the ineptitude of the materials being illuminated for the diffusion of light, and from this, it gradually shrinks so that it can hardly be distributed any further. In the same way, the heat of fire diffuses itself more readily into things that are more capable of receiving it and are yielding and susceptible to its assimilation; yet in natures that resist or are contrary to it, either no trace or only a faint trace of its igniting energy appears. And what is more, it inserts itself into those things not of its own kind through those that are already accommodated to it, so that, if the situation requires, it first makes those things ignescent which easily catch fire, and through these, it heats water or anything else that does not easily catch fire in the same manner. According to this same rule of natural good order, ^C the Source of all order, both visible and invisible, supernaturally manifests the splendor of its own primordial illumination through most blessed influxes to those supreme essences, and through them, the rest subsequently participate in this divine ray. For they, having been the first to know God and being possessed by an ultimate desire for divine virtue, have also attained this: that they might arrive, according to their capacity, at the first imitation of divine power and activity, and that they might kindly promote the lower orders to the same imitation as much as they are able, while ungrudgingly deriving a portion of the light implanted in them into those below, and they in turn into those below them; and thus, one by one, the first makes the one proximate to it a participant in what has been given to it, and so the divine light is distributed through providence to all according to each one’s capacity. Therefore, for all who are enlightened, ^D the principle of being enlightened is God by nature, and truly, and properly, as the essence of light and the cause of even being and seeing; but by appointment and in imitation of God, each one that is placed above the one following it is a principle, in that the divine lights are channeled through it to the one below. Thus, the essences of all the remaining angels, as is likely, consider the most supreme hierarchy of the celestial minds, after God, to be the principle of all

^A holy theognosy and God-likeness, since through them, ^A the divine illumination is distributed to all and to us. Therefore, they refer every sacred and God-mimicking activity to God as the Cause, but to the first God-like minds as the primary workers of the divine things and as teachers. Thus, the first arrangement of the holy angels possesses the fiery property more than all others, as well as the diffuse communion of divine wisdom, the knowledge of the understanding of the supreme divine illuminations, and the thronal property which indicates a capacity wide open to receive God. But the arrangements of the inferior essences participate in this fiery, wise, knowing, and God-receptive virtue—yet in a lower degree, looking toward the first ones, and by them, as those having been deemed worthy to be primary workers of God-likeness, they are led up to the capacity of the God-like state. Therefore, they ascribe these stated holy properties, by the participation in which those essences after them have come into being, to those very ones after God as to their hierarchs.

§ IV.

Therefore, he who related these things said that this vision was shown to the Theologian by one of the holy and blessed angels who preside over us, and that by his illuminating guidance he had been led up to that intellectual contemplation in which he saw those supreme essences (if one may speak in symbols) placed ^B under God, and near God, and around God, and, moreover, the super-ineffably eminent super-principal summit of them all, situated in the midst of the super-eminent powers. The Theologian learned, therefore, from these visions that the Divinity, according to every supernatural excellence, surpasses every visible and invisible power beyond comparison, and is above all things, as one that is removed from them, neither being in any way similar to these first essences of beings; and furthermore, that it is the principle of all things and the cause that gives substance, and the immutable foundation of the indissoluble staying of things, from which both to be, and to be well, even the supreme powers had received ^C existence; then he was taught the God-like powers of the most holy Seraphim, the sacred name of which signifies the fiery quality—of which we shall speak a little later, as we are able to interpret the impulses of this fiery virtue toward the divine likeness. Furthermore, since the sacred fiction of the six wings signifies the absolute and supreme rising towards God in the first, middle, and final intellectual faculties, ^D but also the endlessness of their...

^A excitation, as well as their innumerable feet and their many faces. The holy theologian saw this, and as the wings veiled the sight of both the feet and the faces, and as the middle wings were in perpetual motion, he was led to the intelligible knowledge of what he saw. There was explained to him the multi-faceted and all-seeing power of the supreme spirits, and their holy reverence, which they exhibit in a supermundane way in the face of the bold, audacious, and inaccessible investigation of higher and deeper mysteries, as well as their ceaseless and soaring perpetual motion in the symmetry of God-mimicking activities.

He was also initiated into that divine and most precious hymnody, as the angel who formed the vision communicated to the theologian his own sacred knowledge, in accordance with his capacity. He was also taught this: that purification is, for those who are worthy of it, a participation in the divine-sovereign clarity and purity, to the extent that this is possible. ^B This purification itself, which is performed in a super-essential secrecy by the very causes of the Godhead that are separated for all the holy powers around it as supreme, is in some way more manifest and reveals itself more clearly, and distributes itself accordingly. But in the case of secondary or our own final intellectual powers, just as each stands apart according to its God-like nature, so does it draw the bright illumination of the Godhead toward the single and unknown character of its own hiddenness. It shines upon those in each rank of the second order through the first, and, to express it briefly, it is brought from the hidden into the manifest primarily through the first powers.

This, then, the theologian was taught by the angel who illuminated him: that purification and all the divine-sovereign activities, shining forth through the first essences, are distributed to all the rest according to the analogy of each one’s capacity for deific participation; hence, it is with good reason that he attributed the fiery property of purification to the Seraphim, next to God. It is therefore not at all strange if the Seraphim is said to purify the theologian. For just as God purifies all beings because He is the cause of all purification, or rather (to use a more accessible example), just as our own chief priest, while purifying or illuminating through his ministers or priests, is himself said to purify and illuminate because the ^C orders which he consecrates refer their own holy activities back to him; so also the angel who performed the purification of the theologian attributed his own purifying power and knowledge to God, as the Author, and to the Seraphim, as the first-ranking high priest, as if he were instructing, with angelic reverence, the one being purified: "The purification that is being performed in you by my ministry has as its beginning an exempt ^D and essential [cause], and is the creator and principle, he who also [leads] the first essences..."

^A into existence, and by placing them beside himself preserves them, rendering them immutable and unchangeable, and moves them to participate in the first operations of his own providence; for this, he who taught me these things said, manifests the mission of the Seraphim. The Hierarch, then, and after God the leader, the ornament of the first essences, by whom I was initiated into the deiform way of cleansing, this very one is he who is cleansing you through me; through whom the Cause and Creator of all cleansing has brought forth his own providential energies from the hidden realm into us. These things, indeed, he was teaching me, and I in turn impart them to you. It will be the task of your own intellectual and discerning knowledge either to be freed from the [initial] perplexity by one of the stated causes, and to prefer this to the other—as is perhaps likely, and reasonable, and potentially true—or to discover for yourself something more akin to what is truly true, or to learn from another (that is, with God granting the word, and angels mediating), and to reveal to us, the friends of angels, a clearer ^B (if it be possible) and for me a more desirable contemplation.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

From this chapter of Saint Dionysius, the divine Thomas in the first part, q. 112, art. 2, raises the question whether all angels are sent for ministry; and he responds in the body of the article that the lower angels are sent only by common law, while the higher ones are sent by divine dispensation. For this, he says, is a property of the order of divine Providence, not only in the angels but also in the whole universe, that the lower things are administered through the higher: yet from this order in corporal matters one sometimes departs by divine dispensation, for the sake of a higher order, namely, according to what is expedient for the manifestation of grace.

Saint Dionysius also determines in this chapter a certain question which was moved from those things said in c. 6, § 2: where he teaches that the first hierarchy is assiduously occupied around God, and perpetually adheres to him. Likewise in ch. 7, § 2, he says those first essences are placed as if in the vestibule of the Divinity itself, etc. By which places it seems to be signified that they always assist God, and are not sent outwardly to us: the contrary of which seems to be taught by Isaiah c. VI, where he says one of the Seraphim was sent to cleanse the prophet.

§ 1. He proposes the question: which, since it is grounded in the distinction between the duty of assisting and of ministering, it is to be noted that angels can be said to assist God in different ways. And first, if "to assist" is taken for contemplating the face of God, thus do all good angels assist, who always see the face of the Father who is in heaven (Matt. XVIII). Second, if "to assist" is taken for receiving illuminations immediately from God, thus do only the first three orders assist. Third, if "to assist" is accepted for approaching God, and being distant from exterior mission, thus do the first four orders assist. To minister, however, is to announce according to the opportunity of time, or to work according to office; for ministry is of a messenger and an office.

§ II. He provides the first solution of the question, namely, that he who cleansed the prophet was of the lower orders, called a Seraph equivocally, by imitation of the act of the higher, because he cleansed through fire.

§ III. He posits the second solution, namely, that he who cleansed the prophet was of the first order; but that he did not cleanse by ministry, but by authority, in as much as the lower angel cleansed the prophet by the virtue received from him, and thus the operation is reduced to him. But this [argument] is countered by the likeness of divine virtue, diffused universally in all things, whose illumination reaches intellectual things proportionally, not otherwise than as material light or heat finds those bodies more apt for its reception, it illuminates or ignites them more.

§ IV. He describes the vision and cleansing of the prophet Isaiah, which he himself narrates in c. VI, concerning which Gregory the Theologian in the second book of *Theology* says: "What will you be able to say concerning Isaiah and Ezekiel, each of whom was a spectator of the greatest mysteries, and concerning the rest of the prophets, from among whom the one indeed saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting on the throne of glory, and him surrounded, praised, and delighted by the six-winged Seraphim, and himself cleansed by a coal of fire, and instructed for prophecy; while the other describes a vehicle from the cherubim, and above them a throne, and above the throne a firmament, and him who was appearing in the firmament, and certain voices and impetuses and actions: and this indeed, whether it was a diurnal vision visible to the saints, or a nocturnal and true vision, or an information of the future as if present in the mind..."

I cannot affirm; God—and those to whom such things happened—knows.

Note, however, from Father Cornelius some congruent reasons for this vision. First, that by it the prophet and apostle was, as it were, consecrated. Second, that he might learn from the heavenly spirits how divine things are to be handled. Third, that he might be animated by God to freely denounce the blindness of the Jews. Fourth, that he might be taught the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and that the same might be adumbrated to us. See more in Father Cornelius, who explains this vision at length at the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and at the same time those things which we noted above regarding the sixth and seventh chapters.

PARAPHRASE OF PACHYMERES (18)

§ I. ^A Let us also investigate another question, ^B since it appears to be contrary to what has been said: for he stated previously that the lower orders are instructed by those immediately above them, but not by the highest. Observe, however, that even then these things were sought and solved in various ways. For it is asked why a seraph is sent to Isaiah, and not one from the lower orders, since we have said that instruction normally proceeds through the first to the second; why, then, does he who is numbered among the highest orders purify the prophet?

§ II. Some, therefore, say that a lower angel is called "seraph" ^B univocally, according to that same principle of communion which we mentioned before, that the lower partake of the things of the superiors, and the superiors of the things of the lower; although the latter do so totally, but the former only in part and in a more obscure degree. For this reason, the oracle does not say that one of the first seraphim came to purify the prophet, but that one of the lowest angels, and those who are set over men, was called "seraph" acting as a minister of purification; for *seraphim* is interpreted as "incensor" or "heater." Since, therefore, it was necessary first for the prophet to be purified from sins, and then to be initiated into divine things, the angel who purified and revived him was called *seraphim* because of such an operation. As an "incensor," he burned away sins; as a "heater," he exerted a revival toward divine obedience. For "Behold me," he says. Hence, also, the angel was called *seraphim* from this act, and he was not one of those in the first order and who are around God. ^C

§ III. Someone else has given a solution to such a question that is not altogether absurd. But he did not refer this to a comparison of degrees, as if it were perhaps absurd but not greatly so, but rather moderately absurd. It is not so: but neither absurd nor greatly absurd, according to the common form of speech, just as the great Gregory the Theologian teaches in one of his sermons, as in that: "Not according to our justifications which we have done; for we have not done them." And again: "God does not give the spirit by measure," as is found in the evangelist John. He therefore brought forward a reasonable excuse, that it was not unlikely that the prophet was led by one of the angels set over us; and this angel, who fashioned such a vision—for the prophets do not see naked things and essences...

but enigmas and symbols fashioned by the ^A angels—this angel, then, who was instructing the theologian, led him to God and to the first hierarchy after God, that is to say, the Seraphim, so that the leading might again be by the guiding angel. And the holy man says: "Could this teaching be true?" And he proves how it is true from the explanation of the one who spoke. For he said, he notes, that the divine power extends to all things and permeates all things without being grasped and without being held; for it is not contained by anything in such a way that it does not pass elsewhere. And again, it is hidden from all things for two reasons: that it is superessentially removed from all things, and that it is dissimilar (for the similar is known by the similar), and because it secretly sends forth its providences (for "who has known the mind of the Lord?"), so that we may perhaps always be vigilant, not knowing its reasons and the hour at which each thing will be usefully ^B disposed. Therefore, He sends this light-giving illumination even to the intellectual essences, yet proportionate to and according to the measure of the power of those receiving it—first to the most primary, and through them to those below. This he clarifies by a proper and sensible example, which, although it falls short in every respect of the things being discussed, is nevertheless familiar to us. For propose a solar ray; it passes into a more transparent primary matter, for example glass, through which it shines more brightly. How more brightly? To us, clearly, not in comparison with the previous illumination, but with the proportion of the sight to the accepting of the light; for abundant light rather dims the sight if it is not commensurate with the eyes receiving it. It is distributed also to thicker matters, and because of their ineptitude for transmitting the light-giving flow, it becomes dim and little by little is restricted, so that it cannot be distributed to others. Take also ^C another contemplation from fire: the heat of fire is more distributed into those things which are more receptive to it and are compliant and leadable to heat; but in substances that are resistant to it, like diamonds, or contrary, like water, little or no trace of its ignition appears. And furthermore, that it approaches things which are not cognate—for example, water (for water is cold and moist, but fire is hot and dry)—through other things that are cognate to it, for example through a vessel. He spoke of "first," not meaning immediately, but that it approaches not immediately, but through those which are primary, to those which are not cognate, and afterwards, for example, to heating them; for by first making ignited those things which are in some way cognate, through these same things it also heats those that are not cognate. ^D According to this same natural reason, consider also the things above nature; for God, the principle of all right order and orchestration, manifests the splendor of His own illumination primarily to those supreme minds in a clear and admirable fusion, and through them the ones that follow participate in this ray. For those supreme ones, having known the Creator first, and desiring His beauty, have been deemed worthy to become primary laborers of the God-imitating energy and power; for first through them the ones after them

receive the illumination, just as they themselves receive it from God; for they spread it out kindly and without any envy (for there is no envy in the Good, as Plato says), pouring forth their brightness most fully, even if they themselves receive it only insofar as they can contain it. This happens also with the others, down to the very last. God, therefore, is the beginning of illumination for all who are illuminated, naturally and truly in the proper sense as the source of light, and is Himself light, and the cause for all both of being and of seeing the light itself; but by position and by grace, in a God-imitating way, one [order] partakes of it from another, the first to the one after it, in the passing of that illumination into it through the former, which he called "being channeled," by a metaphor from water passing through pipes. But to perform one’s own proper tasks, and to be incessantly stretched forth toward God, and to be gathered back into oneself again—the one by desire, the other by attention and reverence—this could be called a God-imitating virtue. ^A Yet it preserves the order of one in another, as in the saying: "Your soul lives in me," meaning your teaching and its communication. And while this is there by position, it should not be called an accident; for an accident is in a subject, whereas those beings are incomposite and immaterial, and the species of their life exist not as they do in matter. ^B Therefore, the remaining heavenly essences regard the supreme order of celestial intelligences as the beginning of their own knowledge of God and imitation of God, as it is through them that the illumination is distributed to them; wherefore they refer every action first to God as the principle and cause, and then after Him to the first [orders], as to those who first manifest and teach to them the things of God-imitation. ^C The first order, then, more than the others, possesses the things belonging to itself: the fiery nature, which is that of the Seraphim; the pouring forth of wisdom; and furthermore the knowledge of the science of divine illuminations (for science is directed toward reachable objects) and the property of the Thrones, that is, obviously, having an open intellect toward the Divine, which is and is called the reception of God. The order after it partakes of such powers, though in a subordinate way, and looking toward the first ones, through whom, as those first deemed worthy of God-imitation, they are led up to the God-like state as far as is possible; they therefore attribute to the first ones, as hierarchs after God, the properties of those whose participation they receive. ^D Those who offer this solution (I think, however, it was the great Hierotheos, or whoever else was second to him) said that the vision was exhibited to the prophet by one of the angels, who led him by the hand to that contemplation in which he saw, as in symbols, the supreme essences having six wings beneath God (because the majesty of Him who sat was exceedingly great), and next to God (for there were no other orders before them).

^A Likewise, the fact that those orders were firm signifies that they are inflexible and immovable regarding those things below. Moreover, he saw the eminent summit established in their midst from above, ^B and from the visions of these symbols he learned that the divine Numen, according to every supernatural excellence, surpasses every visible and invisible nature beyond comparison; he learned, moreover, that the divine Numen is exempt from all things, even as a master from servants and a creator from creatures; and that it exists as resembling not only others, but not even the first essences themselves. This he learned both because he saw That One upon the throne and the orders standing around with trembling, and because he saw the first orders. If, therefore, the divine Numen was not resembling even the first, what is one to think regarding the subsequent ones? And a third thing he learned, that God is the principle and cause of all, indissoluble and immutable, from whom both being and well-being belong to them. But whence did he learn even this? From the fact that all things look to Him, and all things tend toward Him, as toward Him who benignly bestows the prize of victory. How is it that after the contemplation of the divine Numen he then learned of the deiform powers and the seraphim, and not in the order in which they were revealed? One might say that the supereminent glory of the One seated caused him to fix his first gaze there, and then, after he had learned the difference between the Master and the ministers, he was initiated into the powers of the seraphim, because those powers are fiery, according to their denomination, as the saint will declare and explain a little later in the ^C fifteenth chapter. He also taught the sacred fiction of the six wings, as he had also said before, that every mind possesses first, middle, and last orders. There was, therefore, also such a triple order there in the supreme and absolute intention: for two wings appeared fully unfolded. But also the infinite-footedness and multi-footedness of them, and that with two wings they hid and covered their feet, and with two they hid the appearance of their faces, while with the two middle ones they were always moving—these things, I say, which he saw, led him to that knowledge, being signified to him by these: by the multi-faceted, [the knowledge] of the multi-way and poly-optic power; by the covering, [the knowledge] of the reverence which they have toward the bold and inaccessible investigation of the higher and deeper [mysteries] (of the higher because of covering the faces, and of the deeper because of covering the feet); and by the ever-moving, [the knowledge] of the high-flying and incessant operation of the imitation of God. ^D But the prophet was also initiated by the angel into that hymn which begins from God and ends in God, the "Holy, holy, holy," with the angel communicating such sacred knowledge to him; for he himself, having first received such knowledge through those before him, transmitted it to the prophet. In addition to these things, he also taught him this, that the participation of God is to the pure, in whatever way, a purification. And from what did he teach this? From those things by which the Seraph was purifying him. For he who is pure cannot otherwise purify unless he himself possesses the purification most perfectly. But how is the participation of the divine [essence] a purification to those who are in any way pure?

^A For the very fact that the prophet was pricked in his conscience and lamented that he was unclean, and had unclean lips, and dwelt in the midst of an unclean people, and [yet] saw the Lord Sabaoth, was, as it were, a partial purification that had come to him who spoke these things; for this reason, he also becomes a participant in the more perfect purification. This purification, then—that is to say, the participation—is [accomplished] by exceptional causes. For it is not as with men that purification is brought about and performed for all the intellectual minds, but it is not simply [the same], but according to the principle of mystical initiation. It is somewhat more manifest unto the essences that are around it and are the primary ones; the reason is that it manifests itself more to those who are nearest. ^B But among the second, or the last, or even among our own intellectual powers, according to the order of each, it is considered as being somewhat more gathered and contracted, relative to the distance (as it were, in length) of the approach toward God; this divine illumination itself gathers, as it were, its own manifestation toward its own unified and simple unknown state. For God is unknown, not because of a variety of reasonings unknown to us, but according to a certain unified nescience in us, which is simply and absolutely incomprehensible to those [who are] beneath us. In accordance with this, it is said that He wraps Himself in light as with a garment, as though He were deliberately drawing the light [over Himself], so that it might become capable of being grasped by the capacity of those [who are] inferior, while it nonetheless shines upon those who are secondary in each case, [working] through the first. And if one must speak briefly, the light is made manifest from the hidden place even to the others, but through the primary powers. This, then, was also what the prophet was being taught (whom [Dionysius] calls "theologian," either as a teacher of occult things or as one who utters the words of God) by the angel who was leading him to this light—namely, that both the purification and every divine operation are performed through them, ^C even though they are provided to some by these [powers]. But, at any rate, there are primary and immediate essences through which even these things themselves are provided by God to them, according to the proportion of each order; for this reason, one reasonably attributes the cleansing property—not to them, but as though by a certain fiery operation (for there are also other modes of purification for the seraphim), as they also possess the name—after God. There is nothing absurd, therefore, if the seraph is said to purify the prophet. For observe, even in the case of God, that while we are purified by others, we are [also] said to be purified by God, in that He is the cause of all purification. But rather, to use a more humble example from our own hierarchy: just as our own hierarch, when he purifies or illuminates through his own ministers, that is to say, deacons or priests, is himself said to purify and illuminate, because the orders which he consecrates, that is to say, those who are ordained, attribute the actions of their own operation to him, ^D so also the angel who performs the initiatory task of the theologian [refers these things] toward God as the cause, and toward the seraph as one who primarily receives the things of purification and...

transmits them, not as one usurping the honor or acting with ambition (for such ambition is far removed from divine beings), but rather instructing with a certain angelic reverence, and saying to the prophet: "The beginning of the purification which is being accomplished in you by me is God, whom you see raised upon the throne." He is Himself, of Himself, purification and the essence of purification, as the essence of light. It is He who brought forth the first essences which you see around Him, and by the placement around Him He keeps them together and preserves them from change and falling. For they are to be understood as immutable according to their essence, as in immortality, in life, according to which they have their essence so as to be light, and not to be turned toward any foreign desires. For the fact that they extend themselves toward God depends upon their spiritual liberty, but that they always persevere in this is the help of God: for all things stand in need of God’s help. It is He who also moves others to participate in those first operations of His providence, which the first orders receive, and again in transmitting them: for this, the one who gave this solution said, declares the mission or legation. But this—that is to say, God—is the author of purification; after God, however, is the seraph who is set over the purification, from whom I also was initiated into how to purify. This, therefore, is the seraph who through me purifies you, through whom the Creator of the purification, God, brought forth His own operations from His own hiddenness to us. ^C These things that holy man taught me; to you, however, O Timothy, I myself transmit, according to the image which we have just now related of the seraph and the angel. And it shall be for your understanding either to accept one of the two aforementioned causes and be freed from the difficulty—and rather to honor the latter as having reason on its side—or to discover from yourself something more akin and fitting, or to learn from another who is skilled in divine matters, God granting the word, according to that: "The Lord will give the word to those who bring good news," the divine angels acting as proxies and mediators, through whom all illumination is ferried across to us. And it shall again be a matter for your knowledge, while you either discover it from yourself or learn from another, to reveal to us also—who are, if it be lawful to say, lovers of the angels—such a lovable contemplation. Observe, moreover, from this the modesty of this father, how, while he teaches, he also desires to learn in part. For indeed the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, according to that order which pervades all things, established by the good God and our Savior. ^D

CHAPTER XIV. What the handed-down angelic number signifies.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER.

From Daniel, chapter VII, 10, he teaches that the number of the angels is very great; which, although it is not strictly infinite, but limited, is nevertheless so great that it cannot be comprehended by men, being known to God alone, and exceeding the number of all corporeal things.

^A And this, I think, is also worthy of spiritual contemplation, that the tradition of the sacred oracles regarding the angels asserts that there are thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, by cycling back into themselves, and multiplying those numbers which to us are most extreme, ^B and by these means clearly indicating the numberless ranks of heavenly essences for us. For many are the blessed hosts of the super-cosmic minds, which have passed beyond the weak and constrained symmetry of the material numbers used by us, and are defined only by the knowledge and wisdom of their super-cosmic and heavenly understanding, which is most abundantly granted to them by the God-originating and infinitely wise creation—He who is the super-essential source of all beings alike, the life-giving cause, the sustaining power, and the encompassing end.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS.

From this chapter, Saint Thomas, in the first part, q. 50, art. 3, proves that the angels, since they are far more perfect than corporeal creatures, exist in a very great multitude, exceeding all material multitude. And the reason for this is that, since the perfection of the universe is that which God chiefly intends in the creation of things, the more perfect some things are, the greater the number in which they are created by God. Now, just as excess is considered in bodies according to magnitude, so in incorporeal things, excess can be considered according to multitude. We see, moreover, that incorruptible bodies, which are among the more perfect bodies, exceed corruptible bodies in a certain way without comparison regarding magnitude (for the whole sphere of active and passive elements is something small compared to the celestial bodies). Hence, it is consonant with reason that immaterial substances should exceed material substances in multitude, and that, too, without comparison.

But the words of Dionysius do not conclude this, but only that the multitude of angels cannot be tallied by us by any multiplication of numbers, such as we are accustomed to use in counting corporeal things—like the centenary, the millenary, etc. For this is what it signifies, when he says: "Many are the blessed hosts of the super-cosmic minds, which have passed beyond the weak and constrained symmetry of our material numbers," that is, the short and small number which we use for counting things. He is not speaking, therefore, about counted things, but about the number itself. He concedes, however, that their own multitude is known to the angels themselves, according to the light granted to them by God.

Note, the passage in Daniel, chapter VII, 10, to which he alludes, reads in the Vulgate: *Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him.* The Septuagint: *Chiliai chiliades*, which is, thousands of thousands, or a million, that is, ten hundred thousand, that is, very many thousands of angels, were ministering to God, assigning, of course, a certain number for an uncertain one: *kai myriai myriades*, that is, ten thousand times ten thousand, or a hundred millions, that is, very many myriads, were standing before him. Tertullian, against Praxeas, reads: *A thousand times a hundred thousand will stand before him, and a thousand times a hundred thousand will appear before him.* Whence Cyril of Jerusalem, in Catechesis 15, notes that there are far more myriads of angels; yet Daniel only assigns these, because he could not express a greater number than what men could conceive in their minds. The meaning, therefore, is as if he said: Very many and almost innumerable angels stood before him, as Dionysius also here accepts, and as Cornelius observes on Daniel VII.

Observe here the difference between "standing before" and "ministering"; for to "stand before" is to contemplate the face of God; and thus do all the good angels stand before him. Likewise, to "stand before" is to receive illuminations immediately from God; and thus only the first three orders stand before him. Likewise, to "stand before" is to draw near to God and to be aloof from external mission; and thus do the first four orders stand before him. But to "minister" is to announce according to the suitability of the time, or to operate according to one’s office. For there is a ministry of the messenger and of the office.

CAPUT XIV.

^A It considers it worthy of spiritual inquiry—that which, as we were saying, is appropriate to spiritual things, or which coordinates and arranges by its spiritual mind that which is handed down in the Scriptures concerning the number of the angels. We find, then, also twelve legions of angels, which, and more than these, the Lord could ask of the Father and station in battle to repel the plotters. Yet this number is insignificant when compared to the vision of Daniel, since thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand stood by God. A *legion*, moreover, is an order consisting of a certain number (derived indeed from the word *lego*, "I gather"): if we were to say it consists of a hundred, this is nothing in comparison to so many thousands and myriads; and if we were to say it is gathered from a thousand, this again is nothing compared to the multiplication by myriads.

Regarding the twelve legions, another may perhaps bring forward something more sublime and wiser, according to the grace communicated by the good God and our Savior Jesus Christ; but to me for the present, if it behooves me also to add something to this, it appears that the holy Scripture shows a sign of great humanity and benevolence. For although there were eleven who were prepared to assist, with Peter as it were leading, yet the kindness of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, which surpasses all speech, being in some way poured out, counts also that lost companion, for whom He still solicitously cares, among them, and says that for each of these He could ask a legion of angels, both to declare the multitude of the angels even more, and the magnificence and divinity of the One asking. ^B For to whom else have so many ever lent aid? Regarding these, there is another discussion; but concerning the thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, the holy man says that the holy and divine Scripture has gathered and multiplied into themselves those highest numbers that are among us—namely, thousands and ten thousands—and by this has clearly and openly signified and demonstrated the uncountable coordinations of the heavenly orders, that is, the hypostases of the heavenly powers.

To us, however, he said they are "uncountable," because although they are unknown to us, they are not altogether infinite by nature, but their multitude is determined. ^C Recently also, one of our wise men (this was Psellus, using the scientific and logical rule of dialecticians, and demonstrating that those things which are closer to the beginning are indeed smaller in quantity but possess greater power) asserted that the angels, as being closer to God, are fewer in number than humans, who are always being born and dying individually—just as, indeed, the number approaching the unit is smaller than the one more remote. But that blind Didymus is found in another place to say that the ninety-nine sheep are the angels, and the one that...

the angels, and that which is lost, we human beings. ^A For there are many blessed hosts of heavenly powers, surpassing the symmetry of the numbers of our material phenomena or of other forms—I speak of [our] weak and restricted symmetry; for the multitude of things counted is not so great that all can be numbered, and counting thus extended to infinity. ^B Indeed, it is because of such weakness regarding number that measures and weights were devised, so that number might be contracted into a certain proportion according to our capacity. If, therefore, [these numbers] are not bounded by us or by human intelligence, they are nevertheless bounded by the heavenly intelligence itself—not, however, mathematically, but cognitively: [knowing] what is the number of the heavenly hosts, and by what sort of intelligence and knowledge they are bounded, which is bestowed most gloriously upon the angels by the Life-principial and inscrutable Self-Wisdom, which also creates wisdom in others. ^C This [Wisdom] is the superessential principle and cause of all things that exist, and is the creative, sustaining, and comprehensive determination of other essences; it obviously terminates and bounds all things. Yet it is not a boundary as some [limited] thing is—as a point is to a line, or a line to a surface, or a surface to a body. For these boundaries are within the things bounded and do not contain the things bounded; indeed, one cannot conceive of anything bounded without a boundary. For this reason, Aristotle also says that place is the boundary of that which contains, so that nothing of which there is a boundary can contain its own boundary, but the boundary and the form are spoken of together with the bounded thing, as terminating and defining matter. But even this appears together with matter. Yet God is called the termination of all things, but transcendently and comprehensively, as the Creator and as One who exists and is believed to exist above all things. In this way, therefore, the power of God both sustains and encompasses: it sustains by providence, and encompasses by existing and being spoken of as above all existing things.

CAPUT XV.

^D What are the formative images of the angelic powers—what is the fiery, what is the human-like, what are the eyes, what are the nostrils, what are the ears, what are the mouths, what is the sense of touch, what are the eyelids, what are the eyebrows, what is the sharpness, what are the teeth, what are the shoulders, what are the arms and hands, what is the heart, what are the chests, what are the backs, what are the feet, what are the wings, what is the nakedness, what is the clothing, what are the bright garments, what are the priestly [vessels], what are the girdles, what are the rods, what are the spears, what are the axes, what are the geometric cords, what are the winds, what are the clouds, what is the bronze, what is the electrum, what are the choirs, what are the claps, what are the colors of the various stones, what is the lion-like, what is the ox-like, what is the eagle-like, what are the horses, what are the differences of the horses' colors, what are the rivers, what are the chariots, what are the wheels, what is the so-called joy of the angels?

CAPUT XV.

§ I.

Come now, if you will, relaxing the gaze of our mind from that sublime tension of contemplation which was fitting for the angels, and descending to the divisible and manifold breadth of the multiform variety of the angelic shapings, let us return again—tracing our way back from them, as if from images—to the simplicity of the heavenly minds. ^A But be it known to you beforehand: as for the purifications of the sacred-patterned images, they sometimes indicate the same heavenly essences as presiding over sacred things, and at other times as being presided over, and the lowest as presiding, and the first as being presided over; and the same essences, as has been said, as possessing the powers of the first, the middle, and the last—there being no absurd reasoning introduced by such a method of explanation. For if we were to say that some are governed by those before them, and then that these same ones govern [them] in turn, and that the former, which initiate the newest into sacred things, are themselves initiated in turn by those they have initiated—that would surely be an absurd matter and full of much confusion. ^B But if we say that the same ones both govern and are governed—not indeed by the same ones, nor through the same ones, but that each one is governed by those before it, and governs those after it—no one could reasonably say that it is absurd for the sacred shapings in the Oracles to be capable, at different times, of being property and truly attributed to the first, middle, and last powers. ^C And so the tendency to turn back towards what is above, and the being rolled immovably round themselves as guardians of their own proper powers, and the participation in the provident virtue through the process of communicating themselves to those below, will truly befit all heavenly intelligences, even if for some it is in a transcendent and total way (as has been often said), and for others in a partial and more diminished way.

§ II.

We must begin our discourse, and enquire in the first explanation of the mystical figures, for what reason theology is found—almost more than all others—to favor the fiery sacred-writing. For you will find it fashioning not only fiery wheels, but also burning animals, and men like lightning, and about them...

^B heaps of embers, and rivers of fire surging with a roar; nay, it even says that the thrones are fiery, and by his very name it declares that the highest Seraphim are burners, attributing to them the property and operation of fire, and in every way, above and below, it honors the fiery molding as preeminent.

I believe that the fiery aspect signifies the most God-like nature of the celestial minds; for the sacred theologians depict the supersubstantial and shapeless essence in fire in many ways, as it bears, if it be lawful to say, many visible images ^C of the divine property. For sensible fire is, so to speak, in all things, and pervades all things without mixing, and is distinct from all; and being all-luminous, it is at once hidden and remains unknown in itself, the acting agent not being present to reveal its proper operation; it is insuperable and invisible, overcoming all things, and leads those into which it enters to its own proper operation; it has the power of altering, and imparts its own communion to all that approach it in any way; it renews all things with vital heat, and illuminates with open splendors; it cannot be held or mixed; it has the power of separating, is immutable, is carried upward, is penetrable, is sublime, sustains no descent; it is always mobile, moves by itself, moves others, possesses the power of comprehending, cannot be comprehended, needs no other, hiddenly increases itself, and ^D reveals its own majesty to the materials that receive it; it is efficacious, powerful, present to all invisibly. If it is neglected, it does not seem to exist; but by friction, as if by some searching, it suddenly shines forth connatural and proper, and again flies away in an ungraspable manner, strictly undiminished in all its all-blessed distributions. And one might find many other proper qualities of fire, as they exist in sensible images of the divine efficacy. Knowing this, then, the theosophists mold the celestial essences from fire, declaring their divine likeness and, as far as possible, their imitation of God.

§ III. But they also describe them in human form, on account of the power of understanding and the capacity for looking upward, and the straightness and uprightness of the shape, and the natural prerogative of ruling and governing, and the fact that man, though least in sense in comparison with the rest of the irrational animals, yet commands all by the excellence of his power, by the mastery of mind and rational knowledge, and by the nature of the soul, which is unenslaved and unconquerable.