Milton, in his Paradise Lost, introduces Satan thus addressing the Sun:Milton, in his Paradise Lost, introduces Satan thus addressing the Sun:
O thou, that with surpassing glory crowned
Look st from thy sole dominion, like the god
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice; and add thy name,
Sun, to tell thee, how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state
1 fell; how glorious once, above thy sphere,
Till pride, and worse ambition, threw me down,
Warring in heaven against heaven's matchless King.
Ah, wherefore? He deserved no such return
From me, whom He created what I was
In that bright eminence. . . .
. . . Yet all His good proved ill in me
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high
I 'sdained subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude.Oh! had His powerful destiny ordained
Me some inferior angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised
Ambition! Yet why not? Some other power
As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
Drawn to his part; but other powers, as great,
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within,
Or from without, to all temptations armed.
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst; whom hast thou, then, or what t 1 accuse
But heaven's free love dealt equally to all?"Amongst the angels there were some who fell. This is of faith.
The Scripture says: "Amongst His angels He hath found wickedness." (Job 4:18)
Saint Peter says: "God did not spare His angels when they sinned." (2 Peter 2:4)
Now these angels were not evil because of their nature, for whatsoever is created by God cannot of itself be evil, but must be good; therefore it must be by their own free will. The Council of Lateran says: "The devil and other demons were created by God, in their own nature, good, but they of themselves became evil." This was directed against the Manicheans.
What number of the angels fell?
The number of the good angels, as well as of the bad, is alike unknown. We speak of the good angels vaguely as immense hosts, countless, and all but infinite in number. Now, of the fallen angels we can indubitably assert that an immense number of them fell. The saints say that an immense multitude of demons are constantly engaged tempting men, and working other evils. Thus also the Fathers. Saint Damascene says: "There fell with Lucifer an immense multitude of angels subject to him."
Which was the greater number - those that persevered or those that fell?
Those that persevered form far and away the greater number.
Saint Thomas and the Schoolmen ground their opinion on the words of the Apocalypse 12:4: "And the tail of the dragon drew down a third part of the stars of heaven."
Saint Augustine, in his City of God, says: "Although the angels sinned, yet not all were filled with sin, when by far the greater number of good angels preserved the order of their nature in the heavens." The common teaching is, about a third of the angels fell.
Whether did God predestine man to fill the seats of the fallen angels?
Yes, according to the common opinion of the Holy Fathers.
Saint Augustine says: "God collected, from the mortal race, disowned and justly condemned, a host of people by His grace, that He would fill up and restore that portion of the angels that had been lost; and thus that beloved and heavenly city would not be deprived of its due number of citizens, but, on the contrary, would be enriched by a more abundant number."
Saint Anselm: "Wherefore we may safely say there will be people and generations of men on this earth, until the number of the angels be completed from men, and then the generations of men which take place in this life will cease." - Tract, de Incarn., n. 208
Were there fallen angels from everyone of the different species or orders of angels?
It is more likely that angels fell from each species, although there are some who hold that it was only from the lesser grades there were defections.
Hugo says some fell from every grade.
Gregory says that men are assumed into every order of angels, and this would not be the case, unless angels fell from every order.
Saint Bonaventure says: "Since Lucifer, who was of the highest order, fell, multo fortius de aliis."
The Scripture says: "Thou a cherub, until iniquity was found in thee." (Ezechiel 28:19)
Saint Paul: "Neither death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers." (Romans 8:38)
Saint Paul: "Our wrestling is against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." (Ephesians 6:12)
Saint Bonaventure says: "It is well to know, that since many in the higher and lesser grades stood firm, so also many fell from both. Among whom one was more excellent than all that fell; nor among those that remained firm was there one more dignified, as is shown by authority; for Job says: He, the beginning of the ways of God; and in Ezechiel we read: Thou the seal of similitude, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, thou wast in the delights of the paradise of God. Gregory thus comments on these passages: By how much the more subtle in nature was he, by so much the more deeply was God's similitude impressed upon him. Again, in Ezechiel it is written: Every precious stone his covering: that is, every angel was as if a garment to him; because, as Gregory says: He was far brighter than all the others . And for this reason was he called Lucifer, as we read in Isaias: How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, that didst arise as the morning! And he is not to be taken as an order, but as a single spirit, who when he saw his own created eminence and perfection, grew proud towards his Creator, and desired to be equal to God, as is said in Isaias: I will climb into heaven, and beyond the stars of heaven will I exalt my throne, for I will be like the Most High. He desired to be like God, not by imitation, but by equality of power."
Thus we see that the fallen angels are not from one order, but from several at any rate.
It is remarkable that the names of seraphim, thrones, and dominations are never attributed in Scripture to the demons. It does not necessarily follow from this that out of these orders no angels fell, though one would be tempted to come to that conclusion. The reason is, these words so essentially mean heavenly attributes, as, for instance, seraphim, the ardour of love; thrones, the throne or dwelling of God; dominations, an excellency of dominion or will, peculiarly applicable to God, that they could not be predicated of demons in hell.
Are men, then, assumed into each thinned rank of angels?
Yes. Saint Thomas and Suarez say so. Here indeed is displayed the nobility of free-will and its unhappy fragility also; since in every order of rational beings some have turned it to good, purchasing therewith eternal kingdoms; some, on the other hand, unto evil, and incurring thereby eternal damnation.
Among the fallen angels was there one, sometimes called by the name of Lucifer, sometimes by the name of Satan or the adversary, sometimes by the name of devil or the accuser, who was the first to sin, and who then led the others to sin?
Yes; according to the common opinion of the Holy Fathers and the Schoolmen.
The Scripture says: "He is king over all the children of pride." (Job 41:25)
Lucifer is called "the prince of demons," and the demons are called "his angels". "Depart from me, ye accursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matthew 25:41)
"And there was a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, and he was cast into the earth, and his angels were thrown with him." (Apocalypse 12:7)
The Holy Fathers. Saint Eusebius says: "The first wicked spirit, who was also the cause of defection in the others, and who was the author of all wickedness, is called the dragon."
Saint Ambrose: "The devil, with those angels whom he had drawn with him into his impiety, was cast down from the heights of heaven."
Lucifer, then, not alone by his example, but by his persuasion also, induced them to rebel.
Was Lucifer the first of all the angels in natural perfection?
Yes. Such is the opinion of those who hold that numbers fell from every one of the orders of angels.
The Scripture says: "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, who didst arise as a star!" (Isaiah 14:12)
"He is the beginning of the ways of God, who made him." (Job 40:14)
The Holy Fathers. Saint Gregory, Pope, says: "Behemoth is called the beginning of the ways of God, for when God would create all things, He made him first of the angels, and more excellent than all the rest."
Yet others say that he is not to be understood as standing out alone as the singularly excellent one, but that he was of the highest, inasmuch as none, at any rate, was higher than he. Bossuet says: "Holy and blessed spirits, who gave you strength against that proud spirit, that was one of the first of your princes, nay, perhaps, the very first of all?"
Saint Bonaventure asks the question: "Was Lucifer pre-eminent among the angels, and of the highest order? And he answers by saying that such is the testimony of the saints and Scriptures; and had he remained firm (he adds), he would have been placed in the first rank, for, ad hoc haberet idoneitatem ex parte naturae. He thus argues from reason: Lucifer desired to be lord over all, and believed that he could obtain it, so that he would be subject to none; but this would hardly be probable, unless he saw that he exceeded all. He very beautifully answers an objection that may be put - viz., Would God permit His noblest creature thus to perish? - by saying that in this is shown the wonderful justice of God, which observes so strict a balance that it will on no account disturb the established order, and will, because of sin, cast away those that it accounted most dear. Whence (he continues) I believe that so terrible a spectacle of divine severity was manifested in the case of the highest angel and the first man; both of whom God moulded and decorated with His own hands, that we might learn how unalterably God hates sin, and especially pride, since for one movement of it in the heart the highest and noblest of his creation were cast into eternal punishment without hope and without cessation. From this we have to draw the conclusion that it is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; and if God did not spare the noblest angel when he grew proud, what shall be the fate of a little dust and ashes when it dares to rebel?"
Milton, in his Paradise Lost, describing the assembling of the fallen angels, writes thus:
All these and more came flocking . . . and now
Advanced in view, they stand, a horrid front
Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms in guise
Of warriors old, with ordered spear, and shield,
Awaiting what command their mighty chief
Had to impose: he through the armed files
Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse
The whole battalion, views their order due,
Their visages and statures as of gods;
Their number last he scans. And now his heart
Distends with pride. . . . .
. . . . Far these beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed
Their dread commander; he, above the rest,
In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tower; his form had not yet lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined. . . . .
. . . . But his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows
Of dauntless courage and considerate pride,
Waiting revenge; cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion to behold
The fellows of his crime - the followers rather -
(Far other once beheld in bliss) condemned
For ever now to have their lot in pain.
Millions of spirits for his fault amerced
Of heaven, and from eternal splendours flung.There was a lapse of time (morula fuit, Saint Bonaventure) between the creation of the angels and their fall.
What was the sin of Lucifer? Was it pride?
Yes; this is what theologians and ascetics unanimously teach.
Scripture says: "In pride all evil had its beginning." (Job 4:14) "Thy pride dragged thee to hell. How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, that didst arise as the morning? thou that saidst in thy heart, I will climb into heaven; beyond the stars will I make my throne. I will be like the Most High." (Isaias 14:12) "He is king over all the children of pride." (Job 41:25)
The Holy Fathers. Saint Augustine says: "Proud was that angel, and on that account envious: by that same pride was he led to turn from God and exalt himself; and by that very tyrannical habit he chose rather to lord it over subjects than to serve." Saint Ambrose says: "Whether in the fall of the angels, or in the sin of man, pride was the root of the evil." Saint Chrysostom: "What greater evil than pride? Never had the devil been cast out of heaven, nor an angel turned into a demon, were it not for this iniquitous vice."
Now, sin in general is an inordinate desire of, or complacency in, corporal pleasures, or riches, or one's own excellence, "the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life." But earthly riches and corporal pleasures could offer no temptations to the angels, therefore their sin must be concupiscence of their own excellence in other words, pride.
Saint Bonaventure: "And hence as a just judgment for such pride, he was cast out of heaven (id est de empyreo), in which he had been placed; and all those who had been partners of his sin were cast with him into darkness. For, as we read in the Apocalypse: The dragon falling from heaven drew with him a third of the stars; because Lucifer, who was greater than the others, fell not alone, but many others fell with him who were consenting to his wickedness, and these falling downwards a dwelling of this outer darkness received. And this happened so for our probation that they would be a means of proving us. Hence the Apostle says: Our wrestling is with the rulers of the world of this darkness against the spirits of wickedness in the high places, because the demons who are spiritual and wicked dwell in this turbulent air, which is called coelum, that they might be near to trouble us; and hence the devil is called the prince of the air. It is not given them to dwell in heaven (in coelo) - that were too blessed and happy; neither on earth, lest they might persecute men too much; but, according to Peter, in his canonical Epistle, they are placed in this darksome air; they remain as in prison until the Day of Judgment. And then will they be cast into the infernal gulf, according as it has been written: 'Depart ye accursed into everlasting fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels'."
In what did the devil take pride? What was the object of his pride?
All agree that the pride consisted in an inordinate desire to be like God. "I will be like the Most High"; but what one of God's attributes he particularly coveted is a matter of dispute. The following are the several opinions:
(1) That he desired God's essence to be a deity like and equal to God. "Thy heart was elevated in thy loveliness, and thou saidst: I am God; and on the chair of God have I sat in the midst of the sea." (Ezechiel 28:2) This opinion receives a strong corroboration from the fact of the first angel opposing Lucifer being called Michael: Quis ut Deus? (who is like to God?) In this sense, however, it can hardly be accepted, for, as Saint Thomas and the schoolmen say: How could an angel so lose its natural reason as not to see the absurdity and impossibility of this - that either he could be the equal of God, or that there could possibly be two Gods? Even our human reason says that cannot be.
(2) That Lucifer could not bear the everlasting control of God; that he too desired power, and subjects, and empire; and that the attribute of God he thus "appetized" was His glorious sovereignty. Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas hold this; and among the great writers and thinkers of the modern school, Bossuet inclines to it.
Saint Bonaventure expounds this view: "The first sin of the angel was pride, which was initiated in presumption, consummated in ambition, and confirmed in envy and hatred. It was initiated in presumption, for as soon as he saw his own powers he presumed; it was consummated in ambition, for, presuming in himself, he coveted that which was entirely beyond him, and which he never could attain. And this was confirmed in his turning away through envy and hatred; because when he could not attain what he desired, he began to be envious, and, through hatred, to oppose what he had longed for. The wicked angel coveted a likeness of God partly through imitation and partly through equivalence; and this becomes apparent if we look at what he coveted and in what way he coveted it. The devil desired to be lord over others, and to be so by his own authority. His desire to be lord over others was a coveting of God's similitude by imitation, and this he would have obtained had he remained faithful; but to obtain it by his own authority, without merits and without a bestower, so that he would be subject to no one else - this belonged to God alone, and in this he coveted a similitude of equivalence. And this is what the holy writers say; for Gregory declares he sought to be sui juris - i.e., subject to no one else; Bernard, that he sought equality of power; and Anselm, that he sought to rule without deserving it.
"The lesser angels," he continues, "sinned by pride, not in consenting to Lucifer, but in coveting excellence for themselves. Their pride was conformable to the head of all wickedness - viz., the prince of darkness. The demon himself, attending to the strength and excellence of his natural powers, wished to rule and rest on his own authority - i.e., without merits and without ministry. The demons subject to him did not dare, however, to covet so much; but seeing their own natural powers, they wished to rest under his shadow, so that they no longer would serve, but enjoy a certain liberty under him, which they saw they could not have under the divine dominion. The angels well knew they were destined to participate in the blessedness of rest, and to acquire that by merits and ministry. In this therefore consisted their sin of pride, that without merits they wished to be happy, to rest without ministering, and without control to pursue their own will; and this is to be proud, though not so great a sin as to covet to rule over all and be subject to none."
Yet this has by no means found general acceptance, though supported by such great names. The modern theologians when examining it find in it almost the same unanswerable objections that have been raised against the first opinion. They ask again, how could an angel's intelligence be so blinded as not to see that in God alone was supreme dominion, that every dominion held by creatures should be held subject to His, and that there could be no such thing as dominion absolute outside of His control.
(3) The great expounder and supporter of the last opinion is the learned and holy Jesuit theologian, Suarez. This opinion holds that Satan desired that the hypostatic union should be formed with his person, and this not taking place, he at once constituted himself Antichrist and raised his banner of revolt. Suarez says, when giving his adhesion to this opinion: "This is exceedingly probable; and among all the opinions put forward as to the object of Lucifer's pride, there is no one so consonant to the opinions of the Fathers, the words of the Holy Scriptures, to conjecture or to the conveniences of the subject."
No one could more fittingly use those words, "I will be like to the Highest, and raise my throne above the stars," than Christ. For a moment let us suppose Lucifer revolving in his mind the thought of an hypostatic union and fancying that it had actually taken place - what words could more fittingly express his future dignity than those: "I will be like to the Highest, and raise my throne above the stars." Again, since it was fitting that the hypostatic union was at all to take place, who among creatures was it natural should be selected but him who had come forth the highest and most glorious of all from the hands of God? So Satan might argue, and there is no doubt but he knew that the most glorious creature - the most glorious created thing - should alone be selected for the subject of the hypostatic union, such as in reality the soul and body of our Blessed Lord were. And no doubt also he knew of the Incarnation; for, according to all theologians and Fathers (Saint Basil, Saint Cyprian, Saint Augustine, Saint Anselm, Saint Bernard, Saint Chrysologus, Saint Thomas), he knew that man was to be created, and to be raised to a degree of glory equal to the angels; and with more reason should he know of the Incarnation. Indeed, Saint Bernard expressly says that it was from envy and grief because of this knowledge that he fell - that he would not bow the knee to dust and ashes, such as the pure body of Christ was.
Again, it is certain that while the angels were in their term of probation they knew that Christ was to be their head. Now it is from the Divine Word united to human nature that all their excellences of grace and nature came (some theologians even say their confirmation or redemption from sin); and it was a subject of deep slight to Lucifer that he should be not alone passed over in the matter of selection, but that he should even owe all his graces to a union with a nature so immensely beneath his own, and which he so thoroughly despised. Furthermore, an appeal from Lucifer to his followers founded on such grounds would be better calculated to lead them into revolt than any founded on the divine attributes, such as God's sovereignty.
In summing up, it is well to say that there is no need why any of these opinions should be cast aside as untenable; for the intelligence of an angel, being so indefinitely beyond the power of the human mind, may have all these at one and the same time forming up its sin; and in the angelic intelligence, which, far more keenly than man's reason, sees the connection (the immediate connection) between the Incarnation* and the divine attributes, a sin could hardly be committed against one without involving disobedience to all. Undoubtedly there is none of those opinions explaining Lucifer's "non serviam" (I will not serve) which does not convey a most instructive lesson to us mortals in our term of probation.
Father Faber, in his description of the Procession of the Precious Blood, thus writes: "Now it has reached the edge of that boundless upland. Now it stands revealed upon the heights which face down upon creation. It passes from the region of bright, bewildering mists - mists which bewilder the more because they are so bright - and it emerges into light amidst created things; or, rather, to speak more truly, it comes, the procession of divine decrees, the pageant of the Precious Blood, to that invisible, imperceptible point in eternity when time should fittingly begin. At once a whole universe of fairest light broke forth, as if beneath the tread of those decrees, as if at the touch of that Precious Blood. It was but an instantaneous flash, the first visibility of the invisible God, and there lay outspread the broad world of angels, throbbing with light and teeming with innumerous and yet colossal life. The brightness that silvered them was the reflection of the Precious Blood. From it, and because of it, they came. Out of it they drew their marvelous diversity of graces. Their sanctities were but mantles made of its royal texture. They beautified their natures in its supernatural streams. It seemed as if here the procession halted for a moment, or, perhaps, it was only that the sudden flash of light looked like a momentary halt. The new creatures of God, the first created minds, the primal offspring of the Uncreated Mind, were bidden to fall in and accompany the great procession. Oh, it was fearful, that first sight outside the immense serenity of God! Then truly, too truly, there was a halt, as if homage and obedience were refused. There is a gleam, as of intolerable battle, and a coruscation of archangelic weapons and Michael's war-cry, echoing the first created cry among the everlasting mountains. A third of that creation of purest light has refused to adore the human body of the Incarnate Word, and is flung speedily into the dread abyss. And the ranks close in, and the unfallen light now beams more resplendently with its thinned array than ever it beamed before the fallen fell, and onward the procession moves." - Precious Blood
The Holy Fathers say that, in addition to the sin of pride, there was in Lucifer and the rebel angels the sin of envy envy of man's promised happiness, envy of the excellence of God, envy of the hypostatic union with human nature. The angels sinned, says Suarez, but it was not from doubting, disbelieving, or denying; they ever retained the full knowledge of the truth, and it was because of that fearfully clear and therefore inexcusable disobedience that their sin was so great.
One would think that on this point the Puritan Milton had been a Catholic theologian among the Schoolmen. In Book V the Archangel Raphael tells how "the Father Infinite thus spake":
Hear, all ye angels, progeny of light,
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
Hear My decree, which unrevoked shall stand.
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son; and on this holy hill
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
At My right hand; your head I Him appoint;
And by Myself have sworn, to Him shall bow
All knees and shall confess Him Lord.
. . . .
Satan so call him now, his former name
Is heard no more in heaven; he, of the first,
If not the first Archangel, great in power,
In favour and pre-eminence, yet fraught
With envy against the Son of God, that day
Honoured by His great Father, and proclaimed
Messiah King Anointed, could not bear
Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired,
. . . his next subordinate,
Awakening, thus to him in secret spake
. . . . Assemble thou,
Of all those myriads which we lead, the chief;
Tell them, that by command, ere yet dim night
Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste,
And all who under me their banners wave,
Homeward, our flying march, where we possess
Our quarters in the north.
. . . . He together calls
Or several one by one, the Regent Powers
Under him Regent; tells as he was taught
That the Most High commanding, now ere night
Now ere dim night had disencumbered heaven,
The great hierarchial standard was to move.
. . . . All obeyed
The wonted signal and superior voice
Of their great Potentate for great indeed
His name, and high was his degree in Heaven.
. . . . Now Satan, with his powers,
Far was advanced on winged speed; a host
Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning dewdrops which the sun
Impearl on every leaf and every flower.
. . . . At length into the limits of the north
They came, and Satan to his royal seat
High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount
Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers
From diamond quarries hewn and rocks of gold.Satan makes two speeches to his angels. The poet, with a poet's art, puts insidious arguments into his mouth. The first is thus set forth:
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
If those magnific titles yet remain,
. . . .
Another now hath to Himself engrossed
All power, and us eclipsed under the name
Of King Anointed . . . .
. . . . to receive from us
Knee-tribute yet unpaid! prostration vile!
Too much to one - but, double how endured,
. . . . But what if better counsels might erect
Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke?
Will ye submit your necks and choose to bend
The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust,
To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves.One of the angels who owed him allegiance answers him. The poet sings:
Thus far his bold discourse without control
Had audience; when among the seraphim,
Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored
The Deity . . . .
Stood up and, in a flame of zeal severe,
The current of his fury thus opposed.
O argument blasphemous, false and proud!
. . . .
Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn
The just decree of God, pronounced and sworn,
That to His only Son, by right endued
With regal sceptre, every soul in heaven
Shall bend the knee?
Thyself, though great and glorious, dost thou count,
Or all angelic nature joined in one,
Equal to Him, Begotten Son? by whom,
As by His word, the mighty Father made
All things, e'en thee; and all the spirits of heaven
By Him created in their bright degrees.Satan sneers, and adroitly introduces a new argument, boasting them to be gods.
That we were formed then say st thou, and the work
Of secondary hands, by task preferred
From Father to His Son? Strange point and new!
. . . We know no time when we were not as now
Know none before us self-begot, self-raised
By our own quickening power, when fatal course
Had circled his full orb - the birth mature
Of this our native heaven; - ethereal sons,
Our puissance is our own!
. . . He said, and as the sound of waters deep
Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause.Abdiel again answers:
O alienate from God! O spirit accursed,
Forsaken of all good, I see thy fall
Determined, and thy hapless crew involved
. . . No more be troubled how to quit the yoke
Of God's Messiah; those indulgent laws
Will not be now vouchsafed; other decrees
Against thee are gone forth without recall.
. . . . Soon expect to feel
His thunder on thy head, devouring fire.
Then who created thee, lamenting learn
When He who can uncreate thee thou shall know.
So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found,
Among the faithless, faithful only he.
Did the angels ever repent, or were all who sinned damned?
The angels never repented, and all who sinned were damned.
Saint Peter says: "God spared not the angels who sinned, but delivered them, drawn by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments." (2 Peter 2:4)
Saint Jude (1:6): "And the angels who kept not their principality He hath reserved under darkness in ever lasting chains."
No limitation, no qualification, is made in these texts of repentance or condemnation.
The Holy Fathers. Saint Damascene says: "All the angels who consented with Lucifer with him fell and with him were damned." And again: "The fall was to the angels what death is to man."
Saint Gregory, Pope: "The angels through pride so fell that their fall can never be repaired, for never will a ray of pardon or a change of life come to restore them to the light of glory."
Saint Augustine says: "God thus created the angels that those who wished could be for ever good; and those who were unwilling would never again be visited by the divine bounty."
Saint Bonaventure says: "I assert with all the saints that the will of the demons can by no means be rectified, inasmuch as they are beyond their term of trial, and therefore of merit. Without doubt, God could restore to the demons a right mind; but on the part of the demons there is no preparedness for such; nay, rather their will to do good is entirely beyond possibility as reason teaches and the saints declare. To bring about this preparedness there should be on the part of the demons a repentance of the will and a healing grace on the part of God; and both these are wanting to the demons. And if you should ask what is the reason of this twofold defect, it is to be answered that the defect of penitence is the reason why subsequent grace is wanting; and if you still further inquire why this defect of penitence, I answer from a want of preventing grace, which is the effect of that culpa of the angels by which they have sickened and are so sick, that there is not an entrance for grace; but why this culpa is so irremediable there are different opinions. Saint Thomas says that the radical reason is to be found in the intrinsic nature of angels and (in their own way) of disembodied souls; for a pure spiritual nature imports inflexibility into whatsoever its will has once fully and deliberately chosen."
Oh, how thankful man ought to be. God did not spare the angels, and He spared man.
Did Almighty God ever ask the angels to repent? Did He give them grace to repent?
In the matter of repentance two kinds of grace must be taken into account. One is called efficacious grace, the other sufficient grace. By the former we mean such a grace infused into the soul that infallibly it will return to God or do what God wishes; as, for instance, if a man should shut his eyes against the sunlight, and the effulgence of the sun were so bright that he would have to open his eyes and see, such would be efficacious graces. Now that grace God Almighty is (in justice) bound to give to no one. He is blameless if He give a soul sufficient grace, so that if the soul wishes to correspond with God Almighty's designs, it has got from God sufficient grace to do so; as a man that will voluntarily open his eyes in the daytime will have plenty of light and will not stumble. Now, in the first place, no theologian holds that God gave the angels efficacious grace to repent after their sin. God Almighty was by no means bound; and had He done so, they had infallibly repented. As to the second grace, most theologians deny that God gave them even sufficient grace to repent. They argue thus: The angels had sinned in the light. They had seen at one glance all God's bounty; His justice was not hidden from them; there was no obscurity as to the future they were called upon to choose. Their intellects being gigantic, it was with a vehement, gigantic, and lightning-like act of will they refused obedience to God, and therefore God refused them any opportunity of repentance.
Some theologians, however, led by that able Schoolman Suarez, hold the contrary opinion. They compare man with the angels. They admit that no one sin of man can equal the intensity of the sin of the angels. But they say, if one sin of man be not equal in malice to one sin of the angels, yet there are in man repeated sins - a repetition which amounts to a habit, and a habit which, by constant and demon-like commission of crime, becomes not alone a hunger and passion for sin, and an impossibility to refrain from it, but an open and professed defiance of God, and on account of which sinners are often called in the Sacred Scriptures blind, hardened, cast-away. Thus man all but equals the rebellious angels. Now, man is never deprived of the physical liberty and the ever-blessed sufficient grace of the bountiful God to return to Him; though he may not return, and often will not do so. In the same way, they hold that it was most like the good and ever-merciful God - and so indeed it would appeal most to our own estimate of God - to hold that He left the angels the physical liberty of returning, gave them even a time (moram aliqualem) for repentance, and supplied them with sufficient grace, but that they would not.