1 Objection 1: It would seem that the angel's intellect is sometimes in potentiality and sometimes in act. For movement is the act of what is in potentiality, as stated in Phys. iii, 6. But the angels' minds are moved by understanding, as Dionysius says Div. Nom. iv). Therefore the angelic minds are sometimes in potentiality.
1 Ad primum sic proceditur. Videtur quod intellectus Angeli quandoque sit in potentia. Motus enim est actus existentis in potentia, ut dicitur III Physic. Sed mentes angelicae intelligendo moventur, ut dicit Dionysius, IV cap. de Div. Nom. Ergo mentes angelicae quandoque sunt in potentia.
2 Objection 2: Further, since desire is of a thing not possessed but possible to have, whoever desires to know anything is in potentiality thereto. But it is said 1 Pt. 1, 12): On Whom the angels desire to look. Therefore the angel's intellect is sometimes in potentiality.
2 Praeterea, cum desiderium sit rei non habitae, possibilis tamen haberi, quicumque desiderat aliquid intelligere, est in potentia ad illud. Sed I Petri I, dicitur, in quem desiderant Angeli prospicere. Ergo intellectus Angeli quandoque est in potentia.
3 Objection 3: Further, in the book De Causis it is stated that an intelligence understands according to the mode of its substance. But the angel's intelligence has some admixture of potentiality. Therefore it sometimes understands potentially.
3 Praeterea, in libro de causis dicitur quod intelligentia intelligit secundum modum suae substantiae. Sed substantia Angeli habet aliquid de potentia permixtum. Ergo quandoque intelligit in potentia.
4 On the contrary, Augustine says Gen. ad lit. ii): Since the angels were created, in the eternity of the Word, they enjoy holy and devout contemplation. Now a contemplating intellect is not in potentiality, but in act. Therefore the intellect of an angel is not in potentiality.
4 Sed contra est quod Augustinus dicit, II super Gen. ad Litt., quod Angeli, ex quo creati sunt, ipsa verbi aeternitate, sancta et pia contemplatione perfruuntur. Sed intellectus contemplans non est in potentia, sed in actu. Ergo intellectus Angeli non est in potentia.
5 I answer that, As the Philosopher states De Anima iii, text. 8; Phys. viii, 32), the intellect is in potentiality in two ways; first, as before learning or discovering, that is, before it has the habit of knowledge; secondly, as when it possesses the habit of knowledge, but does not actually consider. In the first way an angel's intellect is never in potentiality with regard to the things to which his natural knowledge extends. For, as the higher, namely, the heavenly, bodies have no potentiality to existence, which is not fully actuated, in the same way the heavenly intellects, the angels, have no intelligible potentiality which is not fully completed by connatural intelligible species. But with regard to things divinely revealed to them, there is nothing to hinder them from being in potentiality: because even the heavenly bodies are at times in potentiality to being enlightened by the sun. In the second way an angel's intellect can be in potentiality with regard to things learnt by natural knowledge; for he is not always actually considering everything that he knows by natural knowledge. But as to the knowledge of the Word, and of the things he beholds in the Word, he is never in this way in potentiality; because he is always actually beholding the Word, and the things he sees in the Word. For the bliss of the angels consists in such vision; and beatitude does not consist in habit, but in act, as the Philosopher says Ethic. i, 8).
5 Respondeo dicendum quod, sicut philosophus dicit, in III de anima et in VIII Physic., intellectus dupliciter est in potentia, uno modo, sicut ante addiscere vel invenire, idest antequam habeat habitum scientiae; alio modo dicitur esse in potentia, sicut cum iam habet habitum scientiae, sed non considerat. Primo igitur modo, intellectus Angeli nunquam est in potentia respectu eorum ad quae eius cognitio naturalis se extendere potest. Sicut enim corpora superiora, scilicet caelestia, non habent potentiam ad esse, quae non sit completa per actum; ita caelestes intellectus, scilicet Angeli, non habent aliquam intelligibilem potentiam, quae non sit totaliter completa per species intelligibiles connaturales eis. Sed quantum ad ea quae eis divinitus revelantur, nihil prohibet intellectus eorum esse in potentia, quia sic etiam corpora caelestia sunt in potentia quandoque ut illuminentur a sole. Secundo vero modo, intellectus Angeli potest esse in potentia ad ea quae cognoscit naturali cognitione, non enim omnia quae naturali cognitione cognoscit, semper actu considerat. Sed ad cognitionem verbi, et eorum quae in verbo videt, nunquam hoc modo est in potentia, quia semper actu intuetur verbum, et ea quae in verbo videt. In hac enim visione eorum beatitudo consistit, beatitudo autem non consistit in habitu, sed in actu, ut dicit philosophus, in I Ethic.
6 Reply to Objection 1: Movement is taken there not as the act of something imperfect, that is, of something existing in potentiality, but as the act of something perfect, that is, of one actually existing. In this way understanding and feeling are termed movements, as stated in De Anima iii, text. 28.
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod motus ibi non sumitur secundum quod est actus imperfecti, idest existentis in potentia; sed secundum quod est actus perfecti, idest existentis in actu. Sic enim intelligere et sentire dicuntur motus, ut dicitur in III de anima.
7 Reply to Objection 2: Such desire on the part of the angels does not exclude the object desired, but weariness thereof. Or they are said to desire the vision of God with regard to fresh revelations, which they receive from God to fit them for the tasks which they have to perform.
7 Ad secundum dicendum quod desiderium illud Angelorum non excludit rem desideratam, sed eius fastidium. Vel dicuntur desiderare Dei visionem, quantum ad novas revelationes, quas pro opportunitate negotiorum a Deo recipiunt.
8 Reply to Objection 3: In the angel's substance there is no potentiality divested of act. In the same way, the angel's intellect is never so in potentiality as to be without act.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod in substantia Angeli non est aliqua potentia denudata ab actu. Et similiter nec intellectus Angeli sic est in potentia, quod sit absque actu.