1 Objection 1: It would seem that local distance affects the angelic speech. For as Damascene says De Fide Orth. i, 13): An angel works where he is. But speech is an angelic operation. Therefore, as an angel is in a determinate place, it seems that an angel's speech is limited by the bounds of that place.
1 Ad quartum sic proceditur. Videtur quod localis distantia operetur aliquid in locutione angelica. Sicut enim dicit Damascenus, Angelus ubi est, ibi operatur. Locutio autem est quaedam operatio Angeli. Cum ergo Angelus sit in determinato loco, videtur quod usque ad determinatam loci distantiam Angelus loqui possit.
2 Objection 2: Further, a speaker cries out on account of the distance of the hearer. But it is said of the Seraphim that they cried one to another Is. 6, 3). Therefore in the angelic speech local distance has some effect.
2 Praeterea, clamor loquentis fit propter distantiam audientis. Sed Isaiae VI dicitur de Seraphim, quod clamabat alter ad alterum. Ergo videtur quod in locutione Angelorum aliquid operetur localis distantia.
3 On the contrary, It is said that the rich man in hell spoke to Abraham, notwithstanding the local distance Lk. 16, 24). Much less therefore does local distance impede the speech of one angel to another.
3 Sed contra est quod, sicut dicitur Luc. XVI, dives in Inferno positus loquebatur Abrahae, non impediente locali distantia. Multo igitur minus localis distantia potest impedire locutionem unius Angeli ad alterum.
4 I answer that, The angelic speech consists in an intellectual operation, as explained above Articles 1, 2, 3). And the intellectual operation of an angel abstracts from the here and now. For even our own intellectual operation takes place by abstraction from the here and now, except accidentally on the part of the phantasms, which do not exist at all in an angel. But as regards whatever is abstracted from here and now, neither difference of time nor local distance has any influence whatever. Hence in the angelic speech local distance is no impediment.
4 Respondeo dicendum quod locutio Angeli in intellectuali operatione consistit, ut ex dictis patet. Intellectualis autem operatio Angeli omnino abstracta est a loco et tempore, nam etiam nostra intellectualis operatio est per abstractionem ab hic et nunc, nisi per accidens ex parte phantasmatum, quae in Angelis nulla sunt. In eo autem quod est omnino abstractum a loco et tempore, nihil operatur neque temporis diversitas, neque loci distantia. Unde in locutione Angeli nullum impedimentum facit distantia loci.
5 Reply to Objection 1: The angelic speech, as above explained Article 1, ad 2), is interior; perceived, nevertheless, by another; and therefore it exists in the angel who speaks, and consequently where the angel is who speaks. But as local distance does not prevent one angel seeing another, so neither does it prevent an angel perceiving what is ordered to him on the part of another; and this is to perceive his speech.
5 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod locutio Angeli, sicut dictum est, est locutio interior, quae tamen ab alio percipitur, et ideo est in Angelo loquente, et per consequens ubi est Angelus loquens. Sed sicut distantia localis non impedit quin unus Angelus alium videre possit; ita etiam non impedit quin percipiat quod in eo ad se ordinatur, quod est eius locutionem percipere.
6 Reply to Objection 2: The cry mentioned is not a bodily voice raised by reason of the local distance; but is taken to signify the magnitude of what is said, or the intensity of the affection, according to what Gregory says Moral. ii): The less one desires, the less one cries out.
6 Ad secundum dicendum quod clamor ille non est vocis corporeae, qui fit propter distantiam loci; sed significat magnitudinem rei quae dicebatur, vel magnitudinem affectus, secundum quod dicit Gregorius, II Moral., tanto quisque minus clamat, quanto minus desiderat.