Question II. Through what messenger was it fitting for this announcing to be made?

Question II. Through what messenger was it fitting for this announcing to be made?

After this it is asked: Through what messenger was it fitting for this announcing to be made?

§ I. And it seems that it was through a human being. 1. For the incarnation is made known in three ways. First, through verbal or real prophecy. Second, through announcement. Third, through demonstration by the finger. The extremes were done through a human being. Therefore also the middle thing, because middle things participate in the nature of the extremes.

2. Likewise, an Angel is not ordered as a middle between a human being and a human being, since he is above a human being; therefore, if the extremes were done through a human being, therefore also the middle things.

3. Likewise, the Law and the prophets lasted until John ¹, who was a Prophet by prophesying and more than a Prophet by demonstrating; therefore whatever falls short of demonstration will be prophecy; but announcement fell short; therefore it ought to have been done through a Prophet; therefore through a human being.

Against this it is argued: 1. No human being was superior to the most blessed Virgin; but it belongs to an inferior to receive from a superior; therefore she ought not to have received illumination from any human being. 2. Likewise, that blessedness which is announced immediately to the most blessed Virgin is announced in her and through her to the whole human race; therefore a human being was in the place of the receiver; therefore a human being ought not to have been the messenger. 3. Likewise, the office of human beings is to receive, and of Angels to announce; therefore, etc. From these things it is clear that a human being ought not to have been the messenger ².

§ II. But it seems that an Angel ought to have been the messenger. 1. For in an orderly and regular way illuminations descend from superiors to inferiors; but human nature is established under angelic nature; therefore this nature ought to have been illuminated by that one.

2. Likewise, Dionysius the philosopher says that "the soul is an intellectual substance, perceptive in the last relation of illuminations descending from the first cause"; therefore illumination descends from God to Angels, from Angels to human beings; therefore that illumination was made through an Angel.

3. Likewise, Angels are those who preside over individual human beings and are preferred to them, or more truly are placed over them, and they are the immediate prelates of human beings; but announcements and illuminations descend from prelates into subjects; therefore it seems that that announcing ought to have been made through the Angel deputed to the Virgin.

4. Likewise, the ecclesiastical hierarchy is immediately ordered to the heavenly hierarchy above it; therefore the highest thing in the ecclesiastical hierarchy will be immediately ordered to the innermost thing in the heavenly hierarchy; but the most blessed Virgin is the highest thing in the ecclesiastical hierarchy; therefore she ought to have received illumination from the lowest thing in the heavenly hierarchy.

5. Likewise, throughout the Gospel he is called an Angel, and thus it seems that he was an Angel.

Against this it is argued: 1. Illuminators are superior to those whom they illuminate, as Dionysius means throughout; but Angels were not superior to the most blessed Virgin; therefore an Angel ought not to have illuminated her. 2. Likewise, Who is this who comes from Edom ³? etc.; there Jerome says that this question is in the person of the lesser Angels ignorant of the mystery of the Incarnation; but if they were ignorant, therefore they did not announce. 3. Likewise elsewhere, One of the Seraphim flew to me ⁴. Therefore, if one from the greater orders purified the Prophet for prophesying the incarnation, the one who announced the incarnation itself ought by no means to have been from the lesser orders.

§ III. It seems further that he was an Archangel, because 1. That messenger was Gabriel, who was an Archangel, as the Church supposes; therefore that messenger was not an Angel, but at least an Archangel. 2. Likewise, John was announced through an Archangel ⁵; therefore also the Lord at least. 3. Likewise, Archangels are those who announce greater things, as Bernard says; but that which was announced was the greatest; therefore it ought to have been done through an Archangel. 4. Likewise, Bernard says: "We think that Archangels preside over these, who are conscious of divine mysteries, who are sent only for outstanding and very great causes, among whom that great Archangel Gabriel is read to have been sent to Mary, for a cause than which certainly none can be greater ⁶." 5. Likewise, to whomever some proper office belongs, to him belongs the first, middle, and last thing in that office; but the office of Archangels is the revelation of secrets; therefore also that revelation of the highest secrets belonged to their office.

§ IV. But it seems that that messenger ought to have been from the Principalities. 1. For Bernard says that the Principalities are those by whose moderation and wisdom every principality on earth is established, ruled, limited, transferred, and mutilated. But here they were announcing the change of kingdom and priesthood and the ejection of the prince of darkness. Therefore it ought to have been done through the Principalities. 2. Likewise, according to Dionysius, Angels are those who preside over or are set over individual human beings; Archangels over peoples; Principalities over principal persons. Therefore, since the most blessed Virgin was the noblest prince, revelation ought to have been made to her through the Principalities. 3. Likewise, it seems so through the properties of Principalities, which Dionysius sets down, saying: "The naming itself of the heavenly Principalities manifests that deiformly principal leading power with sacred order and with most fitting principal virtues, and that they are universally converted to the super-principal principle, and that they hierarchically lead others to that very thing, so far as possible to be formed, the principial principle ⁷." But in this announcing the most blessed Virgin was being led hierarchically to the super-principal principle of principles, so far as was possible. Therefore it ought to have been done through the Principalities.

§ V. But it seems that he ought to be still higher, namely from the Powers. 1. "Powers are, as Bernard says, those by whose virtue the power of darkness is repressed ⁸." But this power was repressing the prince of darkness most of all; therefore it ought to have been done through the Powers. 2. Likewise, the Gloss says on Missus that Gabriel is called the strength of God because he was announcing him who was coming to wage war against the devil. But this belongs to the Powers. Therefore it ought to have been done through the Powers.

§ VI. It also seems that he ought to have been from the Virtues. 1. For Bernard says: "Virtues are those by whose nod or work signs and wonders are done ⁹." But that was the most miraculous of all miracles. Therefore it ought to have been done through the Virtues. 2. Likewise, one property of the Virtues according to Dionysius is generosity toward inferiors. But here the greatest generosity was announced, namely the fullness of grace.

§ VII. But it seems that it ought to have been done through the Dominations, and this through the properties assigned to them by Dionysius, which are liberal severity, superiority over diminishing servitude, want of any subjection, immunity from dissimilitude, and ordered power of ruling. All those things were exercised in the work of the Incarnation, where God, by the liberality of his grace and by the severity of his Passion, freed us from the unworthy servitude of the devil and sin, adopted us into the liberty of the children of God, cleansed us from every contagion of the dissimilitude of fault and punishment, and ordered us to himself into a kingdom and priesthood. Therefore that announcing ought to have been done through the Dominations.

§ VIII. It also seems that it ought to have been done through the Thrones. And this is clear through the properties of the Thrones set down by Dionysius, which are loftiness, encirclement of the kingdom, stable placement, reception of the kingdom, carrying of the kingdom, and familiar opening. Hence Dionysius says: "The naming itself of the highest and compact seats teaches that one is exalted by every diligence from the disgrace of subjection, and, bearing upward supermundanely to the highest, and from every extreme ineffably to the most sublime and around the truly exalted, placed immutably and stably with all powers, and receptive and God-bearing of the divine super-advent in every impassibility and immortality, and familiarly opened to divine receptions ¹⁰." But all these things were completed in the most blessed Virgin, when, loftier than all creatures, she encircled God himself in the bosom of her womb; through this she placed herself and us on the throne of the eternal kingdom, and communicated through the whole world the king of glory whom she received in herself, and as the most familiar mediator reconciled the whole world to him; through her as through a medium most closely joined to him every good flowed out, and the whole race of human beings through her, as through the gates of heaven, was introduced to the highest familiarity of God the Father, and through this she most familiarly joined God himself with man into one person. But all these things are announced in that announcing. Therefore most properly it ought to have been done through the Thrones.

§ IX. But it seems that it ought to have been done through the Cherubim, as is clear: 1. Through the properties set down by blessed Bernard, who says: "Let us think of the Cherubim as drawing from the very fount of wisdom, from the mouth of the Most High, and pouring back streams of knowledge to all their fellow citizens ¹¹." Therefore, since here the first filling of the fount is announced, which grew into a great and greatest river, whose force makes glad the city of God, as being full of grace and truth, from whose fullness we all have received ¹², indeed the very Son of God, who is the virtue and wisdom of God, in whom all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God are hidden: therefore it is manifest that this announcing belongs to the Cherubim. 2. Likewise, it seems so through the properties set down by blessed Dionysius, which are to be reductive, active, and exemplary in circuit. In circuit, because they enter into the whole of what exists; reductive, so that they tend to the Lord; active, so that they advance toward him; exemplary, so that they do this according to their example. But in this announcing the most blessed Virgin was in circuit in such a way that she could not be joined more to God unless she became God. She was also reductive, she who leads and reduces every creature that fell through sin into its pristine state. And in this she was active, because she gave birth to him who regenerated and reduced all things. Likewise, she was active because from her and through her and in her God recreated whatever he created, since she is the mother of all good things. She is also exemplary, she who directs the mirror of all beauty and innocence to the first beauty and reduces all who wander, as the star of the sea, to the harbor. But all these things were being announced here. Therefore it seems that it belonged to the Cherubim.

§ X. It also seems that it was through the Seraphim. 1. Through the properties set down by blessed Bernard, who says: "Let us think of the Seraphim as spirits wholly enkindled by divine fire, enkindling all things ¹³." But the blessed Virgin was so totally enkindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit that the flame of fire extinguished even every tinder of lust, and, containing within herself the very Sun of justice, illuminated the whole world and kindled it to the love of God. Therefore, since this was the property of the Seraphim, it seems that that announcing belongs to the Seraphim. 2. Likewise, this seems so through the properties assigned by blessed Dionysius, who says: "The first of the heavenly hierarchies is sanctified by the most excellent essences, having an order higher than all, that is, it is placed immediately around God; and the first-working theophanies and perfections are carried into it more principally as into what is nearest. And thus their motion is always around divine things, and unceasing, and warm, and sharp, and super-fervid, of an intense and perhaps innermost and always inflexible motion, and reductively and actively exemplary of things beneath, as recalefying them and raising them into a similar warmth and heavenly fire, and holocaustically purgative, and unveiled, and inextinguishable, and having itself thus always with a light-forming and illuminating property, persecuting and manifesting every dark obscuration ¹⁴." But that highest perfection of charity which is described here was completed in the most blessed Virgin, by ascending to God and by descending to neighbor, in this announcing. Therefore it is manifest that it ought to have been done through the Seraphim.

§ XI. Likewise, it seems that all three first orders ought to have been sent. For the first order has its name from charity, the second from knowledge, the third from power; but all these things are shown here in the highest degree; therefore it ought to have been done through all three. The minor is clear through John Damascene, who says: "He reveals a great sea of clemency concerning him. For the maker himself, the founder and Lord, for the sake of his formed thing, undertook formation, having become a teacher by work. And because, by hope of divinity, the enemy had seduced man, he is deceived under the pretext of flesh. And at once the goodness and wisdom and justice and power of God are shown. Goodness indeed: because he did not despise the weakness of his own formed thing and his own making, but, pitying the fallen one, stretched out his hand to him. Justice: because, after man had been conquered, he made the tyrant be conquered not by another than man. Nor did he snatch man away from death by violence; rather, the one whom death had once reduced through sin into servitude, this one, good and just, he again made victor, and he repaired like by like, which was necessary. Wisdom: because for a very doubtful and difficult matter he found the most fitting solution ¹⁵." Therefore, since here that is announced in which the property of all those three orders is demonstrated, it seems that all three orders ought to have been sent.

§ XII. But it seems that all Angels ought to have been sent, because as announcer is related to announcer, and receiver to receiver, and business to transaction, so messenger ought to be related to messenger; but all the other things here were in the highest degree; therefore also the account of the messenger ought to have been here in the highest degree. The minor is clear: for there could not have been a greater announcer than God announcing, nor a greater receiver than she receiving, who was supreme in the Church militant; and the business could not have been greater and more arduous, either in usefulness or in dignity or in novelty. Therefore if all the other things were here in the highest degree, the account of the messenger also ought to have been here in the highest degree. But plurality increases the account of messenger, for it is more solemn to send many and great ones than any single one; therefore the more the messengers are many, great, and solemn, so much the more the announcing is solemnized. Therefore, if the whole ought to be in the highest degree, it was necessary that all be sent.

§ XIII. But it seems that the messenger ought to have been still higher, namely the uncreated Holy Spirit.