Annotation LXV

”Herod held John, and beheaded [him] in prison.” — Matthew 14:3,10

Whether the angels fell from heaven on account of love of women.

Chrysostom, in the homily delivered on the beheading of John the Baptist — which is extant outside the homilies of the commentaries on Matthew — seems to indicate that the angels of God, allured by the love of women, fell from [their] heavenly glory. For thus he speaks: “O supreme evil, and sharpest dart of the devil — woman! Through a woman [the devil] laid Adam low in Paradise; through a woman he thrust the most chaste Joseph into prison; through a woman he cut off by the head that lamp of the whole world, John. And what shall I say of men? A woman laid low not only men, but even angels from heaven.” Someone — I know not who — corrected this last clause, the words being changed and expounded in this manner: “through a woman he cast down angels from heaven — that is, holy men, who were pressing on toward heaven.” Alcuin [Albinus], in the Homiliary of the Yearly Festivities, inserting this homily among the other sermons collected by him, acknowledges the former reading as genuine; and it may be that this correction was first appended in the margin by some studious [person], and thereafter — as usually happens — transferred by the copyists into the text. See what we have noted above, Annotation 73 of book 5.