Uriel (1)

1. URIEL. This is the Name of an Angel, and signifies in Hebrew,¹ God² is my Light. The Jews, and some Christians, take him to be an Angel of Light. His Name is read in an Apocryphal Book of the Jews, called, The Prayer of Joseph, in which the Patriarch Jacob is introduced having a Conversation with the Angels Uriel and Raphael. The Second Book of Esdras³ speaks of Uriel as of a good Angel; as also St. Ambrose, l. 3. c. 3. de Fide: Non moritur Gabriel, non moritur Raphael, non moritur Uriel. The Oriental Liturgies, and the Prayer-books of the Greeks, often mention the Angel Uriel, or Suriel, and he is there invoked as a good Angel: Honoremus Surielem quartum inter Angelos, says the Coptick Prayer -book; and in the Ethiopick Edition of the New Testament, is to be seen the Picture of the Angel Uriel, with this Inscription, St. Uriel, who was with Adam and Eve when they went out of Paradise. He is also found in several ancient Litanies, and among others in those that F. Mabillon has published, in the second Tome of his Analecta, and which he names Carolina, as being in the time of Charlemaign. Surius relates, that in Year 1544 was discovered at Rome, in the Tomb of the Empress Mary, Wife to the Emperor Honorius, a Plate of Gold, upon which was read, in Greek Characters, the Names of Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. The Reader may see the Notes of M. Baluze upon the Capitulars, and those of Abbot Renaudot upon the Oriental Liturgies, Tom. 2. p. 299. and Glycas, Annal. Part 2. p. 171. M. Thiers, in his Epistle Dedicatory to F. Luke Dachery, before his Treatise De retinenda voce Paraclitus, printed at Lions in 1669, maintains that Uriel is the Name of an evil Angel. He acknowledges that his Name is invoked in the Ritual of Chartres; but he says, he never recites the Litanies in which his Name is found, without being shocked at it. He shews, that the Councils and Fathers never speak of more than three good Angels, which are Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael; and that the second Roman Council, held in 745, Art. 3. condemns a Prayer that one Adalbert made use of, wherein he invoked the holy Angels Uriel, Raguel, Tubuel, Michael, Inias, &c. The Fathers of this Council maintain,⁴ that all the Names now mentioned, excepting that of St. Michael, are not Names of Angels, but rather of Dæmons; Non enim nomina Angelorum, præter nomen Michaelis, sed nomina Dæmonum sunt; and that the Church acknowledges but the Names of three Angels, viz. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. This is what we read in the Acts of this Assembly. However, it is proper to observe, that the Intention of this Council was to reject all the new and unusual Names of Angels, which this Man endeavoured to introduce into the Church. But that of Uriel was no modern Name; and it has been a long time admitted, even among the Latins, as may be seen, Lib. 4. c. 33. n. 20. of William Durand, Bishop of Mendes, who lived in the Thirteenth Century, and died in 1296.

Some Apocryphal Books assure us,⁵ that from the Beginning of the World, to the hundred and sixtieth Year of Enoch, they did not reckon by Years, but by Weeks; and that it was the Archangel Uriel that revealed to Enoch what were Months, Years, and the Revolutions of the Seasons, or of the Heavenly Bodies.

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