The third cause is the Angel set over these stars. For he, receiving the command of Joshua and of God, immediately restrained that power by which he turns them about; and so they began to stand still. Concerning this [Angel]…
…there are nevertheless a few little questions about the Angel. First, whether one and the same in number is the mover of the Sun and Moon? It is not improbable that all the heavenly orbs are turned by one and the same Angel, as some prove [following] Fracastoro, in the Homocentrica, chapter 7, section 1. Nor does this one engine [of argument] much trouble them — [the objection] of the Coimbrans (book 2 On the Heavens, chapter 5, question 8): “Every Angel, as it has a certain and definite essence, so is circumscribed by certain spaces of place, and therefore cannot assist the celestial machine with that presence which is necessary for governing it duly, and for undergoing motions so various and so dissimilar.” For the Angels have indeed a definite essence, place, and power of acting; but it does not therefore follow that it is not present to several heavens, and does not move them variously — since both the places of the heavens are finite, and only a finite power is required for moving them. For we see one and the same soul in number to be in the most diverse parts of the body, and to effect the most diverse motions in them. Moreover, those who assign several Angels to several heavens nevertheless confess that the one Angel is not, in one whole sphere, present according to essence as in a place, but in a certain position of that sphere. The other opinion, however, is more widespread, and drawn from the founts of Aristotle (Metaphysics 12, chapter 8, from text 47); from whom, however, in this matter I am rather unwilling [to draw], because, by the precepts of Christian teaching, I see them [his followers] most defiled. For that Philosopher will have it that there are just as many Angels as there are heavenly orbs — whereas our [Scripture] cries out (Daniel chapter 7, verse 10): “Thousands of thousands ministered to Him (God), and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him.”
But whether one Angel in number turns the Sun and Moon, or several — there is another little question: from what Hierarchy and order of the Angels are these movers? It is not clear. Yet the Prince of the sacred school, St. Thomas (book 3 Against the Gentiles, chapter 80; and Opusculum 10, article 17), holds it probable that they are from the second Hierarchy, and from its middle order, which, according to St. [Dionysius] the Areopagite (chapters 6 & 7 of the Celestial Hierarchy), holds [the rank of] the Virtues.
Third: whether the motion of the Sun and Moon ceased by the Angelic knowledge [cognition] alone? This depends on that question: whether the faculty by which the Angels move the orbs of the heavens differs from their intellect and will? And many indeed think it does not differ — and these would say that all motion of the Sun and Moon was taken away by [a change of] knowledge alone: Averroes and Soncinas (on Metaphysics 12); Durandus, Bassolius, Hervaeus, [Gregory of] Rimini [Argentinensis], Thomas [Aquinas] (on Book 2 of the Sentences, distinctions 7, 8, & 14). But I, with Henry of Ghent, Aureolus, [Francis of] Meyronnes, Cajetan, [and] the Coimbrans, think that the motive power of the Angels differs from their intellect and will; and therefore that the Angel not only willed to move the Sun and Moon, but also enjoined his will upon the motive faculty itself, that it should impart no motion to those stars.
Fourth: how did the Angel of the Sun and of the Moon understand that this was the will and command of God — that, against the common order of things, these stars should rest awhile? Did he believe Joshua [when he] signified this very thing? But he was not ignorant that “every man is a liar”; [and that] many [have] rashly [asserted] many things beyond what is right and just, beyond [their] powers, and above nature…
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…[many have] rashly [attempted to assert such things]. And, granted that he knew Joshua [to be] a good man and a notable Prophet — did he [the Angel] not know that the Prophets sometimes speak in a [merely] human way, without any divine impulsion? And indeed one Angel does not hearken to another Angel, whom it otherwise knows [to be] good and holy, as was said from Daniel chapter 10 (question 16). How, then, would [the Angel] comply with some man — however excellent and great — yet commanding in heaven either a sun-standstill or a moon-standstill? Did the Lord make him more certain of His will and command by some revelation? I think both [things] concurred together at one and the same point of time: that Joshua, moved by God’s instinct, said to the Sun, “Stand,” and likewise to the Moon; and that God, at the same time, showed the Angel that this was of His [own] will; and therefore that Angel at once obeyed Joshua’s command.