Chapter Four of the Second Decade
On the attendance of angels upon human beings, concerning which four little questions will be resolved
Question One of Chapter Four of the Second Decade
To whom the guardianship of angels is necessary
It is asked: to which human beings are angels deputed for guardianship?
To this it is answered as follows. Since the guardianship of angels is a certain execution of divine providence, and it is proper to divine providence to confer those things which advance beings toward the end and to remove those things which impede them from the end, angels are therefore deputed to the guardianship of those human beings who can be advanced in good and prevented from evil.
Whence angels were deputed to the guardianship neither of separated souls, nor of good or evil angels, nor of Christ.
First, separated souls do not have angels deputed to their guardianship. The reason for this is that a soul separated from the body can possess none of the aforesaid things, because it can neither be advanced in good nor be prevented from evil.
Similarly, angels are not deputed to the guardianship of good or evil angels. The reason is that the blessed angels, from the fact that they have attained the final end of glory, are confirmed in good and therefore are incapable of sin; but the evil angels, from the fact that they are obstinate in evil, are incapable of repentance.
Similarly, Christ did not have an angel deputed to his guardianship. I prove this by a threefold reason.
The first is that the soul of Christ, which was superior to all the angels, was illuminated immediately by the Word united to it.
The second reason is that he was a true comprehensor; whence his good could not be impeded, nor could he be advanced in good.
The third reason is that guardianship has regard to need or defect. But Christ had no defect of guilt or punishment. Therefore, and so forth.
Nevertheless, an angel is said to have strengthened Christ in the Passion, according to Luke, chapter 22, not by guarding him or impressing something upon Christ, but by revering him and rejoicing with him in his fortitude, just as a human being is naturally comforted in tribulation by the presence of friends.
And therefore, speaking first in general, the guardianship of angels is deputed to all human beings from the infusion of the rational soul, after they are ordered toward the end of salvation, until death, because throughout all that time anyone can be impeded from good and advanced in good, fall into evil and rise again from evil.
But when such a way—namely, that of the present life—or such a time is ended, the guardianship of angels will not be necessary, as is evident in the blessed and the damned.
Second, speaking in particular, the first parents had an angel deputed to their guardianship. The reason is that, although rectitude of nature was present in the first parents, nevertheless that rectitude was not inflexible but turnable toward either part, namely toward good and toward evil; nor, if it is turned toward one, is it immediately confirmed in it. Indeed, it can immediately fall. Therefore, and so forth.
Or it is said otherwise: although in Adam there was no danger from any rebellion of the flesh inciting him toward evil, there was nevertheless danger in the power of sinning through the demon attacking him. And similarly, his cognition was weaker than an angel’s; and therefore he needed the protection and aid of a guardian angel.
Second, children in the maternal womb have angels deputed to their guardianship, through whom the impediments which demons can inflict upon such children are prevented.
But perhaps you will ask which angel children existing in the maternal womb have deputed to their guardianship: their own angel, or their mother’s?
It is answered that, so long as a child is in the maternal womb, he is not totally separated from his mother but, through a certain connection, is in some manner something of the mother, just as fruit hanging on a tree is something of the tree.
And therefore it can probably be said that the same angel who is the mother’s guardian guards the offspring existing in the mother’s womb. But at birth, when the child is separated from the mother, an angel is deputed to his guardianship.
Whence Jerome, expounding that saying of Matthew, chapter 18, “Their angels in heaven,” and so forth, says:
“Great is the dignity of souls, that each should have an angel delegated to its guardianship from the beginning of its birth.”
Third, even Antichrist will have angels for his guardianship. The reason is that a common law ought not to be changed on account of one person; and in this his punishment will appear more just, because he did not receive, as he ought, so many benefits provided for human nature.
Nor, nevertheless, will the guardianship be entirely without fruit, because, although he will not be converted to good, he will nevertheless desist from many evils, having been drawn back by his guardian angel. Whence, however greatly he may be obstinate in evil, he will nevertheless obtain this effect from the angels through their guardianship.
These things are from Thomas, Book II of the Sentences, distinction 11, and First Part, question 113, article 4; and Alexander, Second Part of the Summa, question 40, article 4, in the body of the question.