Question Five of Chapter One of the Third Decade
Whether the evil angels fell into hell
It is asked into what place the fallen angels fell.
To this it is answered that we can consider three things in demons, namely their intellectual nature, mortal fault, and our utility.
First, considering intellectual nature in the demons, since natural light—that is, intellectual power—remained in them, heaven is suited to their operation, that is, contemplation. And therefore both the good and the evil were created in the empyrean heaven, which is congruent with contemplation, as was evident above.
Second, considering mortal fault in the demons, since their nature was disordered and darkened through fault, hell is due to them as punishment and for darkness; it is a dark, penal, and afflictive place.
Third, considering our utility, the air is due to the demons—not with respect to its highest or lowest part, but with respect to its middle part.
The reason is that the air which is in the middle region possesses three conditions on account of which the middle air befits them.
For the air is luminous or splendid, dark, and near to us.
First, the air is luminous, and therefore through the nature of light it befits their intellectual nature.
Second, the air is dark, and thus it befits their mortal fault.
Third, the air is near to us, and thus it befits our utility. For it belongs to the order of divine wisdom that our good, namely that of our exercise and consequently of our merit while we resist their temptations, is elicited from their evils.
These things are from the theologians and Rainerius.
Addition
For I think that, although the angels did not fall into the place of hell, they nevertheless possess infernal punishment, although it is not complete, namely with respect only to the accidentals.
For they are like Samson’s foxes, always carrying fire with them.
Concerning the fact that their punishment is afterward increased accidentally, see Richard in Book II, distinction 6, question 1.