Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It would seem that the empyrean heaven was not created at the same time as formless matter. For the empyrean, if it is anything at all, must be a sensible body. But all sensible bodies are movable, and the empyrean heaven is not movable. For if it were so, its movement would be ascertained by the movement of some visible body, which is not the case. The empyrean heaven, then, was not created contemporaneously with formless matter.

Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 4) that "the lower bodies are governed by the higher in a certain order." If, therefore, the empyrean heaven is the highest of bodies, it must necessarily exercise some influence on bodies below it. But this does not seem to be the case, especially as it is presumed to be without movement; for one body cannot move another unless itself also be moved. Therefore the empyrean heaven was not created together with formless matter.

Objection 3: Further, if it is held that the empyrean heaven is the place of contemplation, and not ordained to natural effects; on the contrary, Augustine says (De Trin. iv, 20): "In so far as we mentally apprehend eternal things, so far are we not of this world"; from which it is clear that contemplation lifts the mind above the things of this world. Corporeal place, therefore, cannot be the seat of contemplation.

Objection 4: Further, among the heavenly bodies exists a body, partly transparent and partly luminous, which we call the sidereal heaven. There exists also a heaven wholly transparent, called by some the aqueous or crystalline heaven. If, then, there exists a still higher heaven, it must be wholly luminous. But this cannot be, for then the air would be constantly illuminated, and there would be no night. Therefore the empyrean heaven was not created together with formless matter.

On the contrary, Strabus says that in the passage, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth," heaven denotes not the visible firmament, but the empyrean or fiery heaven.

I answer that, The empyrean heaven rests only on the authority of Strabus and Bede, and also of Basil; all of whom agree in one respect, namely, in holding it to be the place of the blessed. Strabus and Bede say that as soon as created it was filled with angels; and Basil says: "Just as the lost are driven into the lowest darkness, so the reward for worthy deeds is laid up in the light beyond this world, where the just shall obtain the abode of rest." But they differ in the reasons on which they base their statement. Strabus and Bede teach that there is an empyrean heaven, because the firmament, which they take to mean the sidereal heaven, is said to have been made, not in the beginning, but on the second day: whereas the reason given by Basil is that otherwise God would seem to have made darkness His first work, as the Manicheans falsely assert, when they call the God of the Old Testament the God of darkness. These reasons, however, are not very cogent. For the question of the firmament, said to have been made on the second day, is solved in one way by Augustine, and in another by other holy writers. But the question of the darkness is explained according to Augustine , by supposing that formlessness, signified by darkness, preceded form not by duration, but by origin. According to others, however, since darkness is no creature, but a privation of light, it is a proof of Divine wisdom, that the things it created from nothing it produced first of all in an imperfect state, and afterwards brought them to perfection. But a better reason can be drawn from the state of glory itself. For in the reward to come a two-fold glory is looked for, spiritual and corporeal, not only in the human body to be glorified, but in the whole world which is to be made new. Now the spiritual glory began with the beginning of the world, in the blessedness of the angels, equality with whom is promised to the saints. It was fitting, then, that even from the beginning, there should be made some beginning of bodily glory in something corporeal, free at the very outset from the servitude of corruption and change, and wholly luminous, even as the whole bodily creation, after the Resurrection, is expected to be. So, then, that heaven is called the empyrean, i.e. fiery, not from its heat, but from its brightness. It is to be noticed, however, that Augustine (De Civ. Dei x, 9,27) says that Porphyry sets the demons apart from the angels by supposing that the former inhabit the air, the latter the ether, or empyrean. But Porphyry, as a Platonist, held the heaven, known as sidereal, to be fiery, and therefore called it empyrean or ethereal, taking ethereal to denote the burning of flame, and not as Aristotle understands it, swiftness of movement (De Coel. i, text. 22). This much has been said to prevent anyone from supposing that Augustine maintained an empyrean heaven in the sense understood by modern writers.

Reply to Objection 1: Sensible corporeal things are movable in the present state of the world, for by the movement of corporeal creatures is secured by the multiplication of the elements. But when glory is finally consummated, the movement of bodies will cease. And such must have been from the beginning the condition of the empyrean.

Reply to Objection 2: It is sufficiently probable, as some assert, that the empyrean heaven, having the state of glory for its ordained end, does not influence inferior bodies of another order---those, namely, that are directed only to natural ends. Yet it seems still more probable that it does influence bodies that are moved, though itself motionless, just as angels of the highest rank, who assist , influence those of lower degree who act as messengers, though they themselves are not sent, as Dionysius teaches (Coel. Hier. xii). For this reason it may be said that the influence of the empyrean upon that which is called the first heaven, and is moved, produces therein not something that comes and goes as a result of movement, but something of a fixed and stable nature, as the power of conservation or causation, or something of the kind pertaining to dignity.

Reply to Objection 3: Corporeal place is assigned to contemplation, not as necessary, but as congruous, that the splendor without may correspond to that which is within. Hence Basil (Hom. ii in Hexaem.) says: "The ministering spirit could not live in darkness, but made his habitual dwelling in light and joy."

Reply to Objection 4: As Basil says (Hom. ii in Hexaem.): "It is certain that the heaven was created spherical in shape, of dense body, and sufficiently strong to separate what is outside it from what it encloses. On this account it darkens the region external to it, the light by which itself is lit up being shut out from that region. "But since the body of the firmament, though solid, is transparent, for that it does not exclude light (as is clear from the fact that we can see the stars through the intervening heavens), we may also say that the empyrean has light, not condensed so as to emit rays, as the sun does, but of a more subtle nature. Or it may have the brightness of glory which differs from mere natural brightness.

Articulus 3

Argumentum 1

Ad tertium sic proceditur. Videtur quod caelum empyreum non sit concreatum materiae informi. Caelum enim empyreum, si est aliquid, oportet quod sit corpus sensibile. Omne autem corpus sensibile est mobile. Caelum autem empyreum non est mobile, quia motus eius deprehenderetur per motum alicuius corporis apparentis; quod minime apparet. Non ergo caelum empyreum est aliquid materiae informi concreatum.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, Augustinus dicit, in III de Trin., quod inferiora corpora per superiora quodam ordine reguntur.

Si ergo caelum empyreum est quoddam supremum corpus, oportet quod habeat aliquam influentiam in haec inferiora corpora. Sed hoc non videtur, praesertim si ponatur immobile, cum nullum corpus moveat nisi motum. Non est ergo caelum empyreum materiae informi concreatum.

Argumentum 3

Si dicatur quod caelum empyreum est locus contemplationis, non ordinatum ad naturales effectus, contra, Augustinus dicit, in IV de Trin., quod nos, secundum quod mente aliquid aeternum capimus, non in hoc mundo sumus; ex quo patet quod contemplatio mentem supra corporalia elevat.

Non ergo contemplationi locus corporeus deputatur.

Argumentum 4

Praeterea, inter corpora caelestia invenitur aliquod corpus partim diaphanum et partim lucidum, scilicet caelum sidereum.

Invenitur etiam aliquod caelum totum diaphanum, quod aliqui nominant caelum aqueum vel crystallinum.

Si ergo est aliud superius caelum, oportet quod sit totum lucidum.

Sed hoc esse non potest, quia sic continue aer illuminaretur, nec unquam nox esset. Non ergo caelum empyreum materiae informi est concreatum.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod strabus dicit, quod cum dicitur, in principio creavit deus caelum et terram, caelum dicit non visibile firmamentum, sed empyreum, idest igneum.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod caelum empyreum non invenitur positum nisi per auctoritates strabi et bedae, et iterum per auctoritatem basilii.

In cuius positione quantum ad aliquid conveniunt, scilicet quantum ad hoc quod sit locus beatorum. Dicit enim strabus, et etiam beda, quod statim factum Angelis est repletum.

Basilius etiam dicit, in II hexaem., sicut damnati in tenebras ultimas abiguntur ita remuneratio pro dignis operibus restauratur in ea luce quae est extra mundum, ubi beati quietis domicilium sortientur.

Differunt tamen quantum ad rationem ponendi. Nam strabus et beda ponunt caelum empyreum ea ratione, quia firmamentum, per quod caelum sidereum intelligunt, non in principio sed secunda die dicitur factum. Basilius vero ea ratione ponit, ne videatur simpliciter deus opus suum a tenebris inchoasse; quod Manichaei calumniantur, deum veteris testamenti deum tenebrarum nominantes.

Hae autem rationes non sunt multum cogentes. Nam quaestio de firmamento quod legitur factum in secunda die, aliter solvitur, ab Augustino et ab aliis sanctis.

Quaestio autem de tenebris solvitur, secundum Augustinum, per hoc quod informitas (quae per tenebras significatur) non praecessit duratione formationem, sed origine.

Secundum alios vero, cum tenebrae non sint creatura aliqua, sed privatio lucis, divinam sapientiam attestatur, ut ea quae produxit ex nihilo, primo in statu imperfectionis institueret, et postmodum ea perduceret ad perfectum.

Potest autem convenientior ratio sumi ex ipsa conditione gloriae.

Expectatur enim in futura remuneratione duplex gloria, scilicet spiritualis, et corporalis, non solum in corporibus humanis glorificandis, sed etiam in toto mundo innovando. Inchoata est autem spiritualis gloria ab ipso mundi principio in beatitudine Angelorum, quorum aequalitas sanctis promittitur. Unde conveniens fuit ut etiam a principio corporalis gloria inchoaretur in aliquo corpore, quod etiam a principio fuerit absque servitute corruptionis et mutabilitatis, et totaliter lucidum; sicut tota creatura corporalis expectatur post resurrectionem futura.

Et ideo illud caelum dicitur empyreum, idest igneum, non ab ardore, sed a splendore.

Sciendum est autem quod Augustinus, X de CIV. Dei, dicit quod Porphyrius discernebat a Daemonibus Angelos, ut aerea loca esse Daemonum, aetherea vero vel empyrea diceret Angelorum.

Sed Porphyrius, tanquam Platonicus, caelum istud sidereum igneum esse existimabat, et ideo empyreum nominabat; vel aethereum, secundum quod nomen aetheris sumitur ab inflammatione, et non secundum quod sumitur a velocitate motus, ut Aristoteles dicit. Quod pro tanto dictum sit, ne aliquis opinetur Augustinum caelum empyreum posuisse sicut nunc ponitur a modernis.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod corpora sensibilia sunt mobilia secundum ipsum statum mundi, quia per motum creaturae corporalis procuratur electorum multiplicatio. Sed in ultima consummatione gloriae cessabit corporum motus. Et talem oportuit esse a principio dispositionem caeli empyrei.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod satis probabile est quod caelum empyreum, secundum quosdam, cum sit ordinatum ad statum gloriae, non habet influentiam in inferiora corpora, quae sunt sub alio ordine, utpote ordinata ad naturalem rerum decursum.

Probabilius tamen videtur dicendum quod, sicut supremi Angeli, qui assistunt, habent influentiam super medios et ultimos, qui mittuntur, quamvis ipsi non mittantur, secundum dionysium; ita caelum empyreum habet influentiam super corpora quae moventur, licet ipsum non moveatur. Et propter hoc potest dici quod influit in primum caelum quod movetur, non aliquid transiens et adveniens per motum, sed aliquid fixum et stabile; puta virtutem continendi et causandi, vel aliquid huiusmodi ad dignitatem pertinens.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod locus corporeus deputatur contemplationi non propter necessitatem, sed propter congruitatem, ut exterior claritas interiori conveniat.

Unde basilius dicit quod ministrator spiritus non poterat degere in tenebris; sed in luce et laetitia decentem sibi habitum possidebat.

Ad 4

Ad quartum dicendum quod, sicut basilius dicit in II hexaem., constat factum esse caelum rotunditate conclusum, habens corpus spissum et adeo validum, ut possit ea quae extrinsecus habentur, ab interioribus separare. Ob hoc necessario post se regionem relictam carentem luce constituit, utpote fulgore qui superradiabat excluso.

Sed quia corpus firmamenti, etsi sit solidum, est tamen diaphanum, quod lumen non impedit (ut patet per hoc, quod lumen stellarum videmus non obstantibus mediis caelis); potest aliter dici quod habet lucem caelum empyreum non condensatam, ut radios emittat, sicut corpus solis, sed magis subtilem. Vel habet claritatem gloriae, quae non est conformis cum claritate naturali.