ARTICLE IX

In the Ninth Article We Ask: CAN ANY CREATURE CHANGE THE WILL OR INFLUENCE IT?

Difficulties:

It seems that it can, for

1. The will is a creature. But the will changes its own act as it wishes. It therefore seems that some creature can change the will and force it.

2. It is harder to change a whole thing than a part of it. But according to some philosophers the heavenly bodies change a whole crowd to will something. With all the more reason, then, does it seem that they can force the will of a single man.

3. Whoever is bound by something is forced by it. But according to the Philosopher incontinent people are bound by their passions. Passions therefore change and force the will of an incontinent person.

4. According to Augustine both among spirits and among bodies the higher move the lower with a certain natural order. But not only the intellect but also the will of the blessed angels is higher and more perfect than ours. Therefore, just as they can influence our intellect by theirs by enlightening it, according to the teaching of Dionysius, so also it seems that by their will they can influence our will by changing it in some way.

5. According to Dionysius the higher angels enlighten, cleanse, and perfect the lower. But just as enlightenment applies to the intellect, so cleansing seems to apply to the affections. Angels can accordingly influence the will as they can the intellect.

6. A thing is naturally more disposed to be changed by a higher nature than by a lower. But just as sense appetite is inferior to our will, the will of angels is superior. Therefore, since sense appetite sometimes changes our will, with all the more reason will the angelic will be able to change ours.

7. In Luke (14:23) the master says to his servant, "Compel them to come in." Now it is by their will that they enter that banquet hall. Our will can therefore be forced by an angel, the servant of God.

To the Contrary:

1'. Bernard says that free choice is the most powerful thing this side of God. But nothing is changed except by something stronger. Then nothing can change the will.

2'. Merit and demerit are in some sense situated in the will. If, then, any creature could change the will, a person could be justified or even made a sinner by some creature. But that is false, because no one becomes a sinner except by himself; nor does anyone become just except by the operation of God and his own cooperation.

REPLY:

The will can be understood to be changed by something in two ways. (1) This is referred to its object. In this sense the will is changed by the appetible thing. But nothing which changes the will in this way is in question here; for that was treated above, where it was shown that a certain good does move the will with necessity (in the way in which the object moves it), though the will is not forced. (2) The will can be taken to be moved by something in the manner of an efficient cause. In this sense we say that not only can no creature by acting upon the will force it (for even God could not do this), but also it cannot even act upon the will directly so as to change it with necessity or in any way to incline it (which God can do). But indirectly a creature can in some way incline the will though not change it with necessity. The reason for this is that, since the act of the will mediates as it were between the power and its object, a change in the act can be considered either from the point of view of the will or from that of the object.

From the point of view of the will only what works inside the will can change the act of the will. This is the will itself and that which is the cause of the being of the will, which according to the faith is God alone. Consequently only God can transfer the act of the will which He has made, from one thing to another as He wishes. But according to those who hold that the soul was created by intelligences (which is in fact contrary to the faith), the angel or intelligence itself has an effect intrinsic to the will, since it causes the act of being which is intrinsic to the will. Avicenna accordingly maintains that our wills are changed by the will of the heavenly souls just as our bodies are changed by the heavenly bodies. This is, however, thoroughly heretical.

But if the act of will is considered from the point of view of the object, the object of the will is found to be twofold. There is one to which the natural inclination of the will is determined with necessity. This object is implanted in the will and proposed to it by the Creator, who gave it its natural inclination to this. Consequently no one can change the will necessarily by means of such an object except God alone. But there is another object of the will capable of inclining the will inasmuch as there is in it some likeness or ordination with regard to the last end which is naturally desired. And yet the will is not changed necessarily by this object, as was said above, because there is not found in it alone an ordination to the naturally desired last end. Now by means of this object a creature can incline the will to some extent but not change it in a necessary way. This is the case when someone persuades another to do something by proposing to him its usefulness or nobility. It nonetheless remains within the power of the will to accept it or not, seeing that it is not determined to it by nature.

It is accordingly apparent that no creature can directly change the will as if by acting within the will itself; but by proposing something to the will extrinsically it can in some way induce it, though not change it necessarily.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. The will can change itself in regard to certain things even directly, since it is master of its acts. And when we say that it cannot be changed directly by a creature, we mean by another creature. Still it cannot force itself, because to say that anything is forced by itself implies a contradiction, since that is violent in which the patient contributes nothing; but the one who exerts force does contribute something. And so the will cannot force itself, because in applying the force it would thus be contributing something inasmuch as it would force itself, and contributing nothing inasmuch as it would be forced. And this is impossible. It is in this way that the Philosopher proves that no one suffers anything unjust from himself, because anyone who suffers something unjust suffers against his will; but if he does something unjust, that is according to his will.

2. Heavenly bodies cannot with necessity change the will either of one man or of a crowd, but they can change their bodies. And by means of the body the will is in some way inclined, though not necessarily since it can resist. Choleric persons, for example, are inclined by their natural temperament to wrath; yet a choleric person can resist that inclination by his will. But only the wise resist bodily inclinations; and they are few in comparison with the foolish, because according to Ecclesiastes (1:15) "the number of fools is infinite." Consequently it is said that heavenly bodies change a crowd inasmuch as the crowd follows bodily inclinations; but they do not change this or that individual who with prudence resists the inclination mentioned.

3. An incontinent person is not said to be bound by his passions as if the bodily passions forced or necessitated his will; otherwise an incontinent person should not be punished, because punishment is not deserved for what is involuntary. Now the incontinent man is not said to act involuntarily, according to the Philosopher, but he is said to be bound by his passions inasmuch as he voluntarily yields to their urge.

4. Angels influence the intellect by acting upon it interiorly but only from the viewpoint of the object, because they propose the intelligible object by which our intellect is actuated and won over to assent. But the object of the will proposed by an angel does not change the will of necessity, as has been said.* Thus there is no parallel.

5. That cleansing which the angels undergo applies to the intellect, for it is a cleansing from ignorance, as Dionysius says. But even if it did apply to the affections, it would be used in the sense of persuading.

6. What is inferior to the will, as the body or sense appetite, does not change the will by acting upon it directly but only from the point of view of its object. For the object of the will is the apprehended good. But the good apprehended by universal reason moves the will only through the mediation of a particular apprehension, as is said in The Soul, since acts are performed in individual cases. Now by the passion of the sense appetite, the cause of which can sometimes be the bodily make-up or anything undergone by the body from the fact that sense appetite uses an organ, the particular apprehension itself is impeded and sometimes entirely inhibited so that what higher reason dictates in a universal way is not actually applied to this particular case. And so in its appetitive tendency the will is moved to that good which the particular apprehension reports to it, passing up the good which universal reason reports. In this way such passions incline the will; yet they do not change it with necessity, because it remains within the power of the will to restrain such passions so that the use of reason is not prevented, in accordance with the words of Genesis (4:7): "But the lust thereof shall be under thee," namely, that of sin.

7. The compelling there mentioned is not that of force but that of efficacious persuasion either by harsh or by gentle means.