ANGELS (Gr. messengers), in Jewish and Christian theology, a class of superior spirits, represented as the immediate instruments of Divine Providence. As Scripture contains no complete and systematic account of angels, the belief of the church respecting them, except in a few points, has never been exactly defined. It has always been held that A. and human souls, notwithstanding the high origin of the latter, are distinct; only Diony sius Areopagita (q.v.) and a few modern speculators have maintained the contrary. Diony sins, in his Ilierarchia Calestis, divides A. into nine orders. Whether there are not spirits superior both to men and A., has been a disputed point. As to the number of A. and their names, the church in the middle ages repeatedly checked the tendency to with beyond the usually received accounts; a Romish council, in 'f45 A.D., mentions with reprobation the use of the unwonted names of Uriel, Raguel, Simiel, etc. The names that have all along been in most common use are Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
The creation of the A. was placed, by the Platonizing church-fathers, before that of the material world; others assigned it to some one of the six days. Equally various were nature the opinions as to the nate of the A. The second synod of Trice (787) assigned them a subtle, ethereal, or fire-like body;. the schohistics, on the other hand, and the Lateran council of 1215, maintained their immateriality; while others, owing to the appearing of A., mentioned in Scripture, attributed to theni the power of assuming momentarily the
corporeal form. The poet Nonnus (lived in Egypt in the 5th c.) is the first to speak of angels' wings.
The belief in guardian A. was common both to heathen and Jews, and had been reduced to system by Philo; and the doctrine was adopted in the Christian church, and defended by Origen and others, founding on Matthew xviii. 10, and Acts xii. 15. It has been cherished by ninny in all ages and of all parties, but has never been decided on by the church. Some of the fathers also spoke of good and bad guardian-angels, the former of whom were always ready to prompt to good actions, and to avert evil, while the latter were equally quick in bringing about mischief, wickedness, and calamity. From the belief in the guardianship of A., and their participation in the government of the world, arose naturally the early practice of invoking and worshiping them. Many Christian teachers condemned it, appealing to Colos. ii. 18; and the council of Laodicea, 300, called it disguised idolatry. But after the council of Nice had conceded that though A. were nut to receive divine worship, they might receive reverential obeisance, the prac tice mentioned became more and more rooted, and continues in the Greek and Roman Catholic churches to this day.