“How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
To come to succour us that succour want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against fowle fiends to ayde us militant!
They for us fight, they watch, and dewly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant;
And all for love, and nothing for reward:
O why should heavenly God to men have such regard?”
Milton beautifully assumes the pure nature of saintly chastity attended by ministering spirits:
“A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream and solemn vision,
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape.”
“Comus.”
And Scott, in figurative language, apostrophising woman in her higher and more spiritual sphere, says in “Marmion”:
“When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!”
Shakespeare expresses a prevailing idea that the pure in heart will become ministering angels in heaven; Laertes, at the grave of Ophelia, fiercely thunders forth:
“I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be
When thou liest howling.”
Mediæval Art Treatment of Angels
According to ecclesiastical legend and tradition there are nine degrees of angelic beings. St. Dionysius relates that there are three hierarchies of angels and three orders in each; and by wise allegories each had his special mission, and they were each depicted with certain insignia by which they were recognised in art representations, which vary somewhat in examples of different periods.
The nine choirs of angels are classed as follow, with the name of the chief of each, according to ancient legend: