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I've been under the impression for some time that there is a passage in the works of St Thomas Aquinas discussing corporeality of angels which was satirized later by someone in terms of angels dancing on the head of a pin. And I find in *The Home Book of Quotations* compiled by Burton Stevens, 10th efition (1967): "How many angels can dance on the point of a very fine needle without jostling each other? ISAAC D'ISRAELI, *Curiosities of Literature, Quodlibets*. Paraphrasing an idea in St. Thomas Aquinas, *Summa*." I suppose, though, Disraeli could have been passing on an older saying. There is memory tickling me that Erasmus once wrote something along these lines. Gordon Fisher [log in to unmask] At 10:09 AM 11/29/99 GMT, James R Ginther wrote: >John: > >Can't you directly, but there is a wonderful article by R James Long >in Franciscan Studies 54 (1998), entitled 'Of Angels and Pinheads', >and it is about the treatment of angelic location and motion in 13th >century english theological thought (mainly Richard Fishacre, who >was almost as clever as Grosseteste :-]). I think Jim refers to >some literature about the misconception in the opening sections. > >It is a great article, and a fantastic title (it has a more sober >subtitle, but I can't be expected to remember the important stuff!). > >Cheers >Jim > > >===================================================================== > >Dr James R Ginther >Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies >University of Leeds >Leeds LS2 9JT UK > >E-mail: [log in to unmask] >Phone: +44.113.233.6749 >Fax: +44.113.233.3654 > -=*=- >http://www.leeds.ac.uk/trs/ >http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cms/ >http://www.leeds.ac.uk/trs/rg **** NEW **** >==================================================================== >"First up ther wor nobbut God. An 'e said, "Ee, lad, turn th'bloody >light on." -Yorkshire paraphase of Gen. 1.2 > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%