Alberti Magni Opera Omnia, Vol. XXXVII

hierarchically toward the super-principal, princely principle, as much as was possible. Therefore, it ought to have been done through the Principalities.

However, it seems that it ought to have been someone even superior, namely, from the Powers.

1. "Powers are," as Bernard says, "those by whose virtue the power of darkness is compressed." St. Bernard, On Consideration, Book V, Chapter 4. This power, however, was compressing the prince of darkness most of all: therefore, it ought to have been done through the Powers.

2. Item, the Gloss says concerning Was sent the Latin Missus referring to Gabriel, that Gabriel is called the strength of God because he announced the One who was coming to defeat the devil. This, however, belongs to the Powers. Therefore, it ought to have been done through the Powers.

It also seems that it ought to have been from the Virtues.

1. For Bernard says: "The Virtues are those by whose nod or work signs and prodigies are performed." St. Bernard, On Consideration, Book V, Chapter 4. This, however, was the most miraculous of all miracles. Therefore, it ought to have been done through the Virtues.

2. Item, one property of the Virtues, according to Dionysius, is generosity toward the inferiors. Here, however, the greatest generosity was announced, namely, the fullness of grace.

It seems, furthermore, that it ought to have been done through the Dominations, and this is based on the properties assigned to them by Dionysius St. Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter 8.: namely, liberal severity, the superiority of administrative service, the lack of subjection to any, immunity from dissimilarity, and the ordered power of dominion. All these were exercised in the work of the Incarnation, where God, through the liberality of His grace and the severity of His Passion, freed us from the unworthy servitude of the devil and sin, and adopted us into the liberty of the children of God, and cleansed us from every contagion of the dissimilarity of guilt and punishment, and ordered us unto Himself as a kingdom and priesthood. Therefore, this annunciation ought to have been done through the Dominations.

It also seems that it ought to have been done through the Thrones.

And this is evident through the properties of the Thrones posited by Dionysius St. Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter 7.: namely, loftiness, the surrounding of the kingdom, stable placement, the reception of the kingdom, the carrying of the kingdom, and familiar opening. Whence Dionysius says: "The very naming of the highest and compact seats teaches to be exalted with all diligence from the ignominy of subjection, and carries [one] upward to the highest supermundane [realm], and [being] unchangeably and stably placed with all one’s might in the most sublime and truly high [place] beyond every extremity, and [being] receptive of the divine super-advent in all impassibility and immortality, and god-bearing, and familiarly open to divine receptions." All these things were completed in the most blessed Virgin, when she, being higher than all creatures, surrounded God Himself in the bosom of her womb, through which she placed herself and us upon the throne of the eternal kingdom, and communicated the King of glory, whom she received within herself, throughout the whole world, and as a most familiar...