In a message dated 5/23/00 8:44:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
> Could it be a reference to heretics? Ademar of Chabannes refers to heretics
> in Aquitaine as "messengers of Antichrist" (nuncii Antichristi).
>
> Michael Frassetto
If membrum means member rather than limb, and the range of meanings for the
word in Latin is approximately similar to that in English, I'd agree. In
English, a member of Satan might mean his penis ("male member") but also his
congregant ("member of the Church"). If we can summarize the entire range of
meanings as, say, "tool of Satan," it does indeed suggest a circumlocution
for "heretic." But I asked first, because sometimes words that sound like
cognates (membrum-member) aren't.
pat sloane
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