medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> > Perhaps it's a simple question, but I just don't have the answer: 3 is
>the
> > number of God (Father-Son-Holy Spirit), 5 is the number of Mary
> > (Maria-Virgo-Mater) and 2 is the number of the devil. But why is that?
>
> And 2 as the number of the devil seems to be a
>concretization of a more common line of argument. According to Hugh
>of St Victor, 2 fits the body, as 1 fits the soul. William of
>Conches' commentary on the Timaeus states: 'Even number, which can be
>divided into two equal parts, refers to dissoluble things', while
>Thierry of Chartres, in De sex dierum operibus xxx and Librum hunc,
>states that the number 2 is said to be the principle of all otherness
>and mutability and to represent matter, according to Plato and
>Pythagoras.
It's entirely possible that I'm wrong, however there are several ways to get
the number 5 as 'The Number of Mary'. In the first instance, as Bas stated,
Mary's name 'Maria' and other attributes 'Virgo' and 'Mater' each have five
letters. Also, I've heard reference to Mary as part of the tripartite Deisis
(along with St. John and someone else...?), that coupled with her semi-dual
nature as human and semi-divine - symbolised in icon paintings by her blue
mantle (human) covered by a red mantle (divinity) gives the number
five...Perhaps more than anything, this merely illustrates that number
symbolism in the MA could be advanced by anyone who was inventive enough to
think of it and had resources to write it down and propagate it.
Ken McKerrow
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