has pleased God, the Creator, to be trine in persons. To wit, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It has pleased him to create three hierarchies; and in each hierarchy three orders of angels. There are three things in Jesus Christ, to wit: deity, the soul, and humanity. The priest makes three parts of the precious body of Jesus Christ in the mass. Three holy orders sing the mass, to wit: the priest, the deacon, and the sub-deacon. Three times are sung the Sanctus, Sanctus Sanctus; and the Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata in the mass. By three nails was fastened the Blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ on the cross. There are three degrees of penitence, to wit: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. There are three parts of satisfaction, to wit: fasting, alms, and prayer. There are three divine virtues, to wit: faith, hope, and charity. There are three enemies of the soul, to wit: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Man sins in three ways, to wit: with heart, with word, and with deed. Man may offend three things, to wit: God, himself, and his neighbor. God has disposed all things by number, by weight, and by measure. Tria erant in archa; s. c. g. Virga; manna et lex Mosayca (there were three things in the ark: the rod, the manna, and the Mosaic law). Three places are deputed for man after his death, to wit: paradise, purgatory, and hell. Three vows do the minor friars vow when they make profession, to wit: poverty, obedience, and chastity. There are three natural principles, to wit: form, matter, and privation; or, potentia (power); objectum (object); et actus (and act). There are three souls, to wit: vegetative, sensitive, and rational. There are three powers in the rational soul, to wit: will, memory, and understanding. Bodies have three dimensions, to wit: length, breadth, and thickness. The world is divided into three parts, to wit: into Asia, Europe, and Africa. And thus appears the excellence and magnificence of this worthy number three.
"Four is the first square number, and is of great esteem and necessity. And first, God, the Creator, has created four elements, to wit: fire, air, water, and earth. Whence proceed four qualities, to wit: warmth, frigidity, dryness, and moisture. From which arise four humors, to wit: blood, bile, phlegm, and melancholy; by which are caused four complexions, to wit: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic. There are four seasons in the year, to wit: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And four quarters in the sky and the world, to wit: eastern, western, northern, and southern. And to each quarter one principal wind, to wit: the morning or east-wind, the traverse or west-wind, the north-wind or transmontane, and the sea or south-wind. And, according to the philosophers, there are four causes in all things, to wit: the efficient, formal, material, and final causes. There are four cardinal virtues, to wit: prudence, temperance, strength, and justice. The glorified body in paradise has four endowments, to wit: brightness, subtilty, agility, and impassibility. There are four evangelists to certify the faith of Jesus Christ. And four principal doctors
vol. xxv.—35
