Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse

Select English works of John Wyclif; edited from original mss. by Thomas Arnold.

þat ben spiritual, as ben prestis, and religious, and many oþer in þe Chirche; for as þe soule shulde quykene þe bodi, so þes shulden quykene þe actyve part. But þes ten virginis ben partid in two, in fyve foolis and fyve wise. Alle þei ben vir|gyns herfore, for þei ben chast of bodi, and kepen hem from outward synnes þat mai be knowun to siȝte of men. And boþe þes partis ben in fyve; for þe wise shal be in hevene evere in a sercle of blisse, as fyve is noumbre in a sercle [Fyve is noumbre in a sercle. On the mysterious virtues and signifi|cance supposed by the ancients to reside in the number five, the reader may, if he cares to do so, consult the treatise in Plutarch's Moralia, …, and Sir Thomas Browne's Garden of Cyrus. The relation of five to the circle, and also to the sphere, is arrived at in two or three ways. Plutarch as|cribes to Plato the opinion that if there are more worlds than the one which we inhabit, there must be five, neither more nor less; and that, even if there be only one, that one may be considered as compounded out of five subordinate worlds,—the four elements, and the sky, or fifth essence, 'to which alone,' he says, 'amongst all bodies, the property of revolving in a circle naturally appertains.' The apparent revolution of the celestial sphere round the earth is evidently intended. Again, Sir Thomas Browne, in noticing the singular frequency of the quinary arrangement in nature, observes (it is a thing indeed which many have observed independently) upon the very large number of flowers which have five petals, as if that was the simplest and most fundamental division of a circle into sectors. 'Five-leaved flowers are commonly disposed circularly about the stylus, according to the higher geometry of nature, dividing a circle by five radii, which concur not to make diameters, as in quadrilateral and sexangular intersections.' (Garden of Cyrus, p. 526, ed. Bohn.) The next para|graph begins,—'Now the number of five is remarkable in every circle,' but as I cannot understand the rea|soning which follows, I forbear to quote it In a curious statement quoted by the editor of Browne from Mr. Colebrooke, it is clearly shown that the simplest distribution of groups of objects round a central and interior group is a quinary ar|rangement, while at the same time, when the groups come to be mul|tiplied indefinitely, it is necessarily spheroidal. The reader will remem|ber also the quinary grouping of animals by Mr. Macleay, once so famous, and the remarkable vindi|cation of the theory in the Vestiges of the Natural History of the Creation.] ; and þe toþer fyve foolis shal be dampned in helle wiþouten eende. And as a sercle haþ noon eende, so shal not peyne of þes ypocritis. And þus telliþ Crist fair, how boþe þes partis ben fyve. Þis oile is riȝt devocioun [See p. 247, note A.] , þat alle þes virgyns shulden have. Þes vesselis of þe virginis ben þe poweris of her soulis; for riȝt as a vessel holdiþ oile, so þe power of þe soule shulde holde riȝt devocioun in alle þe workes þat man doiþ. And riȝt as oile makiþ þe bodi soft, and ever more fletiþ above, so
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Title
Select English works of John Wyclif; edited from original mss. by Thomas Arnold.
Author
Wycliffe, John, d. 1384.
Canvas
Page 290
Publication
Oxford,: Clarendon Press,
1869-71.

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"Select English works of John Wyclif; edited from original mss. by Thomas Arnold." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/afb3713.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 29, 2025.
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