Counting and measuring in the practices of Latin Christianity in the Middle Ages

Résumé 0

Religious practices of the Latin Middle Ages made abundant use of systems for counting and measuring. This article aims to understand how these systems work by hypothesising that a language of numbers is at play here, the coherence of which resides in a “Christian arithmology”, one based on Greek mathematical science and the value attributed to numbers by the Bible and later patristic literature. It emerges from this hypothesis that medieval normative discourse uses both numbers and measurements as a memory-aid, a mode of calibration and a form of axiological referencing. Disseminated by clerics, this language gave rise to various forms of appropriation: reflexive, as an exercise of introspection; supportive, thought out as part of vertical and horizontal networks of spiritual solidarity; and demonstrative, experienced under the gaze of others. All in all, it is not so much a question of quantifying the question of salvation as of indulging in a self-examination which, paradoxically, leads to an awareness of the incommensurability of intentionality and mercy.