_The Number Seven_ (Vol. v., p. 533.).--MR. HENRY EDWARDS is quite right in
his conjecture that the number _seven_, so often used in the Old and New
Testament, is generally put to mean "several," "many," or an indefinite
number. Hence the number seven was esteemed a sacred, symbolical, and
mystical number. There were seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, seven days in
the week, seven sacraments, seven branches on the candlestick of Moses,
seven liberal arts, seven churches of Asia, seven mysterious seals, seven
stars, seven symbolic trumpets, seven heads of the dragon, seven joys and
seven sorrows of the blessed Virgin, seven penitential psalms, seven deadly
sins, seven canonical hours, &c. &c.
"Septenarius numerus est numerus universitatis," says J. de Voragine. See
also, Bede, Duranti, and Rhabanus Maurus, on the mystical explanation of
this number. A curious French MS. belonging to the latter part of the
thirteenth century has a singular illustration of the number seven. It is a
miniature: a wheel cut into seven rays, and composed of seven concentric
cordons. The rays form seven compartments, divided into as many cordons,
containing in each cordon one of the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer,
one of the seven sacraments, one of the seven spiritual arms of justice,
one of the seven works of mercy, one of the seven virtues, one of the seven
deadly sins, and one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.