There were counted at that refection five thousand males; because those men who belong to the spiritual refection should be manfully made, as the apostle said; he said, "Be watchful, and stand on faith, and undertake manfully, and be bold." Though if a woman be manly by nature, and strong to God's will, she will be counted among the men who sit at the table of God. Thousand is a perfect number, and no number extends beyond it. With that number is betokened the {191} perfection of those men who nourish their souls with God's precepts. "Jesus then bade the remainder to be gathered, that it might not be lost; and they filled twelve baskets with the fragments." The remainder of the refection, that is the depth of the doctrine, which secular men may not understand, that should our teachers gather, that it may not be lost, and preserve in their scrips, that is, in their hearts, and have ever ready to draw forth the wisdom and doctrine both of the old law and of the new. They gathered then twelve baskets full of the fragments. The twelvefold number betokened the twelve apostles; because they received the mysteries of the doctrine, which the lay folk could not understand. "The people, who saw that miracle, said of Christ, that he was the true prophet who was to come." In one sense they said the truth: he was a prophet, for he knew all future things, and also prophesied many things which will, without doubt, be fulfilled. He is a prophet, and he is the prophecy of all prophets, for all the prophets have prophesied of him, and Christ has fulfilled the prophecies of them all. The people saw the miracle, and they greatly wondered at it. That miracle is recorded, and we have heard it. What their eyes did in them, that does our faith in us. They saw it, and we believe it, who saw it not; and we are therefore accounted the better, as Jesus, in another place, said of us, "Blessed are they who see me not, and, nevertheless, believe in me, and celebrate my miracles." The people said of Christ, that he was a true prophet. Now we say of Christ, that he is Son of the Living God, who was to come to redeem the whole world from the power of the devil, and from hell-torment. The people knew not of those benefits, that they might have said that he was God, but they said that he was a prophet. We say now, with full belief, that Christ is a true prophet, and Prophet of all prophets, and that he is truly Son of the Almighty God, as mighty {193} as his Father, with whom he liveth and reigneth in unity of the Holy Ghost, ever without end to eternity. Amen. * * * * * VIII. K[=L]. APRI[=L]. ANNUNCIATIO [=S]. MARIÆ. Missus est Gabrihel Angelas: et reliqua.