Milum, could you be a bit more specific and let us know which popes were disposed (by the use) of numerology.
Bingley.
Drat it, Bingley, you caught me, but notice that I didn't say that the pope was disposed I said disgraced. I well know that many of the AWAD members would slap their sweet Granny for the offense of verbing an inappropriate noun but I couldn't find substantiation in my books at home so I called Andy for a ride downtown. (The downtown library is next door to a bar and I refuse to drive drunk.) At length I found the book, a paperback, and retired to the bar to read it...
Archimedes' Revenge. -Paul Hoffman Ballantine Books, 1988.
...in the sixteenth century a German monk named Michael Stifel who dabbled in algebra and number theory, slipped into a book on algebra a peculiar interpretation of the number of the beast. Determined to impugn the character of Pope Leo X, Stifel put His Holiness's name through contortions.
He spelled out the X as DECIMUS (the Latin word for "tenth") and then changed the u to v, in the spirit of the Romans, to get DECIMVS. From LEO DECIMVS, he picked out the Roman numererals-L, D, C, I, M, and V- and for good measure , threw in the X from Leo X. Now, substituting numbers for the Roman numerals, Stifel computed the numerical value of the name: L(50) plus D(500) plus C(100) plus I(1) plus M(1000) plus V(5) plus X(10) = 1,666.
Oops! A thousand too much. So, thought Stifel, the M, whose value is 1,000, must stand for MYSTERIUM ( mystery). By removing the "mystery" he got 666 exactly. With this discovery, he renounced his monastic vows and became a follower of Martin Luther.
Angered by his treasonous discovery the papists threaten to kill him and he took refuge in Martin Luther's house.
To be continued...
