ABSTRACT
The Church did not scruple to borrow pagan forms, and to hallow them by reading into them a Christian meaning. The sequence of the months became a reminder not only of the cycle of labour, but also of the cycle of the Christian year—the round of prayers and festivals. From manual labour man rises to instruction which by dissipating error enables him in some measure to raise himself after the Fall. The Geometry of Martianus Capella has very definite attributes, a tablet on which she traces geometrical figures, a compass or graduated rule, and a globe. The persistent influence of Boethius is not surprising to one even slightly acquainted with the history of the transmission of thought in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages, which took everything in a literal sense and loved to clothe the most abstract thought in concrete form, gave artistic expression to the metaphor of Boethius.
