During a casual internet searching spree, I came across a rather strange discovery. Though I had previously heard of Pythagoras Mathematical Cult, I had never really looked into this peculiar religion.

Unsurprisingly, they worshipped numbers – after all, he was the triangle guy. They believed that certain numbers were sacred and treated these as Gods. Just a few were: Seven – wisdom, Eight – Justice, and Ten was the most sacred of all.

In fact, to join his following, you had to swear an oath to 'The Holy Triangle' which had ten points across four rows. The name for this was the Tetractys. As well as this, they had a set prayer for worshipping the number Ten.

Pythagoras’ cult even believed they had to sacrifice an ox to the Gods, every time they discovered a new theorem. Like most of us reading, we may find this a little strange. The Greeks at the time also had the same opinion - they were afraid of the supposed 'power' that Pythagoras held (they also believed that he was a demigod). They went as far as to burn down his house and chase him out of town.

Pythagoras also believed in The Transmigration of Souls. Otherwise known as reincarnation - the movement of the soul to another body after death.

He believed the following:

• Beans contained souls

• The 5-second rule

• You must put on the right shoe first

• Passing gas leads to a loss of part of your soul

• New recruits had to spend 5 years in silence (mostly to stop them from spilling secrets)

This rather 'quirky' man is also rumoured to have killed a man, for discovering irrational numbers. Legend has it, one of his followers – Hippasus, showed Pythagoras the evidence on a boat. Shortly afterwards, he was either flung off the boat or drowned, the Greek Mathematician warning others to never speak a word about this incident.

There were two main types of followers (Pythagoreans) of Pythagoras during and after his death. They were, the 'Akousmatikoi', and the 'Mathematikoi'.

The Akousmatikoi could be described as 'extremely hard-core Pythagoreans'. They clung onto his every word, as if it was divine dogma. I believe that they didn't agree with the other type of practitioners, trying to further the study of mathematics or science from Pythagoras' findings. This was as the Akousmatikoi believed it not to be their leader's original intent. They also refused to accept any philosophic evolution and reinterpretation of Pythagoras' work or sayings. They practised Silence, wearing simple clothes and avoiding meat.

The Mathematikoi acknowledged the religious underpinning of Pythagoreanism. They were more flexible and came up with some ideas that contradicted Pythagoras' teachings. As their name suggests, most of their studies were purely in the mathematical field. However, they did promote further study into other areas of science that Pythagoras had taught or studied in his lifetime.

Though Pythagoras, and probably the Akousmatikoi, believed that the Earth was at the centre of the universe, other followers of Pythagoras and the Mathematikoi determined that the Earth and other celestial bodies orbited a central fire. We now know that to be the Sun.

Most weirdly, Pythagoras believed that beans had souls in them - or at least that's what most speculate, as he was so damn afraid of them. In fact, beans led to his death. He was chased by an angry mob out for his blood, until he stopped at a bean field. He refused to go through it, never having dared trample a bean in life, and died.

So ends the life of this Philosopher and Mathematician, and this article.