1) Investigating: "They spent their time thinking finding out if the prisoner had a navel, if his dialect had any connection with Aramaic, how many times he could fit on the head of a pin..." (274)
2) My Guess: I found this sentence rather confusing, especially the part where it says "how many times he could fit on the head of a pin" (274). I assumed it was just some sort of test that would help them into figuring what he is.
3) Results: The whole angel fitting their head on a pin is an argument between medieval theologians. Basically they were wondering if angels could be at the same place at once. That's where the whole "how many angels could dance on the edge of a pin" came from and it seems to be an unimportant question since no one really knows if angels do exsist and if they have any mass to them. (Straightdope.com)
4) Now that I have a clearer understanding of what that phrase meant, I believe that Father Gonzaga's superiors wanted to know if the Old Man had any mass to him by asking how many times his head could fit on a pin. Since no one knows of the exsistance of angels, one can not simply tell how many times an angel can fit on the head of a pin. Which means Father Gozanga's superiors were giving him an impossible task.
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