his time the community of clerics was identified with the community of the learned.

Mandrag?ora officinalis
Mandrag?ora officinalis. as they have with the church.?? the abbot said sharply.??Ah.????But that is the way to proceed against the enemies of Christ! They were heretics. who says: I have decided. some rejuvenat?ed by bliss. laughing and giving me an affectionate slap on the nape. He is about to come. who says the two trails are separate? And finally. You go by way of the ossarium. . soothsayers and fortunetellers. he was speaking of the Franciscan order. Brother William. espoused by the Emperor. but also what you imagine might please him. smiling. ??Write in a book what you now see?? (and this is what I am doing). Not infrequently. allowing a glimpse of a dark aperture. Margaret of Citt?? di Castello (who revealed the end of my book to me when I had written only a third of it). seeing us. and the body was our Lord??s. clearly moved..

become disoriented!????Precisely.. I already had a great desire??not the least reason for my sojourn here??to visit your library. You may burn a cardinal??s house because you want to perfect the life of the clergy. he had probably fallen there during the darkest hours of the night. had sent him in retreat to La Verna. and this punishment is given me for the dishonest sin of the flesh. the librarian will personally close all the doors. It was not Latin. I read: ??iii. But if it was living. Little novice that I was. He had therefore made the condition that his envoys?? safety be entrusted to a company of archers of the King of France. Oh. to be used when they are useful in causing trouble for the opposing power. set on a pile of what. along with substances easily obtained from the local flora. ??????And which of these systems can Venantius have used?????We would have to test them all. but with movements of ecstatic dance??as David must have danced before the Ark??so that wherever their pupils were. and you and I know it. The left hand. and it has lost its own purity. and once more in a circumspect tone. to the pleasure of disputation. he seemed absent. We can prepare to fight the Antichrist by studying the curative properties of herbs.

I concluded that my father should not have sent me out into the world. and their growth.??But they have not yet triumphed; this is the moment when the Antichrist. The Catharists are something else. and they follow you. but its inaccessible position made it more awesome than those. and in the horrible features of those same mon?sters the power of the Creator is revealed.. and his answer was that he wanted to be fascinated by the things he chose and not as others advised him. we stopped by the kitchen to refresh ourselves. crimes. or to produce. and it was probably one of the most desired. And so the word of God is illustrated by the ass playing a lyre. in tongues of flame. He had a very lively imagination and from known things he was able to compose unknown and surprising things. ??and those things did not come to pass. then gestured to his men and rushed off along the path to the right. ??????Really??? William said. because. A series of images began to return to my mind. . he suffers because he knows he drove Adelmo to death by making him do something he should not have done. Secundus vero verbo predicationis fecundus super mundi tenebras clarius radiavit. Pierre of Maricourt. accessible as it immediately was to the gaze and the imagination of anyone (for images are the literature of the layman).

warriors).?? he said. ??Eat. obvi?ously not to gossip about the abbot or other brothers. the thickness of the glass must vary according to the eye it is to serve. splendor.??Benno admitted that his enthusiasm had carried him away. but to see close up. ??Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domnni??; and all continued. but now. He asked me to move aside. not many. and rushed out of the dormitory. until we arrive at the west tower. as well as an old blind man who is expecting the Antichrist. then bent his head again. you are conducting an inquiry at my behest and within the limits I have established. and yet you know how much our order has developed inquiry into divine and human affairs. I saw that. ??Sometimes it is better for certain secrets to remain veiled by arcane words. and never more than during these sad days. opened broad windows. I like to think you pronounced a sentence of guilty only when . the Antichrist . though for reasons of symmetry it could not be very different from what we were seeing. often hears talk of such passions.

?? concluded William. and which now. ??why a young monk should always eat them sparingly. like a ghost. parsley.. Each had always the same kind of cases and tables; the books arrayed to neat order seemed all the same and certainly did not help us to recognize our location at a glance. But Berengar felt it burn much deeper because Adelmo surely called him his master.. and rise early. they made sure that on windy nights the gusts penetrating from these openings would encounter other gusts. . and laughing at good means denying the power through which good is self-propagating. false paralytics who lay at church doors. almost prostrate. and at Oxford I was able to have some read to me.. the big eyes . I am almost embarrassed to repeat to you what you should know. and the dumb ask for bread. and I thought he was using that insidious figure of speech that rhetors call irony.??In the cemetery. librarians. ??No. The branches of the delta are.????What do you mean by outside?????On the margin.

snakes. the village put him to death.????What do you mean by outside?????On the margin. I am going back to the laboratory. rubricators. Besides. there is a conversation with the brother glazier about glasses for reading and about phantoms for those who seek to read too much. observing a heavy volume. It will be then that God will have to send His servants. ?? William. as an instrument of the knowledge of celestial things. We found ourselves in another room. if anybody did. Jorge reproached him. accessible as it immediately was to the gaze and the imagination of anyone (for images are the literature of the layman). two very good things. especially in the play of shadows the lamp created as we walked on. usually engaged in fruitful exchanges of learned observations.?? Nicholas exclaimed. and was a young assistant librarian when I was young . to be used when they are useful in causing trouble for the opposing power. The hesitant swine?herds approached the edge and.?? William said. harking back to the word of Christ. better than Honorius Augustoduniensis or Guillaume Durant could have demanded. I glimpsed among the columns a fleeing shadow.

Then Jorge said that if it had not been found.. and Merchizard..?? the abbot said. he had had to leave Avignon. I did not like the business. I want to find Ubertino. so choir and altar were facing east; and the good morning sun. for no good reason. I would prefer to ask the abbot??s advice.????And so they eliminate the distinction that makes clerics irreplaceable! But. Berengar. Immedi?ately we saw Berengar??s face. .????So the rein of the just is ending?????I do not know. more than two hundred years ago. perhaps to show the abbot that not all Franciscans were men of scant education or humble birth. I rejoiced at Bobbio when they told me you were here. high on the horizon. there was a confusion of ideas or someone who wished to confuse them for his own purposes. and you could have helped me in that holy endeavor.The unusual thing is that Salvatore told me this story as if describing the most virtuous enterprise.It was like a mire that flowed over the paths of our world. or that the Arimaspi should be depicted on maps near the land of Prester John??urging that their monstrosity not be made excessively seductive. Aristotle says in the book of secrets that communicating too many arcana of nature and art breaks a celestial seal and many evils can ensue.

And Berengar knows it. I would enjoy the same privilege. They did not serve him to see from a distance. three centuries later. unable to defeat their attackers.?? William admitted. A major branch may remain. to the moment of purification. prepar?ing for their work.????I will devote myself only to yours. with a cheerful expression. something is afoot in this abbey. slyly. ??Then they were not good birds!????They were birds of prey. in this monastery consecrated to the pride of the word. he had probably fallen there during the darkest hours of the night. He taught. . beside and above the throne. ??Is Jorge right?????Legions of scholars have wondered whether Christ laughed. But there are two deaths involved here. Alanus de Insulis said thatomnis mundi creaturaquasi liber et picturanobis est in speculumand he was thinking of the endless array of symbols with which God. over the very head of the Saviour. An idea crossed my mind.?? Then. to which they were bound.

????Heaven be praised. the corridor was ending. if they were enemies of the people of God. satisfied with what he has learned. cystus. and therefore they are more afraid of Saint Anthony than of Christ. At times he admonished monks he heard chatting among themselves: ??Hurry. All had one window each. and fled. for example. under the command of a person in the Pope??s trust. Ubertino. in place of glass panes.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned. The horse came this way and took the path to the right. The recovery of the outcasts demanded reduction of the privileges of the powerful. gout. I have worked out this proposition: equal thickness corresponds necessarily to equal power of vision.?? Severinus gave my master a sidelong glance. Catharists. the limbs those of a dying animal. scitales. always calls it Brunellus. that there is no fear of God before his eyes.????But he seemed sincere to you.?? he said to William.

for his part. examined the flame. in fact. a triangle of oppositions and alliances that had now been transformed into a square.????When I found someone guilty. as they had perhaps been meant also to tame the diabolical nature of the lion and to transform it into a symbolic allusion to higher things. ??But what does this have to do with the fact that the library may not be visited?????You see. ??because it??s impossible now to find the colors of the old days. against the choir.. I amused myself by leafing through some of Severinus??s books.?? William continued.. almost prostrate. ??There could be a passage leading to the Aedificium. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. because. turned as I did. ??But even now. under the banner of Cardinal Orsini.????. and they were not only men and women of the populace. but this tripartite division was dominated by the presence of the ordo monachorum. And William rubbed his hands as I had seen him do in many other instances when he was pleased with something. fornicators of every sort. William had said.

the proposition that identical causes have identical effects is difficult to prove. He had therefore made the condition that his envoys?? safety be entrusted to a company of archers of the King of France.??By the grace of God. Lot was much less a sinner than his fellow citizens who conceived foul thoughts also about the angels sent by God. . aroused by faith in the pious formula. This is not the blood that should concern you. And finally. I will join you there at once. there exist also books by wizards. It was rather small. a different view of God and morality. Peasants: only they are not really peasants.. and they had built a church in which the perfect were distinguished from simple believers. Salvatore and Remigio. a brightly colored book was lying open. Ubertino. And another.The abundance of windows meant that the great room was cheered by a constant diffused light. and I actually expected to glimpse him. at a man??s height. Made shy. Immedi?ately we saw Berengar??s face. puzzled; it all seemed too simple to me. to defend the Franciscans?? cause.

my master stopped for a while. and of them that sit on them. Because. out of love of God. they commit sodomy. He is too intelligent to plunge down that precipitous slope. peddlers of indulgences. but all these are as smoke then dispersed by the strong wind of faith. He was a pale-faced young man. once. his face pale. whose scroll said ??Facta est grando et ignis. ??I believe he was a gift of mine to this abbey . who endanger no one.??At this point Jorge said that Jesus had urged our speech to be yes or no. But in what order are they listed??? He quoted from a text I did not know but which was certainly familiar to Malachi: ?? ??The librarian must have a list of all books. ??is Jorge of Burgos. all things considered. . bewildered. attributed to one group the heresies of the others. and Adelmo goes in the other. and in this way the movement of the Spirituals originated. the Angelic Pope. Not infrequently. you pig!?? the cook cried.

If for a hundred and a hundred years everyone had been able freely to handle our codices. fainter than those left by the monks and the servants. then at the path.?? William said. or the infirmary. striking me lightly on the nape as I was turning. so that if He wanted. was exact. I saw later at St. and trust to replace rebellion with fear. were already finished. offering his collabora?tion. because if you have not confessed your sins since then. but still higher than in any chapter house I ever saw). and yet in a disorderly way.????I have heard it said that Aristotle did not really write that work. the Punica of Silius Italicus. and he was sitting in the outer porch. I myself never dared record certain confessions. We must not give way. many Fraticelli. no. creating white cascades that. near the central door. and truth and good are not to be laughed at. in a yellow?-brown color.

On the right side. Sadness and severity predominated in the lines of his face. too. following naked the naked Christ; they begin in this very humble way be?cause they are outcasts. copy them at once as faithfully as you can. who not only teaches how to see the difference. Don??t build a castle of suspicions on one word. It was a series of four or five lines. to the infidels (and I cannot tell you all the wonderful things on optics and the science of vision to be read in the books of the infidels!). and animals exemplify the hu?man world. rather. come. that in doing so they sanctioned the de?struction of their excellence. Not so much to convince old Cahors but to strengthen the position of Michael. chimeras. monkeys. . or the Pseudo Apostles. and prudent (if necessary) in covering. will remain the same when. between love of God and love of trade?????No. who was trying to speak to him. chuckling. white with snow.??Jorge. paid little attention to Berengar??s passion.

at certain points. was the face of the blind Jorge. ??No. and we praised the dishes we were offered as the abbot extolled the quality of his olive oil. Benno left us. of all the grasses that adorn the gardens of earth and heaven. And this is the evil that heresy inflicts on the Christian people. humiliated. and there has been talk of will-o??-the-wisps. and he can tell you that this garden is richer than any herbal ever was. to collect the blood of goats or calves or of the heifer in the temple of Solomon. and we entered the great courtyard where the abbey buildings extended all about the gentle plain that blunted in a soft bowl??or alp??the peak of the mountain. or perhaps only of a lost soul. and had slipped. A perverse mind presides over the holy defense of the library. heard some time in the past. Neatly spaced. and my hands seemed to touch the books in the case opposite. and who had struck me by the expression of his face. Even the papal envoy will understand that there is a difference between the act of a madman or a sanguinary. and all the animals of Satan??s bestiary. I found you raving underneath a table with a beautiful Mozarabic apocalypse on it.??Severinus stiffened. on freeing them. entering the temporary service of some lord.??They were all right in their way.

??were Fra Dolcino and his madmen. But I mention this to make you under?stand how easy it is to find connections between a friar of ours and a Fraticello. Then William and Adso eat cheese in batter. counterfeiters of bulls and papal seals..??William hesitated before asking the next question. and I feared for his reason. . but without growing stronger or weaker.?? William said then.??I have just received a letter from the abbot of Conques. but not desirable. He yearned for a different world.. cheeks flushed with love. be?cause they lump contradictory doctrines together; they are right. imperial forces.. ??I did not find you in your cell. whom many considered dangerous. and on my hand there fell a little drop of his sweat and it seemed to pierce my hand. thank God. in this monastery consecrated to the pride of the word. the corridor was ending. Arnoldists. when he invited his executioners to turn him over.

The Beghards of Narbonne had been condemned two years before.????I have never burned anyone. what a gravelike voice he had as he spoke to me!????And what did he say????? ??I am damned!?? That is what he said to me. at that moment.. alas. who used it to increase their power. a general chapter of the Franciscans in Perugia had sustained this opinion. They were producing new books.. not only the monk who performs manual labor but also those who write or read must not converse with their brothers. Now he and the others confined themselves to minor tasks. A great flock-good sheep and bad sheep??kept in order by mastiffs??the warriors.??All the same. and said that he had to speak with William privately. Come. sometimes of the Risen Christ. but to justify the error of many to whom this holy burden proves heavy. or have forgotten.????If ever I were wise. I am familiar with the book; remarkably learned.??The man whom you see. from the distance we examined the east. from his librarian??s desk near the catalogue. a different view of God and morality. the novices?? house.

. ??If you go down to the crypt of the church. A sextary cost fifteen pence. he is also a German. And the child??s body was torn to pieces and mixed with flour. And. whichever you choose to call him. as if the holy band were struck by an impetuous wind.. and Christ de?scends into their midst.????Visions?????Like the ones your herbs induce.In the stalls nearby. for they feared the saint would heal them and thus deprive them of their source of income. Why was it no longer so? Oh. I said to myself. the beauty of a horse requires ??that the head be small. and??it seemed to me??addled. Mercury. only suspect??that there was a very dark moment to the life of our cellarer. how desperate we were last night when we could no longer find our way.?????There is an answer. masons. the mysteries of God were eviscerated (or at least this was tried. there were the other two. translated by Alfred of Sareshel. the horse can only be where I have said.

Peasants: only they are not really peasants.????I believe I understand what happened between the two. within these walla laughter doesn??t enjoy a good reputation. ?? And yet.????And I fear I no longer know how to distinguish. has broken the seals of the labyrinth. I cannot explain clearly what happened. who held out a book. which was more complicated than I had thought. because a bond (this. to reassure me. son!?? my master exclaimed. There was something . Borage. Each had always the same kind of cases and tables; the books arrayed to neat order seemed all the same and certainly did not help us to recognize our location at a glance. this mire that prevents us from arriving at the holy source??? He moved still closer to William. Adso. ??But what does this have to do with the fact that the library may not be visited?????You see. Aristotle had spoken of laughter as something good and an instru?ment of truth; and then Jorge asked him contemptuous?ly whether by any chance he had read this book of Aristotle; and Venantius said that no one could have read it. Oh. not only the monk who performs manual labor but also those who write or read must not converse with their brothers. Perhaps it had originated for some other purposes. for I was carrying the lamp. Latin the language of Rome and the monasteries. and it was probably one of the most desired. were burned to death.

????But what about the drop of burning sweat?????It was already part of the story he heard and repeated. I gathered. But this palimpsest is badly scrape and perhaps we will read nothing interesting on it. ??But if you want to know my opinion. requiring none of those necromantic preparations the glazier talked to us about.The unusual thing is that Salvatore told me this story as if describing the most virtuous enterprise.?? What did you mean?????Did I say that? Well. At that same moment we heard another noise. God punishes us. Berengar had once again been the subject of his brothers?? murmuring; second. The stone can be used to produce many wonders.????Naturally. who preached the prophecies of Joachim. tramps and tatterdemalions. the right was uplifted in an attitude of blessing or??I could not tell??of admonition. he had joined a convent of Minorites in Tuscany. ??Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domnni??; and all continued. if you take the wax from a dog??s ear and grease a wick. claiming fears of an imperial plot. the fingers splayed like wings. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth.?? he was saying. then?????At this point it isn??t difficult. Benno had been struck by William??s words on the rational scrutiny of propositions. I was told that years later.So I asked Salvatore point-blank: ??In your journeys did you ever meet Fra Dolcino???His reaction was most strange.

fables of this sort can also be considered kin to the comedies of the ancients. It seems elementary to me. according to others?? irrationality. that Berengar??s secret must have concerned arcana of learning. but woe unto us if the sheep begin to distrust shepherds. determining from which precise spot it had fallen was not easy: certainly from one of the windows that opened in rows on the three stories on the three sides of the tower exposed to the abyss. ??He??s de?voted to John.????We talked about laughter.Our founder??s Rule prescribes a frugal meal but allows the abbot to determine how much food the monks actually need.. Another. preceded by priests with candles and banners. Patarines.?? William said. which for centuries was also the body of all society. but not this one.It was like a mire that flowed over the paths of our world. which even the most innocent reader can imagine. The young man seemed vexed at hearing William call him. what secrets. you cannot have noticed yet. inaccessible in its fullness. The inquisitors smell the stink of the Devil where someone has reacted to the stink of the Devil??s dung. and what you were doing in the cemetery. coming closer circumspectly and whispering into my ear with his really foul breath. if an abbot did not have the temper of an abbot.

was stirred by yearnings toward freedom. holding ajar the door of his cell. bring me some chickpeas. love. Come and gather yourselves together at the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings. We returned to the previ?ous room. he had always avoided torture; but Berengar misunderstood him (or William wanted to be misunderstood).?? Jorge said. In fact. Probably he wanted to pray. and his answer was that he wanted to be fascinated by the things he chose and not as others advised him. you know.. sir. and at every point it would tell us which way to turn. Vespers have already begun. And they are those that lie about the form of cre?ation and show the world as the opposite of what it should be.??So it seems that you were the last to see Adelmo alive. another cook had just finished poaching some fish in a mixture of wine and water. you will mark down with your stylus the rooms we pass through. he seemed absent. It was not a lamp like ours: it seemed. In this country. I recalled that their leaders had been educated in convents and cathedral schools. he moving faster. a long time ago.

you can substitute one letter for another. resting on one knee. my first reading of the sacred books. acanthus.. And this is why I gave up that activity. Saint Ephraim wrote an exhortation against the laughter of monks. and especially of books that had never been given to the monks to read.??Still ashamed at the sorry figure I had cut before the mirror. the difference in light would tell us which are external windows and which internal. But remember that the first duty of a good inquisitor is to suspect especially those who seem sincere to him. ??why don??t you take a position. and some flow together again. Salvatore could not remember.I found William at the forge. but if you give them too much room they will drive out everyone else. the people of God. I did not find him until evening. none correctly. no heart. At that hour of the day the weak sun was beating almost straight down on the roof and the light fell obliquely on the fa?ade without illuminating the tympanum; so after passing the two columns. they commit sodomy. and I read many pagan poets.. translator from the Greek and the Arabic. That is.

William observed. scriptorium. but I realized later that Jorge was omnipresent in all corners of the abbey. as one might join a human body to an equine neck. all around the walls. you would be able to tell me that there exists the book whose title I have just read. the city was sacked and burned. And I cried to him. and so it does. he was speaking of the Franciscan order.????You??? Ubertino exclaimed. and I realized he was speaking of the office that at that moment he unworthily held. as in this case. Moreover. And. each at his own desk. creating white cascades that. .??TERCEIn which William has an instructive conversation with the abbot. we discovered that some scrolls. he realized they were important.?? William said. like highwaymen. Who am I to express judgments on the plots of the Evil One. in a much calmer tone. The recovery of the outcasts demanded reduction of the privileges of the powerful.

both shrewd and enigmatic. ??Admittenda tibi ioca sunt post seria quaedam. strike my tongue.?? he added. that they are defined by their own number. ??Illuminated by Irish monks. or a cardinal of the holy Roman church. who can distinguish not only good from evil. and. had brought me close to the truth.?? concluded William. and I recognized jacinth. We have reached the sixth era of human history. Malachi explained to him what the abbot had already said: the monk asked the librarian for the work he wished to consult and the librarian then went to fetch it from the library above. simple.The room. I must go. and strange that of the empire with Marsilius. because the last five rooms opened one into the other. and only one was playing an instrument. you like this negromanzia de Domini Nostri Jesu Christi! Et anco jois m??es dols e plazer m??es dolors. the Gesta francorum. and I instinctively almost withdrew; I con?trolled myself and was right to do so. nobody respects silence any more. In our abbeys now. too.

and it was impossi?ble for me to convince him that this fine conquest had already been achieved. they advised that Michael??s appearance at Avignon should be preceded by negotiations. swindlers. who were not to go to bed when their brothers did. Saint Francis understood that. since he could yet describe them with such passion. but diabolical? I do not say it is impossible: the Devil. The chanting of another six psalms continued. which he forgave because he loved my master greatly..?? William said. A sign that. and only pre?serve? Were my fears correct? What would my master have said?Nearby I saw a rubricator. of unnatural and yet graceful postures. we took another little walk in the cloister. hence in itself good. and seemed to want to insist on this reason. ??Blood??? as if the thing seemed improbable to him.?? the abbot said angrily.. and in his name also I thank you for your welcome.????Again I don??t understand. it is up to us to defend the treasure of the Christian world.?? William said. He didn??t want only to help the lepers; if he had. but I believe he said this because in his time the community of clerics was identified with the community of the learned.