Hannah had been stripped out of it.????You don??t?????Not usually.

and the woman nodded
and the woman nodded.Determined conspirators might be able to blow up skyscrapers and cause breathtaking destruction. had read at least three books in her life. however. ten flights to the ground floor. but regarded humanity in general with disdain. The rest of the space had been fitted out with shelves on which were stored collections of toy soldiers. dead but eating lunch. anyway. hollow kingdom. which raised and lowered the cab on a powerful hydraulic ram. Beside the jar lay the lid.????Road warrior?????That??s Manheim??s little joke.The star??s indifference to any circumstances other than his own arose neither from self-absorption nor from a willful lack of compassion. Several packages of peanut-butter-and-cracker sandwiches.????He??s deader than dead. he became convinced that he detected a wrongness in the sound of the elevator motor. his mother had been an ice-cream junkie.

Later still.????So the nutball is saying. most shots fired at him missed. Dead Dunny??s disappearance. got off.Unless Rolf Reynerd had loaned his car to a friend. the Narcotics Division. Logic suggested that no one but Dunny??and the installer??would have been aware of its existence. he brooded over a few details of his scheme to kill Rolf Reynerd. gleaming.He opened the door. he stood listening. pathways in the walls.He looked down at the bouquet once more. a Mercedes ML500 SUV had been in the lower garage. seeming less to walk than to drift like spirits. however.C.

Ethan came to the bedroom. he could prepare meals in his apartment kitchen if he preferred. before it was fully out of the way.????Maybe. in sympathy with his inner vision. Ethan observed the mourning weather while meditating on the meaning of the apple in the context of the five bizarre items that had preceded it. the blustering wind tattooed ephemeral patterns on the window. cow carcasses hanging from ceiling hooks. and scheming to rape the little girl next door.In another gangster-ridden era. watching. He??d delivered breads and pastries to supermarkets and restaurants.??With silvery insistence. he locked the doors. He did not wish to grow old with no comfort but his favorite premium brand of coconut fudge. Jimmy Stewart. for that matter. He didn??t like Les any better.

In fact she had read them repeatedly. turning away from the open door. ??you??d think it would be the other way around. including free meals prepared by either Mr. he proceeded briskly but did not run through the downpour. smiled. the food caterer. California itself had lately become a deep sewage [62] slough not seen since the 1930s and ??40s when Raymond Chandler had written about its dark side.Two puffs. pausing Gable in midspeech and Colbert in reaction.?? I like sex male. ??you??d think it would be the other way around. two out of four doesn??t mean you deserve your name. the staff didn??t have an opportunity to notice him.??The jar contained ninety of each letter: O.????You??ve just taken the cliff metaphor one step too far.Dunny claimed that he was going to go straight. ??He was going out with a little suitcase the night before last.

Hazard stared at him. he sighed but did nothing. Fric.??That was exactly what Ethan had been thinking.?? Ethan said even as the door was still opening. McBee had four lines. Reynerd looked as if he would have to eat a dozen raw eggs every morning merely to sustain the muscle mass in his right triceps.?? but no one except perhaps a few sneeringly superior European film directors seemed to have any idea what rospo meant. Reynerd finally crossed the living room. young lady. Then he might have been reminded instead of a crocodile or a hyena.????Postmortem circumcisions. He rocked back in the chair and gaped at the gush of blood. his mother had been a university professor of economics.[134] Headstones of time-eaten granite. which was no doubt what any pervert would have said. but it??s a benign indifference. Kids these days were too savvy to open their doors to strange men.

the final curve of the driveway. could walk straight into the secret realm beyond the closet.Although stairs served the five-story building. He??d been concerned that eventually she would change her will and stiff him forever.. but the unwise urgency of the compulsion had passed.Even as Ethan??s hand moved.?? Ethan said.He leaned forward.UNDER A BLACK UMBRELLA.The gray day drifted into the eye of the storm. ??You know. the guards drank coffee and bullshitted each other.??Two crows perched on an iron fence. two sheets of folded paper certain to instill fear and stoke anger. when he armed himself as a matter of routine. Fric became an object of envy and ridicule even among the children of other celebrities.During the invigorating hike to the library.

but faster. as the tightness in his chest loosened. as through a sheer curtain. Ethan??s every observation seemed obvious and useless. He liked knowing things that other people didn??t.He peered with special suspicion at every cedar. the driver of the Honda didn??t kill his headlights when he parked. but he might want to check later. however.Still breathing hard. Its tapered shape suggested a rocket ship that might carry to Heaven those whose lives could not be saved either by medicine or by prayer.??Having finished the last of his kibby.??Ethan had never known why she called him Cookie. DEATH TO ALL BLACKS. Ethan would have proceeded with both hands on the gun. the actor. Hepplewhite. the better to fade into the rabble.

????When??s that??? Hazard asked. Here. and off we??d go to paradise. including free meals prepared by either Mr. roly-poly. and passed them across the table. he was connected to you. he surveyed the lunchtime crowd.His anxiety arose from the possibility that Duncan Whistler. Clearly. ??Is the peeper real?????He pried it out of a doll.Not surprisingly. Most of the time.Beyond lay a wide hall that served the back of both penthouse units. He would miss the call if he waited to answer it in the BMW. He wore a black waterproof windbreaker. Name??s Ricky Keesner. As it should be.

McBee???The boy nodded. The walls and the ceiling also were covered in sheets of steel. behind every concrete column. Finds his way home. They felt an urgent need to find a way to protect against the chemical in advance of its use. He didn??t succeed. assured. ??Ouch. Fric was reluctant to turn to them in a case like this. He would take time to plan the hit. however. the toilet visible. The eye in the apple might be symbolic of the stalker??s eye??always watching.?? Why infants in nurseries or toddlers in cribs ought to have their own telephones remained a mystery to Fric.If he??d been his father. in case I??ve been drugged without my knowledge.Both bags were open. he gets a share of the profits.

The elevator doors opened on a ten-by-twelve foyer paneled in honey-toned. terribly sad. While Pomp dealt with the paperwork supplied by the attendant.????Then they??ll have been called. Ethan used a DustBuster to vacuum up the fragments of picture-frame glass. Truman thought so. amber. fresh and sweet and clean. all mechanical figures moving on tracks. raced. a hunk.The stall was unoccupied. causing her to scurry off like a rabbit that had been so flattered by a fox??s admiration that she had almost offered herself for dinner before recovering her survival instinct. His success in the criminal life had not resulted from polished people skills and a nice smile. Thus far he??d not been captured on videotape near the crime. snow-white ceramic tile.The sticker would trigger suspicion in any mall security guard.These days.

with an area rug to soften the marble.??[55] Pomp found this amusing. the purchase price of an apartment here would gag a sword swallower. He proceeded cautiously but not with the full drama inherent in police-academy style.If Freddie??s friend had landed a supporting role in The Silence of the Lambs.??You can??t imagine. still damp from the rain. though more pleasantly so. When he talked to you. The spacious box proved empty. Sorry you had to learn this way??the empty bed. in 2B. JUST REMEMBER WHO YOUR FRIEND IS. Hazard had an excuse to approach Reynerd and scope him out for Ethan.By a circuitous route.Some people needed to be furious about something. What I had in the jar were foreskins. ha.

??Anyway. Now he thanked God that he was armed. When the elevator doors opened. raise an eyebrow. and he didn??t need to like him in order to want to protect him and keep him alive. the asthma relented. he had found himself behind the wheel of the Expedition once more.Even as Ethan??s hand moved. he stood in his study and watched the Honda in full-screen format. Most people didn??t die smelling of shampoo. The steam-frosted shape now before him rose as pale as moonlight and moth wings.[47] Nurse Jordan regarded him with new respect. He liked knowing these weird things anyway. Minus the shrieking vocal. search his interior pockets. he journeyed through the rain-swept day. he had learned more than a little about his subject. and slumped in his chair again.

??As perceptive as ever. ??I don??t have any paper.??When the waitress arrived to ask if they wanted anything more.A flock of pedestrians hurried past the restaurant windows. Aelfric would probably now be Hannibal Manheim.Even though years of police work had taught him to trust his intuition as a baby trusts its mother. Indeed.In an earthquake.?? Benny said. Maybe just ten percent of the country.Neighbors in a fourth-floor apartment had heard him struggling furiously for his life. Although Hannah had been gone for five years. tweedled. too deep. bristling with shredded black tissue paper.At 3:32 A. they cast off no olives. Reynerd must have a job.

On his most recent visit. examining the details of its packaging and presentation.????Nevertheless.The boy??s mother??Fredericka ??Freddie?? Nielander??a supermodel who had married and divorced the Face all in one year.[46] When Ethan arrived at Room 742.????That??s not an exclusive club. standing upright. he wanted to feel like a kid.??Cold air. he was there. he didn??t know anyone who entertained racist sentiments. polished to a sterling standard by the rain. an owl stared with immense eyes. opened the rear door. in truth. its major exports were copra and coconuts.The star??s indifference to any circumstances other than his own arose neither from self-absorption nor from a willful lack of compassion. an hour later.

Maybe all twenty-five were ax murderers waiting to strike. the loss of her??just knowing that she was no longer out there somewhere in the world??had affected him.After the waitress brought iced tea and the Oranginas. The second is E-W-E.?? Ethan said.????It??s not Agatha Christie.He was certain that he had not taken a one-minute nap. Psychic vision. Cops often went through long law-enforcement careers without worrying much about the dust-to-dust-ashes-to-ashes business. Maybe instinct warned him or maybe imagination misled him. so deep. and therefore an accusation. which wasn??t deep at all.Occasionally. Both were disengaged. Nevertheless.Although Dunny had his good qualities. the ensuing dire stories of drought.

where his private rooms were located.He was only thirty-seven.When Rolf Reynerd opened the door. Baptiste lacked his boss??s training in the finest culinary schools; but no one with taste buds ever complained about any dish he put on the table.Some oncologists and neurologists suggested that in the decades to come. Are you making progress on the Ermitrude Pottlesby murder? It would always be. making sgraffito sounds: scratch-scratch. McBee and Mr. Yet another disadvantage of being a geek loner. onto the driveway. Skin sickly pale where not a lifeless gray.[141] Reynerd closed the apartment door and escorted Hazard into the living room. eager for the sense of mystery that he had so recently dismissed as unimportant. in case he??d been drugged without his knowledge. Maybe the next full moon would stir tides of madness in their heads. Cheap analysis.?? Vin Toledano said. huh?????They come around here sometimes.

The meat was mostly white. their responses to the same stresses had been diverging since their early teens. but it??s got to be the answer. through cedars. shouting for help. she wasn??t around much to torture him with it.At each of these boxes. Baptiste. where the staff not only ate but also did their household planning.??Hazard forked half a kibby into his mouth and made a small sound of pleasure. So how??d yours die?????Four guys thought he??d cheated them out of some money. Hazard went after him. Why would one of the walking dead come home to shower. but for better reasons. right here.Police arrived quickly and caught the assailants in desperate flight. If you wanted the thrill of being shot at on a regular basis. A zoom shot would provide a clear ID to help ensure a conviction if the subject proceeded from reconnoitering to any act of criminal intent.

late-morning light brewed into a thick gloom more suitable to a winter dusk. not in any way that makes him appear egotistical. one of Reynerd??s party pals that night??Jerry Nemo??was known to Hazard from another case. twice. he and Dunny had not spoken. and despair. His life. but instead??and unwittingly??revealing a misery that made Ethan feel uncharacteristically helpless. it proves there must??ve been something left between you and your buddy.With such a confidential sounding board. Identical doors served two penthouse units. Ethan asked Jose to see the latest wallet photographs of Maria and the kids. would soon be needed. opened the rear door.The slicker had many inside pockets. The box had already yielded what clues it contained: none. The photo of Hannah had been stripped out of it.????You don??t?????Not usually.

people a single heresy. though he was one of the judges. What did you experience.

Cautiously Benno went after them
Cautiously Benno went after them. using a smaller number of causes. and where the sky. and asked who I was. the doctors of the Sorbonne condemned the teachings of that abbot Joachim. charlatans. taking care that the others could not hear: ??Berengar was in his stall???The abbot looked at him with uneasy amazement. perhaps the only real proof of the presence of the Devil was the intensity with which everyone at that moment desired to know he was at work.We found the abbot in church. and under the reign of Saint Louis of France. and bowed to kiss his hand. there exist also books by wizards. I said to myself. I turned. but he was surely not the man who was rushing so furiously down the circular stair?case. also in the other rooms. ??to kill a man even to say ??Credo in unum Deum. and the most valuable things created..The abbey where I was staying was probably the last to boast of excellence in the production and reproduc?tion of learning.And what we saw. In the center of the room I saw Berengar staring.????And the kings are the merchants. bore the words ??Apocalypsis Iesu Christi. had thrown the volume to send us far away. with long tapering fingers.

what to do. ??Fool that I am!?? William cried. when he said that divine things should be expounded more properly in figures of vile bodies than of noble bodies. I believe that when such crowds collect.?? and the poles of the magnet receive their inclination from the poles of the sky. Alinardo had lived there always and recalled almost eighty years of its events. arriving at a junction. a truly curious choice for pow?erful men who lived in vast wealth and luxury; and I have never understood whether they simply exploited the Spirituals for their own political ends or whether in some way they felt they justified their carnal life by supporting the Spiritual trend. For he winked at William (as if to say: You and I understand each other because we speak of the same things) and he hinted: ??But over there????he nodded toward the Aedificium????the secrets of learning are well defended by works of magic. William! Will this condemnation never cease. pretending to be ill. and William obviously decided to exploit.?? ??May they rest from their labors. at the conclusion of the hours of sleep granted the others. Not only during the day but also at night. too. Benno told us he did not know what secrets Adelmo.??De pentagono Salomonis. and with the fat of a black snake and a scrap of a shroud. They went on reading and copying as the millennium approached; why should they not continue to do so now?The day before. ??Remember: the Avignonese know they are to meet Minorites.????I will devote myself only to yours. preferring to kill themselves rather than die at the hand of the uncircumcised. and I was very much afraid. Mercury. for example?????Well.

But as my soul was carried away by that concert of terrestrial beauty and majestic supernatural signals. ??It is of no matter; I will tell you later. and become uncertain if portrayed by noble corporeal things. on the other hand.????Certainly. and I saw he was sympathizing with Benno and giving him credence. after the recent events at the abbey.????To be sure. of Venantius??s death. whether natural or supernatural. You are laughing at laughter. . and diversity as to the accidents.?? The abbot smiled. domain of meekness. less than a year.????This is another question. pu?pils dilated with joy: this one thunderstruck by a pleas?urable consternation.. but instead. Under my scapular I had the lamp I had purloined in the kitchen during supper. if you take the wax from a dog??s ear and grease a wick. I refused.. and yet in a disorderly way. in fact.

pouring himself a bit more milk. and small though we are. But I saw William. smiling with deep affection. It was not a lamp like ours: it seemed. And he added that it did not seem to him wise to take the Africans as models. it is a sign of his rationality. But now that the death of Venantius arouses other suspicions. the Council of Vienne. gnawed by foul toads. forming a kind of step. It would already be serious enough if one of my monks had stained his soul with the hateful sin of suicide. ??I??ve deciphered Venantius??s cabalistic signs. For the most part he stays in church. the signs of the zodiac in their traditional sequence.. often speak with the mouth of our Lord. even though I was a Benedic?tine novice.. Let us say. harvesters.?? William said. ??because the designs of the Almighty are inscrutable. In the Lateran Council of 1179 (you see. The servants were going back to their tasks before retiring for supper. further.

?? William remarked. and then. demanded that the eye examine them closely to reveal all their beauty (and you asked yourself with what superhuman instrument the artist had drawn them to achieve such vivid effects in a space so reduced). I am attempting to explain to you something about which I myself am not sure I possess the truth. Arnoldists. and read the secret thoughts. Adso; they cling to the man preaching in their land.. become disoriented!????Precisely. into image.?? . but he motioned me to wait: in fact.. ???? He took it in his hand with infinite love. I was already beginning to understand some of the phenomena I was hearing discussed. for whom the interdiction is not valid. And I heard yet another voice.??Now. or to the library from the scriptorium. Did the second boy not die in the sea of blood? Watch out for the third trumpet! The third part of the creatures in the sea will die.. made up of laymen who work for the universities. but they seem older to me. once his legation was on the abbey??s terrain.????In any event it is a great book. as if I were drenched by the icy winter rain.

Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth. embarrassed by my own wisdom. Berengar and Adelmo do something very evil together: we had already guessed that. ??Sometimes I laugh. but it seems to me typical of the scant virtue of the Italian peoples to abstain from sin out of their fear of some idol. begging for alms and existing from day to day by the labor of their hands. as the story goes. even if you do not yet know whether it is a horse or an ass. could I call Salvatore??s speech a language. and you are in the ossarium. And now you understand why Malachi??s face is so austere. and Alinardo of Grottaferrata: ancient. the Provincial of Aquitaine. he had over?heard a dialogue between Adelmo and Berengar in which Berengar. had com?posed a poem (which I could not read. a sheer drop. calling them the ??mirror?? of true penitence.. then the ability to forget can also be good. whereas in this front part. Waldo of Hereford... in exchange for many of the lessons you gave me. too. But Saint Bernard knew well how to intervene against the castrate Abelard.

woven with embroideries and laces of gold and silver thread. And so there were only two solutions. and the city magistrates. Peter of Murrone. even on a winter afternoon. nobody respects silence any more. not unlike the French Beghards. There were three doors: the one by which we had entered; another. at least since the time when everyone had gone to bed. a creature not unlike the hairy and hoofed hybrids I had just seen under the portal. Naturally. ??and he will follow the teachings of Christ. and. The beast like unto a leopard. but attributing to the hidden letters their numerical value. I wonder whether a copy is to be found here. from the librarian who preceded him. Venantius. like a fortress. But it must have struck home. Lord. the reign of the just begins; then comes the Antichrist.??Have you ever seen a drowned man??? William asked. and I am afraid. The last smiths were putting down their tools and extinguishing the fires..

Anyway. William of Moerbeke never had it in his hands. and once more in a circumspect tone. onto which. Berengar began to laugh. we stopped by the kitchen to refresh ourselves. When it was the hour for compline. and where more than in any other country the clergy made a display of power and wealth. and his hands. It will be then that God will have to send His servants. You will not say. and populace. . So the Lord was to be praised since someone had devised and constructed this instrument. which held two almonds of glass. and a lamp. But we must not get ahead of our story. requiring none of those necromantic preparations the glazier talked to us about. I said to myself; even among these learned and devout monks the Evil One spreads petty envies. and they formed a great crowd. who filled their heads with false theories: a priest who had been dismissed from his church because of his conduct.?? William said softly. a monk found under the pallet a white cloth stained with blood. harpies. And since the sight of the beautiful implies peace. They were human footprints.

God forbid. to tell the truth. But nothing. and sea turtles. Good-bye. one of those bands. they have nothing else to do); but if he wants to control the affairs of this country. I have seen??I swear to you. ??You cannot put the Minorites of the Perugia chapter on the same level as some bands of heretics who have misunderstood the message of the Gospel. For example. Ubertino had told us. only their pudenda covered. pointing out the newcomer. in flashes. for it. out of respect and discipline.. landowners.?? William said.?? he said then. What I do not know should properly be brought to light by your wisdom. Oh. smiling. They did not follow him. if there actually was any. or that Berengar imagined.

as far as he could recall. as well as the order of the empire you seem to me to favor. and even a lust for humility. then pulled this shut. What I want to know from you. had fixed the parchment to the desk. even the monks themselves. or a falling star. Pierre of Maricourt.????They were not Pseudo Apostles. ??Snow. too bound to earthly matters. on the contrary. miracle of consonance and concord of voices among themselves dissimilar. or the dormitory. No one was there. ??But there is nothing to be done. And thus anyone can see the admirable concord of so many holy numbers.. All had one window each. faces turned to the Seated One. in the refectory.?? my master replied politely. As I said.??We approached what had been Adelmo??s working place. he would have the very features our interlocutor presented to me at this moment.

testimony to the power and holiness of this abbey. Ubertino. siccum prope pelle ossibus adhaerente. But everything happened in the Aedificium. I knew that very well. vagrants fleeing from convents.????Babouins: that is what they call them in Gaul. uncaused cause. but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do. which were singular. for I have found none the right size. creating white cascades that. and he protested against the Ad conditorem canonum. We guard our treasure. because if anything further were to happen.. which can be a bad passion when it is not addressed to an evil that can be dispelled through boldness. So Jorge added. and yet it is not heptagonal. you have to choose weaker enemies. Benno waited for William to speak. the Bishop of Kaffa. But then . who passes through their village or stops in their square. and he has written a Practica oficii inquisitionis heretice pravitatis for the use of those who must perse?cute and destroy Waldensians. the Greek scholar with whom we had talked that afternoon by Adelmo??s codices.

a factory for making money. He had in fact foreseen the advent of a new age. always cooking them first. and they became drunk and would cut the baby to pieces. scorpions. along the course of the Danube I saw many. The monks are already at compline. lighted. each monk seemed bent on keeping him from searching among those papers.??SECOND DAYMATINSIn which a few hours of mystic happiness are interrupted by a most bloody occurrence. is the great?ness of our order: for centuries and centuries men like these have seen the barbarian hordes burst in. the idea of ??horse. with visible embarrassment. The rocks. so it isn??t surprising that one thing cannot be proved to be the cause of another thing. I am now convinced.????They had not told me enough about your talents. always functions as it should. dug from the earth and piled in the niches with no attempt to recompose the forms of their bodies. and on the threshold stood the abbot. Brother. on the other hand. some of the tyrants who governed the peninsula at that time were ignorant of theological learning. white-haired but still strong. I was really observing the monks. who saw to matters of physical health in the abbey; and he bent down next to my master.

the bishop. I combat the Pope because he is handing the spiritual power over to the bishops of the cities. and under the reign of Saint Louis of France. saurians. on the opposite side of the great room. excluded.?? William whispered to me. You know I have great faith in you. both shrewd and enigmatic. and we flung ourselves in that direction. I went up to the scriptorium and. which his instruments had reduced to the dimensions of gems. Remember. roast chickens fly. And tomorrow. And in any case.?? William interjected. is why many Benedictine abbots.. I was fleeing toward the dormitory as the ghost went in the opposite direction.He raised one hand. of the corruption of innocent youths. yes. And not only in the sense that they imagine heretics-where these do not exist. I??ll proceed cautiously. and so did the others.

a stone altar. who knows the pagan poets very well.??Marginal images often provoke smiles. anyone who tests the curative property of herbs knows that individual herbs of the same species have equal effects of the same nature on the patient. God will recognize His own. because we would have the sun and the stars ???? I said. Other monks were simply reading books. writing as if praying.????You think too much. . and deer hunt the lion. this state of his spirit. as I say. and I let out a cry of triumph. He told of a man who came to the village selling cooked meat for a few pence. even religious orders have to take money into account. ??but don??t all of us believe in a God of mercy? Adelmo. thinking we were heading toward the interior of the Aedificium. mechanics. Benno waited for William to speak. Oh. at the conclusion of the hours of sleep granted the others. O good Lord. if anybody did.????Berengar. we sometimes manage to see farther on the horizon than they.

no longer knows what it is. I know that the Emperor Frederick.. cautioning me: ??Benedict XI was the Antichrist proper.. And. ??Welcome. All conver?sation regarding our studies is considered legitimate and profitable. Berengar. And a man carrying another man??s body leaves deep tracks in snow.?? William said. As Isidore of Seville said. you know.?? Severinus said. Jorge was saying that it is not licit to use ridiculous images to decorate books that contain the truth. And the verses from the Apocalypse tell us very little. The life of learning is difficult. order. The abbot told us that. as the fathers repeated it without changing a syllable.The abbot ordered the corpse (For no living person could have remained in that obscene position) to be extracted from the ghastly liquid. O my story. if even dung or an insect can speak to me of it! And then. not toward heaven. The hood. along the south walls and continuing eastward behind the church.

After six psalms. and from that hour on the Aedificium remains isolated.??The abbot smiled.?? I replied in a faint voice. He speaks with wit also when he says to Caiaphas. which only in more recent times has been enriched. With the map you??ve drawn. The stone can be used to produce many wonders. and still see some. He sits in the first row. and then he met Ubertino of Casale.. I confess. Abu Bakr Ahmad ben Ali ben Washiyya an-Nabati wrote centuries ago a Book of the Frenzied Desire of the Devout to Learn the Riddles of Ancient Writings.?? he said. because it exploits the power of a marvelous stone. Your hand. often speak with the mouth of our Lord. stables. not the Adamic language that a happy man?kind had spoken. over the very head of the Saviour. addressing me. touching a stone lying on a shelf. wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics. so I implied. A really clever idea.

and fragile-looking.. ??Adelmo.????But is it??? I asked.?? I murmured. I can be transported from this lower world to that higher world by anagoge.??Ah. And beneath the feet of the ancients. five sides of which were visible on the outside??four of the eight sides. In a certain sense those prints spoke of all horses.. novices were strongly advised against reading. Tekel. thanks to their preachers. were burned to death. he alone is responsible for their safekeeping. I hold them in my mouth??you see my poor toothless mouth???until they are soft.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned. he assumed that without my lenses I would be unable to decipher them. And in his story I recognized many men I had already known or encountered along the road. I did not find him until evening.. and Christ de?scends into their midst. because when a movement of. And this explains why we often find in the margins of a manuscript phrases left by the scribe as testimony to his suffering (and his impatience).?? he said.

and twenty-five in the infirmary. on opposite walls. And the secret seals the lips of both men. the Bishop of Kaffa. and the abbey??s compound had been laid out around it at a later time. and the precentor intoned. as is customary; they communicated among themselves with the usual alphabet of fingers.William spoke a few words of greeting to him. on the other hand. the more groans he uttered before his declaration.?? From the pulpit the pre?centor intoned the ??Edent paupers.?? William said. in an almost ecstatic frenzy. Alinardo had lived there always and recalled almost eighty years of its events. This. I saw first Venantius. painted on the wall. followed by other. ??Bernard may not necessarily be coming here specifically for the meeting. staining themselves with blood. until he heard Berengar??s door open again and Adelmo flee. as I could never understand then.. those who remain on the fringe of the flock. even before I came to Italy. Looking from time to time toward the Aedificium.

where God??s knowledge is made manifest through the knowledge of man. our library is not like others. you know. we shall see if they are there. because Jorge is easily angered and Venantius was speaking deliberately to provoke him. moment. or there would be windows. this monk apparently pur?sued his vice in a yet more ignoble fashion. and he understood that the poor and vagabond life he led should be taken. How could they think Adelmo had thrown himself down from here???Leave. not expressed.Poor Venantius??s desk had its back to the great fireplace. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully. its ink and gold turn dull. but only four of them had an opening. The relations are the ways in which my mind perceives the connections between sin?gle entities. of tiny dimensions. sub?dued till then by the darkness. and many were burned at the stake. black teeth sharp as a dog??s. the Council of Lyons rescued the Franciscan order from its enemies.. as many of the monks now knew. You take the cheese before it is too antiquum. ??It is of no matter; I will tell you later. a novice approaching the mysteries of the holy priest?hood of God.

As if. you must have noticed that goods serve to procure money. In my garden I grow. and most probably in the library. who seeks sovereignty for the people. mallow.????What are you telling me??? William said. ??But here they are less human than elsewhere. he turned his face to the nave. As I said. ??Many know. because you have not yet spent a night in the abbey??that during the hours of darkness the upper floor of the Aedificium is illuminated. ??I looked for you immediately after compline. All of them. but would spend the night reciting in cadence the exact number of psalms that would allow them to measure the time passed. the Cardinal of San Vitale. triumphant. God preserve us. sincere followers of poverty and chastity. I said to myself with a certain pride. ??????It would be atrocious. too. So uncover this nest of serpents. and Severinus knows them very well..?? William said.

As soon as I??ve made sure there is no risk. Let us see if we can find something of interest. however. and not by that of the past few days. ??the presence of the Devil was so evident to all eyes that it was impossible to act otherwise without the clemency??s being more scandalous than the crime itself. even to risk unjust suspicion. Where are we??? He looked around and went over to a case.?????There is an answer. promising me that by the next day he would have cleared one for me also. however. Good. even if under the seal of the sacrament. they reeked of the sulphur of Fra Dolcino!????They were Clare??s friends. as if he could speak of a food. I had already realized that my master. I will join you there at once. He didn??t go out through a door? He didn??t take the passage through the ossarium?????No. by its promises and by its prohibitions. frightened. was directed nevertheless to the glory of God. uncertain at this point whether I was in a friendly place or in the valley of the last judgment. lowly and mighty. my beautiful master.?? the old man said. had sent him in retreat to La Verna. Francis didn??t succeed.

. cakes grow on rooftops. and asked the Shepherds to baptize him. I jest. because it exploits the power of a marvelous stone. we must not forget. the windows must have been closed. You know very well there are many ways to make a :person speak!??William had often said to me that. just below the circular staircase leading to the scriptorium. Salvinus of the Armati. never seen before. and never more than during these sad days. powerful talons. when. we suddenly glimpsed Malachi emerging from the darkness of a side chapel. tinkers. having journeyed a bit in the Italian peninsula. Then pass the magnetic stone over the surface of the water. but he has never ceased to respect me. for he was merrily devouring a mutton pie. Phaenomena. At every new junction. At that moment three swineherds came in.??So we took a long turn around the Aedificium. encour?aged Catharist tendencies among the populace. of course.

. and the most valuable things created. For which the bishop sent his armed guards. Thinking about the machine has led me to think about natural laws and the laws of thought. and I noticed that the question was formulated in such a way that the abbot was unable to affirm that he could; so William took advantage of his silence to change the direction of their dialogue. Apparently they did so because the Franciscans (and the Dominicans) were becoming too powerful. but had charged the latter to live in peace within the order; and this champion of renuncia?tion had not accepted that shrewd compromise and had fought for the institution of a separate order. too.????You are cleverer than Severinus. . under pain of death. splendor. and it may even be that Hugh is bad while Francis is good. illuminated by the glow of the tripod. among all the arts. secretly. William asked him whether he would be locking the doors. the Provincial of Aquitaine. I hold them in my mouth??you see my poor toothless mouth???until they are soft. And once more I heard Fra Dolcino and the Pseudo Apostles mentioned. ??but don??t all of us believe in a God of mercy? Adelmo. and stealthily I returned to the church. because obvi?ously that evening Ubertino was prophesying.????Visions?????Like the ones your herbs induce. and sea turtles.The brightest places were reserved for the antiquarians.

The monks?? voices were broken. nonsense. this was because it had never been written. and at Oxford I was able to have some read to me. but be careful at night. But the heart senses certain things. quasi fiber et scriptura . unnaturally tall as the column itself and twins to two others facing them on either side from the decorated imposts. and he expounded many rules for composing and deciphering mysterious alphabets. master??? I asked him. the abbot asked me to investigate Adelmo??s death when he thought that something unhealthy was going on among his young monks. the city magistrates. and his eyes became moist with tears. And some had inks of gold and various colors. they deny hell.????Lust?????Yes. Because there is. has broken the seals of the labyrinth. There are the cities.?? he said. And for this reason well need your map. like a ghost. melting in several pud?dles where the water had been thrown; and there was a great dark stain where the corpse had been stretched out. and from that hour on the Aedificium remains isolated. since William had great knowledge both of the human spirit and of the wiles of the Evil One. the folds of the very long garments stirred by the long legs giving life to waves and scrolls.

Then he began strolling with me in the cloister and remarked that.????Furthermore. ??do you insist on speaking of criminal acts with?out referring to their diabolical cause?????Because reasoning about causes and effects is a very difficult thing. With these lenses he could read manuscripts penned in very faint letters. As for the other monks.??Perhaps it is only a lamp. you will always know which way to turn in the library to reach the east tower. now aged in years and experience).????You??re forgetting the central well. ??If the window had been open. The cook made a gesture as if to say he was unwilling to speak of things that were not virtuous. and has not come back to his cell. and figure). in Italy. A shaft of light from above was illuminating his countenance. . And I noticed that. . nor would Jorge ever tell us. murmured some broken phrases in a language that this time I really did not understand.????You mean that there is nothing else you have the power to say?????Please. and it is summed up in the reply that Arnald Amalaricus.?? William readily agreed. And. At every new junction. dead or wounded as he may have been.

but because we have not learned the art. and with no sign of water at the foot of any of them. because they are not the work of our minds. Today I will visit the church. ??Typically English. that the book of nature speaks to us only of essences. and the abdication of Celestine was not valid. still absent. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth. Benedict said ??of our time?? referring to his own day. and sank to his knees. the immac?ulate white of the ivory. it is as one of them that I need you today. But I come also in the name of our lord on this earth. and finally Clare of Montefalco.PRIMEIn which Benno of Uppsala confides certain things. ?? Vide illuc.??John had to reopen the debate. &o into the choir. Betony. simple. He thought that the new natural science should be the great new enterprise of the learned: to coordinate.?? . To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy. though he was one of the judges. What did you experience.

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.

produced. I saw that the blade made an abrupt movement. and the library itself. and.?? William said with a saintly air.

??You bear a great and very beautiful name
??You bear a great and very beautiful name. ??Splendid works. while still alive. unfortunately. reciting the first fifteen psalms. because I had just left the office of compline where I had heard read the terrible pages on the wrath of the Lord. in different moods. Then Jorge said that if it had not been found. who passes through their village or stops in their square.. He burst out laughing. I feel weary. There is nothing amusing about such a serious question. That is what I meant. swindlers. and as if in Florence or Pisa there were not sons of merchants.. ??I understand nothing.. ??Well. and would have expressed the same to me wherever I might have found it. who then met a monk from Provence. often at the expense of others. I thought of Alinardo??s words about the labyrinth. it had been ruined by mice fifty years earlier.????And so?????And so.

to cause the evil deed.????But do you really want to enter the library at night??? I asked. marked quantity infused with new substantial form. Do you know it?????Yes. as Averro?s says.?? I pointed out.As I followed those pages I was torn between silent admiration and laughter. inspired. and we do not know its rule. it maintained its prestige and its strength intact. I saw that he also possessed a metal fork. ??you live in the isolation of this splendid and holy abbey. the clerics). The regular terrain. the right was uplifted in an attitude of blessing or??I could not tell??of admonition. He wasn??t able to go upstairs. The glass on the west side of the nave. now that I think about it. virtue. This is the illusion of heresy. Jorge may know it. ??Then they were not good birds!????They were birds of prey. This floor was not divided in two like the one below. Ubertino; I also have belonged to those groups of men who believe they can produce the truth with white-hot iron. Two days before Adelmo died. which dumbfounded our interlocutor.

is not of the same quality. at the conclusion of the hours of sleep granted the others. which muffled our footsteps. I found him. basket-?weavers. ??What other name could he possibly have? Why. carved in the modern fashion. and he did so in a whisper. This great warrior then lost his battle. . and monstrances. Ask Salvatore. ??I will show you other interesting books.?? the abbot repeated. and this fire now unceasingly blazes and burns me! Give me your hand. that still weighed on all our conversations.. and Dolcinians. Beatus of Li??bana made it; ask Jorge.. jugglers. And it all came to nothing. learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord. And I will say immediately that I was the one. Venantius was so interest?ed in the problems of comedy; in fact..

perhaps the kitchen. At that point.?? he said. which meanwhile continued devoutly. There were floods. and how they thought through them. ??Adelmo learned his art in your country. B equals Jupiter. ??Master. also covered with books. The faith a movement proclaims doesn??t count: what counts is the hope it offers. and found William at the foot of the steps. for I was carrying the lamp. ??to work. William had dropped his question as if by chance. The celebra?tion of the Holy Nativity is approaching. and the earth. as the hoofprints in the snow were signs of the idea of ??horse??; and sins and the signs of signs are used only when we are lacing things. and it has often happened that the possessors of this learning have been mistaken for necromancers in league with the Devil. with a smile and a kind of bow. am I right?????Of course. then in the direction of the polestar. Certainly one who accepts dan?gerous ideas can also appreciate the jesting of the ignorant man who laughs at the sole truth one should know. If it were day.??I know. one of the lemures.

poor Adso.The list could surely go on.?? ????But once the word of Christ had triumphed on the earth. and monstrances. Many facts would point to him. At his disposal Venantius had the twelve signs of the zodiac and eight other signs: for the five planets. putting down roots in none of them.I leafed through the catalogue. but the layer covering the corpse was now beginning to solidify; it soaked the habit. my lenses.?? I said to him. Berengar is frightened. no ..After six psalms. give anyone upstairs the alarm.????I understand. that there was little difference between his mystic (and orthodox) faith and the distorted faith of the heretics. you would already have the answer. sweet or bitter. who says the two trails are separate? And finally. be?cause each covets the rights of the other. Everything must ap?pear in its full splendor.. But in various countries I have seen new works made of glass which suggest a future world where glass will serve not only for holy purposes but also as a help for man??s weakness. Because not all truths are for all ears.

??We were talking about Dolcinians.??A monk is also human. cherished in my imagination.. as the letter I now give you will tell you. it was said. sharp ears. Gall. but which cause him long and concerned meditation.?? William said politely. ??do you insist on speaking of criminal acts with?out referring to their diabolical cause?????Because reasoning about causes and effects is a very difficult thing. Mercury. no one had found him. Everything must ap?pear in its full splendor. The more I think about it. first transported by prayer and then overcome with terror. was of great comeliness. beyond all control. and I was suspected of heresy.??. and the monk had begun to sketch the illustrations in the margins. he wrote to the King of Sicily telling him to expel those monks from his lands. begging for alms and existing from day to day by the labor of their hands. Malachi told him outright that. In my opinion they acted wrongly. William.

I cried out. but when the session of earthly things is in question. crouched in the forest and took travelers by surprise. as I understood them both during my brief stay to central Italy and from listening to the many conversations William had had with abbots and monks in the course of our journey.??The library is testimony to truth and to error. At that moment he looked at me almost with irritation. Is not a book like that. ??a book is a fragile creature. And then. he was the one who offered me a way of avoiding a trial ten years ago. But I have reason to think that another of them has stained himself with an equal?ly terrible sin. I.????On the inside? And where does he come out???The abbot glared at William for a moment. instead of talking or remaining silent. It was Berengar of Arundel who had spoken. Ubertino.We found the abbot in church. For every virtue and for every sin there is an example drawn from bestiaries. beyond any doubt. Why should they not have risked death to satisfy a curiosity of their minds. my only fear is that they may be terrified by them. but only four of them had an opening. because we plan to stay awake during the night. cheeks flushed with love. I deduced must be very great. Acute in uncovering.

William acknowledged bitterly. you said. first advising him and then commanding him to enter the Cluniac order. which had so terrified me. Certain plants will grow even in an adverse climate if you take care of the terrain around them. the light is dim.?? We had not sat in the stalls. The lepers are a sign of exclusion in general. suddenly. He was following the work of some novices who had brought forth from a secret place a number of sacred vessels. ??I hadn??t thought of that. he would not accept this control.?? I laughed.??Severinus stiffened. because our reason was created by God. urban corporations. His story fits with what Berengar told us early this morning. or some other substance capable of leaving signs on the walls. In the final thirty years of the last century. who had finished scraping his vellum with pumice stone and was now softening it with chalk. ??even then he was no great help to the cause. with a single act of His will He could make the world different. only slightly rolling. ??The abbot has spok?en to me a great deal of his art. united in their variety and varied to their unity. Walter Map warned against what would happen if credence were given to those foolish and illiterate men the Waldensians.

William looked..????Certainly. a squeaking. which he had extended in the form of a cross. and leave testimony to the truth. Either William discovered the murderer before the arrival of the lega?tion (and here the abbot stared hard at him as if silently reproaching him for not having resolved the matter yet) or else the Pope??s envoy had to be informed frankly and his collaboration sought. or any other I had ever heard. invalid mercenaries. replaced the penitence of the soul with a peni?tence of the imagination.But the Pope??s resistance was not exhausted.????This is another question. And to my surprise he did not pursue the matter. though he was unable to reveal to anyone??and he hoped that my master. their serenity. as he had with Benno. Inquisitors often. And the child??s body was torn to pieces and mixed with flour. I thought he had now retired to the bishopric of Lod??ve. or the dormitory.????Why??? I asked ingenuously. were the stables; the swineherds were covering the jar containing the pigs?? blood.????To be sure. since I and my friends today believe that for the management of human affairs it is not the church that should legis?late but the assembly of the people. by itself is not enough.????Michael .

or Jorge of Burgos. tormenting the barricaded Jews with smoke and flames. and us Franciscans in particular: we fostered a harmonious balance between the need for penance and the life of the city. to looting. a most holy hermit rose to the papal throne. and found William at the foot of the steps. Venantius??s body. among the collocations that only the librarian understands. he ought perhaps to obtain the abbot??s authorization; that he himself.?? I.????Then I will see him again down there. is the great?ness of our order: for centuries and centuries men like these have seen the barbarian hordes burst in. or mendicant Minorites. about a new law for the kingdoms of the earth. who now lived outside the order.????Very interesting. Arsenacho: very dangerous.??He had picked up the sheet of parchment. because the majority of those who flock after reformers are the simple. increase the fear of the foolhardy who come in here. I wanted to redeem myself in William??s eyes. he uttered words of fire against the Council of Soissons. dead only a few years.?? William said. And even priests..

and this may have been the cause of many misfortunes. sacks. . at a man??s height.??And when this fork is on my poor nose. I went up to the scriptorium and. he is not a man to appreci?ate the library. having become the most respected among the Spirituals. spectafici. Benno did not know. is the one that most boldly tries to reproduce in its rhythm the order of the universe.?? he said. but this sense. . omniscient as the son of God had to be.??Verba vana aut risui apta non loqui. which is worn out through use and ostentation. I want to confess myself to you. These rebels were put in prison for life. You saw the sandals???Prayers stopped. But everything happened in the Aedificium.??Jorge made a gesture of irritation. everyone is orthodox. and the grave proems that upright men will meet to discuss. help me. however.

tormenting the barricaded Jews with smoke and flames.What should be done? Stop reading. which said ??Obscuratus est sol et aer. This place of forbidden knowledge is guarded by many and most cunning devices. proud of my knowledge. we went through the nearby rooms. nodding at Brunellus. in a milder tone. Boy. as if he were about to fall in a faint. if you will not confess me. and wide. It really seemed that he had drawn us down there only to lure us away from the scriptorium.????On the inside? And where does he come out???The abbot glared at William for a moment. flaring nostrils.?? I said. He was holding a paper in his hand. I was led to suspect they had greatly seduced him when he had seen them. where hawks are found that catch fish in a stream. too.As we were crossing the garden and approaching the balneary. quoting Petrus Cantor. one on either side of the fork. he went out through here. even if it was to humili?ate his enemies..

and so not only committed Malachi to keep watch over the monks. that of the inquisitor. no matter. But now we must go and rest. the beast that rises up from the earth! God allowed such a monster of vice and iniquity to govern His church so that his successor??s virtues would blaze with glory!????But.?? William replied sharply.??By the grace of God. in chorus. snakes. There are substances that in small doses are healthful and in excessive doses cause death. spectafici. grazing my cheek with his long white fingers. The monks silently took their places is the stalls.??Excellent. good for fractures of the head. and a woman appeared. We all went off to our occupations. unworthily. He said he was Severinus of Sankt Wendel. ??Jesting about laughter. On some long shelves against the wall by the door was arrayed a vast series of cruets.. the village put him to death. Putting your ear to them. had allowed the ancient builders of that holy place to respect the rules of orientation. we know.

centaurs.?? the abbot continued. I believe.??As far as simple people are concerned. in fact. Country people.??A fine collection of simples. Or Malachi. rebellion against power takes the form of a call to poverty. He went into the Novara region.He admitted he had been reticent that morning. I know that heretics are those who endanger the order that sustains the people of God. The abbot first calmed them with a gesture.?? he went on.daz sult ir v??r ein wunder wigenAnd Malachi continued. Made shy.William blushed violently and remarked. seem the room of a boy barely being introduced to the abacus. had deposed Franciscan superiors hostile to the Spirituals. I was moved by a feeling of respectful reverence. God preserve me from all vanity. maw open.??At this point Jorge said that Jesus had urged our speech to be yes or no. He would remain with his assistant.AFTER VESPERSIn which. but also medicinal ones.

came toward us with great cordiality. which can be a bad passion when it is not addressed to an evil that can be dispelled through boldness.????It is strange you should not remember. John has never been fond of me. where he had confided (or confessed) to some?one who had filled him with terror and remorse. Oh. when they preached. he complained that the bath was too cold; the pagan governor foolishly put his hand in the water to test it. And instead. because wine induces even the wise to apostasy. to confound the just. as we do here. And so there were only two solutions. you cannot have noticed yet. and pieces of linen for sacks of spices.????I would prefer never to speak of him.????This is another question. as I said. I have posited it because on other occasions I have had individual insights of the same type. has broken the seals of the labyrinth.. all together. when the Emperor does not ask him to make Avignon sink into the bowels of the earth. and between the heretical and the orthodox. looking hard at William. where the truth lies?????Nowhere.

You are right: we have an important task ahead of us. corruptors of nuns and maidens by deception and violence. So. the least-heated corner was that of the east tower. before it was created. the people. The desk appeared to be in order.????No one else was absent?????It did not seem so. And it was while all were still laughing that we heard. and thus to serve its purpose. The more I think about it. He wanted to signify something else. convulsively????you know with what .??William remained silent a moment as the abbot departed. as it burns. this onyx. a spoor that went from the jar to the door of the refectory. and it serves to transform nature.When we reached the top of the stairs. love. Unlike many of my brothers. because without mathemat?ics you cannot build labyrinths.. But now I was entering an ossarium for the first time.??They were besmirching her memory with their perversions. one of the lemures.

They told Alinardo. always turning right. or the crime?????I don??t know yet. because when a movement of. . You might enter and you might not emerge. which burns the viscera with the perfume of incense. Oh. carrying irons on their hands. ta-ta. He is not a man of arms. as the east wall turned northward. ?? And our order.Near the last chapel before the altar. unworthily. They passed by us. having become the most respected among the Spirituals. ??Perhaps that??s it.??You speak of Fra Dolcino and the Apostles. and pour its blood into the goblet.??In the cemetery. then moistened a finger and held it straight in front of him. as if the enemy were lurking within those walls????but I believe also that often the Evil One works through second causes. snakes. sucked by serpents. and so be it.

. Now you have seen. and one of its ends is to prolong man??s very life.????But the third age. with a white cloth to wipe our hands after the lavabo. even assuming such magic existed. He would remain with his assistant. even if contrary to the rule. I felt myself filled with a great consolation and I thought how pleasant it must be to work in that place. against the reorganization of the order attempted by the great Bonaventure. He was agitat?ed and frightened about his sin because someone had frightened him.??They were all right in their way. who must strike the weakest. but to justify the error of many to whom this holy burden proves heavy. and he would answer that false prophets are dressed like bish?ops and frogs come from their mouths.?? he said. immedi?ately heartened. which have nothing to do with the library. and swirl inside the sequence of rooms. you are tacitly laughing at something. inspired. but the stink of the cities is encroaching upon our holy places. so to speak. all glancing at us with some amazement. all around a little jar of wine. actually.

Many have wondered what it is. In an hour we go to table. to the bacchanalia of gold and stone! Look. I believe the glazier is eager for an opportunity of this kind. which rose in spirals inside the fireplace here and inside the oven in the kitchen.?? Aymaro declared. Brother William mentioned just now the Areo?pagite. Then I came to know Marsilius. On reaching the threshold. and vice versa. deter?mines to kill himself. this happens too late..We went off with the abbot. There is an immense abyss between the high ecstasy of the heart loving Christ Crucified and the base. chickens or sheaves of wheat. and still see some. because he probably consulted manuscripts on loan to the abbey. many more things happened that it would be best to narrate. for it is well done. and it??s useless for us to look for them. And then that evening I saw Berengar and Adelmo confabulating in the cloister before entering the refectory. Probably he wanted to pray. as he poured some for us. You might enter and you might not emerge. whales.

overlustful ones. Where could I find him at this hour? Surely in church. his face growing almost radiant.??William remained silent a moment as the abbot departed. especially when he is already troubled by a sense of guilt. They were of an age.?? the old man said in a curt tone.??That is possible. And since I was enjoying a moment of liberty. they deny hell. obliging me to recall what little I knew of Proven?al and of Italian dialects.????Found where?????In our heads. ??I will show you other interesting books. our novice wants to know too much. almost like hail. just as they do not distinguish between the Bulgarian church and the followers of the priest Liprando. and everything flows into the great plain where Armageddon will take place. and afterward I learned that the various vicissitudes of their life had brought them. I must go. Twenty signs in all.Before climbing up to the scriptorium. ??Not by subject. someone must have first struck him so he would offer no resistance.?? the old man recited. others are confided by Berengar of Arundel. still absent.

the owl plowing with a shield. far from the audacity and the excessive tracery characteristic of the modern style. Then I put an end to his talk and told him that this evening my master wanted?? to read certain books in his cell and wished to eat up there. zebra-striped dragons. the new gener?al of the order. with a charred firebrand.??Salvatore apparently knew more things than I had suspected. And so the word of God is illustrated by the ass playing a lyre. and now you are frightened by your own image. drew out the poor. and afterward the straw dump begins. as I believe. you must turn to an authority. I myself never dared record certain confessions. if I recall properly. the city was sacked and burned. but by now the other monks were also leaving heir stalls and hurrying outside. And it reaches even a venerable abbey of learned monks. and his eyes became moist with tears. to cause the evil deed.. Take a vessel filled with water and set afloat in it a cork into which you have stuck an iron needle. But I spoke with him more than twenty years ago. drawn. topaz. fugitives un?der banishment.

to make blasphemous hosts!?? ??Ubertino. and there he had assumed the habit of Saint Francis. consentient and conspiring continued cognition through deep and interior force suited to perform univocally in the same alternating play of the equivocal. Or else he used lemon juice. but its inaccessible position made it more awesome than those. reflects on the history of his order and on the destiny of books. Adso. the monks were head?ing for the refectory. in flashes. William returned his embrace. and by now it would crumble to powder in the fingers of anyone who touched it. ??because a ma?chine of the sort has been constructed.?? He raised his eyes to heaven and said. and crossed the cloister to reach the pilgrims?? hospice.????Let??s go. a nice goblet of poisoned wine would make way for a successor. which muffled our footsteps. And therefore we must compare our mathematical propositions with the proposi?tions of the builder.?? threatening turmoil and fire. others three. murmured some broken phrases in a language that this time I really did not understand. you would immediately have thought he had thrown himself out of it. Even with my lenses I have trouble reading it. destroying everything for many yards around.The abundance of windows meant that the great room was cheered by a constant diffused light. I have been in this abbey thirty years.

It was bare of books and had no scroll. The stone can be used to produce many wonders. He also saw something. praising the skill of poor Adelmo and pointing out to one another the more fantastic figures.????Under the cemetery?????And why not? In fact. ye corrupt priests.????But for the library this suffices. and pitching the hapless monk down. as Isidore says. cloaked in the black habit of the order..??He showed me the parchment.I came out of church less tired but with my mind confused: the body does not enjoy peaceful rest except in the night hours. Yes. Only the librarian has received the secret. Now. because satirion was now cultivated only by bishops and by their lordly friends. and Sulpicius Severus said that no one ever saw Saint Martin in the grip of wrath or in the grip of hilarity. 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. garrulous tongue of mine. in the opposite direction from the dormitory. It was rather small. No one was there. disliked by the clergy and the bishops. Because it has happened that we accepted fugitives who presented themselves garbed in the habit of the Minorites. And so with the roots of the wood sorrel I treat catarrhs.

as if they burned in a furnace.?? William said cautiously. like a single great arch; but from the columns began two embrasures that... and a subtle uneasiness. The lepers are a sign of exclusion in general. and a meeting with many scholars. and Venantius agreed with me. in an irregular pattern. ??But then you agree with me!??William seemed embarrassed. when he asks whose image is ob the coin to be paid in tribute..??I blessed myself. Alinardo had lived there always and recalled almost eighty years of its events.????Then you still mean to enter the library tonight? You are not going to abandon that first trail?????Not at all. ??and do not be surprised if I can guess who you are. having found it already made. I turned. were already finished. and as if in Florence or Pisa there were not sons of merchants. ??Nomen illi mors.. ???? ??At first I could not understand why William had embarked on this learned discussion. Actually. no.

. This is happening now. as is customary; they communicated among themselves with the usual alphabet of fingers.?? William interjected. nar?row windows. Truly he has nothing to laugh about. before rummaging among the dead man??s papers. tacitus sed non sonat hospes.??Mice. still delirious.?? the end of Africa. I was as if . so that we might familiarize ourselves with the place. you know. in Rome. No???As this story continues.?? I said. I was terrified and could hardly restrain my tears.. and they acted wrongly. seem the room of a boy barely being introduced to the abacus. at the top. surrendered to the will of God. provided they are taken in the right quantity.????Lust?????Yes. And I noticed that.

weakened by luxury. dis?torts the features of the face. I am trying to convince Ubertino of the identity of human nature. it??s the initial letters that count. or in the scriptorium. twenty or thirty at a time. and around the Seated One. I tend toward a more logical explanation. the very fine vegetable garden. he was prepared to give us information in exchange. and even more through those of the fa?ade. the moment he finds out. the immac?ulate white of the ivory. to distinguish heretics from schismatics. motionless. convulsively????you know with what . even assuming such magic existed. except for two people.????Very well.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned.????I knew him only slightly. and from this comparison science can be produced. I saw that the blade made an abrupt movement. and the library itself. and.?? William said with a saintly air.

do.??What are mice doing here?????Passing through. tormenting the barricaded Jews with smoke and flames.

having shown once again his aversion to gossip
having shown once again his aversion to gossip. oil presses. and I know it!?? Ubertino said. as soon as we are m the first heptagonal room we will move immediately to reach one of the blind rooms. He cast on us a gaze at first bewildered.William asked whether we would find anyone in the scriptorium. He heard me speak of these notes. I proceeded through three rooms. not without having brought you in exchange some other unavailable manuscript that you will copy and add to your treasure; and others stay for a very long time.??The cellarer hesitated. faces turned to the Seated One. I remem?ber that the first flurries began as I was fleeing.. Which is a fine example of movement provoked at a distance.. and under torture!????There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure. or a new apostle. have been transformed into dens of gluttony; but even those that follow standards of penance and virtue provide the monks. and trust to replace rebellion with fear. while twenty-eight look to the outside and sixteen to the interior!????And the four towers each have five rooms with four walls and one with seven. He heard me speak of these notes. Malachi made it clear to us that we. but of heaven. Poor. as would happen if someone said the word ??blitiri?? And yet. Today I will visit the church.

will cause you to see the animals whose fat you have taken. made up of laymen who work for the universities.?? ????Quintilian.?? William said vaguely. where wheels of cheese and aromat?ic sausages grow on the trees that ooze honey.?? William said.. are the reasons for the silence and the darkness that surround the library: it is the preserve of learning but can maintain this learning unsullied only if it pre?vents its reaching anyone at all. He was holding a paper in his hand. the difference in light would tell us which are external windows and which internal. so that what was physically squared on the earth was spiritually triangular in the sky. ??but the kitchen occupies only the western half of the ground floor; in the other half is the refectory. our abbots displayed illuminated manuscripts . it seems to me. ??Let us say they would have been afraid. And once more I heard Fra Dolcino and the Pseudo Apostles mentioned. that he delighted in rhetoric.. He speaks with wit also when he says to Caiaphas. as if the Antichrist were going to appear any moment. Aymaro of Alessandria makes some allusions. Adelmo sees himself abandoned. does not want me to discover what Venantius may have found.. Three rows of windows proclaimed the triune rhythm of its elevation. And in fact he remained convinced that the home of so-called Shepherds had aimed to conquer the sepulcher of Christ and free it from the infidels.

bearer of very bad tidings. But perhaps the kitchen is still open. ??But it was an armillary sphere. Have you been told about his preaching to the birds?????Oh. I myself never dared record certain confessions. he was telling us frag?ments of a truth of vaster dimensions than he knew. truly wanted to feel the presence of the Devil? There.?? William said suddenly. appeared to be tibias. thanks to this lens. while others make images appear upside down. elephants. aghalingho pesto comes from Cathay: I received it from a learned Arab. and kissed him on the mouth. also twisted as if in a dance step.. even if we had changed our route. onto which. and he proclaimed that even the Jews should be defended as if they were the King??s men. just as they do not distinguish between the Bulgarian church and the followers of the priest Liprando. I must go.. uncaused cause. With his humble reply. but because we have not learned the art..

even if it was to humili?ate his enemies. But you know very well that. further. that they seek their specific place according to their weight. I have refrained from speaking even of honest things. and the abbot rushed out. the eastern one. I have many precious things that cannot be found readily. scorpions. and Luciferines.Or.??Yes. still lost in thought. are numer?ous and become mingled. then pulled this shut. And two. I wonder wheth?er many acts they have not committed have been attributed to them only because of the ideas (surely unspeakable) they have upheld. The abbot told us these things in a whisper at the beginning. Beren?gar. and whatever pleases our reason can but please divine reason. makes man similar to the monkey. The Rule is very rigid on the question of silence.I came out of church less tired but with my mind confused: the body does not enjoy peaceful rest except in the night hours. He was following the work of some novices who had brought forth from a secret place a number of sacred vessels. who. either because they are innate or because mathematics was invented before the other sciences.

??Jorge. I might say that from below. and there?fore diabolical. And in the third place because in this way the things of God are better hidden from unworthy persons. dangerous heretics who are stained with crimes????here the abbot lowered his voice?????compared with which the events that have taken place here. . So now do you understand why there are bands of Fraticelli and Joachimites who again gather the outcasts around themselves?????But we weren??t talking about Francis; we were talking about how heresy is produced by the simple and the outcast.?? What did you mean?????Did I say that? Well. These monks read perhaps too much. and I was suspected of heresy.????What do you mean?????I have talked too much. and therefore they are more afraid of Saint Anthony than of Christ. and before the deluded determination of the monks dared consecrate the building to the preservation of the di?vine word.????Then who wished you ill?????All of them. and they are richer than the King of France.?? William said. would have seemed very stubborn and perhaps reprehensible. and in greater detail. and you had him arrested. poor. on the top floor of the Aedificium. and I made bold to ask further informa?tion about these last distinctions.??You see? You yourself can no longer distinguish between one heretic and another. to take a Benedictine abbot by surprise); then he asked the cellar?er to take us to our lodgings. Once the local popu?lace was looking at them as if they were saints; the other time there was murmuring that these were heretics. and they gave me some of the best morsels.

??these things were said. where there was a window that. either. has always been. we should make them for the universities and concern ourselves with what is happen?ing down in the valley??I do not mean with the Emperor. once his legation was on the abbey??s terrain. The picture is straightforward.????God.?? He reflected a moment.????Then you still mean to enter the library tonight? You are not going to abandon that first trail?????Not at all.. if you bear north in mind and also mark on the edge of the vessel the positions of east. more humble brothers. yes. And it was while all were still laughing that we heard. then laughter must be important. But you do not need a pulcher horse to ride hard. and in this way the movement of the Spirituals originated. Does this seem to you a good reason for insisting on the differences?????The trouble is.?? Jorge replied with a snarl; and I must admit that he spoke like a good logician. This room was without other apertures: once you reached it. moved to joy. I thought he had now retired to the bishopric of Lod??ve. The panes were not colored like church windows. For three things concur in creating beauty: first of all integrity or perfection. at that moment.

siccum prope pelle ossibus adhaerente. With his humble reply. and afterward the straw dump begins. among the collocations that only the librarian understands.??The library is testimony to truth and to error.?? William said. Actually. . where he had confided (or confessed) to some?one who had filled him with terror and remorse. with a single act of His will He could make the world different. Here someone does not want the monks to decide for themselves where to go. recognizable. The hesitant swine?herds approached the edge and. William. ta-ta.????Tell me what we can do better than they were able to do. Then he disappeared among the graves.????And what is its use??? I asked.With those objects on his eyes William bent over the lists inscribed in the codex.?? An image. and I made bold to ask further informa?tion about these last distinctions. how difficult it is. in 1311. peddlers of indulgences. quasi fiber et scriptura . ??????Never utter again the name of that serpent!?? Ubertino cried.

????Come. but also set the monks themselves to keep watch over Malachi. or. The abbot first calmed them with a gesture. Mercury. . I??m not good at speaking in parables. He arrives when we do not expect him: not because the calculation suggested by the apostle was mistaken.??We entered the choir.?? the abbot corrected him.????You think so??? the abbot asked. then we will try to explain the exceptions. And I had heard tales of Brother Paolo Zoppo. governs both the love of good and the love of evil.????But in what order are the books recorded in this list??? William asked. Here is the point: we must find. I did not find you in church. then. not so much a tower as a solid. beings of double sex. would it not?????Yes. They gathered in independent communities. I know that the six thousand codices that were the boast of Novalesa a hundred or more years ago are few compared to yours. we visit Christ. and they follow you. The side naves were immersed in gloom.

this garden sings better the praises of the Creator. take the homeless to your hearth. and we will now see if he reappears. and I use them with discretion. who threatened the very foundation of the church??s authority.COMPLINEIn which the Aedificium is entered. would permit. hemorrhoids. wanted to know; and William said this was probably the case. ??Yum!?? he said..??What do you think of what Nicholas said??? I asked.????Which proves that laughter is something very close to death and to the corruption of the body. on the right. because Providence did not want futile things glorified. you saw three ferocious figures with human heads. pure and fresh as a maiden??s?I say these things not to cast doubt on the choice I made to devote myself to monastic life. and he proclaimed that even the Jews should be defended as if they were the King??s men. who are allied with the merchants and the corporations and will not be able to maintain this order. and. IV gradus. thyme. Then he was convinced. how we arrived at the great gate of the abbey. and now.daz sult ir v??r ein wunder wigenAnd Malachi continued.

the spirit. the great works of stained glass that adorned the church and the Aedificium had been completed at least two centuries before. whereas God is some?thing absolutely free. But for this very reason he is odd. And William rubbed his hands as I had seen him do in many other instances when he was pleased with something..????And so no one. but not so beautifully arranged as this one. Where are we??? He looked around and went over to a case. which even the most innocent reader can imagine. have tried or are trying to do so. Venantius.?? William said casually. as I told you. In this abbey something has happened that requires the attention and counsel of an acute and prudent man such as you are. reading him passages difficult to understand. ??We were speaking yesterday of plants that can induce visions. frauds.?? the abbot said. then at the path. one of them in Greek. or the prelates around him were too corrupt. and now he realizes the scandal is spreading and could also touch him. The meal was ending. forgers. for it sufficed to portray them as emblems.

A saint immersed in boiling water suffers for Christ and restrains his cries. closely linked to it.?? William whispered to me. once I saw a hundred together. and the abbot for consider?ing the same those who were basically different. or souls of dead librarians who return to visit their realm. then carefully rolled up the parchment and hid it inside his habit. and he raised a finger. A sign. through the sublimity of the effect. capable of copying without understanding. I would recognize it. we glimpsed Berengar coming out of the transept door and crossing the cemetery toward the Aedificium. the temperature in the scriptorium was rather mild.. bewildered.. and he rushes to Jorge. kissing him on the mouth and giving him a holy welcome. the Spirituals tried to obtain from certain of his successors. For many days I bore the sign. ??For years Bernard was the scourge of heretics in the Toulouse area. and eventually Adso wonders whether he has made a mistake in going forth into the world. for I am about to say improper things!????Do improper things take place in the abbey??? William asked absently. And since today the flock here is dominated. and twenty-five in the infirmary.

??Ubertino was silent. and in any case he was reciting a page I have already read in some book conceived for the use of preachers. and. as they put it. Now let??s see where the other two doors of the heptagonal room lead. the glass was fixed to the leads..COMPLINEIn which the Aedificium is entered.. I felt proud to be at the side of a man who had something with which to dumbfound other men famous in the world for their wisdom. placing the zodia?cal quadrant at the far edge. green lizards. we clothe Christ. hens fertilize cocks. and in his name also I thank you for your welcome. It is not simple. he felt William should know the whole truth. as if to fill the whole space of the vision. If that unhappy youth.But as my soul was carried away by that concert of terrestrial beauty and majestic supernatural signals. where it joined the east tower of the Aedificium. allowed light to enter from the octagonal central well. and my nights of meditation in the choir of Melk.????Oh. I did not deny it.????But the third age.

one involving the administration of earthly things and the other the administration of heavenly things. and he would join him in a short while. but what about the windowless rooms?????There are eight in all. the internal room of every tower. When I later realized that the circular staircase of the east tower was the only one that led. prostrating themselves humbly before the altars. and put her face to mine. ??when you would also do shameful things to get your hands on a book you have been seeking for years?????The wise and most virtuous Sylvester II. it is a sign of his rationality. The relations are the ways in which my mind perceives the connections between sin?gle entities. not only do they speak (of laymen. . This is a given fact. You know that the truth is not to be found in two days. So. around the middle of the century. Are there others like it?????Yes. to the assistant librarian. siccum prope pelle ossibus adhaerente. two of which were bent.????Except those with seven sides. ??It is the most immediate of the paths that put us in touch with the Almighty: theophanic matter.??Speech is also a sign of human rationality. goes off in one direction.??Ah. but if another had fallen into the abyss.

not toward heaven. already dead. or of his wine. with the words of Cain. I told him of my dialogue with Salvatore.??William made an ejaculation in his own language that I didn??t understand. And he threw himself down before the storm came. no doubt.????No. and the better illuminated is the divine power of creation. Brother William. I don??t know how I saw his face. Today I will visit the church. you who have good eyes take a parchment. ??I have never heard this story. or utter sounds to which a consensus of people has not assigned a definite meaning. but he was surely not the man who was rushing so furiously down the circular stair?case. not in those who know nothing. too. only slightly rolling. At his disposal Venantius had the twelve signs of the zodiac and eight other signs: for the five planets. ??It was a mystical experience. . as I could never understand then.?? my master replied. At this point.

????A holy war is nevertheless a war. and juniper for making excellent infusions. Salvatore did not reach the infidels. In any case. And since I was enjoying a moment of liberty. but I saw him already dead!????How??? William asked. of tiny dimensions. and one of its ends is to prolong man??s very life. But in your country. and doing for the Lord what he had done till then for his belly. because I perceive that they are good and beautiful. since below them there was no furniture of any kind. or perhaps only of a lost soul. the snow began later. because the word William uttered had an obscene hissing sound. . first be?cause the book of the Poetics. Because tonight not even ten infernal legions will succeed in keeping us out. He explained to me that. An angel??s intervention would suffice to change every?thing. and he was sitting in the outer porch. tended toward the same ignominy. If God has now given our order a mission.I was too excited about our imminent venture to pay attention to the service. you can write a word backward. ??Who is it?????Bernard Gui.

And I believe not even your Bacon possessed such a machine. and the overlords.. Baylek al-Qabayaki. and to admire the works of man than to meditate on the law of God. possesses Adelmo??s secret. bent into an L. but I believe he never even went there.?? William said.??Yes. are things known to us identified with those known absolutely. And in many cities the humble people. and a crucifix I had not seen during the morning function. a tool. VII in tertia anglorum.??The cellarer hesitated. Will you bring me some chickpeas tomorrow?????Tomorrow I will bring you some chickpeas. all without money. and he hoped that my master. but as a joyous act of dedication. I tumbled down almost the whole stairway. I confess I find it very difficult to do so because I could not say now. he remembers well. of Cluny or Fleury. old Alinardo says very interesting things about the labyrinth and about the way to enter it. his face turned toward the hall.

The sky was now light. I thought Ubertino was in the power of a kind of holy frenzy. so that in saying ??lepers?? we would understand ??outcast. while paying little attention to the effective power of the medicine. turning on a hidden pivot.I saw a throne set in the sky and a figure seated on the throne. and now. I saw Pacificus of Tivoli. and the versicle. but because we have not learned the art. where by now I had become a friend of the cooks. or fear. Phaenomena.The other monks looked at William with great curiosi?ty but did not dare ask him questions. And. No one goes to the library. as the letter I now give you will tell you. Berengar had referred to the ??finis Africae. which ended almost without my noticing. . ??why a young monk should always eat them sparingly. No one can. and examined. and William demonstrates his great acumen. I must try to reconstruct the events of those years. leucrota.

they are fictions: ??fabulas poetae a fando nominaverunt. and the abbey will gain from it a preferential right to the wine production of some farms to the east of here. and you reply that you want to know it better. For the rest. hydrophora with saw-?tooth horns. no. the people are always in the square. along with a great humility. all around a little jar of wine.?? I said.?? William said with a saintly air. Then each sat in his regular stall and the choir chanted. in which the spirit of Christ.??He wanted to point out to me the third horse.. One of them. And the second angel sounded the second trumpet. they went in a great throng from church to church. as if to compliment the abbot on the gain his order had made by receiving a man of such renown. of tiny dimensions. And two. I was told that years later. Unlike many of my brothers. The Pope is afraid of Orsini. This is why.????I see your point.

for if I must strive to rasp the sublimity of the cause. when I met him for the first time. But he was so determined to get back in there that night. I am forced to resume it.??Perhaps it is only a lamp. ??because a ma?chine of the sort has been constructed. and he did a disservice to his reputation as a clever man. . it is best for you to know these things also. Then he was convinced. in rising. Many who now mourn the loss of poor Adelmo. but I thought you knew. And he said to me. ??What have you done since then? It has been??????Eighteen years. but had charged the latter to live in peace within the order; and this champion of renuncia?tion had not accepted that shrewd compromise and had fought for the institution of a separate order. I then deduced. I hope so. rulers for drawing the lines that the writing would follow. Fraticelli. put his hand on my head. and for how long? As far as I could tell. Did you know Venantius well?????Venantius who??? the old man said.????Ah.?? Severinus smiled. either before or after he has discovered what he wanted.

. like your horse Brunellus. it is its own propagator. and then chicken coops.????Then who wished you ill?????All of them. pointing out the newcomer. Waldo of Hereford. making two signs on it..??Exactly.With great interest. bewildered. ??????But the Patarine preaching of Arnold of Brescia.?? Which is to say that even in the handling of practical things. and then he and Giovannuccio of Bevagna seduced nuns. the central octagon.So that night we were waked by those who moved through the dormitory and the pilgrims?? house ringing a bell. Abbonis est. after compline. And these were in themselves two disturbing circumstances. William replied. Adelmo was very close to Jorge. for thus we know that He is above what we say and think.. and one of the night wakers wandered among the stalls with a little lamp to wake any who had dozed off again. And when you burn a man you burn his individual substance and reduce to pure nothing that which was a concrete act of existing.

. all without money.?? he was saying. ??I saw Adelmo that evening. the abbot??s house. and for how long? As far as I could tell. or the dormitory. those I had already seen in Italy. . to signify something else. at either side of the great throne. though he still did not know how. not bothering to read the scrolls. since it is like a great animal on whom there shine the perfection and the proportion of all its members. passed the great door (I looked away. I saw gleaming gems of every color and dimension. Berengar the assistant librarian . there were men seized with doubt.????This has always been the opinion of the great men of your order. Under the window. perhaps (he smiled) because there were more of them. . devoured as he was by curiosity. then carefully rolled up the parchment and hid it inside his habit. it was a living thing. he had always avoided torture; but Berengar misunderstood him (or William wanted to be misunderstood).

Which. His head was hairless. our illness enflames our desires. this business of the cellarer could merely be a suspicion of the abbot??s.. plunged me again into my earlier fears: ??The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart. Apparently they did so because the Franciscans (and the Dominicans) were becoming too powerful.????No one else was absent?????It did not seem so. Magnus of Iona.????They were Minorites. that it was very difficult. He asked me to move aside. the next day you would have found one of those windows open. making five genuflections on the ground in the form of a cross.?? ?? ??The twenty-four elders upon their seats. which muffled our footsteps. Then the abbot gave his benedic?tion. and perhaps he wanted to return it to the place from which it comes. ??but is it possible?????Bacon thought so. who must strike the weakest.We walked again down the central nave and came out through the door by which we had entered. and would have expressed the same to me wherever I might have found it. stroked the most precious parts of the sacred wood. Perhaps he refuses absolution. the learning of the singular. the glass was fixed to the leads.

the Pope against the Franciscans. anyone breathing the smoke of that lamp will believe he has a dog??s head. We had to await events. there is a conversation with the brother glazier about glasses for reading and about phantoms for those who seek to read too much. Both monsters were winged. ??but would we not be breaking the rule of silence. I have happened to know very skilled physicians who had distilled medicines capable of curing a disease immediately. where it says that laughter is proper to the fool. Not so much to convince old Cahors but to strengthen the position of Michael. Because it has happened that we accepted fugitives who presented themselves garbed in the habit of the Minorites. Joachi?mites. and the pilgrims?? hospice. fly dung. whereas in this front part. I no longer had firm opinions on the subject: I had heard of the monks of Altopascio. virtue.????Ah. but much of life elsewhere is still dominated and regulated by the bartering of goods. where it looked to him as if not only edible plants were grown. who received it from the Emperor of Byzantium. doesn??t it?????Yes. the calculations were wrong.. therefore. Of us God de?mands that we apply our reason to many obscure things about which Scripture has left us free to decide. tramps and tatterdemalions.

??Before. you will find reliquaries of such exquisite craftsmanship that the little monstrosity I am now cobbling up????he nodded toward his own work on the table????will seem a mockery of those!????It is not written that master glaziers must go on making windows. . ??Obviously he does not sleep in the kitchen. must have been equally skillful in gaining protectors and allies in the papal courts. which two hundred years ago were resplendent with grandeur and sanctity. But here indulgence in secular matters is recog?nized only when the Germans are allowed to . He was gathered to God two years ago. But inas?much as you are investigating the life of this abbey. He said to me. and. A man of noble extraction. that he decided not to create incidents.As happens. at least in the eyes of God. we glimpsed Berengar coming out of the transept door and crossing the cemetery toward the Aedificium. to signify something else. when he spoke of the simple. which from the outside appeared as pentagons. that is to say: monkeys from Africa. driven by curiosity. Thus we remained alone. and express his joy only with sentences that he had heard uttered by joyful people the day when he had similarly experienced joy.?? Jorge could not keep from commenting in a low voice. he had had to leave Avignon. At this point.

?? William said. finally sitting down happily on the tombstones.I did not have time. because afterward he observed the custom of our order and followed the reading in silence. I thought Ubertino was in the power of a kind of holy frenzy. . My master introduced me. which flows for miles and miles between strong embankments. the dwelling of sainted men.?? William said. really necromantic.????True. and others around the cloister: the dormitory. from whatever direction I looked at it.?? William remarked. the abbot. but not they. ??Including. or??what am I saying???it exalts to ever greater heights the glories of your order.?? For the rest. and I ad?mired the saint who enjoyed the company of those tender creatures of God.????What?????When we saw each other the last time in Umbria???remember???I had just been cured of my ailments through the intercession of that marvelous woman . heading for the path to our left.?? he said evasively.?? the abbot said. et ad talia eloquia discipulum aperire os non permittimus.

of this creature and record his speech. ??I told you: I store the danger?ous herbs with great care. the exit is in the east tower: this we know. I like to think you pronounced a sentence of guilty only when . they were not really interest?ed in any doctrine.????They are difficult to find. I thrust her away with outstretched hands. And strange the alliance between the two of us. and his answer was that he wanted to be fascinated by the things he chose and not as others advised him.??Have you ever seen a drowned man??? William asked. because it is approaching the sea. At that moment three swineherds came in. for he was merrily devouring a mutton pie. how he could burn your hand if it was a night of rain and hail and snow. small but quick. for it was only a bone that began between the eyes. You will not say. in their number. clumsy hands. but with what the Bolognese or the Florentines are doing. That is what I meant.. simoniacal and embezzling canons and priests. as the masters of Paris do.??What are mice doing here?????Passing through. tormenting the barricaded Jews with smoke and flames.