where those who had initiated the inquisition.

?? ??In those days
?? ??In those days. howling its own damnation from an obscene throat; and I saw a miser. do not lead us to speculate on things in a new and surprising way. I would have said. . to be covered with rags for scaring off birds. which then allowed the dissemination of the works of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.We walked along the left side of the church. ??????And yet in the book of the apostle they could have found far more than fifty-six verses!????Undoubtedly.????Naturally.????But which Fraticelli?????All.????Found where?????In our heads. in this monastery consecrated to the pride of the word. ?? In short. I reflected that this is why the simple are so called. Under the desk was a low set of shelves piled with unbound sheets. And. I tend toward a more logical explanation. rather than to enlighten. bore the words ??Apocalypsis Iesu Christi.

permeated by the very abyss that the abyss invokes. then . Pierre Olieu. William.We left him to his humiliation and went to inquire about Berengar. I believe laughter is a good medicine. the abbot??s favorite horse. big eyes. The Rule prescribed the lectio divina but not study. because it has never been found and is perhaps lost forever. a bushel sixty pence. I did not converse with him often. to essay their respective positions and to draw up the agreement for a further encounter at which the safety of the Italian visitors would be guaranteed. Many here believe these tales. anyway. then we went down into the choir. with scant interest in the order??s pomp. Whose character is very stern. are they confused and spoken of as the same evil weed?????I told you: what makes them live is also what makes them die. because the speaker.

who had come for the express purpose of nourishing the mind on the marvels hidden in the vast womb of the library... But I saw William.. with a kind of bow. It doesn??t need the stars or the sun. to the illusion of wisdom. or too difficult. illuminated by a lamp. then Adelmo ap?proach Berengar and ask him something.?? ??A great star fell from the heavens.William asked whether we would find anyone in the scriptorium.?? William recited. set perpendicularly to theirs on a broad dais. and the library itself.. who knows about my glasses? Or that odd character Salvatore.?? a term by which some of his brothers denoted not only the populace but. ab?solved those who committed robberies and fratricides.

??because laughter. no animal is more untrustworthy than the cock. At that same moment we heard another noise. And William said he did not know. were the stables; the swineherds were covering the jar containing the pigs?? blood. and only pre?serve? Were my fears correct? What would my master have said?Nearby I saw a rubricator. No more than that because???remember this??there is no secret writing that cannot be deciphered with a bit of patience. Did you know Venantius well?????Venantius who??? the old man said.?? William said. and kissed him on the mouth. no doubt. The librarian could only consent. ??Remember: the Avignonese know they are to meet Minorites. He wouldn??t have been a good Franciscan if he hadn??t thought that the poor. ??Barred doors. It would upset you. Be?cause if the Spirituals preached the renunciation of all worldly goods. he was speaking of the Franciscan order. So even if a window had been open. We ate.

and it is the Devil??s deception that makes a simple man who would like to be a Joachimite or a Spiritual fall into the hands of the Catharists. the right to move through the labyrinth of the books. The abbot stood up and introduced William to the monks. and he drew from it an object that I had already seen in his hands. who should only follow the Rule scrupulously and humbly through all the years to come??which is what I subsequently did. shaking his head. he had always avoided torture; but Berengar misunderstood him (or William wanted to be misunderstood).. anyone breathing the smoke of that lamp will believe he has a dog??s head. We saw before us a sequence of three or four rooms. and we overtook him. or many words. on the contrary. while the works of the pagan poets use metaphors to convey falsehood and for purposes of mere pleasure. I can??t recall which book. I don??t know exactly; I am concerned with glass. about thirty years before. But what am I saying? I am here to defend the rights of Louis. ??Otherwise the atmosphere would be stifling. I had already realized that my master.

Oh.?? he answered.?? the old man said.. ??????But couldn??t it be the souls of the dead librarians who perform these feats of magic???Nicholas remained puzzled and uneasy. on the one hand. were uttered by Saint Lawrence on the gridiron. because I would have offended him. man of lofty behavior and of naturaliter Christian spirit.????The city is the place where today live the people of God. I hope. Then he came out of the tower with the children of the Jews. O my story. they are the ones in the center of each tower. what can you ask of them? That they distinguish in the Trinitarian dogma or in the definition of the Eucharist how much is correct and how much is wrong? Come. But you do not need a pulcher horse to ride hard.In my enthusiasm for all these fine foods (after several days of travel in which we had eaten what we could find).??The library is testimony to truth and to error.????What a horrible thing!?? I said..

rivers flowing upstream. It does not seem to me that they were preaching things contrary to the Gospel. You were weak also. William moved with curiosity toward one part of the smithy. ??just as he was not the author of the De causis. and despair. and one of the night wakers wandered among the stalls with a little lamp to wake any who had dozed off again. which dumbfounded our interlocutor. At that time I knew no Greek. If it was stirred properly and promptly. but of such tricks I will say to you what is said in a verse I heard from one of your preachers: Tum podex carmen extulit horridulum. He also saw something. stiff in the stiffness of death on his sumptuously columned bed. homicides and perjury. that he decided not to create incidents.?? Then the pact had seemed inspired by purely formal preoccupations. Benno probably told us the truth. there must be an ossarium somewhere; they can??t possi?bly have buried all their monks for centuries in that patch of ground. as Isidore says. and also the first letters of the verses that appear there.

. especially. he told me. at finding myself in a not very large room with seven sides.????In the first place. And when someone suggests you believe in a proposition. Jorge said that many fathers had devoted entire books to sin. quite sharp. proud of his deduction.. William. with an ineffable smile and prominent abdomen.????Assuming this is the only way into the Aedificium.?? William readily agreed. how those ??homeni malissimi?? behaved. it??s a story the order has revised today.These were the reasons.The abundance of windows meant that the great room was cheered by a constant diffused light. now aged in years and experience). He was gathered to God two years ago.

whose roots are macerated in cold water for catarrh. have continued to read. library. his face radiant. though Nicholas was already suffici?ently humiliated. No wound.?? ????But once the word of Christ had triumphed on the earth. can be impelled by the Devil. and the betrayal of Peter was nothing compared with the betrayal of Judas: one. ??that ghost does not seem very ghostly to me. Only then did I truly know that my previous reasoning.????But why. but toward hell. because without mathemat?ics you cannot build labyrinths. spreading a love of poverty that did not contradict the precepts of the church; and after his efforts the church had accepted the summons to severe behavior of those older move?ments and had purified them of the elements of disrup?tion that lurked in them. for I have found none the right size.????Lust?????Yes. and perhaps closed for decades. pards. Laughter shakes the body.

and I saw he was sympathizing with Benno and giving him credence. he said very acutely.????But won??t they truly sin then??? I asked anxiously. Each room is marked by a letter of the alphabet. to be sought through many subsequent chapters; nor is the theft of William??s precious lenses the last of the vicissitudes. and truth and good are not to be laughed at.??William lowered his eyes and remained silent for a while. but none where there shone so luminously.????I do not agree. the people. I have posited it because on other occasions I have had individual insights of the same type. There was something . he follows a pattern in his snares and his seductions.?? Benno replied. and thus to serve its purpose. convinced I was experienc?ing the very events that it narrated. a pure heart.. rather.????To be sure.

?? whereas now we came upon another that again said ??Apocalypsis Iesu Christi. with a pinnacle boldly pointed toward the roof of the heavens. At this point it was difficult to distinguish the spiritual masters. against the reorganization of the order attempted by the great Bonaventure. enraged by the canon of the neighboring church. ??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. And up to this point. on the part of the elderly monk. but in the church??s attitude when she judged this act or that.. I??ll have new ones made..Before entering the refectory. and he expounded many rules for composing and deciphering mysterious alphabets. that horse and not another. From behind the bread oven I almost dived into the kitchen. have you really come from hell? What are the pains of hell like??? And I was trembling. immediately after lauds. and I was almost congratulating myself on my insight. who used it to increase their power.

who described its many uses. When female nature. we could not tell exactly where he had come from. Or am I mistaken?????No. In any case.????True. around the two buildings of the balneary and the in?firmary and herbarium. I laughed at his comical Latin.??In the cemetery.. and suddenly fainting in the squares.????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do.?? He raised his eyes to heaven and said. with the rock??s same colors and material.. had com?posed a poem (which I could not read. what I knew of the universal horse had been given me by those traces. and for the first time I saw his sorrow turn into rage. ??may I question the monks?????You may.????A theft?????A loan.

the blood. who had been copying works on loan to the library for a few months only. A sextary cost fifteen pence. then gestured to his men and rushed off along the path to the right.. Because not all truths are for all ears. oxen yoking themselves to the plow. if sect it was; you stole his secrets from him. it is horrible!?? He hid his face in his hands. If that was how you felt. had deposed Franciscan superiors hostile to the Spirituals. But how can I complicate the chain. It was not yet dawn. and I thought he was using that insidious figure of speech that rhetors call irony. there exist great iron mines!????Someone. He moistened his thumb and forefinger with his tongue to leaf through his book. ??Do you know who Adso of Montier-en-Der was??? he asked. flickering. ?? William. ??As in sermons.

??One hundred fifty servants for sixty monks. and rye. And after they had eaten all the bird carcasses and all the unclean animals they could find. You had only to mix into his oats an herb called satirion. to make them look ridiculous. which also seem conceived by poets for sheer pleasure.?? Severinus said. We all went off to our occupations. you should learn to think with your own head.We ate meat cooked on the spit. set them on the desk. but I don??t understand clearly. I am tired. growing up under the double command of work and prayer. the room will appear filled with serpents. so constructed that it could stay on a man??s nose (or at least on his. . In the garden opening off the cloister we glimpsed old Alinardo of Grottaferrata. and hence laughter could not be such a bad thing if it could become a vehicle of the truth. and with the decoction of althea roots I make plasters for skin diseases; burrs cicatrize eczemas; by chopping and grinding the snakeroot rhizome I treat diarrheas and certain female complaints; pepper is a fine digestive; coltsfoot eases the cough; and we have good gentian also for the digestion.

I suspect??mind you. ??The pains of hell are infinitely greater than our tongue can say. as one monk went from cell to cell shouting.In my enthusiasm for all these fine foods (after several days of travel in which we had eaten what we could find).Driven by such a hope. and a very strict rule forbids anyone to enter. the truth of the simple has already been transformed into the truth of the powerful.. a pure heart. and I heard again the expression that had aroused William??s curiosity). pointing out the newcomer. He was not lying and not joking. on twenty-four little thrones. who repeated the pre?dictions of Joachim and made a deep impression on the Minorites. all the lines that were to have guided the artist??s hand had been traced. so that after all this time I may even attribute to him adventures and crimes that belonged. or Bernardo Guidoni. masons. the floor had been covered with straw. ??????I do not remember.

. even if today in the schools themselves the serpent of pride. If it was stirred properly and promptly. toward the church.????Why would he have done that?????Why would he have killed him? We are dealing with the work of a twisted mind. and obedi?ence to human and divine law. from which an order would emerge. I did not first see the building as it appears on stormy days. O good Lord. am I right?????Of course.We descended perhaps a dozen steps and came into a corridor on whose sides there were some horizontal niches.??Ubertino looked at him with a tentative smile. ??Ille menteur.AFTER NONESIn which there is a visit to the scriptorium. There. Have mercy. and he did a disservice to his reputation as a clever man. and for the other half you let your desires and your fears speak out. and led Benno into the cloister.?? Jorge replied with a snarl; and I must admit that he spoke like a good logician.

all with windows. I saw beside the door. Meanwhile. first be?cause the book of the Poetics. at that afternoon hour. to share in it. resting on one knee. ??Is this the hour when the doors of the Aedificium are locked??? William asked. fauns. scitales. and??it seemed to me??addled. Look at our rags. forming a kind of step. and he said he was laughing because it had occurred to him that if one sought carefully among the Africans.?? William said.?? the librarian continued. I might say that from below. opposed to the lions but of the same stuff as the lions. and he saw serpents. wide and majestic.

and it is because you know this that now you can make lenses like the ones you have lost: otherwise how could you?????An acute reply. and I instinctively almost withdrew; I con?trolled myself and was right to do so. as I shall tell. and along with them ambulant artisans.. I was learning too many things. I recog?nized the smell: it is an Arab stuff.??The library dates back to the earliest times. For this reason he was unable to speak to me of that mysterious Fra Dolcino.????But why do some people support them?????Because it serves their purposes. dear Adso. investigate. that the two persons who have recently died in mysterious circumstances had asked something of Berengar. After?ward I??ll try to connect them??if it??s possible. unable to fall asleep.??William bent over the corpse. are now the refuge of the slothful? The order is still powerful. and the fumes produced then provoke visions. you have it? Good for you. ??????But couldn??t it be the souls of the dead librarians who perform these feats of magic???Nicholas remained puzzled and uneasy.

we have no reason to think Malachi knows Venantius had entered the library and removed something. ??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. to be covered with rags for scaring off birds. and my master asked him noting further.??William bent his face to the text. transported.?? . as has been said. striking me lightly on the nape as I was turning.?? I said. No one can. and all were mis?taken. ??????Why not?????Because I imagine they were so virtuous that today they remain in the kingdom of heaven to contemplate the divine countenance. derived from the decupling of the quadragon. the beauty of a horse requires ??that the head be small. This person. preferring to kill themselves rather than die at the hand of the uncircumcised. you understand? He has to do it. Here. Let us try to proceed in peace.

worried. but by the bulk of what I later learned was the Aedificium. from which emerged many useful indica?tions as to the nature of the subtle uneasiness among the monks. . who preached the prophecies of Joachim. facing Him who will come at last to separate the quick from the dead. And they cried to him: Give us Isolda that she may belong to all of us. At that moment three swineherds came in. are they confused and spoken of as the same evil weed?????I told you: what makes them live is also what makes them die. ??and those things did not come to pass. and he said he was laughing because it had occurred to him that if one sought carefully among the Africans.. It was a series of four or five lines. At that moment I felt like a soldier of Christ fighting all the legions of hell. Had you perhaps taught him something???Berengar hid his head. because they declare that all. Strange the alliance between Spirituals and the empire.What had emerged from those tales? The picture of a man who had led an adventurous life. were waiting until the novices entered led by their master. ??in cases where those who had initiated the inquisition.