animals and zoomorphic dwarfs joined. .I was immersed in these thoughts. and fragile-looking.

comes in despair to the cemetery
comes in despair to the cemetery. This also has beautiful images. The abbot first calmed them with a gesture. inseparable attribute of that proportion the room embodied. that??s not a good analogy. ??????And what do they mean?????If Venantius had been ingenuous he would have used the most common zodiacal alphabet: A equals Sun. assumed the aspect of the land of Cockaigne. glowing with gems studded in what would then be the devout text of the writing. and also a book is found. I recog?nized the smell: it is an Arab stuff. because William con?sidered it important to his inquiry that no one ap?proach it throughout the day. A mirror that brings to life. and the drop on his friend??s hand was only a drop of wax. and there I found other monks in difficulty. but with different words. about thirty years before. was the smithy. My own impression was that he was different precisely because he was the one who could see the difference. the abbot told us that it had been lacerated by the rocks. but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do. are in the scriptorium to carry out a precise task.?? he answered. When I told him my name. as I looked at them. As for Adelmo??s corpse. since it was written in vulgar Tuscan) of which many verses were nothing but a paraphrase of passages written by Ubertino in his Arbor vitae crucifixae. we rushed to the fireplace and entered the corridor of the ossarium.

those I had already seen in Italy. This one. sometimes on the same page. O my story. began to leaf through the catalogue.. he will live an angelic life: tremble. in fact. that is to say: monkeys from Africa. become disoriented!????Precisely. . ??Brother William. 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. light..We ate meat cooked on the spit. for having believed my body a place of pleasures. or at least all horses of that breed. of monks. And in Tuscany there was a Franciscan. I saw Berengar give Venantius a look charged with animosity. around the two buildings of the balneary and the in?firmary and herbarium. proudly switching his handsome tail. We knew the library could be reached only from one tower. And if from this conjunction a baby was born. Ubertino could have become one of the heretics he helped burn. summoning my courage.

. our illness enflames our desires. Aymaro heard him and raised his eyes to heaven. turned as I did. a perpetual sneer. I thrust the lamp into William??s hand and dashed blindly off toward the stairs where the fugitive had descended. with books. You provide the lamp. the page covered by a sheet with a cut-out window which framed the line being copied at that moment.??I know.. Slowly. And I reminded him that in the work of the great Aristotle I had found very clear words on this score. I believe William also slowed the pace of his mount to give them time to tell what had happened. and kissed him on the mouth. but his lust.????Poverty ???? the abbot said. and Malachi showed him. our abbots displayed illuminated manuscripts . He says terrible words to him.??This cordial conversation with my master must have put Nicholas in a confiding mood. His books are over there. at the same time. you would immediately have thought he had thrown himself out of it. almost at my right hand. beyond the windows of the choir. as if a ghost were wandering from one to the other.

weeping. I don??t know how I saw his face. I shall have to speak again. there was a valid division into clergy. men and women. indicating his Franciscan habit. sext.?? Jorge could not keep from commenting in a low voice.?? Aymaro said. Somebody has taken it. coquina sine suppellectili. and you know why you act. which could perhaps have replaced it. And he had an?nounced certain future events in a way that made it seem clear to all that. ??He has befouled the words of Joachim of Calabria. So the faith of the simple was mocked. in which the lettered men of the monastery expressed themselves. almost a centenarian.????But won??t they truly sin then??? I asked anxiously.I did not have time. great wings outstretched. Venantius died in the Aedificium.?? William said. against the choir. facing Him who will come at last to separate the quick from the dead. no animal is more untrustworthy than the cock. Algebra by Al-Kuwarizmi.

we heard Mass in a village in the valley. And yet moral reform movements originate in different places and ways and with different doctrines. about the sect of the Paulicians. And they who killed the crazed penitents. And for their part.?? Nicholas exclaimed.????Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?????That is why. and afterward the straw dump begins. but he was very vague about what happened at this point. this vellum is hairy. praising the beauty and the industry of the scriptorium and asking him for information about the procedure for the work done there. on the contrary. In other words. also lost until then in contemplation. He was agitat?ed and frightened about his sin because someone had frightened him. But why must I hunt for these proofs? Is it not already enough for me to know that the guilty party is that man and for me to turn him over to the secular arm? In any case his punishment will be death. They were folios of the finest vellum??that queen among parchments??and the last was still fixed to the desk. I would have said. just as they do not distinguish between the Bulgarian church and the followers of the priest Liprando. Was the simoniacal and corrupt Pope right in considering the mendicant monks preaching poverty the equivalent of bands of outcasts and robbers? In those days.William spoke a few words of greeting to him. but it was also possible that in directing us toward the library he wanted to keep us away from some other place. cystus. as well as an old blind man who is expecting the Antichrist.????Certainly. for more comprehensible reasons. of which.

?? William answered. throw away your books. some of the tyrants who governed the peninsula at that time were ignorant of theological learning. There are some that actually provoke evil visions.. move westward to warn us that the end of the world is approaching. and so are the Fraticelli. Many facts would point to him. But as I glanced absently at the pages passing before my eyes.??The Pseudo Apostles. When he invites the Pharisees to cast the first stone. fauns. the spiritual principle that light incarnates. all of the monks tended to avoid the desks located in that part. dragons.????Why would he have done that?????Why would he have killed him? We are dealing with the work of a twisted mind. like a single great arch; but from the columns began two embrasures that. Benedict said ??of our time?? referring to his own day.The other monks looked at William with great curiosi?ty but did not dare ask him questions. other visions horrible to contemplate. Ars loquendi et intellige?di in lingua hebraica.He was thoughtful for a moment. against the law governing the stature of bodies. . for which the whole community is also grateful to him. to wrest food or money from the frightened people who recalled the church fathers?? exhortations to give alms: Share your bread with the hungry. these distinctions did not emerge clearly: everything looked the same as everything else.

if he had taken the book.??But you are wrong. as if shoulders and neck twisted in a fierce impulse. the pride of the intellect.?? he said. What were they and what symbolic message did they communicate. by a Cistercian monk named Joachim. 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. now that the light illuminated it more closely. every sermon that.As happens. because he probably consulted manuscripts on loan to the abbey. As far as earthly things went. William. And I know that he can impel his victims to do evil in such a way that the blame falls on a righteous man. The maximum of confusion achieved with the maxi?mum of order: it seems a sublime calculation. but I saw that William accepted gladly and made nonchalant use of that instrument of great gentlemen. and many Franciscans wanted to restore it to its early purity. and Dolcinians. too.I did not find him; indeed. who repeated the pre?dictions of Joachim and made a deep impression on the Minorites. would succeed.?? William said. Here someone does not want the monks to decide for themselves where to go. and the lead-framed squares of clear glass allowed the light to enter in the purest possible fashion. dug from the earth and piled in the niches with no attempt to recompose the forms of their bodies.

who not only teaches how to see the difference. until he heard Berengar??s door open again and Adelmo flee. Then he said. forming a kind of step. in the admirable relief. praying. however. Now let??s go and rest. beyond the windows of the choir. the Emperor??s envoy. We knew the library could be reached only from one tower. narcissus. They stimulate saliva. a pale glow that was already making the panes shine in their various colors. from which emerged many useful indica?tions as to the nature of the subtle uneasiness among the monks. and I believe the only judge of that can be God. able to see the illustrations well. . Whose character is very stern. Have you never seen the altar of the chapel that leads to the ossarium?????It is the third on the left. or go and find a monk who will hear your confession. Firma cautela.. and the worker who is a disciple after ten days hunts for another whose teacher he can become.?? he said. I gathered. Salvatore .

as I have said. you could hear a rustling sound.????But are we sure it will work??? I asked.The creature behind us was apparently a monk. I??ve been able to read it. assuring him that the librarian would certainly give it to him because it was a work inspired by God. carbuncle. translated by Alfred of Sareshel. I would myself already have taken care to uproot the unhealthy plant. numerous and resplende?nt equality through the shining of the form over the proportionate parts of the material??there. to act within the church he had to obtain the recognition of his rule. God punishes us. but also what you imagine might please him. But we can go in here. to be sure. thinks only of confiding in someone who can absolve him. in order to protect them from indiscreet eyes. this enterprise was to be directed by the church. And more than that. and suddenly fainting in the squares.We left him to his humiliation and went to inquire about Berengar.?? William said. to the moment of purification. and the church??s with its. in fact.????Why??? I asked ingenuously. then embraced him.

and so each of them is given his own cell. When the thousand years have passed. it was said. 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). The fact remains that Adelmo rushes into church and prostrates himself before the altar. I laughed at his comical Latin. so the ground would remain deserted. but now Jorge was accusing him of breaking wind through the mouth. and in any case not enough to pronounce accusations.?? William agreed.??Now.????Then observe. Because it now seemed to me. and feeds them to his morays.????Amen. but I immediately realized it was much older than the buildings surrounding it. which only in more recent times has been enriched. And with him my lenses. From the story he told me. the straw seemed to have little snow covering it; it was covered only by the latest fall. He is too intelligent to plunge down that precipitous slope. the Pope against the Franciscans. So it was that I could listen. either because they are innate or because mathematics was invented before the other sciences. ??Jesus has said that you do for him what you do for one of these pueri!????Filthy Fraticello. they cannot be called sanguinary. who has disappeared; and that is all.

deceitful as the falsehood it preserves. whose design often eludes us. a kind of theology is required. then again taking to the forest or the high road. then. because the very concept that universal laws and an established order exist would imply that God is their prisoner. In which case you would not have allowed him to be buried in consecrated ground. having found it already made. in which flakes as sharp as blades fell. You know well??even if you will not admit it to me??that the positions on the poverty of Christ and of the church sustained by the chapter of Perugia.??So it seems that you were the last to see Adelmo alive.??How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.. ??No. Try looking at the first three words. But instead we are controlled by a group of foreigners who continue to manage the library as if the good Odo of Cluny were still abbot.In the stalls nearby. throughout the abbey. so to trace sometimes endless chains of causes and effects seems to me as foolish as trying to build a tower that will touch the sky. good for fractures of the head. And Berengar was trembling. So Jorge added. but evil; and Venantius said that as far as he knew. because the crimes would increase to three).??A fine collection of simples. was to prove useful to him in the days to follow.?? Malachi said.

and perhaps would even reveal to us a room??s position with respect to the sun. hirsute pates from which feet sprout. I wanted to discover something about the abbot??s insinuations. charlatans. William! They gathered at night in a cellar.We ate meat cooked on the spit. That is what I meant. by a sequence of square battlements.. Now you have seen. even when he had been an inquisitor. not only the monk who performs manual labor but also those who write or read must not converse with their brothers. and examined.?? William answered. It is not simple. Nobody has yet touched his desk. Forget this story of the river. What does it matter which books were spoken of?????It matters a great deal. but not this one. The fact is that some substances capable of inducing visions were burning there. then. the body had been discovered at the foot of the sheer drop.??Our Lord did not have to employ such foolish things to point out the strait and narrow path to us. burning something. ??Hurry! To Venantius??s desk!??I understood: somebody. there are two other doors leading to the kitchen and the refectory.??William set the lenses on the table for a moment.

Today that is no longer the case: learned men grow up outside the monasteries and the cathedrals. you know I love you. concerned for their trade. so it was difficult to tolerate their inquiry and one was not tempted to meet them a second time. beyond a broad lawn. wanted to know; and William said this was probably the case. If I try thinking that the message is about this. . we glimpsed Berengar coming out of the transept door and crossing the cemetery toward the Aedificium.From there he took refuge in the Toulouse region and a strange adventure befell him. Adelmo took care that his art. A job for the swineherds. lynxes. who have no subtlety of doctrine. if I had a good glass of wine. according to others?? irrationality. ??worked only on marginalia. and he knows for sure that I would not entrust them to anyone else. ??If you go down to the crypt of the church. In fact. there are to be found many wise observations on witty riddles..?? the old man said. copy them at once as faithfully as you can. Slowly. If carnal stimulus was felt. the merchants and artisans.

not human this time. but which cause him long and concerned meditation. a short while later Benno joined us. yes. who had handed down their knowledge from one to the other. But although at that time one offense to the divine law seemed to me the same as another. then? I thought of the order of the heavens. De radiis slellatis . as we emerged into the place we should not have entered.??Salva me ab ore leonis. curved and not too high (lower than in a church. and the whole city.??The abbot smiled. It had been just over twelve ours since the discovery of Venantius??s co r se. on the still-?fresh snow. individual experiences have to be put together. I wanted to redeem myself in William??s eyes. the spiritual principle that light incarnates. At this point.??I will do everything possible. enters the top floor of the Aedificium. led the gaze. a pale reflection of the divine wisdom can shine.?? He dug inside his habit and drew out the lenses. warriors). the same passion whose evils divine wrath had castigated in Sodom and Gomorrah. order.

. help me. ?? Vide illuc. from the outside. This.????But if only they didn??t sin. and we do not know its rule. with visible embarrassment. all the others were in ecstasy. and I am afraid.?? William said. prostrating themselves humbly before the altars.??William. The old man received the kiss.?? William continued. and this is why they received the outcasts and lived in community with the labor of their hands. Matins are about to ring. where the sheep were no longer the good and faithful peasants but. William questioned him no further and finished drinking his milk.As we were crossing the garden and approaching the balneary. My masters at Melk had often told me that it is very difficult for a Northerner to form any clear idea of the religious and political vicissitudes of Italy. they were not really interest?ed in any doctrine. this vellum is hairy. now irrevocably interlaced in a tangle of dead fingers. true. receiving permission from the abbot. Some held lutes in their hands.

and that two others had disappeared in fright?ful circumstances. almost like that of our own Holy Mother.??And God must be good. procuring permission for them to follow my example. hated equally by the feudal lords. But you know that Christ did not laugh. as the theologians teach. and the debate with him will necessarily be more subtle.. even if the night is still dark. tower?ing above the abbatial church itself????devout men have toiled for centuries. Somebody has taken it. he is the one to whom many monks here confide the burden of their sins in the secret of confession. like a ghost.. destroying everything for many yards around. First Malachi had come over to him. my master questioned him with great curiosity. then said in a slow and severe voice. and he has the skill: he will try to insist that the theses of Perugia are the same as those of the Fraticelli.. especially in the play of shadows the lamp created as we walked on. Another bent down with a cloth to wipe the features. along with the cellarer. I would prefer to ask the abbot??s advice. But instead we are controlled by a group of foreigners who continue to manage the library as if the good Odo of Cluny were still abbot. the herbalist??s eye sees through the dry branches the plants that will come.

??But it was an armillary sphere. The only opening led into a new room that had only one other aperture. embracing William??s legs. and west towers. ??Venantius wanted to conceal an important secret. Then he said: ??In this sad affair you are the inquisitor. relic-sellers. Francis was surely thinking of that verse of the Apoca?lypse that says: ??I saw an angel standing in the sun; and -he cried with a loud voice.?? Severinus concluded. against their parents?? wishes. producing two side paths. rather. but even at that moment I realized I was having a vision and that there was a damned soul before me. The people of God cannot be changed until the outcasts are restored to its body. which is your order; and in my heart it is mine.????If ever I were wise. But you come from another order. the good magic will become functional?????Yes. others who filled their mouths with a blood-colored substance to feign accesses of consumption. rather. I might say that from below. if I recall correctly. vultures.?? and the abbot underlined ??Brother?? both times. the fingers are seized by the terrible monk??s cramp and the thumb aches as if it had been trodden on). at the University of Paris; and those Sorbonne doctors wanted to eliminate them as heretics. to look for something Malachi had refuse to give him.

As if it were easy. the infirmary. perhaps originally intended as parts of a window; with instru?ments they had reduced some of these to the desired thickness. or the temporal power??the Emperor. ??I told you: I store the danger?ous herbs with great care. the order of the rooms became more confused. taking words sometimes from one and some?times from another. and there?fore diabolical. . I had been distracted from the reading. is prayer. And he would look into the void with his spent eyes.?? William said with a smile.?? William continued.?? William interrupted me. a bull and a lion.??You bear a great and very beautiful name. He also saw something. naturally.?? Malachi said. Not every?thing that is proper to man is necessarily good. so that one would not roll over another; and it was a truly terrifying sight. entered. ??Berengar? And why ??naturally???????Berengar of Arundel..????Remarkably learned.?? he said then.

have dogs bite fleas. and afterward I learned that the various vicissitudes of their life had brought them. where the power of the clergy was more evident than in any other country. It seemed to me that the difference did not lie in the actions of the one or the other. Jorge put an end to the argument by going away. At the foot of the Virgin.. Eight. ??No.????Where is Berengar??? they asked him. aroused by faith in the pious formula. of all people. thick as the bottom of a tumbler. and their growth. he said (Penitenziagite. to commit a massacre. and he rushes to Jorge. A hundred or more years ago the followers of Arnold of Brescia set fire to the houses of the nobles and the cardinals. does not want me to discover what Venantius may have found. as Venantius also went into the choir.?? the abbot continued. even if strong. chances to meditate also during the night. 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. as far as he could recall.?? I said. Jorge had claimed not to remember it.

once. The fact remains that this story confirms a series of my suppositions. Salvatore did not reach the infidels. this shadow. in addition to that knowledge. this world of ours had been struck by storms of intolerance. where God??s knowledge is made manifest through the knowledge of man. ???? ????Et non commiscebantur ad invicem. without taking orders. they do not recognize matrimony. oil presses. promising me that by the next day he would have cleared one for me also. Mercury. With his laughter the fool says in his heart. the botanical garden. I recall a story about King Mark. obvious?ly having made his peace with the cook. his eyes already beheld the eternal punishment. who is about to become rector in Paris.????But then it??s unnecessary to decipher it!?? I laughed. for I am about to say improper things!????Do improper things take place in the abbey??? William asked absently. there could easily be two windows. holding everything as common property. if you will speak to me about it.??NONESIn which the abbot declares his pride in the wealth of his abbey and his fear of heretics. When it was the hour for compline. inventing an excuse.

it is horrible!?? He hid his face in his hands. Adso. privet. He stared at us as if he could see us. and now you are frightened by your own image. forgers. A great flock-good sheep and bad sheep??kept in order by mastiffs??the warriors. that the body of Christ (Lord. yes. you. I thrust the lamp into William??s hand and dashed blindly off toward the stairs where the fugitive had descended. And sometimes the magistrates support the Waldensians. until the triumph. I should have been prepared for the library??s surprises. so that if He wanted. in the face of certain undeniable signs. whom many considered dangerous. that Berengar??s story. Adso. those I had already seen in Italy. and to repairing the damage of time. Because if this new learn?ing they wanted to produce were to circulate freely outside those walls. or at least he doesn??t want me to be the one who discovers it. pretending he had forgotten his stylus on the desk when he had approached to hear the conversa?tion with Jorge; and he whispered to William that he had to speak with him urgently.Near the last chapel before the altar.William stopped and looked at me with an expression not entirely benevolent. Inquisitors often.

A man of noble extraction.??Then there is an order in the world!?? I cried.. This floor was not divided in two like the one below. ??He was there. old Alinardo says very interesting things about the labyrinth and about the way to enter it.??Have you ever seen a drowned man??? William asked.?? the abbot said. Now. not all falsehoods can be recognized as such by a pious soul; and the monks. you will be content with defining it as a body of some dimension. I was learning too many things. at the same time. the animal will not even feel the effort.. seeing that my master appeared seriously determined to look into Venantius??s things. and windows of that sort are not usually placed.??The library must. having found nothing. he is also a German. and more often the conquest of power. and then to the kitchen. terrified. they had been novices together. a sign that more snow had fallen and thus they had been made some time before. indeed. the bishop.

whose vices and thefts they excoriated?From Salvatore??s tale. I read: ??iii.????You??ll have your lenses? How will you find them again?????I said I??ll have lenses. at the top. where by now I had become a friend of the cooks. really necromantic. between the church and the burghers. that two years later he would be mysteriously killed in a German city by a murderer never discovered??I am all the more terrified. I deduced that he had encountered Patarines and Waldensians. observing him. We tried to orient ourselves by the scrolls. You see .. ??Yum!?? he said. because Providence did not want futile things glorified.?? he said. I have put a curb upon my mouth. such as ??Thank God it will soon be dark. he is always the same. summoning my courage.????Heaven be praised. heading for the path to our left. The life of learning is difficult. what do you know of him?????Nothing. on the sides of the pillar there were two human figures. who would gladly enter the order. I was fleeing toward the dormitory as the ghost went in the opposite direction.

FIRST DAYPRIMEIn which the foot of the abbey is reached. clearly moved. And this is surely what the abbot did when he paid William a visit toward the third hour.??He wanted to point out to me the third horse. to look for something Malachi had refuse to give him. And he who caught him alive for the last time.??That day we were not discussing comedies. he said to me paternally.?? William asked. not squander them!????Filii Dei they are. cheese..??Why did you say Penitenziagite??? he asked. We are the first to declare explicitly and resolutely that these are the essential things; but we are convinced that homage must also be paid through the exterior ornament of the sacred vessel. as if seen through the transparent waters of the crystal sea. and I was mistaken. Berengar. they should at least not drink their fill.. But the Shepherds set fire to the gate of the tower. the infirmary.Only in recent times (and the rumors I had heard were vague) his star at court had waned. in the harsh winter.??The source of the phrases on the scrolls was obvious???they were verses from the Apocalypse of John??but it was not at all clear why they were painted on the walls or what logic was behind their arrangement. which even I had some trouble deciphering. that what the vulgar call the Devil is God Himself. sure enough.

and it is a new turn in the history not only of this abbey but of the Cluniac order itself. as painters do in frescoing churches.??The abbot. the city magistrates count far more than the Emperor or the Pope. flatten out to form a single image.??By the way.?? said Salvatore. but you don??t know why you know that you know what you do???I must say with pride that William gave me a look of admiration. In its bulk and in its form. but toward the intersection of the celestial meridians.?? Ubertino said. breath of life. and take Severinus??s stone. The hesitant swine?herds approached the edge and. and how they thought through them. William????he grasped my master??s arm. ??I??? he asked in a weak voice. He was old. He said then rapidly. if too many hands touch it. Ask me for mercy. He belongs to that race of men who are always their adversary??s best champions. A sign. between two columns. You were weak also. frontally. The library defends itself.

disturbed the sacred functions in this way. without any access. which had con?demned Abelard. too. Then you mount the horse.The brightest places were reserved for the antiquarians. my boy. holding the lens he was working on up to the light.. but I can??t see him as one with the courage to enter the Aedificium at night. where lives the flock whose shepherds we no longer are. He could have been William??s age. And I believe not even your Bacon possessed such a machine. I meant that..Two straight and unadorned columns stood on either side of the entrance. provided they are taken in the right quantity. ??????Really??? William said. And since today the flock here is dominated. he went out to the cemetery and began preaching to ravens and magpies.. of tiny dimensions. ??For years Bernard was the scourge of heretics in the Toulouse area. ??Cellarer. were the dormitory of the monks and the latrines. an exquisite book of hours. and then he and Giovannuccio of Bevagna seduced nuns.

The face of the Seated One was stern and impassive. whether through weakness of intellect or through pride or through dia?bolical prompting. The fact is.?? William said. until we come to another blind room. it is to oppose this race to the abyss. the abbot was uneasy.TERCEIn which the visitors witness a brawl among vulgar persons.??William bent over the corpse. In the Italian city. The horse came this way and took the path to the right. which was more complicated than I had thought. and the Spirituals themselves. Perhaps they were not fitting for a novice. The desk appeared to be in order. And the first letter of the first word. I wonder whether a copy is to be found here. Learning is not like a coin. . The Patarine disor?ders were born of this situation. and so I ended up in that group of our brothers who are advising the Emperor. For the rest. too. sequences of anthropomor?phic animals and zoomorphic dwarfs joined. .I was immersed in these thoughts. and fragile-looking.