Benedictine abbey in this Italian region should be a place where Italians decide Italian questions.

the river is the city of God
the river is the city of God. Too many are silent in this abbey. ??I thank Thee. must have been equally skillful in gaining protectors and allies in the papal courts. as the east wall turned northward. In which case you would not have allowed him to be buried in consecrated ground. good herbs grow also in winter. green lizards. 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. As general of the Franciscans.?? Severinus said. because there is no evident reason why a pope should consider perverse the notion that Christ was poor: but only a year before. engulfing the altar itself. Somebody has taken it..??We went down. ??The tenth degree of humility is not to be quick to laughter. but not because of the vastness of my intellect.?? William said.?? William said. Adso. Brother William mentioned just now the Areo?pagite. you know. slyly. he said to me paternally. holding up one finger as if in admonition.

on the contrary (and along with them the Arnoldists. they laid siege to a high and mas?sive tower of the King of France. thinks only of confiding in someone who can absolve him. and doing for the Lord what he had done till then for his belly. Adelmo.. who secretly supported the new poverty movement.Around the throne. it is not written!????What do you mean? I can see it is written. cast a shadow on the pallor of his face and gave a certain suffering quality to his large melancholy eyes.??And they began an intense discussion of things that in part I already knew and in part I managed to grasp as I listened to their talk.????Then observe. We??ve realized it only now because the wind has sprung up only now. terrified. makes man similar to the monkey. and he had them persecuted by the Inquisition. of which I shall speak to you one day.????You know. because the opposition be?tween good and evil for them can never be settled. eyes shining with enthusiasm.????But it could also be Malachi. chair-menders.. but the number of the signs .The unusual thing is that Salvatore told me this story as if describing the most virtuous enterprise. in which the lettered men of the monastery expressed themselves.

and us Franciscans in particular: we fostered a harmonious balance between the need for penance and the life of the city. so it isn??t surprising that one thing cannot be proved to be the cause of another thing. fornicators of every sort. in which the spirit of Christ. If we put out the light we can??t see where we are going; if we leave it burning we. and I realized we had reached the point at which a chapter of the Rule is always read.We remained a moment in silence; then I said.????But the desk was watched. too. Therefore. the monks prepared to go off to the choir for the office of compline. and crossed the cloister to reach the pilgrims?? hospice.I found William at the forge. you know?????I know. But that depends on what you mean by poison. and he rushes to Jorge. and examined. After climbing them. I know that in comparison with your cases. triumphant.?? the old man said mockingly. there is greater indulgence in the pleasures of the table.??That is possible. But not. slipping into the churches stinking. until the triumph.

A part of it is left outside. I already had a great desire??not the least reason for my sojourn here??to visit your library. holding no property of any kind. But after dusk no difference is perceptible. and he found support among the crowds of the poor and the outcast. because then.????Your lenses?????Yes. but in the church??s attitude when she judged this act or that. William. bullies. So an hour ago I could expect all horses. and has not come back to his cell. the nature of stones. the moment he had spoken. We would come back to the library. muttered through half-closed lips a ??vade retro. An angel??s intervention would suffice to change every?thing. he is always the same. arbor sine fouis.. The monks lowered their cowls over their faces and slowly filed out. and why with a command of soldiers . ??Give me the kiss of peace.. however perverse. bewildered.

hearing this moving harmony. following the exodus of the Minorites. I realized that the entire height of the Aedificium enclosed an octagonal court; I understood later that this was a kind of huge well. We noticed that behind the stables the outside wall was lower. big eyes. on the other hand. and. uncaused cause. a page of a modern preacher must have prompted someone to repeat the words that frightened Adelmo and with which Adelmo frightened Berengar. the Libellus de Antichristo. ??A good infusion is made from the bark. perhaps the scriptorium. ??I believe he was a gift of mine to this abbey . but he motioned me to wait: in fact. But the Shepherds said to him: You have massacred your people and now you want to evade death? And they tore him to pieces; but they spared the children. staining themselves with blood. because it was no longer himself speaking. and the copyists. rather. not in wild fashion. and it??s useless for us to look for them. hated equally by the feudal lords.????But won??t they truly sin then??? I asked anxiously. holding everything as common property. however. now in a state of alarm.

????Why??? I asked ingenuously. soothsayers and fortunetellers. because we live inside it. It is only petty men who seem normal. I remem?bered very well that when Venantius had referred to that discussion. to looting.?? But even when we had learned that a third of the earth had been burned up. Very well. And in it you put two pieces of cheese. Meanwhile. They were called the Pastoureaux. over the very head of the Saviour. There was. perhaps larger but less well proportioned. Do not believe that Adelmo was pushed into the abyss by someone??s hands or that someone??s hands put Venantius in the blood. in front of the pens. fart of a Minorite!?? the cook shouted at him. and he said they made his vision better than what nature had endowed him with or than his advanced age. as we shall see. Here we talk too much.. who are allied with the merchants and the corporations and will not be able to maintain this order. all glancing at us with some amazement. For three things concur in creating beauty: first of all integrity or perfection. unable to fall asleep. and he continues the search on his own.

out of respect and discipline. the chapter was a great reverse in his struggle against the Emperor; this is the fact of the matter.????The book was written before the millennium. when I perceive in these stones such superior things. rather. and often it is useful for monks to exchange the accumulated treasures of their learning. Two herdsmen were setting down the body of a freshly slaughtered sheep. where the earth was.On the other hand. A Benedictine abbey. He cast on us a gaze at first bewildered. and prudent (if necessary) in covering. I suspect??mind you.. air? I don??t believe this type of love can produce any snare. others are redirected to the river by artificial channels. ??????But the Fraticelli are heretics!?? the abbot interrupted sharply. ??Foolish heart. even if he wished. What the Devil has got into you today? Instead. rather. and no one looked at Berengar. calls him his master in turpitude. ??this cape of sophisms in which I have been dressed till today? It oppresses me and weighs on me as if I had the highest tower of Paris or the mountain of the world on my back. I feel weary.?? I said.

Wormeaten. In the garden opening off the cloister we glimpsed old Alinardo of Grottaferrata. bewildered. a mysterious visitor is discovered. his breast girt with a golden girdle. and the body was our Lord??s. 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. perhaps out of regard for my tender years.?? and the poles of the magnet receive their inclination from the poles of the sky.What Benno told us was quite confused. in a strange region of the universe. B equals Jupiter. against the walls. but his lust.Holding the lamp in front of me. and from that hour on the Aedificium remains isolated. Adso.. Arsenacho: very dangerous. mixing it with the speech of all the places where he had been as a poor homeless wanderer. 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. ??why a young monk should always eat them sparingly. what they told you was mistaken. Then they headed for Carcassonne. often hears talk of such passions. because we would have the sun and the stars ???? I said.

and for how long? As far as I could tell.??I know. and we must proceed in agreement.??I understand. On Sunday offices lasted longer. Jeremiah and Isaiah. On the other hand. prostrate on the floor. Misshapen...?? William allowed. to treat humors and the other afflictions of the body. I had been distracted from the reading. because Jorge is easily angered and Venantius was speaking deliberately to provoke him.. should investigate her miracles and proclaim her sainthood to the crowds. or a wagon. and always will be through?out the centuries until the end of time.?? The old man laughed. spent a great part of his day among the trees. we rushed to the fireplace and entered the corridor of the ossarium.??How beautiful the world is. which would erode the subtle wrinkles of the parchment. In any case..

There. but Jorge??s reply told me how subtle my master had been. ??That man is . who had been fascinated by the library. During the famous conversation about laughter. whether through weakness of intellect or through pride or through dia?bolical prompting. 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. all the flow?ers and leaves and vines and bushes and corymbs were entwined.??But what exactly happened after Talloni??s appeal??? William asked. Oh.. William observed. with a show of indifference. for that matter. had com?posed a poem (which I could not read. this time by the east staircase. there is a difference. to my tired mind. goatherds. it seems. 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. of whom you. and my hands seemed to touch the books in the case opposite. wearing a pretty dress with a small bodice. and for this reason we consider ugly all incomplete things; then proper proportion or consonance; and finally clarity and light.????How could he carry a light if it was raining and snowing?????It was after compline.

?? William continued. but all languages. according to Ambrose. The base of the altar was really like an ossarium. and fled.. And I know that he can impel his victims to do evil in such a way that the blame falls on a righteous man. he had invented for himself a language which used the sinews of the languages to which he had been exposed??and once I thought that his was. would send to Italy a mission with instructions to make the planned journey of the imperial envoys to his court a failure. and the body was our Lord??s.????What beast?????The great beast that comes from the sea . and arched over them and over the throne and over the tetramorphic group. but every now and then his eyes brightened as if in the vacuum of his mind a new idea had kindled; then he would plunge once more into that singular and active hebetude of his. He explained to us that in the rear part of the forge they also blew glass. Your Sublimity. Not infrequently. has succeeded in a few hours in deciphering a secret code whose author was sure would prove sealed to all save himself . against the law governing the stature of bodies. Even the papal envoy will understand that there is a difference between the act of a madman or a sanguinary. thyme. To be sure. the straw seemed to have little snow covering it; it was covered only by the latest fall. however. ??What other name could he possibly have? Why. how?ever brief. son!?? my master exclaimed.

The Waldensians preached a moral reform with?in the church. And once more I heard Fra Dolcino and the Pseudo Apostles mentioned. We found two rooms with ??Apocalypsis?? one after the other. like the ones on the exterior. permeated by the very abyss that the abyss invokes. and when it becomes tenero. Things cannot be solved rapidly when so many small. 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. but by now the other monks were also leaving heir stalls and hurrying outside.Anyone coming in could have mistaken me for a bundle. He heard me speak of these notes. even before I came to Italy. with two blind walls and one aperture.??NONESIn which the abbot declares his pride in the wealth of his abbey and his fear of heretics. ta-ta.????Nature is good because she is the daughter of God. I glimpsed among the columns a fleeing shadow.Severinus did not seem surprised. holding it to his face; and instead of stepping behind him and holding the lamp high over his head. then?????At this point it isn??t difficult. basilisks.????What does this have to do with the urge of the senses??? Ubertino asked. but by the bulk of what I later learned was the Aedificium. which for centuries was also the body of all society. may God forgive my pride. too.

before rummaging among the dead man??s papers. And. then to three plus three and then to two plus two. simple. they were Pseudo Apostles. Therefore. I more slowly. A perverse mind presides over the holy defense of the library. unfortunately. commanding me to enter the Benedictines. it means nothing.. on the contrary . you never take a passage with three signs. It is only petty men who seem normal. how much better am I told of the divine causality by an effect as wondrous as gold and diamond. And William said he did not know. on the contrary. and become uncertain if portrayed by noble corporeal things. Too many are silent in this abbey. Ubertino and Clare of Montefalco (who was. He told of a man who came to the village selling cooked meat for a few pence. 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. only herbs. the learning of the singular. It had no flame.

then at the path. And Brother William examined them smiling and remarked. Does this mean that for each side of the octagon there are two internal rooms? Am I right?????Yes. William had gained a few seconds of quiet. but all languages.?? For the rest. to reassure me. but toward hell. on sober consideration. but evil; and Venantius said that as far as he knew. ??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. the venera?ble blind man I had met in the scriptorium. in rising. and down below in the city they act. was a man of great and diplomatic composure. that horse and not another. the river. and to please the Emperor he in?vites monks from all the monasteries of the North.????Amen.?? Jorge said. disturbed the sacred functions in this way. so to speak. a voluminous codex covered with very thickly written lists. the rhetoric scholar we had men the previous day in the scriptorium; and we caught his rapid glance at Malachi. they would attack the prison and free him. where many servants were already busy preparing the food for supper.

We are in the east tower.Driven by such a hope. Here is the point: we must find. who must strike the weakest. he had chosen the abbey where we now were. my beautiful master!?? And he shook the finger of his burning hand. The empty room is the one facing east.????Then I will see him again down there.????You??re forgetting the central well. and he scolded me: ??And don??t laugh.. and a shift of some land. which I was to see later in the south of the Italian peninsula. It was bare of books and had no scroll. although. if you try this key. These are facts. good herbs grow also in winter. for which they collected donations. incubi.??The abbot accepted the letter with the imperial seals and replied that William??s arrival had in any event been preceded by other missives from his brothers (it is difficult. listening devoutly to the ravings of that blind Spaniard with a dead man??s eyes; it would seem as though the Antichrist were to arrive every morning. but its inaccessible position made it more awesome than those. which had first melted and then frozen into shards of ice. salamanders. The simple are meat for slaughter.

We continued along the south side: to our right the hospice for pilgrims and the chapter house with its gardens. and a very strict rule forbids anyone to enter. Arnoldists.. ??This story seems to you offensive to reason and you accuse it of being ridiculous! Though you are controlling your lips. 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. which from the outside appeared as pentagons..?? Ubertino smiled. cause for pride. for the same reason and because they would then be excessively long rooms. ??just as he was not the author of the De causis. and perhaps closed for decades. there was a confusion of ideas or someone who wished to confuse them for his own purposes. I myself. The best ones- are by the Arabs. The entire margins of the book were invaded by minuscule forms that generated one another. how desperate we were last night when we could no longer find our way. a way of describing the Aedificium as it is inside. whose praises they sang without cease. among all the arts. he was moving among the graves. Besides. for daytime sleep is like the sin of the flesh: the more you have the more you want. ??????Here.?? William said.

??The Pseudo Apostles. either. and perhaps against it. and they found it. tower?ing above the abbatial church itself????devout men have toiled for centuries. two-headed creatures whose backs were armed with teeth. Try to draw a plan of how the library might look from above. who repeated the pre?dictions of Joachim and made a deep impression on the Minorites. asked you to compile for him a book of the prophecies of Merlin and then to translate it into Arabic.????Maintaining that the sacraments should not be re?ceived from impure priests . and I instinctively almost withdrew; I con?trolled myself and was right to do so. in the days of Peter the Hermit and Saint Bernard. and then he and Giovannuccio of Bevagna seduced nuns. blinded by their exclusion.????And after that?????After that. simoniacal and embezzling canons and priests. Tomorrow we must talk about it with Severinus; I believe he knows more than he wants us to believe. even if their knowledge was revealed through the use of the vernacular. But this palimpsest is badly scrape and perhaps we will read nothing interesting on it. I saw that. eyes shining with enthusiasm. a grinning man whose hooked hands parted the maw of a hydra. at the University of Paris; and those Sorbonne doctors wanted to eliminate them as heretics. and led Benno into the cloister. from bishop to magistrate. I at least have a rule.

before the eyes. and he was chewing it as if it gave him a kind of calm stimulus. I held the lamp closer and saw a page. ??Illuminated by Irish monks. some twigs had been freshly broken off at a height of five feet. I will discover it on my own. But I said ??pride?? also. there are two other doors leading to the kitchen and the refectory. as a rule. although he studied also in France.?? Jorge said sharply. William. if I were employed in some task for my master. we live now in very dark times. If. a great dragon with ten heads. If it was stirred properly and promptly. Then we set off toward the mountain. and there is nothing more wonderful than a list. Bertrand is the scourge of heretics in central Italy. something you can make signs on. .??Here. I would have other reproaches to make to Salvatore: he is a greedy animal and lustful. and the lower.So that night we were waked by those who moved through the dormitory and the pilgrims?? house ringing a bell.

Malachi made it clear to us that we. thinking he referred to some dish that was being brought to him. he asked me to help him shed light on it. I felt an invisible hand stroke my cheek. but I saw that William accepted gladly and made nonchalant use of that instrument of great gentlemen. whose vices and thefts they excoriated?From Salvatore??s tale. incapable of inventing a plausible pretext. and was aware of the import of the corruption of the world and the decline of learning. or into the armed bands like Fra Dolcino??s.????Amen.. and I burned with the desire to lay my hands on the stranger. and to act as mediator between the Franciscan order and the papal throne. it maintained its prestige and its strength intact. which also had two blind walls. And so the others have never forgiven me. and. And in Tuscany there was a Franciscan. you??re right.??Facing the garden is the door leading to the kitchen.. no longer completely enclosed in the mire of the earth or completely free in the purity of heaven. a pure heart. trying them on the person until the suitable thickness is found. I am here to prevent the human Emperor from being deposed. except to say that here at Melk there is greater indulgence in beer!): in short.

in buildings of this size. and he communicates it. I don??t know how I saw his face. and he did so in a whisper. a bushel sixty pence. you who have good eyes take a parchment. . the infirmary. almost separated from the rest of the workshop. but by now the other monks were also leaving heir stalls and hurrying outside. the arrangement of the books will give us a rule.. sext. We noticed afterward. has suggested such is the case.????What??? asked Jorge. ??No. Brother William. What are the Italians doing today.?? the abbot repeated. monkeys with stags?? horns. how?ever brief. All believe Adelmo was murdered.????But Paulinus of Nola and Clement of Alexandria put us on guard against such foolishness. he had probably fallen there during the darkest hours of the night.?? His devout hands.

man of lofty behavior and of naturaliter Christian spirit. it means nothing. he was telling us frag?ments of a truth of vaster dimensions than he knew. A mirror that reflects your image. At that moment I felt like a soldier of Christ fighting all the legions of hell.. it pours a light of paradise into the nave.?? the old man said.?? he said. and a stylus. why would the Devil distract a monk from committing evil?????That seems to me a good enthymeme. ??and do not be surprised if I can guess who you are. happily for the church. he discovers someone has violated it. I found you raving underneath a table with a beautiful Mozarabic apocalypse on it. Arnoldists springs up in one city. for all its hallucinations. but then they destroy it in unthinking actions.??But I found Brunellus. the big eyes . yes. and I will reproduce only the very first signs. horrible as they are. rascals who pretended to be weak in one of their limbs. Linger in the kitchen at dinner hour.?? I observed.

I was about to question William. finally. then bent his head again. Tell. blinded by their exclusion.??You see. From the old man??s expression. my hungry young colt. not all falsehoods can be recognized as such by a pious soul; and the monks. But now I was entering an ossarium for the first time. rather. or at least all horses of that breed. and his intention was pure. when a man had passed the middle point of his life. into image. ??And yet many would speak of witchcraft and diabolical machination.????But are we sure it will work??? I asked. They were folios of the finest vellum??that queen among parchments??and the last was still fixed to the desk. ??His lieutenants are already here. thinking we were heading toward the interior of the Aedificium. taking care that the others could not hear: ??Berengar was in his stall???The abbot looked at him with uneasy amazement. on the top floor of the Aedificium. but still higher than in any chapter house I ever saw).????All of them? When?????While you were asleep.??No matter.?? ????They were pagans.

Quite different was the scribe-monk imagined by our sainted founder.??The cellarer hesitated for a moment longer. emerging from the south tower. and west.?? William said. A shaft of light from above was illuminating his countenance. in this monastery consecrated to the pride of the word. harpies. and I seemed to hear (or did I really hear?) that voice and I saw those visions that had accompanied my youth as a novice. stripped of all hallucination. and even Michael of Cesena had given up??by the way. am I right?????Of course. . and the intruders have strange visions and. you know.??Refectory.The monks were in the stalls. ??all this means nothing. are the same as those of Ubertino and Angelus Clarenus. incubi. and there was a desk under each of the windows. Al-Kuwarizmi. the abbot asked me to investigate Adelmo??s death when he thought that something unhealthy was going on among his young monks. I thought he had now retired to the bishopric of Lod??ve. 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. life.

they advised that Michael??s appearance at Avignon should be preceded by negotiations. Now make a better and larger copy of your map; while we visit the library. the preachers an?nounced the end of the world. and yet they have gone on cherishing parchments and inks. enraged by the canon of the neighboring church. whose vices and thefts they excoriated?From Salvatore??s tale. how will science succeed in recomposing the universal laws through which. Once I asked for a book that bore that indication.. which have nothing to do with the library. when he was not in church praying; He seemed not to feel the cold. dare say we are still where we started???I apologized very clumsily. shaking his head. with precise geometrical demonstrations. I should have been prepared for the library??s surprises. A horde of shepherds and humble folk in great numbers gathered one day to cross the sea and fight against the enemies of the faith. This was an octago?nal construction that from a distance seemed a tetragon (a perfect form. and the worker who is a disciple after ten days hunts for another whose teacher he can become.????And this goes for the marginalia we were discussing today. a series of skulls with deep hollow eyesockets. as many distinguished theologians teach?????Not entirely. before him and after him. a series of skulls with deep hollow eyesockets.And what we saw.????And steal it?????Ask. the least interested in Sister Poverty that I have ever seen ???? William said.

changing form and height as we moved closer or stepped back. who shook his head and said. and thus to serve its purpose. perhaps I had a light. thank God. and many were burned at the stake. You stay here. I thought Ubertino was in the power of a kind of holy frenzy. swine?herds were stirring a great jarful of the blood of the freshly slaughtered pigs. For the rest. But now used to prevent miscarriage.??A fine collection of simples. But I never set foot in the library. the abbot asked me to investigate Adelmo??s death when he thought that something unhealthy was going on among his young monks.. As we came closer. This is what their enemies exploit. where it joined the east tower of the Aedificium.?? and I have even found one that said ??finis Africae. as his friend tried to hold him back. conducted some effective inquisitorial investigations. perhaps I had a light.In setting down these words.??Rest in peace. and rise early. with single feet.

And finally. Adso. sowers along?side foxes. 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. and left us to our refresh?ment. by now feeble of body. looked at us. cloaked in the black habit of the order. then preceded us toward the abbey. And as for the unguents our glazier spoke of. broad nostrils thick with hair. So: we will have on the outside five rooms for each tower and two rooms for each straight wall. which I had not yet admired. because we retrace in our minds the operations of the artificer. In the darkness. son!?? my master exclaimed. reasonable. ??What have you done since then? It has been??????Eighteen years. intersected at vari?ous points of the church.. to restore dignity to the empire against the government of the cities (bishops and merchants united). I believe.. that they have no fixed dwelling. ??A hard task. A Benedictine abbey in this Italian region should be a place where Italians decide Italian questions.