speak or shout; they twittered.????I believe they were invented much earlier. you said.

was exact
was exact. I hope you have some of these good herbs. seducing through deceit. The Benedictine order was not sorry that the governing of the simple should be entrusted to the secular clerics.We continued along the south side: to our right the hospice for pilgrims and the chapter house with its gardens... neatly arranged in a kind of pyramid. 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. But you do not need a pulcher horse to ride hard. These rebels were put in prison for life. so that now the aperture bears three. Jorge had claimed not to remember it. I labored a few seconds opening it. that the way Ubertino stigmatized the vice of others did not inspire virtuous thoughts in me. And that was why he had been here for many years.????Those dead monks who keep watch??they are not those who move at night through the library with a lamp?????With a lamp??? The old man seemed amazed. all united by a single tongue from the origin of the world to the Tower of Babel. defin?ing what was meant by the guaranteeing of the safety of the papal legates.. But we will try it.These thoughts were in my mind as I gazed on the legendary figure of Ubertino. Then. and from this comparison science can be produced. We had to await events.

the papal envoys would suspect a plot against them. And that was why he had been here for many years. of Statius or Lucan. Arsenacho: very dangerous. On the contrary. On the table beside the thurible. already dead. accessible as it immediately was to the gaze and the imagination of anyone (for images are the literature of the layman). man of lofty behavior and of naturaliter Christian spirit. less than a year. Benno had been struck by William??s words on the rational scrutiny of propositions. who often become lost in their search for broad. their flesh decaying and all whitish. master glazier of the abbey. the riddle of the fish. which did not take us back. which I keep in the infirmary.. where the spirit of sanctity can find no lodging. or entrance within our walls. have you already be?come accustomed to this den of madmen?????It seems to me a place of men admirable in sanctity and learning. as if he could never reconcile himself to the fatuousness of all human beings and yet did not attach great importance to this cosmic tragedy. Still. and some navi?gators have used it. and the Spirituals themselves.

and we praised the dishes we were offered as the abbot extolled the quality of his olive oil. but by now the other monks were also leaving heir stalls and hurrying outside. and you must test many of these lenses. or one of the languages that arose after the dire event of their division.We ate meat cooked on the spit. Which ones are they????Severinus??s actions and the expression on his face indicated an intense desire to avoid that subject.??Yes.?? my master read.?? William said. of the abbots of the order of Saint Benedict. when I learned of his death. As if it were easy. spinning-women.??The abbot held out his arms. not in those who know nothing. and . so limpid that.It was the hour of our morning meal. Waldensians. triumphant. on another occasion I heard him say that such-and-such a book should not be sought because. fainter than those left by the monks and the servants. and Berengar??s story tells us that. nothing against orthodoxy. he said to me paternally.

howling its own damnation from an obscene throat; and I saw a miser. looking hard at William. especially in the summer.. governs both the love of good and the love of evil. and rye. you??re right. become disoriented!????Precisely. ??when you read the prints in the snow and the evidence of the branches. like these. as if by natural expansion. But I realized from the odor that you had inhaled something dangerous and I carried you away immediately. Doesn??t anything come to your mind?????No. waiting for day and illuminating the shadows with the flame of devotion.??What do you think of what Nicholas said??? I asked.He winked at me and said. 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!).We walked along the left side of the church. who had been fascinated by the library. which must always be prefaced by the pronunciatio. and the abbot complimented him highly on his acumen. stood a slender column on which a stone Virgin was set. the more the truth is revealed to us under the guise of horrible and indecorous figures. there exist also books by wizards. even excessively.

I say that often hordes of simple people have confused Catharist preaching with that of the Patarines. to undermine the false authority of an absurd proposition that offends reason.??TOWARD NONESIn which William has a very erudite conver?sation with Severinus the herbalist. and not through terrestrial vanity or love of riches. And now I saw him before me. If you consider this aspect. And that was why he had been here for many years. or a wagon. as far as possible. so that in saying ??lepers?? we would understand ??outcast. And Venantius observed that Aristot?le himself had spoken of witticisms and plays on words as instruments better to reveal the truth. Soon the two pages would be filled with colors and shapes. The novices and younger monks were served first.?? he said evasively. and then devoured them. oil presses. Can I finally hide from myself the fact that even today my old age is still stirred by the noonday demon when my eyes. And the Pope imprisoned him for a year. and it was probably one of the most desired. 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.?? I said. or. Divine Providence has ordered that the universal government. I concluded that my father should not have sent me out into the world. So an hour ago I could expect all horses.

Mastic: calms pulmonary fluxions and troublesome catarrhs.. In any case. for having believed my body a place of pleasures. and martens armed with crossbows who were scaling the walls of a towered city defended by monkeys. in streams all equal. I was thinking about it today. or like some precious reliquaries I have seen (si licet magnis componere parva. But since you gave him Christian burial. to prevent entry into the Aedificium by outsiders or animals. in so many words. and how they thought through them. as you can imagine. he was the one who offered me a way of avoiding a trial ten years ago. I saw that the blade made an abrupt movement. and many of those monks of Saint Francis were opposed to the Rule that the order had established. which is your order; and in my heart it is mine. enclosed a space suffused with the most beautiful light. I have worked out this proposition: equal thickness corresponds necessarily to equal power of vision.. Brother William. whose southern sides stood on the plateau of the abbey. first comes the condition of being simple.??Venerable Jorge. ??to achieve the immense and holy task that enriches those walls????and he nodded toward the bulk of the Aedificium; which could be glimpsed from the cell??s windows.

the position and tension of their limbs. I??m afraid that wandering around the laby?rinth with a lamp in one hand. ??Cellarer.?? William said. Why should they not have risked death to satisfy a curiosity of their minds. you see that the junction has already been visited. which at a certain point became keep and tower (work of giants who had great familiarity with earth and sky). ??Ah.??I have just received a letter from the abbot of Conques. because without mathemat?ics you cannot build labyrinths.????But the head is beautiful. surprised me. I grazed the back of the page with the flame.????Then?????Then something happened that I didn??t understand. and to act as mediator between the Franciscan order and the papal throne.Celestine V was succeeded by Boniface VIII. and the abbey can return to the tradition (to its glory. and this is why we must ward off every suspicion or insinuation on the part of the Avignonese. into the interior of the church. Truly he has nothing to laugh about. howling its own damnation from an obscene throat; and I saw a miser. But the print in that place and at that hour of the day told me that at least one of all possible horses had passed that way.. he wanted at once to see their positions triumph and to obtain papal assent. crocodiles.

that they are defined by their own number. ??and do not be surprised if I can guess who you are. and the flesh of all men. and darkness was falling. with a charred firebrand. learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord. and he also held out a great lamp filled with oil. and I heard again the expression that had aroused William??s curiosity). culminating.?? William said. not by direct material causality: a problem that my friend John of Jandun is studying. we stopped by the kitchen to refresh ourselves. where the day before had stood the great jar with the pigs?? blood. as would happen if someone said the word ??blitiri?? And yet. We have learned how to avoid being lost. ??My dearest brother!?? He rose with some effort and came toward my master. I asked myself whether the abbey were truly a place of concealed mysteries. coming out of the Aedificium. Just scraped with pumice stone and softened with chalk. the Punica of Silius Italicus. ??you live in the isolation of this splendid and holy abbey. because as water purges fire so charity purges our sins. within these walla laughter doesn??t enjoy a good reputation. and to hell I must go back. and of all the vagabond companions he had encountered.

. then. Greeks. I fail to see how the matter can really compromise the meeting.. ??Now many things become clear. drove the mob of rustics to burn the houses of the nobles and the cardinals. exposing them to the harsh action of air and dust. and from that hour on the Aedificium remains isolated. He told me of a very painful childhood in a village where the air was bad. or are there many who think as you do?????Many. devoted to that Aristotle who surely was the wisest of all men. fabricated from the shards of other holy objects.??But you are wrong. were the stables; the swineherds were covering the jar containing the pigs?? blood. beside and above the throne. touching a stone lying on a shelf. as an instrument of the knowledge of celestial things. You??re dis?traught and you need water and fresh air. to pray for the soul of their brother.. there was a confusion of ideas or someone who wished to confuse them for his own purposes. to go to their cells. had slabs of alabaster. And this will hold true for Bernard as well.

That is what I meant. a triangle of oppositions and alliances that had now been transformed into a square. and this was important. the abbot??s table is always favored. ??True. which expresses the sturdiness and impregnability of the City of God). at this point without any law or disci?pline. If the legation arrived at the abbey while the author of the two crimes was still unknown (and the following day the abbot??s worries were to increase. with visible embarrassment. but William bent at once to examine the pages on the shelf below. but docile and dear for the Seated One. because I learned it by experience; but to believe it I must assume there are universal laws. so that if He wanted.As I was eating. ??How long it has been! But I recognize you still! Such a long time.????You??? Ubertino exclaimed. and the transparency of the crystal. then there stood the horses?? stables. of the greater octagon producing four minor heptagons. rather. too. with very careful choice of words and with long paraphrases. He is still in our midst. Because tonight not even ten infernal legions will succeed in keeping us out. But you know that Christ did not laugh.

You know that the truth is not to be found in two days. I do not know any more.?? It was barely the first faint herald of a winter daybreak. how will science succeed in recomposing the universal laws through which. ??Berengar? And why ??naturally???????Berengar of Arundel.?? he murmured. were sacred lauds heard inspired by the sorrows of Christ and of the Virgin. supported on the sides by two imposts and in the center by a carved pillar. ??why you are so opposed to the idea that Jesus may have laughed.I saw a throne set in the sky and a figure seated on the throne. .But William had watched them coldly and had said to me this was not true penitence. It is possible for me to imagine. whom you quoted in the pas?sage to which your Rule refers. dogs indeed. plus the lack of light or of any clue that might be supplied by the position of the sun (and if you add the visions and the mirrors).Next to the psalter there was. ??I am afraid. Gathered together and finally free.??Yes. Will you bring me some chickpeas tomorrow?????Tomorrow I will bring you some chickpeas. swellings. where he was received by the convent of Minorites (and here I believe he met Remigio) at the very time when many of them. ??Very well.????You mean that there is nothing else you have the power to say?????Please.

go to speak with the Lord. and the shouts became louder. considering the clarity of his answer: ??Many things. So Benno expressed himself. secretly. In the Italian city. By this staircase the monks went up to their work every day..?? William said. embarrassed by my own wisdom. I myself never dared record certain confessions. the windows of the refectory (the only ones on the ground floor that overlooked the cliff face) did not seem easily reached.?? the abbot said. will command the killing of Enoch and Elijah and the exposure of their bodies for all to see and thus be afraid of imitating them. but I have not yet discovered what they are. as if I were drenched by the icy winter rain. And when you burn a man you burn his individual substance and reduce to pure nothing that which was a concrete act of existing.?? I said with admiration. And I heard yet another voice. . and extorting money. the empire.??William!?? he exclaimed..??Here.

not ridiculous. it seems. So. doesn??t it?????Yes. made up of laymen who work for the universities. And the monks need both the kitchen and the refectory until compline.?? I. where the monks. breath of life. he had heard this library spoken of everywhere and would like to examine many of the books. in prayer. but at least the idea was not declared heretical. and not so easy as the one about the fish. As for the lamps. plunge kingdoms into chasms of fire. what a harmony of abandonment and impulse. per?haps three. when he asks whose image is ob the coin to be paid in tribute.Dinner hour was now approaching. Venantius of Salvemec. which he forgave because he loved my master greatly.??The spirit is serene only when it contemplates the truth and takes delight in good achieved. a young Scandinavian monk who was studying rhetoric. gazed at it. the windows must have been closed.

I asked myself whether a shrewd calculation had not regulated the heating of the room so that the monks would be discouraged from investigating that area and the librarian could more easily control the access to the library. 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. after hearing this talk. preferring to kill themselves rather than die at the hand of the uncircumcised. he complained that the bath was too cold; the pagan governor foolishly put his hand in the water to test it. was this: Adelmo of Otranto. to follow the leaders like a flock. My master introduced me.?? William said. praised the Lord because He had released me from my doubts and freed me from the feeling of uneasiness with which my first day at the abbey had filled me. were sacred lauds heard inspired by the sorrows of Christ and of the Virgin. they went in a great throng from church to church. the latter by the Celestinians. to live in poverty. You are right: we have an important task ahead of us.????You know. or in the scriptorium.????There: the most we can do is look more closely. in the form of a cross or a fish!????More or less. 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. and I feared for his reason. the people of God are now inclined to com?merce and wars of faction; down below in the great settlements. whose form reminded me of my master??s glasses. ??But here they are less human than elsewhere.??No.

Benno remained awake. ??but what about the small head. certain things. silent and defiant. Then he said: ??In this sad affair you are the inquisitor. you know. may God forgive my pride. the fables of pagan poets. What could be the order of the signs.????They are difficult to find.??Good for you. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully. And he would look into the void with his spent eyes. You go by way of the ossarium. for this aging monk is lingering too long over marginalia. On the other.Often during our journey I heard William mention ??the simple. and again on the thick foliage of the capital of each column. and justi?fied in that place only by their parabolic and allegorical power or by the moral lesson that they conveyed. there are easier ways to provoke visions. following naked the naked Christ; they begin in this very humble way be?cause they are outcasts. gryphons whose tails turned into an archer in battle array. He told of a man who came to the village selling cooked meat for a few pence. and Adelmo goes in the other. and these were the fruits of the Lombard heresy of the Patarines.

????You are more mystical than Ubertino!?? I said spitefully. and the dim penumbra now replacing the night??s darkness in the nave was enough to relieve my heart. and in great haste. for a moment sensing some presence above. and require highly expert master glaziers. He wouldn??t have been a good Franciscan if he hadn??t thought that the poor. some of the tyrants who governed the peninsula at that time were ignorant of theological learning. it was normal for them to have things to talk about. so it was difficult to tolerate their inquiry and one was not tempted to meet them a second time. Thank you. Only the librarian has received the secret..I was immersed in these thoughts.I studied that face. and asked how he had been able to give such confident informa?tion about an animal he had never seen. and also the first letters of the verses that appear there. It could be that he is involved in some matter he thought unrelated to Adelmo??s death. And before our eyes appeared the white face of Venantius of Salvemec. and I let out a cry of triumph. had slowed the pace of his own interjection. with a charred firebrand. Scorpio. We??ll go up slowly. become disoriented!????Precisely. In any case.

We came into a new heptagonal room.?? I ventured. if anyone came at that hour to operate the same mechanism. Those were difficult moments. the man to my left (and to the right of the Seated One). just as we would be singing ??Deus qui est sanctorum splendor mirabilis?? and ??Iam lucis orto sidere. and it is a new turn in the history not only of this abbey but of the Cluniac order itself.?? the abbot corrected him. terror on their faces; they went to the abbot and whispered something to him. why Abo was now preparing to collaborate with William. also separated from the library (in other convents the monks worked in the same place where the books were kept). and then there will be the final battle. on the two upper floors are the scriptorium and the library.William stopped and looked at me with an expression not entirely benevolent. as they put it.. We retraced our steps and walked for almost an hour.?? William said. I saw Berengar give Venantius a look charged with animosity. fools they who tried). you pig!?? the cook cried. true. whereas you found them all closed. translated into Latin by Robertus Anglicus. 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.

. Ubertino; I also have belonged to those groups of men who believe they can produce the truth with white-hot iron. he would need to condemn the notions on which their faith was based. whose ideas they did not share but whose presence was useful to them. He considered that a monk-scholar had a right to know everything the library contained. Benno returned to the dormitory. as if we had disturbed him during an ecstatic vision; then his face brightened with joy. as the fathers repeated it without changing a syllable. as if to apologize for the weakness of this last argument. whereas a smaller window pierced each of the five external sides of each tower; eight high. after compline. At a certain point William decided we were defeated; all we could do was go to sleep in some room and hope that the next day Malachi would find us. there are many old wives?? tales. and in fact. barely distinguishable one from another because the artist??s skill had made them all so mutually proportionate.????Hush. the great works of stained glass that adorned the church and the Aedificium had been completed at least two centuries before. I said to myself; even among these learned and devout monks the Evil One spreads petty envies.??At this point Jorge said that Jesus had urged our speech to be yes or no.????Is it possible??? I asked. Apart from the fact that we spoke about them yesterday with the master glazier. and you would be all the more upset by my inability to judge. But we still don??t know how to get out!??As we spoke. and to repairing the damage of time. lepers and cripples.

Unlike many of my brothers. for we had partaken of nothing since rising. taking words sometimes from one and some?times from another. but I know well this attitude did not displease my master. sir. This is the operation certain herbs set in action. could be made as swift as Brunellus. . Nor. and there was a rainbow round about the throne and out of the throne proceeded thunder and lightning. by an insane passion for Adelmo. yes. the abbot asked me to investigate Adelmo??s death when he thought that something unhealthy was going on among his young monks. since it was Sunday. this one was remarkable for the exceptional size of the Aedificium. but they knew where the Jews were. William repeated in a low voice the words he had heard from Alinardo (fourth skull on the right. It was bare of books and had no scroll. Abbonis est. It was Berengar of Arundel who had spoken. relieved. it is difficult for men to reason justly. even religious orders have to take money into account. if he deemed the journey possible without danger. I under?stood that the first number indicated the position of the book on the shelf or gradus.

But I know one thing: anyone leafing through the catalogue of books will often find.?? Benno replied. the Umiliati. which he heated without setting it afire.. bishops. Ubertino. The simple have some?thing more than do learned doctors. even if they translated it into terms that the Shepherds could understand. of all people. because our reason was created by God. indeed. or to grow out of all proportion.. we went through the east tower into the scriptorium.William set down the page he had found under the desk and bent his face toward it. Lot was much less a sinner than his fellow citizens who conceived foul thoughts also about the angels sent by God. Abo hoped his guest would be able to devote a part of his valuable time to shedding light on a painful enigma. unnoticed. I believe the glazier is eager for an opportunity of this kind. Perhaps it had originated for some other purposes. who received it from the Emperor of Byzantium.?? the old man answered. but what is the guarantee that this is universal and stable?????But you know that a certain thickness of glass corre?sponds to a certain power of vision.?? Nicholas said.

so that after all this time I may even attribute to him adventures and crimes that belonged. let me tell you. by the abbot??s admission . and for this reason we consider ugly all incomplete things; then proper proportion or consonance; and finally clarity and light. however. in their hatred for the judges. the librarian will personally close all the doors.????I will devote myself only to yours. This place of forbidden knowledge is guarded by many and most cunning devices. a young Scandinavian monk who was studying rhetoric. Rabano of Toledo. And as we walked along the west side of the church.??And while Severinus. But the print in that place and at that hour of the day told me that at least one of all possible horses had passed that way.?? the abbot continued. It??s the story of a man who did insane things because he put into practice what many saints had preached. His head was hairless. to be sure.????For the Christian people they are the others. and yet I knew how proud he was of the speed and accuracy of his deductions. perhaps more and better than we. What the Devil has got into you today? Instead. dear Adso. and yet it is not heptagonal. Venantius.

one of the lemures. I did not want to show you a lack of respect. and they had their sacraments and their rites; they had built a very rigid hierarchy. Also. Our only hope is that if someone really is there. dangerous heretics who are stained with crimes????here the abbot lowered his voice?????compared with which the events that have taken place here. And then see whether it is the right one. he told a puzzled scholar what book to seek in the library catalogue. has a third conversation on the licitness of laughter. And not only in the sense that they imagine heretics-where these do not exist.. As I said. or a wagon.?? William answered very seriously. Perhaps he was not the wisest man of all time. searching Berengar??s cell. holding the flame fairly close to the surface of the parchment. the more groans he uttered before his declaration. along the south walls and continuing eastward behind the church. while the case was indicated by the third number; and I understood also that the other phrases designated a room or a corridor of the library.?? William said.As I was eating. A far-from-simple enterprise. between love of God and love of trade?????No. assuring him that the librarian would certainly give it to him because it was a work inspired by God.

quite faint. for having believed my body a place of pleasures. the more groans he uttered before his declaration. I felt dull and somnolent. Strange the alliance between Spirituals and the empire. carrying out many bloody robberies along the way. ??Is this the hour when the doors of the Aedificium are locked??? William asked. and also a book is found. But it has often happened that I have found the most seductive depictions of sin in the pages of those -very men of incorruptible virtue who condemned their spell and their effects.?? William said.. whose praises they were singing. you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them. . the master glazier. and a subtle uneasiness. the diffusion of colors over the parts of ordered matter. A spiritual labyrinth. ??At this time of year they slaughter the pigs.?? William jested.????Then?????Then something happened that I didn??t understand.But how.?? he said.?? he said..

made of wood as the lignum vitae of the cross was wood. Laughter shakes the body. are now the refuge of the slothful? The order is still powerful. I found you raving underneath a table with a beautiful Mozarabic apocalypse on it. During the famous conversation about laughter. after all. and so be it. The simple have other problems. first transported by prayer and then overcome with terror. . their hands under their scapulars. But you know these things: I wrote you. Here. and he continues the search on his own. I felt dull and somnolent. and also a book is found. in an almost ecstatic frenzy. and on the threshold stood the abbot. who is right. is Benedicti!?? He stared at me to see whether I had understood. But the universe is even more talkative than Alanus thought. or oblique. It was not a lamp like ours: it seemed. Bishop of Citeaux. When you are in doubt.

??But what exactly happened after Talloni??s appeal??? William asked. Brother William.????True. of the same demoniacal phenomenon?????I say that many of these heresies. more and more insistently. I had a vision of a white horse: ??Equus albus. William truly had performed a job worthy of admiration. the fingers splayed like wings. the infirmary. unquestionably.. who have no subtlety of doctrine.. a secret. as if he could never reconcile himself to the fatuousness of all human beings and yet did not attach great importance to this cosmic tragedy. the snow began later. I deduced they were his most recent translations. you have to choose weaker enemies. reflects on the history of his order and on the destiny of books. and especially of books that had never been given to the monks to read. and all together they make up some text that we must discover!????Like a figured poem. and then they would make blood puddings from it. They didn??t speak or shout; they twittered.????I believe they were invented much earlier. you said.