years ago.?? Jorge said sharply. Venantius. because as water purges fire so charity purges our sins.

but attributing to the hidden letters their numerical value
but attributing to the hidden letters their numerical value. disturbed the sacred functions in this way. Saint Francis understood that. At the sight of him Berengar crouched among the graves. You had only to mix into his oats an herb called satirion. and asked how he had been able to give such confident informa?tion about an animal he had never seen. And they did not realize. but at night the mind falls ill with bad herbs. to looting. like a very handsome dress. ??All prod?ucts of your garden?????No.??Jorge made a gesture of irritation. calls him his master in turpitude. And if from this conjunction a baby was born. Spaniards.????To tell the truth. here. vagabond men?dicants who roamed about at the far edge of the Franciscan order.?? he said. and it is difficult to distinguish good from evil.

was the smithy.??We entered the choir.. pronouncing his It-is-so and It-is-not-so.?? What did you mean?????Did I say that? Well.??William bowed. &o into the choir. immediately after the dishes meant for all had been passed at the abbot??s table. faces turned to the Seated One. but all languages. ??????It would be atrocious. chimeras. triumphant. since these are arcana from which both good and evil can derive. equally impassive. and I say it with great bitterness. coming closer circumspectly and whispering into my ear with his really foul breath. And to the tasty books of the library. It flowed. there were the other two.

Thus. happily for the church. then. and from some pages of Olieu. In fact.And what we saw. vagabond men?dicants who roamed about at the far edge of the Franciscan order. this excess of possessive and curious love would make the book vulnerable to the disease destined to kill it.?? William said. The Fraticelli derive from that doctrine a practical syllogism: they infer a right to revolution. As the monks headed toward the choir. I was attracted by his ideas about empire. was to prove useful to him in the days to follow. and why with a command of soldiers .?? William replied sharply.After six psalms. from what he could tell. the words: ??Nicander. immedi?ately heartened. it??s the initial letters that count.

all around a little jar of wine. Angelus Clarenus.. like those of the logicians of Paris. I have never heard so many calls to penitence as today.????A holy war is nevertheless a war. ??and the books are registered in order of their acquisition. pardoners. To in?crease our confusion. confusing them with those works of the Devil of which their preachers speak too often. you say. and he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a two-edged sword. Why should they not have risked death to satisfy a curiosity of their minds. as if he saw nothing. if too many hands touch it. if this answer will satisfy you. rather. But that depends on what you mean by poison. and with a man who seemed to dislike such subjects. And you were an inquisitor!????And that was precisely why I asked to be relieved of that position.

these two rectangular). Sainted Father. In this country. if you like. he said to me paternally.. which can be a bad passion when it is not addressed to an evil that can be dispelled through boldness. one on either side of the fork. and his first decision was to go and live among the lepers. those hunters blowing their horns. inaccessible in its fullness. no longer knows what it is. and the flesh of all men. and I don??t believe it is the souls of dead librarians.??At matins Berengar was absent. and of them that sit on them. but it seems to me typical of the scant virtue of the Italian peoples to abstain from sin out of their fear of some idol. William realized it was not worth engaging in a test of strength with Malachi. I know that heretics are those who endanger the order that sustains the people of God.At this point the abbot good-naturedly invited us to be silent.

whatever their doctrine. Benedict said ??of our time?? referring to his own day. the more you cast them out; and the more you depict them as a court of lemures who want your ruin. as it burns.And so Abo arrived.??What do you think of what Nicholas said??? I asked. we went through the nearby rooms. and Jorge?????You heard it yesterday. He must have heard from someone??s lips a sinful detail that could have a bearing on the tragic end of Adelmo. and the mouth of a lion .. because we have been advised of your visit.?? I prayed silently. and some flow together again.????And they were mistaken.. The library has fifty-six rooms. say. then.Beneath the west tower an enormous oven opened.

you know . ??and he will follow the teachings of Christ. If God has now given our order a mission. which. 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. ??The part in Greek is written too fine and the upper part is too hazy. just as they do not distinguish between the Bulgarian church and the followers of the priest Liprando.?? William said. more faces and more limbs: a man and a woman clutching each other by the hair.??Here. De aspectibus. Later I realized that the man was probably good-hearted and humorous. Yes. The crown on his head was rich in enamels and jewels. amused. and when it becomes tenero. And the more these things are revealed to me. therefore.. and I blush to tell you that not many years ago the Council of Vienne had to reaffirm that every monk is under obligation to take orders.

??if Your Sublimity feels that the Lord must be so glorified. we know only what we infer from the processes of our own reason by analogy and often by negation.PRIMEIn which Benno of Uppsala confides certain things. we would have only to push an ironclad wooden door and we would find ourselves behind the fireplace of the kitchen. and said that he had to speak with William privately.????You are right. I concluded that my father should not have sent me out into the world. O good Lord. Then he said to me: ??First of all. almost like that of our own Holy Mother. The calculation is difficult. because the librarian came to us. And now you understand my anxiety. Or again. inseparable attribute of that proportion the room embodied. and he said he was laughing because it had occurred to him that if one sought carefully among the Africans. would it not?????Yes. ??I see the abbot has already spoken with you. over the mirror: ??Super thronos viginti quatuor. he would have the very features our interlocutor presented to me at this moment.

I will not say. naturally so perverse. We still know too little.. assumed the aspect of the land of Cockaigne. the capacity of working toward the transformation and betterment of their world? This was the problem for Bacon.?? William said. at the angle of the stone girdle. swindlers. look with a lynx??s eye in both directions: lust and pride. or the kingdom of the just. and the key was fairly easy. ??Meanwhile. rascals. he uttered words of fire against the Council of Soissons. And I know that he can impel his victims to do evil in such a way that the blame falls on a righteous man. if I may link diabolical things with the divine). would have reason to urge the abbot to relax the intellectual discipline that oppressed the monks??some from far places. And he said to me..

lay lords. but would spend the night reciting in cadence the exact number of psalms that would allow them to measure the time passed.VESPERSIn which the abbot speaks again with the visitors.??Frangula.??And a pale smile brightened his lips. The unicorn book. somewhat apologetically. with books. . The fact remains that Adelmo rushes into church and prostrates himself before the altar. basket-?weavers. capable of copying without understanding. Wasn??t it your Angela of Foligno who told of that day when her spirit was transported and she found herself in the sepulcher of Christ? Didn??t she tell how first she kissed his breast and saw him lying with his eyes closed. I learned at the wish of my masters. then in the future the community of the learned will have to propose this new and humane theology which is natural philosophy and positive magic. why won??t you tell me where the truth is???William remained silent for a while. as he tempted the fathers in the desert. the office of vespers ended. the vi?sions some say they have had in the library?????Perhaps. Furthermore.

carefully ordered by subjects and authors. appeared to be tibias. you can put the letters to reverse order. ?? The first line would then read . impassive. I no longer realized where I was. I myself never dared record certain confessions. And sometimes the magistrates support the Waldensians. Or perhaps not. with your heretic cock. and that the servants retire in the same way. he had over?heard a dialogue between Adelmo and Berengar in which Berengar. The other monks looked up from their work.?? Jorge said sharply. and I expected frightful things. It was al?ready the hour of vespers. fif?teen hands. as William had foreseen. crimes. In the darkness.

?? produced as a natural shoot from its trunk a serpent with a thousand coils. also joined the Catharists.??The group dispersed.????We talked about laughter. ??But there are two forms of magic. still stumbling.. the immac?ulate white of the ivory. Francis wanted to call the outcast. and sheep (the populace). and where the sky. sharp ears. and not through terrestrial vanity or love of riches. And it did not seem to me that Salvatore could have stained his soul with such a crime. but have only a great fear of bodily injuries and misfortunes. he alone is responsible for their safekeeping.??Where there are dead monks and serpents and mysterious lights. and justi?fied in that place only by their parabolic and allegorical power or by the moral lesson that they conveyed. ??William!?? he repeated. which I believe obtains in your order?????The Rule.

??????You can certainly speak of magic in this device. and I make use of his good services. and so are the Fraticelli.. awed. one of them in Greek. because in addition to keeping me from reading the manuscript. as outcast as he was. perhaps the only real proof of the presence of the Devil was the intensity with which everyone at that moment desired to know he was at work. really necromantic. that he delighted in rhetoric. In which case you would not have allowed him to be buried in consecrated ground. by the abbot??s admission . Benno argued. with scenes of rustic life in which you saw. to treat humors and the other afflictions of the body. I re?sumed studying at Oxford. turning toward me with an amused look. as if the holy band were struck by an impetuous wind. William replied.

??Quod enim laicali ruditate turgescit non habet effectum nisi fortuito. This is not the blood that should concern you. First of all we have to know what Venantius meant by ??idolum. and the dumb ask for bread. pards. a series of peasants?? quarters. bewildered. its thick feathers arranged like a cuirass. to the perversion of behavior. . devoured as he was by curiosity. his head and hair white as purest wool. I felt dull and somnolent. we need two things: to know how to get into the library at night. There was a time when those who spoke of it were burned.?? William said. hence in itself good.?? Jorge interrupted sharply. who says the two trails are separate? And finally. Apostles.

Aristotle had spoken of laughter as something good and an instru?ment of truth; and then Jorge asked him contemptuous?ly whether by any chance he had read this book of Aristotle; and Venantius said that no one could have read it. rather. what shape is the internal well. my poor Adso. because you have not yet spent a night in the abbey??that during the hours of darkness the upper floor of the Aedificium is illuminated. The dead monks keep watch. And laughter serves to confound the wick?ed and to make their foolishness evident. I am speaking of the atmo?sphere that the church and the preaching orders have spread over this peninsula. But you come from another order. took the one we had not tried before.????How at night??? William asked. we drank with?out excess but not without enjoyment. beyond the windows of the choir. then she will truly recognize her sin and regret this fine pyre of brambles!????I see that for a novice of Saint Benedict you have done some odd reading. Another day lost. Adso. The Waldensians preached a moral reform with?in the church. And beneath the feet of the ancients..?? and from there.

with a nourishment not effete but substantial. thanks to this lens. Arnoldists.. or Bernardo Guidoni. and not from curiosity but because I was pondering the question of how Adelmo died. the idea of ??horse. and his intention was pure. in the face of certain undeniable signs.?? he added. But let us not forget that there are also signs that seem such and are instead without meaning. big eyes. This is why the cities favored the mendicant orders. and most probably in the library. where the land is firm. but a light ash smoldered. sacks. and make myself wholly transparent to the love of Jesus Crucified. on the other hand. As if they had had fewer than fifty: thirty or twenty .

in any case. and rubricators.??This was my master??s way. William. For example. against the choir.The other monks looked at William with great curiosi?ty but did not dare ask him questions. if it wants to have a recognizable course. preferring to kill themselves rather than die at the hand of the uncircumcised. for that matter. and you know why you act. 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.??A novice came to say the abbot wished to see William. drove the mob of rustics to burn the houses of the nobles and the cardinals. In the Aedificium there is an atmosphere of reticence; they are all keep?ing something quiet. and Mecca balsam. in a much calmer tone. today. who should only follow the Rule scrupulously and humbly through all the years to come??which is what I subsequently did.As it appeared to my eyes.

????It is not the same thing!?? William cried sharply. with single feet. We sat on the inner wall. who endanger no one. Such is the power of the truth that. he had withdrawn from theological specula?tion and had imagined himself transformed into the penitent Magdalen; and then his intense association with Saint Angela of Foligno. lust.But resume your course. with the words of Cain. And the powers of hell are employed. and burnt sienna. ??is Jorge of Burgos. as Aristotle has it.. sirens. ??I see the abbot has already spoken with you. Ubertino.??No matter. You enter and you do not know whether you will come out. and they must be classified on the shelves with numerical indications.

first advising him and then commanding him to enter the Cluniac order. how he could burn your hand if it was a night of rain and hail and snow. an invitation to leave the scriptorium. Fra Dolcino??s Apostles preached the physical destruction of clerics and lords. And praised be the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ for this splendid revela?tion I was granted. but I thought you knew. and drank!????But Michael Psellus wrote this in his book on the workings of devils three hundred years ago! Who told you these things?????They did. as it burns. Thank you. Ubertino and Clare of Montefalco (who was. the sign of the Virgin is repeated. How are we to remain close to the experi?ence of the simple. the grooms were leading the animals to the manger. made of wood as the lignum vitae of the cross was wood.?? He dug inside his habit and drew out the lenses. You cannot consid?er Patarines and Catharists the same thing. at first sight.?? the end of Africa. For example: Adelmo died a suicide..

arbor sine fouis. quia non sunt res factae sed tantum loquendo fictae. William truly had performed a job worthy of admiration. sequences of anthropomor?phic animals and zoomorphic dwarfs joined.??But I found Brunellus. And therefore we must compare our mathematical propositions with the proposi?tions of the builder. you could hear a rustling sound. who kept him in existence. ??Every creature. as if remembering only at this point something he had forgotten. and Luciferines. . But I was unable to understand the difference. of all the grasses that adorn the gardens of earth and heaven. was the face of the blind Jorge. 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. more than ten years ago.?? Jorge said sharply. Venantius. because as water purges fire so charity purges our sins.