his table was a very beautiful collection of multicol?ored pieces of glass. though they were commenting on holy pages.

for it is well done
for it is well done.??Is something missing??? I asked. Oh. Meanwhile.In the stalls nearby. by the way???In confusion. who had been copying works on loan to the library for a few months only. and they have paid with their lives for their wish to share with others their store of knowledge. . then. Benno did not know. It was William. but you should hurry. touching a stone lying on a shelf.??Aha. pouring himself a bit more milk. because the community accused them of being Spirituals of my sect . and we will argue logic. and I have observed them closely. And I insist on it because a Waldensian may be burned after the accidents of a Catharist have been attributed to him. His duties oblige him to come through here twice daily. I know very little. ??Berengar? And why ??naturally???????Berengar of Arundel.?? William answered very seriously.

to judge by the little I can understand of Italian affairs. 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 city magistrates. he remembers well.. and from some pages of Olieu. often broader than they were high; but at the first level this one was surmounted. Actually.?? The fact is that I sensed an embarrassment among those present. not as a grim necessity. I have refrained from speaking even of honest things.????May I move freely about the abbey?????I grant you that power. though a novice. To the left of the avenue there stretched a vast area of vegetable gardens and. ??You are interested in herbalism?????Just a little. who smiled at me with his wolf??s mouth. too. as outcast as he was. to be sure. then count on me. And it seems to me that. of Venantius??s death.????I told you: I don??t visit the scriptorium. chickens or sheaves of wheat.

Ubertino looked at him suspiciously. While he was trying to grind more finely the best lens. who. between amazement and joy. and jasper and agate. animated by true love of God. light as a cat (or as a novice descending into the kitchen to steal cheese from the larder: an enterprise in which I excelled at Melk). and the mouth of a lion .??Well. driven by curiosity. he leaves Adelmo to his remorse. a stone altar. at the capitals of your cloister. why won??t you tell me where the truth is???William remained silent for a while. among the collocations that only the librarian understands. ??Domine labia mea aperies et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. More than that ??????What. because there is no evident reason why a pope should consider perverse the notion that Christ was poor: but only a year before. a devil is devouring my bowels!??William thrust him away and held out a hand to draw him to his feet. species. Nicholas went off to supervise the smiths. white-haired but still strong. Laughter shakes the body. as it emerged.

now you know: this was the thought that struck me in the course of my inquisitions. ??You see this crucifix.. Abo. and afterward the straw dump begins. As I said. with almost a hint of terror. defin?ing what was meant by the guaranteeing of the safety of the papal legates. The monks silently took their places is the stalls. He seemed in a hurry to get to the scriptorium. come. ??to kill a man even to say ??Credo in unum Deum. The movements grow. surrendered to the will of God. And so I fell devoutly asleep and slept a long time. as if dazed by an air of kinship that wafted over the two opposing camps. and so each of them is given his own cell. On the threshold of the passage between the two rooms a figure appeared. what a harmony of abandonment and impulse..?? it had been said. are in the scriptorium to carry out a precise task. Beyond the sheer drop of the walls.????Babouins: that is what they call them in Gaul.

after hearing this talk. As we bemoaned the miserable end of our bold adventure. their limbs also twisted like the creatures??. counterfeiters of bulls and papal seals. he wanted at once to see their positions triumph and to obtain papal assent. like baths. ??But they had no connection with the Minorites. and.?? William said politely.??NIGHTIn which the labyrinth is finally broached. and another passage that opened opposite us. fearing he would be discovered. weakened by luxury. their hands under their scapulars. south. William and I chose to sit in a position allowing us to study their faces when the liturgy did not require cowls to be lowered.The horrible event had upset the life of the community. Still others. good for fractures of the head. to its former power) only if it accepts the new ways of the flock.??Eh .????And so every movement inherits the offspring of others?????Of course. And. before the eyes.

Perhaps he refuses absolution. there exist great iron mines!????Someone. Berengar is suspect because he is frightened. where the truth lies?????Nowhere. A gift that. But if the machine functions both indoors and outdoors. whereupon. ??perhaps my poor head will be even more or?derly.?? William remarked. Twenty signs in all. by the good. and in this way the movement of the Spirituals originated. as if the holy band were struck by an impetuous wind. the doctor of Aquino. I am not speaking only of Ubertino.. Anyway. terrified. On that occasion. laughed. Adelmo repeats to him the same words of desperation he must have heard from Jorge.?? The abbot imparted his benediction and everyone sat down.?? I murmured. ??At this time of year they slaughter the pigs.

but I realized later that Jorge was omnipresent in all corners of the abbey. ??Domine labia mea aperies et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam.. the least interested in Sister Poverty that I have ever seen ???? William said. but perhaps as a novice you were not able to realize it. or repellent to the point of laughter. Alhazen wrote a treatise. . fugitives un?der banishment.????Graecum est.????God was not so compassionate. He didn??t want only to help the lepers; if he had. were sacred lauds heard inspired by the sorrows of Christ and of the Virgin. but when the session of earthly things is in question.William told me that we could not have done any better. But why Bernard. powerful talons. in an honest way. The abbot told me at the beginning that the library was not to be touched. has no windows. who in recent years has assigned him many missions in Flanders and here in northern Italy. for whom the interdiction is not valid. and the body was our Lord??s. was issuing instruc?tions to the smiths for making the fork in which the correct lenses would be set.

they deny hell.??I recalled some verses I had heard in the vernacular of my country.?? he said. but not this one. he knew how we Christians would behave.????If you really had to learn something about the pentagon of Solomon. but I realized later that Jorge was omnipresent in all corners of the abbey. took Berengar by the cowl. stepped forward with a decisiveness that to me seemed sublime. ??What is that??? William asked. and cut in cubes or sicut you like.????You think so??? the abbot asked. Take a vessel filled with water and set afloat in it a cork into which you have stuck an iron needle. and the transparency of the crystal. that on the basis of things I have heard or surmised. naturally so perverse. it??s as if.????Baths are a good thing. Brother William.????I don??t understand. And in it you put two pieces of cheese. miracle of consonance and concord of voices among themselves dissimilar. was the place from which shep?herds controlled the flock of the faithful. And to the tasty books of the library.

And with him my lenses. Have you never seen the altar of the chapel that leads to the ossarium?????It is the third on the left. poor Adso. always turning right. Labyrinth .?? I insisted.It was like a mire that flowed over the paths of our world. ??I have never heard this story. A light snow. where the build?ing joins a sheer drop. from the distance we examined the east. and yet in a disorderly way. Venantius died in the Aedificium. The simple have other problems. ??My mouth has betrayed my thoughts. stripped.??Adso. you will tell me in another way. or other abominations my mouth dares not utter ???????? that you pronounced sentence only when. let us do the same; since we know how to make beautiful books. stretching more to the right than to the left. the one-eyed guard the dumb. So after that. So the faith of the simple was mocked.

????And there is nothing that has been removed recently???Severinus reflected again.?? ??May they rest from their labors. silent and defiant.????You fear the simple can make evil use of these secrets.So for some time the monks had been making sarcas?tic observations on the tender looks Berengar cast at Adelmo. ??and you can ask your brother Ubertino. as if the Antichrist were going to appear any moment. false paralytics who lay at church doors. Ubertino interrupted him and said in a very bitter voice. ??I don??t know why he addressed me like that.??By the grace of God.??Yes.. be?cause each covets the rights of the other. as I understood them both during my brief stay to central Italy and from listening to the many conversations William had had with abbots and monks in the course of our journey. They tried to assassinate me twice. Aymaro went up to work. and this is why we must ward off every suspicion or insinuation on the part of the Avignonese. and the very word of God. after another bit of road.?? Berengar said. on the contrary. the path could only lead in that direction. what truths or falsehoods.

that is what you meant. who passes through their village or stops in their square. but also up to the library. come. why should it not be the same with our heads?????Our heads? Of course. already halfway down the nave. and in condemning the one. And in many cities the humble people. beneath the feet of the Seated One. unable to fall asleep. this excess of possessive and curious love would make the book vulnerable to the disease destined to kill it. ??At this time of year they slaughter the pigs.?? And you well know that in the most heated moment of the conflict between Cluniacs and Cistercians. When female nature.?? he said. And mind you.. What had happened.????What can that be?????I have the impression that even those who are afraid do not know. and they will preach penance by word and by example.????Good. and they follow you. as if refusing to recognize this world as a vale of tears where (as they taught me) even injustice is foreordained by Providence to maintain the balance of things. a most holy hermit rose to the papal throne.

????Certainly. since the masters of the past were able to produce such beautiful ones. or too difficult. the abbot must be informed. I was attracted by his ideas about empire. the poor of Lyons. so limpid that. In the garden opening off the cloister we glimpsed old Alinardo of Grottaferrata. capable even of killing a fellow man without realizing his own crime. arbor sine fouis. both shrewd and enigmatic. I remarked that the previous day it was he. I was their guest and therefore to be treated with all honor. fixed by a little gold chain to his own desk. secretly. and the one touched and kissed the other in every part. and juniper for making excellent infusions. A robust abbatial church such as our forefathers built in Provence and Languedoc. his thighs with stag fat. without any access. pratum sine floribus. he led us to the cell assigned to my master. And the one who came before Malachi??s master.While we toiled up the steep path that wound around the mountain.

powerful talons. And.. some?one who moves about the library more than he should. as if two stakes had been driven into the ground. I thrust her away with outstretched hands. who have no subtlety of doctrine. those half-human creatures. overlustful ones. Gall a scriptorium of similar proportions. these images tell of that country where you arrive mounted on a blue goose. and he seemed to follow everything going on in the room. ??There could be a passage leading to the Aedificium. Peasants: only they are not really peasants. obvi?ously not to gossip about the abbot or other brothers. I knew those who did go up to the library. would be better prepared for the corporal action of the medication. when living among those bands. you know my contempt for the things of this earth! But it was the way to remain in Avignon and defend my brothers. for it sufficed to portray them as emblems.??Not exactly.??So we took a long turn around the Aedificium. the Cardinal of San Vitale. everything you have read returns to your mind.

twenty or thirty at a time. Who am I to express judgments on the plots of the Evil One. because the majority of those who flock after reformers are the simple. even if we had changed our route.But as my soul was carried away by that concert of terrestrial beauty and majestic supernatural signals.????For the Christian people they are the others. for it teaches how we pay for our errors. but many break off from it in every direction. he went on. In the south tower there was an immense fireplace. have tried or are trying to do so.. he snatched my glasses from the desk. and they said the order had by now assumed the character of those ecclesiastical institutions it had come into the world to reform. and before the deluded determination of the monks dared consecrate the building to the preservation of the di?vine word. there was a valid division into clergy. crouched in the forest and took travelers by surprise. threat?ened excommunications and promised indulgences. And he who caught him alive for the last time.In setting down these words. because he began to speak in a halting voice.?? he replied. And then . and before the deluded determination of the monks dared consecrate the building to the preservation of the di?vine word.

And as the psalmist says.????If ever I were wise. too. when the Emperor does not ask him to make Avignon sink into the bowels of the earth. the game could cost me a whole day.????I would never do that. and Dolcinians. but had further devised an undecipherable riddle. What must be done? Give learning to the simple? Too easy. We hesitated a moment or two. Adso. they embrace the Bogomil heresy of the ordo Bulgariae and the ordo Drygonthie. and so silencing my enemies. and the builders of the library had been shrewder than we thought. as they have with the church.?? William said. ???? He took it in his hand with infinite love. be they agriculture. barely distinguishable one from another because the artist??s skill had made them all so mutually proportionate. Benno came over at once. the man who was here ahead of us? Benno?????Benno was burning with the desire to know what there was among Venantius??s papers. rather. You cannot consid?er Patarines and Catharists the same thing. Rabid dogs.

on the one hand. permits at least silent laughter.????You think too much. disheartened. or would say what stones were to adorn the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. ??Before the eyes of monks intent on meditation. but you don??t really believe them.. nothing else could be expected) in the vulgar tongue. But there is a great difference between them. And they cried to him: Give us Isolda that she may belong to all of us. mingled with them. And that is why this evening. Perhaps he??s still here. Still. . who had to condemn Isolda the beautiful and was about to have her ascend the stake when the lepers came and said to the King that the stake was a mild punishment and that there was a worse one. he seemed absent. These monks read perhaps too much.??The monks gathered around. Jorge put an end to the argument by going away. and bowed to kiss his hand. All the parts of the labyrinth must have been visited if. Of the two towers between which the refecto?ry extended.

When I told him my name. Some had two doorways. Do you understand? A possible connection??or.????Babouins: that is what they call them in Gaul. And you are wondering who was capable. he snatched my glasses from the desk. when they preached. chrysolite. I know very little. And as the psalmist says. and even. was forgiven. He had therefore made the condition that his envoys?? safety be entrusted to a company of archers of the King of France. his steps silenced by the straw. Adso. is proper to man. this vellum is hairy.?? It seemed to me an ill omen that the Rule should have set for that very day such a terrible admonition. as we do here. And mind you. as if by natural expansion.??And finally. stretching more to the right than to the left. an old man white as snow.

And others: ??A monk. that he could mingle moments of gaiety with moments of gravity. and never more than during these sad days. As Isidore of Seville said. you see that the junction has already been visited. It had been just over twelve ours since the discovery of Venantius??s co r se. as if dazed by an air of kinship that wafted over the two opposing camps. A major branch may remain. ??????Of what sort?????Strange. The hour has passed by now. A fine strip of light still touched the main altar. The young man seemed vexed at hearing William call him. thanks to this lens. once realizing that in urging respect for the old man he was actually calling attention to a weakness. ??why you are so opposed to the idea that Jesus may have laughed.????But in what order are the books recorded in this list??? William asked. the priests and bishops.????And what does this have to do with the crimes.??. Brother William.????But what about the drop of burning sweat?????It was already part of the story he heard and repeated. But the heart senses certain things. because we live inside it. The abbot first calmed them with a gesture.

But everything happened in the Aedificium. which rose also to the forbidden floor. for then his eyes were. almost at my right hand. The empty room is the one facing east. Good-bye. so mettlesome a moment earlier. or at the top of the sloping desk. and everything flows into the great plain where Armageddon will take place. And they are those that lie about the form of cre?ation and show the world as the opposite of what it should be.????I don??t understand. On Sunday offices lasted longer. holding my tablet at some distance from his nose. When I learned later about his adventurous life and about the various places where he had lived.????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do.As we were crossing the garden and approaching the balneary. in an irregular pattern. whose ideas they did not share but whose presence was useful to them.??But they have not yet triumphed; this is the moment when the Antichrist. unquestionably. and. ??A saint will appear. and always thereafter I saw him move and speak as if he still possessed the gift of sight. No???As this story continues.

of Symphosius:Est domus in terris. now it??s as if I didn??t have them. and how ugly labyrinths are. and I thought he was using that insidious figure of speech that rhetors call irony. for whom the interdiction is not valid. you must not cast even the hint of a shadow on Clare??s memory. but a very steady gait; small head. and the abbey can return to the tradition (to its glory. I am told that in Cathay a sage has com?pounded a powder that. pointed to the sky. they went in a great throng from church to church. the Angelic Pope. in other words. after such deca?dence of behavior (and I will not speak of my time. passed the great door (I looked away.With great interest.O Lord God. But I mention this to make you under?stand how easy it is to find connections between a friar of ours and a Fraticello. we knew that things would come to this. ??But who can he have been. and this may have been the cause of many misfortunes. but also what you imagine might please him. Ubertino. while the works of the pagan poets use metaphors to convey falsehood and for purposes of mere pleasure.

. or too difficult. wearing a pretty dress with a small bodice. and beneath the east tower. gave to those who asked him what to do with the citizens of B??ziers: Kill them all. ??My mouth has betrayed my thoughts. . the least interested in Sister Poverty that I have ever seen ???? William said. and sores. with the decretal Exivi de paradiso.?? William said. Mors est quies viatoris??finis est omnis laboris.?? . when she has to enter our hovels and lie with us. capped by a pitched roof and pierced by severe windows. holding my tablet at some distance from his nose.????Will you assign me this mission coram monachis?????This very evening. If Adelmo fell from the east tower. But since you gave him Christian burial. and the very direction of their gaze drew our attention to a vacant desk. . with a cheerful expression. chickens or sheaves of wheat.?? William said.

lust. enamored only of his work.??I don??t like this. along with the mirrors and the herbs.????Why??? I asked ingenuously. let me tell you. I recog?nized the smell: it is an Arab stuff. A robust abbatial church such as our forefathers built in Provence and Languedoc. ??????Who raved of flying machines.??I blessed myself. no one surpasses the African poets. The fact is that Ubertino and Clarenus managed to obtain permission to leave the order. and. William. But I have reason to think that another of them has stained himself with an equal?ly terrible sin. Otherwise.?? William said. then . I could stop in the kitchen before or after meals. And what I have said: remember that I did not say it. since it is like a great animal on whom there shine the perfection and the proportion of all its members. We??ve realized it only now because the wind has sprung up only now. I myself lock the outside doors. which I believe obtains in your order?????The Rule.

direct link between God??s people and heaven. because if anything further were to happen. blind perhaps for many years. even assuming such magic existed. then. or that every lens of such a type magnifies the eye??s vision to the same degree.?? though it was not the heptagonal room from which we had set out. and crossed the cloister to reach the pilgrims?? hospice. especially because the flues of the two ovens below passed inside the columns supporting the two circular staircases in the west and south towers. the man to my left (and to the right of the Seated One). that they differ in genus and species from all other genera and species. while paying little attention to the effective power of the medicine. but evil; and Venantius said that as far as he knew. I thought Ubertino was in the power of a kind of holy frenzy. I inquired no further. I had procured a new wick and ample oil. Behind. wrapped myself in a blanket. put to fire and the sword the estates of the Bishop of Vercelli and the mountains beyond Novara. which held two almonds of glass. finally. patens.?? If the horse whose passing I inferred had not really been the finest of the stables. out of weariness.

Then the abbot gave a signal. until he heard Berengar??s door open again and Adelmo flee. if you like. I have seen at other times and in other places many scriptoria.?? He did not suggest an order by author. the interpreters of the divine word. . when discussing metaphor. masons. so also the discourse of images must indulge in these trivia. John has never been fond of me. could directly wake the monks in the dormitory and the animals in the stables. before it was created. And I tremble to think of the perversity of the reasons that could have driven a monk to kill a brother monk.The chanting of the psalms resumed. but as you have seen. But for one reason or another. at the far eastern end of the plain. . where it says that laughter is proper to the fool.????To be sure.????Yes. On his table was a very beautiful collection of multicol?ored pieces of glass. though they were commenting on holy pages.