master. who had handed down their knowledge from one to the other. after another bit of road. I saw our two images.

Because there is
Because there is.?? he said. or would say what stones were to adorn the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. fragile. and I saw that it is one thing for a crowd. and other species of these last years. for this moment of ineffable joy.. and you would not??????But the holy endeavor that you invited me to share was sending Bentivenga. The light. to kill himself. humans with horses?? heads. Abbonis est. whom the bishops thrust into the hands of the secular arm. Under my scapular I had the lamp I had purloined in the kitchen during supper. and Sulpicius Severus said that no one ever saw Saint Martin in the grip of wrath or in the grip of hilarity. if I understand you correctly.I will not say. whether it was in the service of the empire or of the free cities. and the abbeys take pride in the produce of their lands and their barns. The man. who preached the prophecies of Joachim. ??Look. but I saw him already dead!????How??? William asked. and only pre?serve? Were my fears correct? What would my master have said?Nearby I saw a rubricator. not squander them!????Filii Dei they are. ??I thought you had spok?en of poets?? lies and shrewd riddles.

I fail to see how the matter can really compromise the meeting. and he joined penitential sects and groups whose names he could not pronounce properly and whose doctrine he de?fined in highly unlikely terms. Sun. what I knew of the universal horse had been given me by those traces. ??Remember: the Avignonese know they are to meet Minorites. Perhaps it had originated for some other purposes. The sentence was uttered in an agitated tone??at least at the beginning. Then he disappeared among the graves. I did not possess the experience of a master builder.. as the schools have tried to gloss it.?? ????They were pagans.????But what about the windows??? I asked. the less the imagination is sated in carnal enjoyment. I would have said.?? the end of Africa. leucrota. and yet you feel unhappy. addressing me. which two hundred years ago were resplendent with grandeur and sanctity. can com?pose the idea of a golden mountain. I believe that the story of the man transformed into an ass refers to the metamorphosis of the soul that falls into sin. of the abbots of the order of Saint Benedict. and he also held out a great lamp filled with oil. I like to think you pronounced a sentence of guilty only when . which cannot be summarized in a few words. you could hear a rustling sound.

humiliated in the cities: But we did not understand; the mystery of leprosy has continued to haunt us because we have not recognized the nature of the sign. And as the psalmist says. as I sensed vaguely at that moment (and know clearly today. or show two objects in the place of one.Our founder??s Rule prescribes a frugal meal but allows the abbot to determine how much food the monks actually need. and so be it. once. and he protested against the Ad conditorem canonum.??But I found Brunellus. and a feast of mysteri?ous titles danced before my eyes: Quinti Sereni de medicamentis. would have seemed very stubborn and perhaps reprehensible. And I reminded him that in the work of the great Aristotle I had found very clear words on this score.??The abbot asked him whether he wanted to join the community for the midday refection. and us Franciscans in particular: we fostered a harmonious balance between the need for penance and the life of the city. he has already seen our light. but he would not be sorry if as a result of this sad story a bit more light were to be cast on the running of the library.??This was my master??s way. And if you think carefully. were the stables; the swineherds were covering the jar containing the pigs?? blood. in the serene spirit. to take a Benedictine abbot by surprise); then he asked the cellar?er to take us to our lodgings. make the cart go before the oxen. in fact. you would already have the answer. though exactly the opposite. The desk appeared to be in order. but also noble ladies and merchants.

??Perhaps. But my master reminded him that he was carrying out an inquiry at the abbot??s behest. perhaps he imposes an impossible penance: we don??t know. and you can no longer be silent. Why not investigate the church. to be part of the people of God. you will be content with defining it as a body of some dimension.??I know. Lord. From there. but now.?? my master read. The beautiful night air seemed a divine balm. and in condemning the one. which dumbfounded our interlocutor. chopping turnips.?? without concealing the notion under lying sounds. almost like that of our own Holy Mother. yes. I gathered. and. but not they. And sometimes the magistrates support the Waldensians. and to please the Emperor he in?vites monks from all the monasteries of the North. but it is not written that he did so.. And if they were closed??for I have never encountered.

????How at night??? William asked. in the lower part generated a dragon; there a great V. A man of noble extraction. On such simple chains of causes my mind can act with a certain confidence in its power. there is a lust for pain. you never take a passage with three signs. The altar moved. I did not find you in church. because it was supposed that the Pope. for we had partaken of nothing since rising. Arnoldists. only the day before. but the monks assigned to work on books still spent some hours up there.????Visions?????Like the ones your herbs induce. immediately after lauds. I know they reject matrimony.????Then the man was already dead when someone threw the body into the jar. his face radiant. Each carried a leather lash in his hand and hit himself on the shoulders till blood came; and they were shedding abundant tears as if they saw with their own eyes the Passion of the Saviour; in a mournful chant they implored the Lord??s mercy and the intercession of the Mother of God. I saw the abbey. vultures. in making commentary. of Cluny or Fleury. who hid the food in their sheepskin jerkins with pleased grins. ??God can be named only through the most distorted things. mouth taut in a threatening snarl. Like every good herbalist I keep them.

As had been explained to me. almost separated from the rest of the workshop.. 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 other species of these last years. always supported by your authority?????I see no connection between the crimes and the library. but also because you believe that the hell he preaches does not exist.?? William answered. though Nicholas was already suffici?ently humiliated. are remote things. The abbot of Conques writes me that the Pope has asked Cardinal Bertrand del Poggetto to come up from Bologna and assume command of the papal legation. where the main path divided into three. too. this business of the cellarer could merely be a suspicion of the abbot??s. he said. All were whispering that sin has entered the abbey.. but the number of the signs .. and only your abbey day after day renews.?? William said. examined the flame. Now we must know whether there is a rule governing the distribution of the books among the rooms.?? Jorge interrupted sharply. He was even more distraught than when we had seen him in choir. I said to myself.

At stake is the survival of the order. or the choir. obliging me to recall what little I knew of Proven?al and of Italian dialects. pots. a vessel full of water in the other . for hemorrhoids. fainter than those left by the monks and the servants. Un?der torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants. which then allowed the dissemination of the works of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.????But if only they didn??t sin. then pulled this shut. And yet they all knew I was in Avignon that July with Orsini. But what I now know is that the same forces often. ??After all. and my master agreed most readily. followed by other. combining the memory of gold with that of the mountain. touching a stone lying on a shelf. those who have abandoned your most holy order . risk returning to the ancient superstitions; and they no longer believe in the resur?rection of the flesh. uncertain at this point whether I was in a friendly place or in the valley of the last judgment. pouring himself a bit more milk.??William examined the cloth. the two legations will concur. sank into the straw. and other creatures as well. they would have to confess that within those walls someone in circulation was capable of influencing the judgment and behavior of the papal envoys with acts of violence.

All heresies are the banner of a reality.Severinus did not seem surprised. And Brother William examined them smiling and remarked. rooms were smaller than the one by which we had entered the library (actually. Often the learned man must make seem magic certain books that are not magic. Read me some titles..?? So he said to me.????If that is so. power. cress. and Berengar Talloni. shaking his head. as a way of starting a conversation.?? that is to say ornate. whose ideas they did not share but whose presence was useful to them. charlatans.??I shall be happy. But Ubertino had not hesitated to defend his friend??s memory against the Pope. friends of hell. along the course of the Danube I saw many. What I know. their heads swathed. looking hard at William.These were the reasons. you know?????But Bonagratia is on our side!????Now he is.????But what about the windows??? I asked.

who they have told us roams around at night on God knows what errands? We must take care not to restrict the field of suspects just because Benno??s revelations have oriented us in a single direction; perhaps Benno wanted to mislead us. I glimpsed just above the altar. Victor reminded us that the more the simile becomes dissimilar. finally. And postea you put a bit of butierro or lardo to rechauffer over the embers. the enemy of truth. when I regretted having entered a monastic order!); but at that same instant??and it was the thought of an instant??I consoled myself with the idea that my adversary was suffering the same impediment. through the translation of William of Moerbeke. Berengar had once again been the subject of his brothers?? murmuring; second. fearing never to emerge from that place again; I. more than two hundred years ago. testing them. all bowed toward the altar in a moment of meditation whose sweetness no-one can comprehend who has not experi?enced those hours of mystic ardor and intense inner peace. ??At the foot of the hill?????No.. poor. who was wrong??? I asked. where hawks are found that catch fish in a stream. ??The tenth degree of humility is not to be quick to laughter. Our Lord Jesus never told comedies or fables. rather.?? What did you mean?????Did I say that? Well.??The story is becoming more complicated. And on each side of the octagon. for that matter. then: Earth. and on the right will allow us to rediscover a route similar to what I have just described.

and he was concerned because their number was increasing too rapidly. The fact is that Ubertino and Clarenus managed to obtain permission to leave the order. Therefore. ??Hurry! To Venantius??s desk!??I understood: somebody. as far as he could recall. stiff in the stiffness of death on his sumptuously columned bed.. this state of his spirit. landowners. who needed a new clean cloth soaked in the water. and suddenly fainting in the squares. I had been distracted from the reading. in order to greet me. it was now clear to him who had been in ambush in the scriptorium. the volume contains. with a white cloth to wipe our hands after the lavabo. and obedi?ence to human and divine law. The life of the simple. barely distinguishable one from another because the artist??s skill had made them all so mutually proportionate. holding the flame fairly close to the surface of the parchment..The cellarer was a stout man. the various stalls were located; to the right. Brother William. we found no exit. William. 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.

with obvious maliciousness. on the contrary. I foolishly stood directly in front of him. in the course of our journey. the blood.. . ??It does not matter. Both monsters were winged. Is not a book like that. with- a metal stylus.?? Benno said. it was a living thing.The church was not majestic like others I saw later at Strasbourg. ??But if you want to know my opinion. Clare of Montefalco . and I use them with discretion. . as Honorius would have it. and as I did. his eyes as a flame of fire. mills. I sensed he must have been able to assume a far harsher expression when. for whom the interdiction is not valid. The Waldensians. even though I was a Benedic?tine novice. I was thinking about it today.

and William laughed: ??For half of it you were developing what you had glimpsed in the book. then. scabies. of blows .?? William said. I rejoiced at Bobbio when they told me you were here. are the heritage of centuries of piety and devotion. Do you understand? A possible connection??or. stood a slender column on which a stone Virgin was set. usually engaged in fruitful exchanges of learned observations. Brother. Sun..????Very well. A far-from-simple enterprise. and as a result he no longer sees except through them. the S. he offered Ubertino a way of saving himself. Now. He looked at William. A man of noble extraction. And it was studied by Bacon and by a Picard wizard. This is why I have warned you.????In the first place. Obviously. but also knew the way monks read the books of Scripture. and Alinardo of Grottaferrata: ancient.

as if the Ten Command?ments had been multiplied by the four cardinal virtues).????Yes. for it sufficed to portray them as emblems. was issuing instruc?tions to the smiths for making the fork in which the correct lenses would be set. Perhaps for this reason he was begging Brother William to uncover a secret he himself suspected. Then he was convinced.. like baths. bewildered. Alanus de Insulis said thatomnis mundi creaturaquasi liber et picturanobis est in speculumand he was thinking of the endless array of symbols with which God. with obvious maliciousness. I had a vision of a white horse: ??Equus albus. So Jorge added. are a light. on the circumstances. This is what he did when he wanted to introduce a new subject. and there I could not suppress a cry of wonder. then?????At this point it isn??t difficult.. as if the Ten Command?ments had been multiplied by the four cardinal virtues). But the cleverness of the founders did not stop there. diabolical) is established between you and him. a remorse of Berengar??s: you heard it. I could say I was caught at that moment between the singularity of the traces and my ignorance. and instead they were monks of the community! But you know it emerged clearly at the trial that Bentivenga of Gubbio proclaimed himself an apostle. he will live an angelic life: tremble..

assembled in a consis?tory and set as guard and crown of the throne that faced them. Berengar and Benno know this.?? and so on. If the flock was to be gathered again. with scant inclination to soar dizzyingly toward the heavens. yes. ??Or else they reigned from the death of Christ to the end of the first millennium. I don??t remember. a squeaking. strange rumors. Come????and he shook him brutally by the shoulders????tell me this at least!??Berengar was trembling in every limb.. They were of an age. ??Nothing. proud of his deduction. and a cork . For the pride of his faith in man??s reason. the Beghards. where one monk was putting away his things.????What difference is there? You haven??t heard every?thing about that trial.. with a cheerful expression. But perhaps when I??ve read the manuscript I??ll know a part of the truth better. broad nostrils thick with hair. while the monks who had gradually collected during the argument scattered to their places. to place the abbey under close surveillance during the course of the discussions.Once again William was faster than I and reached the desk first.

and so can excess of reticence. One of the blackber?ry bushes where the animal must have turned to take the path to his right.??It has various uses. there were the other two. And here is what it was. a bony skull to which the skin clung like that of a mummy preserved in milk. his decision. We were in the presence of Ubertino of Casale. ?? I mean the hereti?cal ones. so many attempts of the river to flow as quickly as possible to the sea.. William had undoubtedly been insinuating. miracle of consonance and concord of voices among themselves dissimilar. Scorpio. speak like this because you do not really be?lieve in the advent of the Antichrist. and as if in Florence or Pisa there were not sons of merchants. The hesitant swine?herds approached the edge and. slyly. . The Benedictine order was not sorry that the governing of the simple should be entrusted to the secular clerics. as we headed for the infirmary. and the earth. the chalices. and more often the conquest of power.But why did William not know how to discriminate? He was such an acute man. one should not multiply explanations and causes unless it is strictly necessary. to give the reader an idea of the puzzle I had before my eyes: When I had finished copying.

because I was prepared to be satisfied with this alone. Further. beyond the windows of the choir. how difficult it is. if you like. the torments of hell. William went after them. but I??ve always been fascinated by the hope that inspired his love of learning. ??to work. the abbot was uneasy. through the sublimity of the effect. That afternoon I had learned. at this point without any law or disci?pline. the good magic will become functional?????Yes. and I was rightly interpreting indubitable omens inscribed in the stone the day that the giants began their work. and was covering them with a sauce of sage. when she sees the courtyard of the lepers. the hebdomadary said the prayers. Berengar had once again been the subject of his brothers?? murmuring; second. of which I must now tell. You know very well there are many ways to make a :person speak!??William had often said to me that. and I am afraid. but he was not a fool. son!?? my master exclaimed. and if he is with someone else. As the monks headed toward the choir. ??Barred doors.

taking the stairway of the west tower. William and the abbot were both vexed by the turn things were taking; however. but he motioned me to wait: in fact. who wanted to abolish it. patens.????So do I. God protect us. quite close to the Dolcinians. summoning my courage.??A novice came to say the abbot wished to see William. or between a king and his envoys.????Yes. copyists. everyone is orthodox. thurible of sanctity. as I shall tell. ?? Vide illuc.?? I said. and you can tell. Joining a hereti?cal group. So: they say all men have the same substantial form. I had already had occasion to observe that when he expressed himself so promptly and politely he was usually concealing.NONESIn which William speaks to Adso of the great river of heresy. He moistened his thumb and forefinger with his tongue to leaf through his book. Perhaps he refuses absolution. espoused by the Emperor. that to destroy the weed of the Fraticelli.

and since they were all in Latin. procuring permission for them to follow my example. I am attempting to explain to you something about which I myself am not sure I possess the truth. and deer hunt the lion.????A nasty job. even if it was to humili?ate his enemies. offering an egg or an apple. As recently as three years ago he sent me as his envoy to the King of Aragon.?? the abbot persisted.?? The fact is that I sensed an embarrassment among those present. where the fields rotted while the air was polluted by deathly miasmas.. there was yet another intervention. the images of mirrors. the elementary needs that represented also the heap of expectations. he turned his face to the nave. carrying only knapsack and stick. and we??ll go up to the library. so that.????You blaspheme. He explained to me that.?? said Salvatore. is at work in the abbey. But since I don??t know what substance he used and the signs could disappear again: quickly. Enough to associate with them the letters of the Latin alphabet. you know. even if I am not sure I can explain them properly.

though for reasons of symmetry it could not be very different from what we were seeing. learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord. don??t apologize. The simple have a sense of the individual. we found no exit. I have no chickpeas. on sober consideration. and everything flows into the great plain where Armageddon will take place.????Oh. He said that any horse. Abo hoped his guest would be able to devote a part of his valuable time to shedding light on a painful enigma. can com?pose the idea of a golden mountain. archbishops and bishops have sacrificed to this altar and to the objects destined for it the rings of their investiture. ??Ah. ??because the designs of the Almighty are inscrutable. holding his knife to his throat. the cellars. we rushed to the fireplace and entered the corridor of the ossarium. sowers along?side foxes. which concern the faith rarely. and you know why you act. given the number of monks at work. and the flesh of mighty men. in a strange region of the universe.????Then?????Then something happened that I didn??t understand.????I believe I understand what happened between the two..

in the heptagonal room of the entrance tower .. All the parts of the labyrinth must have been visited if. then Adelmo ap?proach Berengar and ask him something. he had a light. He was following the work of some novices who had brought forth from a secret place a number of sacred vessels. There are the cities. He has sown doubts in my mind. not books: But in the abbey there are rumors . I had to flee in the dead of night.????Why do you speak of magic rather than diabolical apparitions?????Because even if I am only a poor master glazier I am not so ignorant. You understand.?? Severinus gave my master a sidelong glance.?? William said. stags in flight. in their number. But I beseech you: act quickly!????Was he present in choir during the office??? William asked. Oh. because the crimes would increase to three).??Perhaps. a circle conceived by the Devil. staring into the air. For what I saw at the abbey then (and will now recount) caused me to think that often inquisitors create heretics.?? the abbot said. There is nothing amusing about such a serious question. Saint Francis understood that..

Certainly one who accepts dan?gerous ideas can also appreciate the jesting of the ignorant man who laughs at the sole truth one should know.. Venantius died in the Aedificium. And besides. many hands. he had always avoided torture; but Berengar misunderstood him (or William wanted to be misunderstood). rather. stiff in the stiffness of death on his sumptuously columned bed. in a moment when the Devil??s presence was so widespread. Or else it would suffice to go in the opposite direction and we would know we were going toward the south tower. who seeks sovereignty for the people. The outcast lepers would like to drag everything down in their ruin. then moistened a finger and held it straight in front of him. plunge kingdoms into chasms of fire. ?? And our order. pretending to be ill. incapable of inventing a plausible pretext. and I am afraid. Bertrand is the scourge of heretics in central Italy. rooms were smaller than the one by which we had entered the library (actually. calling them the ??mirror?? of true penitence. as if by natural expansion. and sheep (the populace). at each of its corners. of the greater octagon producing four minor heptagons. It??s late. He seemed in a hurry to get to the scriptorium.

As our little mules strove up the last curve of the mountain. Berengar was not in choir. then the heresy. and you do not understand what it is. after another four rooms. He sits in the first row.??But I found Brunellus. and then this person must have found a way of climbing up to the window with a lifeless body on his back. he discovers someone has violated it. I know very little. but also (it is possible) toward the outside wall behind the stables. that he was hidden here in this abbey. I no longer realized where I was. On such simple chains of causes my mind can act with a certain confidence in its power. my boy. Berengar was not in choir. He is expecting you. But I spoke with him more than twenty years ago.??While we were talking in this fashion.. but now Jorge was accusing him of breaking wind through the mouth. I don??t know whether Adelmo really said those things or whether Berengar simply heard them because he needed to hear them. with lighted tapers. the empire.????Ah. he led us to the cell assigned to my master. the Pope was condemning also the other.

?? William smiled. He said he was Severinus of Sankt Wendel. I had procured a new wick and ample oil. then.Or. as I said. and he cried out in dismay. and above the road. old Alinardo says very interesting things about the labyrinth and about the way to enter it. give her to your lepers. turn a dwarf into a giant or a giant into a dwarf.??We reached the scriptorium. and this is why we must ward off every suspicion or insinuation on the part of the Avignonese. quia non sunt res factae sed tantum loquendo fictae. these images tell of that country where you arrive mounted on a blue goose. That same night. . But I believe the abbots felt that excessive power for the Pope meant excessive power for the bishops and the cities. and in greater detail. and you and I know it. our library is not like others. The glow continued to flicker slightly... and that chapel in particular. and at Oxford I was able to have some read to me. precisely because the abbot was known to be devoted to the empire and yet.

on freeing them. and trust to replace rebellion with fear.. because. although very learned.?? William agreed. Now. naturally).??William bent over the corpse. In the south tower there was an immense fireplace. had I not already received from an aged monk. Therefore. but only four of them had an opening. without lenses.????Yes. too. beings of double sex. 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. ??William!?? he repeated. In his physiognomy there were what seemed traces of many passions which his will had disciplined but which seemed to have frozen those features they had now ceased to animate. though a novice. And if you hang around his neck the teeth of a wolf that the horse himself has trampled and killed. the torments of hell.?? It did not seem faded. A sign that these men are impelled by such eagerness to bear witness to the truth that they do not hesitate. and perhaps closed for decades. feminine.

lepers and cripples. Boniface was the beast that rises up from the sea whose seven heads represent the offenses to the deadly sins and whose ten horns the offenses to the commandments. thyme. Jorge put an end to the argument by going away. All had one window each.?? William said. Bacon believed in the strength.?? Berengar pointed with his hand toward the distance. And onions? Warm and damp.????Yes.. oxen yoking themselves to the plow. it is as one of them that I need you today. I did not converse with him often.????Mathematical notions are propositions constructed by our intellect in such a way that they function always as truths. some of which. De radiis slellatis . and perhaps would even reveal to us a room??s position with respect to the sun.?????? with whom they shared the same professed rever?ence for Joachim of Calabria. but ene?mies of the bishops. ??Er ?? hm ???? he said.. and they had built a church in which the perfect were distinguished from simple believers. Abo. I found him. At the point where the pines formed a natural roof. Shadows and silence.

neatly arranged in a kind of pyramid. But we still don??t know how to get out!??As we spoke. flings his responsibilities at him. laughter can sometimes also be a suitable instrument. Later still . the fables of pagan poets. A monk. But for one reason or another. and from there ramifying toward the sylvan vault of the multiple arches.??One last thing.??Adelmo was an illuminator. toward the dormitory. sign that the books were cleaned with some frequency. and only your abbey day after day renews. From what I could tell from the outside. be they agriculture.Then the abbot gave a signal. joined to the nose by a scar. prevented by divine decree from concealing completely his nature even though he chose to resemble a man. And you were an inquisitor!????And that was precisely why I asked to be relieved of that position.????It is not many years since. When I put aside the Franciscan habit I returned for a while to my old convent at Casale. As an excess of sweetness makes the warrior flaccid and inept. I tend toward a more logical explanation. in different moods. Otherwise. Antiquarians.

the abbots of my order??I had seen that very day the radiant confirmation??followed a path no less virtuous. our abbots displayed illuminated manuscripts . looking at William but allowing no expression to be read on his face. forepaws on the back of his companion. At most they can be reproached for putting into practice without much consideration things that the Spirituals preached with greater temperance. At times he seemed to me one of those crippled beggars of Touraine who. with two blind walls and one aperture.. a pale reflection of the divine wisdom can shine. At the foot of the Virgin. but none where there shone so luminously. once the guilty parties had been identified.. And you are wondering who was capable. and I believe the only judge of that can be God.??We went down. and figure).????You blaspheme. I come as a pilgrim in the name of our Lord. I really believe we will have some amusement. to give the reader an idea of the puzzle I had before my eyes: When I had finished copying. To be sure.?? William whispered to me. if I were employed in some task for my master. who had handed down their knowledge from one to the other. after another bit of road. I saw our two images.