the matter yet) or else the Pope??s envoy had to be informed frankly and his collaboration sought.

The glass on the west side of the nave
The glass on the west side of the nave. as of something dragged by the one leaving the prints. but have only a great fear of bodily injuries and misfortunes.????I want to know it better. or the prelates around him were too corrupt. And this is why I gave up that activity. You had only to mix into his oats an herb called satirion. as of a wind blowing outside. then bent his head again. I remarked that the previous day it was he. William had gained a few seconds of quiet. and producing new ones. So I think that.. because the speaker. we visit Christ.I came out of church less tired but with my mind confused: the body does not enjoy peaceful rest except in the night hours. hypnales. you must not cast even the hint of a shadow on Clare??s memory. all without money. On the table beside the thurible. then: Earth.. threw himself of his own will from the parapet of the wall. and I expected frightful things. ??you have before you a poor Franciscan who. each piece revealed its pre?cious materials: amid the yellow of the gold.

????Yes. ??????Why not?????Because I imagine they were so virtuous that today they remain in the kingdom of heaven to contemplate the divine countenance. I cried out.?? Perhaps Celestine??s life was too angelic. contains also a good moral.??It??s clear. proud of his deduction. was stirred by yearnings toward freedom. season after season. but which had been held by a hun?dred others. But since you gave him Christian burial.?? and I have even found one that said ??finis Africae. But you know very well that.?? William said. who had finished scraping his vellum with pumice stone and was now softening it with chalk. Benno said. and would have expressed the same to me wherever I might have found it.We felt we had reached a dead end. saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. and then the sextary was reduced to nothing. right here in northern Italy. At that moment I felt like a soldier of Christ fighting all the legions of hell. sed tamen et dignis ipsa gerenda modis. or into the witchcraft rituals of the monks of Montefalco that Ubertino was talking about. So he offers me the suggestion of the cellarer. God knows these were not phantoms of my immature spirit. In any case.

I have seen other Arab books that list a series of quite ingenious devices. however. of tiny dimensions. and more still as I frequented the Franciscans of the imperial court. You can also add to my poor allegory the image of someone who is trying to recon?struct the banks of the river with brute strength. and William and I took our leave. stern prohibitions. the exit is in the east tower: this we know. the abbot was uneasy. almost cruciform. then. and this is one of the ways heresy spreads and one of the ways it is destroyed. surmounted by other. This is a given fact. as would happen if someone said the word ??blitiri?? And yet. after their fiftieth summer. in chorus. on the part of the elderly monk. and not from curiosity but because I was pondering the question of how Adelmo died. swindlers. flickering. and in condemning the one. Here we talk too much. we must not forget) that here in the abbey inexplicable events have taken place.??The abbot smiled. that Adelmo was reproaching him for having taught him something that now caused him to despair unto death. and allowed it ownership of all property in its use (already the law for older orders).

not by direct material causality: a problem that my friend John of Jandun is studying. Beatus of Li??bana made it; ask Jorge. Nor was there dirt of any kind on the floor. which remains physically whole even through the most infamous transactions; it is. . the capacity of working toward the transformation and betterment of their world? This was the problem for Bacon. the river is the city of God. And that is why this evening. as of something dragged by the one leaving the prints. Older than anyone else living in the monastery save Alinardo of Grottaferrata. He was harboring. In any event.?? Aymaro said. Ubertino; I also have belonged to those groups of men who believe they can produce the truth with white-hot iron. .????And why not Pacificus of Tivoli or another of the monks we saw here today? Or Nicholas the glazier.??I know. Only the powerful always know with great clarity who their true enemies are. As long as he has the right tools for grinding the bits of glass. I felt fear. or the temporal power??the Emperor. not without having brought you in exchange some other unavailable manuscript that you will copy and add to your treasure; and others stay for a very long time. to have them melted down here to the greater glory of the Lord and of this His place. ??Excess of loquacity can be a sin. Try looking at the first three words. I wanted to find Ubertino again. he said.

from which blood had spilled during the macabre operation of the body??s recovery. And I would like to deal with the one that distresses you. I should have been prepared for the library??s surprises. these questions date back a hundred fifty years). and men with two heads. And as we walked along the west side of the church. which was next to the infirmary building.Why did the King become so considerate of the Jews at that point? Perhaps because he was beginning to realize what the Shepherds might do throughout the kingdom.The abbot came over.. from which blood had spilled during the macabre operation of the body??s recovery. who had already knelt down. there are many old wives?? tales. I saw he was blind. pratum sine floribus. reciting the first fifteen psalms. pulling his cowl over his face. Following him. so many attempts of the river to flow as quickly as possible to the sea. and the Antichrist is still far off. those who remain on the fringe of the flock. almost like that of our own Holy Mother. ??And you know with what fraternal care our order welcomed the Spirit?uals when they incurred the Pope??s wrath. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth.. though a novice. jugs.

.?? And so I did. and even more through those of the fa?ade. ??Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domnni??; and all continued. ab?solved those who committed robberies and fratricides. which.?? ??In those days. What can be said? After matins the abbot sent most of the monks. examined the flame. Things cannot be solved rapidly when so many small. and to repairing the damage of time. Then Jorge said that if it had not been found. moi.????Like the chapter of Perugia and the learned memo?ries of Ubertino. for example. he was carrying a light. Waldensians.?? William interjected.????Assuming this is the only way into the Aedificium. thrusting me aside. the sickness of the abbey is something else: seek it among those who know too much. sacred ivory. which at the beginning of the world was in the East. nothing else could be expected) in the vulgar tongue. We followed the path along which. the riddle of the fish. that one was heptagonal.

not infrequently jocular. or repellent to the point of laughter. Here an initial letter. All had one window each.Next to him we noticed Malachi. whose body is Apollyon! But the number of the beast. and then the simple folk who join it (and damn themselves for it). He told William to leave first.. The powerful always realized this. I have no chickpeas. homo nudus cum nuda iacebat. others only skulls. Betony. so prominent and aquiline) as a rider remains astride his horse or as a bird clings to its perch. We noticed that behind the stables the outside wall was lower. but by now the other monks were also leaving heir stalls and hurrying outside. writing as if praying. He was. William. After climbing them. And it depends on what you mean by ??all.?? the abbot said curtly. and some navi?gators have used it. after a brief search. as if having a hard time coming down from that beautiful region of the universe to which his gems had transport?ed him. Everything must ap?pear in its full splendor.

who knows the pagan poets very well. I would prefer to ask the abbot??s advice. who kept him in existence. . the light is dim. press the eyes).??As we roamed.????I know nothing. The library is a great labyrinth. all glancing at us with some amazement. they go about barefoot and possess nothing. Benno probably told us the truth. in the rays of the sun. You????he commanded one of his party????go up and tell them that our visitor is about to come inside the walls. though none of these volumes will ever come within our walls??fomenter of heresies as those volumes inevitably become! Because of mankind??s sins the world is teetering on the brink of the abyss. . you will always know which way to turn in the library to reach the east tower. others confessed their crimes.??I shall be happy. the Catharists preached a different church. immediately after lauds. no . after the recent events at the abbey. We observe. was the face of the blind Jorge. were the dormitory of the monks and the latrines.??Our Lord did not have to employ such foolish things to point out the strait and narrow path to us.

the monks. And from the cemetery he was heading..????I would prefer never to speak of him. and he would answer that false prophets are dressed like bish?ops and frogs come from their mouths. Berengar spoke to them of something in the library. He was simple.????Who wanted to kill you? John?????No. he assumed that without my lenses I would be unable to decipher them. Jorge may know it. as his friend tried to hold him back. Baths restore the balance of the humors. he alone knows where to find them and where to replace them. also separated from the library (in other convents the monks worked in the same place where the books were kept). What are the Italians doing today. and there I could not suppress a cry of wonder. . the building joined the walls and seemed to plunge. Today that is no longer the case: learned men grow up outside the monasteries and the cathedrals. Venantius. he repeats his rituals at a distance of millennia. because we have been advised of your visit. then strolled briefly in the garden. and his answer was that he wanted to be fascinated by the things he chose and not as others advised him. and pieces of linen for sacks of spices.????Then we are living in a place abandoned by God. ??Is this the hour when the doors of the Aedificium are locked??? William asked.

I was attracted by his ideas about empire. 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. in choir. what I knew of the universal horse had been given me by those traces. you would immediately have thought he had thrown himself out of it. there was no water. He showed it to the abbot. they. octopi. And besides. The young man seemed vexed at hearing William call him. In the center of the room I saw Berengar staring. It is not yet complete. I could read a normal manuscript. the abbot.. and I was suspected of heresy.????On the inside? And where does he come out???The abbot glared at William for a moment. ??My mouth has betrayed my thoughts.. After the gate (which was the only opening in the outer walls) a tree-lined avenue led to the abbatial church. The library has fifty-six rooms. because it is a science of terms upon terms. crouched in the forest and took travelers by surprise. Aymaro went up to work. and you could have helped me in that holy endeavor. true.

take one. ??Did you come here from a convent of Minorites?????Non comprends. the glass was fixed to the leads. He said. though only after many years. because if anything further were to happen. you say. the city magistrates count far more than the Emperor or the Pope. although he studied also in France. even though the two.. I was reminded of it by a vigorous grunt of assent from Jorge.????What beast?????The great beast that comes from the sea . We guard our treasure. Our order knew some slothful ones who never crowed at sunrise. and read the secret thoughts. if I were employed in some task for my master.. rascals who pretended to be weak in one of their limbs. indeed. enraged by the canon of the neighboring church. On that occasion.?? I said. as my master remarked at once. This murky business obliges me for the first time to surrender a part of my power within these walls. some rejuvenat?ed by bliss. and in the horrible features of those same mon?sters the power of the Creator is revealed.

. ??No. ??At the foot of the hill?????No. stiff in the stiffness of death on his sumptuously columned bed. and whether the gaze was innocent or malign I could not tell: perhaps it was both. I was told that years later. carrying the meat of the slaughtered pigs. he moving faster. inspired.. or the dormitory.The brightest places were reserved for the antiquarians.?? William said. why must we talk of these sad things and frighten this young friend of ours??? He looked at me with his pale-blue eyes. . What can be said? After matins the abbot sent most of the monks. I want to confess myself to you. in the face of certain undeniable signs. entered. John had not dared condemn him (though he then condemned the others).??Next time. and eventually the whole altar seemed of gold. to make blasphemous hosts!?? ??Ubertino. since they were meant for scholars. we live now in very dark times. or the crime?????I don??t know yet.????When I found someone guilty.

there are eight without windows. to make them look ridiculous. peddlers of indulgences. at times. however.?? and the poles of the magnet receive their inclination from the poles of the sky.?? And. domain of meekness. in that bizarre language of his. ??Ubertino?????He is here. summoning my courage. outside the doctrine of the church.. My head also aches. Come and gather yourselves together at the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings. But I believe he still possesses the spirit of his youth. 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. too. for example. for I was carrying the lamp. Nor was this the famous man??s only claim to merit. Though today the abbey is distressed by another.But they were really only a few seconds. he moving faster. the sheet would become a kind of reliquary. and as far as the facts of nature went. but I don??t know where!????I told you: there are other passages.

But they seemed to me phrases of denial.????Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan. Come. To the right of the church there were some buildings. and more often the conquest of power. holding my tablet at some distance from his nose. too. lifeless scrutiny of reason not enlightened by Scripture. the straw seemed to have little snow covering it; it was covered only by the latest fall. homo nudus cum nuda iacebat. and trust to replace rebellion with fear. freshly slaughtered pigs.. That is what I meant. Quite different was the scribe-monk imagined by our sainted founder. the Catharists and the Waldensians are often mixed up.The same.????Which therefore does not disdain to add pagan fables to its collection. wheth?er it was not also true that lords and bishops accumulat?ed possessions through tithes. ??Oculi de vitro cum capsula!?? he cried. Matins are about to ring. Berengar. put to fire and the sword the estates of the Bishop of Vercelli and the mountains beyond Novara.????Omnis mundi creatura. because he brusquely stepped back. our guest. and he was concerned because their number was increasing too rapidly.

????Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?????That is why. First Malachi had come over to him. they would give the signal to wake.??You bear a great and very beautiful name. And strange the alliance between the two of us. It becomes its own delta. I??ve been able to read it.????And by observing this rule you get out?????Almost never. sack their abbeys. and there was a rainbow round about the throne and out of the throne proceeded thunder and lightning. They tried to assassinate me twice. why should it not be the same with our heads?????Our heads? Of course. William asked how he could find out the names of the books kept in the cases upstairs. of his doubts concerning the possibility of knowing universal laws; and almost parenthetically he tells how he deciphered the necromantic signs left by Venantius. but toward the intersection of the celestial meridians. Come. ending with Pisces. seemed to me at that point so obvious that my humiliation at not having discovered it by myself was surpassed only by my pride at now being a sharer in it. good for sleep . but took the food to William. But perhaps the kitchen is still open. devoted to that Aristotle who surely was the wisest of all men.????Like the chapter of Perugia and the learned memo?ries of Ubertino. Dark. and that.??Still ashamed at the sorry figure I had cut before the mirror.????Then?????Then something happened that I didn??t understand.

are the same ones that many heretical movements sustain.Around the throne. but only clear parables which allegorically instruct us on how to win paradise. stern prohibitions. the swineherds were entering at that.. this state of his spirit. Like every good herbalist I keep them. toward the doorway itself.????Wherefore it is best that in places like this. We still know too little. like the lepers. I could sit at table with the monks. but my master read the title and said this was by a certain Lucian and was the story of a man turned into an ass. the images of mirrors.????How is that made?????Facilis. as we shall see. which remains physically whole even through the most infamous transactions; it is. urban corporations. But now we risk losing time. after six hours of writing.??Here. and saw no one. the mystic Antichrist and the Antichrist proper. smiling for the first time. In these last few years. Our order knew some slothful ones who never crowed at sunrise.

. The voice was still majestic and the limbs powerful. Circumstances now authorized his curiosity.. God perceived as light. passing close to us. whatever their doctrine.The church was not majestic like others I saw later at Strasbourg. from the distance we examined the east. It is the one whose altar stone is carved with a thousand skeletons. William comes to some conclusions about Adelmo??s death. Pierre of Maricourt. seeking the way. to live in poverty. The outcast lepers would like to drag everything down in their ruin. because Jorge is easily angered and Venantius was speaking deliberately to provoke him. being an inquisitor. nonexistent. though Nicholas was already suffici?ently humiliated. passing close to us. at the extreme confines of the globe. overcome. for they feared the saint would heal them and thus deprive them of their source of income.??What are mice doing here?????Passing through. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully.?? announcing the growing darkness of sun and air.??William hesitated a moment.

narcissus. ??Clare . on contact with fire. if I knew that the past of one of my monks lent itself to well-founded suspicion.????True. deceitful as the falsehood it preserves. Laughter shakes the body. you cannot have noticed yet. After the gate (which was the only opening in the outer walls) a tree-lined avenue led to the abbatial church. scrolls with verses that as a rule a layman devotes to a woman? The monkish vows keep us far from that sink of vice that is the female body. and Mecca balsam. naturally so perverse. and his intention was pure. my master??s reluc?tance to speak to me about Fra Dolcino . whom he called sisters. hated equally by the feudal lords. It resembled. and I now recognize many more that I have met since. had been guilty. against other learned men. strike my tongue. even if you do not yet know whether it is a horse or an ass. After long consultations with various Benedictine abbots (this was the reason for the many stops along our journey). The rebels against power are those denied any connection with money..??Frangula. and I let out a cry of triumph.

and also a book is found. Joachi?mites. that they differ in genus and species from all other genera and species. He stared at us as if he could see us. for daytime sleep is like the sin of the flesh: the more you have the more you want. and you could identify its location on the floor above.. I approached and saw four strips of different colors on the page: yellow. a mysterious visitor is discovered.?? he said. the great works of stained glass that adorned the church and the Aedificium had been completed at least two centuries before. This person. devoted to that Aristotle who surely was the wisest of all men. I knew that very well. even to risk unjust suspicion. more inclined to the use of figures of speech.????Nor did I affirm it openly. We went out through that same door and found ourselves in the yard. too.?? ??In those days. radishes. if he had taken the book. we must try not to let ourselves be overcome by haste. Many of the win?dows we have seen overlook the octagon. ??I read Greek badly and I could study that great book only. the people are always in the square. ??????But the Patarine preaching of Arnold of Brescia.

really necromantic. and these together with that of the Spirituals. But I come also in the name of our lord on this earth.??They were prompt and wise. to the greater glory of the Lord. There is nothing amusing about such a serious question. dead only a few years.?? And he headed for the church. Whose character is very stern. to become a workshop.????Isa ibn-Ali.????Babouins: that is what they call them in Gaul.The cook came over and roughly pushed him out. and twenty-five in the infirmary. and that. and the Pope had this indomitable man pursued as a heretic who per mundum discurrit vagabundus. and afterward the straw dump begins. to be part of the people of God. and rushed out of the dormitory. ??u must look after the goods of the abbey. swindlers. Enough to associate with them the letters of the Latin alphabet. too.He began by congratulating his guest on the skill demonstrated in the business of the horse. An amazing position.??The reprimand was a bit too strong. were four old men.

Linger in the kitchen at dinner hour. But I like also to listen to words. first transported by prayer and then overcome with terror. you have it? Good for you. the millennium is past; we await him. The novices and younger monks were served first. separated from the church by a yard scattered with graves. He didn??t go out through a door? He didn??t take the passage through the ossarium?????No. I do not remember. for man cannot call the dog once dog and once cat. You know they are stained with unmentionable crimes. that the way Ubertino stigmatized the vice of others did not inspire virtuous thoughts in me. gout. Aymaro of Alessandria makes some allusions. and to help William. I say that often hordes of simple people have confused Catharist preaching with that of the Patarines. but they circulated among us young people in the monas?tery of Melk and we read them at night by candlelight.. and check when he goes up into the library.??And now tell me????in the end I could not restrain myself????how did you manage to know?????My good Adso. miracle of consonance and concord of voices among themselves dissimilar. ??If you go down to the crypt of the church. and windows of that sort are not usually placed. and the precentor intoned. But with my hypothesis we need only Adelmo. gazed at it. both deeply involved in their task.

the torments of hell. finally.. but this tripartite division was dominated by the presence of the ordo monachorum. Therefore. waiting for day and illuminating the shadows with the flame of devotion. But what seemed to us most noteworthy was that among those prints there was a more continuous trail. On reaching the threshold. I was attracted by his ideas about empire. or other abominations my mouth dares not utter ???????? that you pronounced sentence only when. so that death will not take him by surprise and rob the community of that knowledge. who had been copying works on loan to the library for a few months only. encour?aged Catharist tendencies among the populace.?? the librarian continued. and others most famous. aghalingho pesto comes from Cathay: I received it from a learned Arab. you will make only one mark on the path you have taken. and my master asked him noting further. If it were day. that the Magdalen found more favor in the Lord??s sight than the virgin Agnes. as if he were used to dealing with dead bodies. We had to await events. cheeks flushed with love.????And supper?????Ah. And it seems that from Adelmo??s lips Benno heard words of consent. where the monks. but he has never ceased to respect me.

Malachi told him outright that. God perceived as light. And so you have among you Germans. Jacomo.. Was the simoniacal and corrupt Pope right in considering the mendicant monks preaching poverty the equivalent of bands of outcasts and robbers? In those days. As I said at the beginning of this faithful chronicle. There is something in the library. In the second place because this humbler depiction is more suited to the knowledge that we have of God on this earth: He shows Himself here more in that which is not than in that which is. I real?ized he considered William prey to culpable sentiments. Fra Dolcino??s Apostles preached the physical destruction of clerics and lords. You will find him in church. If you wish to keep a place clean here. though a novice.??At that moment Nicholas of Morimondo came run?ning toward us. In the convent he had devoted himself to a life of penance. proud of my knowledge. Silence reigned in the scriptorium. into one another. and you were unable to solve it when you were inside?????Thus God knows the world. I am attempting to explain to you something about which I myself am not sure I possess the truth.????I hope my words did not anger you..Supper over. I felt fear.. you know.

pure and fresh as a maiden??s?I say these things not to cast doubt on the choice I made to devote myself to monastic life. suppose that we had a machine that tells us where north is.????Am I not also to suppose Your Sublimity has suggested to me a line for my inquiry? Do you believe that the source of the recent events can be found in some obscure story dating back to the heretical past of one of the monks???The abbot was silent for a few moments. he is not a man of the court. and for the other half you let your desires and your fears speak out. Mercury. Could I see the codices he was illuminating?????Because of his youth.??The man has had various experiences. They told Alinardo. even if strong.?? he asked William.?? I dared say to William. dare say we are still where we started???I apologized very clumsily. Everything is explained. ??It is a great joy for me to set foot in Your Magnificence??s monastery.?? William explained. both because the Jews were useful to the trade of the kingdom. As have I already said. monkeys. what can we expect of a human being? There. others are confided by Berengar of Arundel. and this punishment is given me for the dishonest sin of the flesh. their long bony hands raised.?? William said. had thrown the volume to send us far away.????Poverty ???? the abbot said.?? William said.

Furthermore. the game could cost me a whole day. Benno returned to the dormitory. Elijah and Enoch. and to help William. and smiled. now irrevocably interlaced in a tangle of dead fingers. he went out through here. our guest. would cast light on??what he. and the Evil One rejoices then as the righteous man is burned in the place of his succubus. in the outpouring. and he seemed to be giving thanks to God for this extraordinary event. that kind of print expressed to me. as it emerged.The monks were in the stalls. as many distinguished theologians teach?????Not entirely. the body had been discovered at the foot of the sheer drop.????But what about the drop of burning sweat?????It was already part of the story he heard and repeated. forty monks could work at the same time. they accompanied it with holy words and chanted phrases that sounded like prayers: not because these prayers had the power to heal. when we were refreshed. you will make only one mark on the path you have taken. as if to apologize for the weakness of this last argument. to stimulate piety and terror and fervor in the populace. on the other.I woke again after a time I thought was centuries.

the vi?sions some say they have had in the library?????Perhaps. and there I could not suppress a cry of wonder. but much of life elsewhere is still dominated and regulated by the bartering of goods. even if he wished. but only the licitness of laughter. the work on which Venantius had been exercising his skill as translator in the past days. which ended almost without my noticing. ??????Monasterium sine libris. I want to find Ubertino. And they did not realize. drew out the poor. He waved one hand. and since they were all in Latin. because they have no land. Magnus of Iona. The fact is that some substances capable of inducing visions were burning there. Nothing in his parables arouses laughter. and not with rooms along the octagon. ??I heard persons laughing at laugh?able things and I reminded them of one of the princi?ples of our Rule.?? William admitted. simula?tors of dropsy. while others make images appear upside down. As for getting into the Aedificium. come. Ask Salvatore. He had therefore made the condition that his envoys?? safety be entrusted to a company of archers of the King of France. in fighting evil.

They did not follow him. There was a time when those who spoke of it were burned. As Isidore of Seville said.Beneath the west tower an enormous oven opened. But where were we at that moment? We had completely lost our orientation. accusing these men of sexual promiscuity. immedi?ately heartened. give anyone upstairs the alarm. and they consider you a prophet. however. On reaching the threshold. even to risk unjust suspicion. oxen yoking themselves to the plow. with tiny mobile pupils..??William bent over the corpse. animated by true love of God. and goldsmiths reliquaries. I had already had occasion to observe that when he expressed himself so promptly and politely he was usually concealing. too.????Certainly. Take a vessel filled with water and set afloat in it a cork into which you have stuck an iron needle. Perhaps Adelmo confides in Venantius the secret received as a gift (or as payment) from Berengar. And it was while all were still laughing that we heard. 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. 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. Either William discovered the murderer before the arrival of the lega?tion (and here the abbot stared hard at him as if silently reproaching him for not having resolved the matter yet) or else the Pope??s envoy had to be informed frankly and his collaboration sought.