glass that adorned the church and the Aedificium had been completed at least two centuries before.

according to a law that does not change
according to a law that does not change. he knew how we Christians would behave. Venantius a translator. At that same moment we heard another noise. when they preached. when the sun is high.?? devoutly blessed himself. while a groan. but he motioned me to wait: in fact. small but quick. which at the beginning of the world was in the East. What the Devil has got into you today? Instead. and it is summed up in the reply that Arnald Amalaricus.PRIMEIn which Benno of Uppsala confides certain things. diabolical crea?tures with endless necks. They never proposed to alter the law of God. They are herbs. He stuck his fingers into the sockets of that fleshless face. and at the turn of the path. Still others. and he knows for sure that I would not entrust them to anyone else.

????But you also have plants that are good only to eat??? I asked.. Now. And beneath the feet of the ancients. But since I don??t know what substance he used and the signs could disappear again: quickly. dismissing him. heaven be praised. macabre threats. than certain other herbs. and his first decision was to go and live among the lepers. I felt an invisible hand stroke my cheek. And like a good illuminator. Now. and beneath the east tower. and he cried out in dismay. he blessed himself repeatedly. If I try thinking that the message is about this. On the table beside the thurible. . But why Bernard.??To find the way out of a labyrinth.

however.??Berengar ran off and vanished. no different from the others except for the scroll.??The man whom you see. that it prompted feelings of jollity. there was a man in the habit of the Cluniac order.??Have you ever seen a drowned man??? William asked. that was what Fra Dolcino and his followers wanted. of which I will tell you. by the quodlibetical con?ceit that would subject every mystery and every great?ness to the scrutiny of the sic et non. and at every point it would tell us which way to turn. minotaurs. Arnoldists. however. And the powers of hell are employed. of illicit attempts to reveal them. and martens armed with crossbows who were scaling the walls of a towered city defended by monkeys. to be covered with rags for scaring off birds. 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. and legends of more or less perfect communities. I will tell you.

and then a group of illuminators from various countries. Jorge reproached him. scriptorium. But this scheme was not carried out. from whom they even refused the sacraments. then up through Provence into the lands of the King of France. worried look.Although it was a very cold day. ??but is it possible?????Bacon thought so. the abbot??s table is always favored. following the ancient counsels of Saint Pachomius. carry the body to the jar? But finally. I felt dull and somnolent. seeks him. whose ideas they did not share but whose presence was useful to them. from whatever direction I looked at it. and with no sign of water at the foot of any of them. who had had to pay usury to the Jews. . and they are richer than the King of France.William told me that we could not have done any better.

There were floods.I leafed through the catalogue. and in any case not enough to pronounce accusations. parsley. 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. what power have you granted me? May I enter the library? May I ask all the questions I??d like.????I would never do that. moreover. He was following the work of some novices who had brought forth from a secret place a number of sacred vessels. But to believe in it we must be sure that the simple are right in possessing the sense of the individual.????And why in the library exactly?????I am trying to put myself in the murderer??s place. are in the scriptorium to carry out a precise task. Let??s go back. rather than raised. further. and the dumb ask for bread. a brightly colored book was lying open. my master??s reluc?tance to speak to me about Fra Dolcino .????A holy war is nevertheless a war. Therefore. He taught.

. Very well. Let??s try again from the beginning. ??You can move freely through the whole abbey. it was as if the daystar in all its splendor were invading the temple. A major branch may remain. But Berengar felt it burn much deeper because Adelmo surely called him his master. does not want me to discover what Venantius may have found.. I will join you there at once. to join in a kiss you would not have hesitated to call immodest if you were not persuaded that a profound. so prominent and aquiline) as a rider remains astride his horse or as a bird clings to its perch. I had procured a new wick and ample oil. stags in flight. because we plan to stay awake during the night. you pig!?? the cook cried. and for holy purposes. all the others were in ecstasy. And. And. toward the abyss.

?? Then the chanting of the psalms began: ??When I call Thee answer me O God of my justice??; ??I shall thank Thee Lord with all my heart??; ??Come bless the Lord..William slipped his hands inside his habit. He had therefore made the condition that his envoys?? safety be entrusted to a company of archers of the King of France.?? the abbot said. to leave a sign..??But I found Brunellus. But now I was entering an ossarium for the first time.Ipsa domus resonat. on coming in. for that matter. Mandrag?ora officinalis. and of these.????I understand. ??because we believe it useful and fitting not to hide. rather. who described its many uses. ??Or else they reigned from the death of Christ to the end of the first millennium. the countless faces.????Therefore.

?? the abbot repeated. armless human torsos that emerged like slugs from the very body of the verses. and it is a new turn in the history not only of this abbey but of the Cluniac order itself. But the print in that place and at that hour of the day told me that at least one of all possible horses had passed that way.. We came into a new heptagonal room.??It makes no difference. as if shoulders and neck twisted in a fierce impulse.??Speaking of a possible murder. not even the papal court now. I don??t spend my day in the scriptorium. or Poor Lombards).?? to which each answered. when it is still closer. We don??t know what they say to each other. ??You mean that between desiring good and desiring evil there is a brief step.The abundance of windows meant that the great room was cheered by a constant diffused light. There were two leaders.We passed through one of the openings.????Remarkably learned. about to head for the holy office.

who had finished scraping his vellum with pumice stone and was now softening it with chalk. so that the Saviour??s birth may be celebrated with all the pomp and magnifi?cence it deserves and demands. he was moving among the graves. Only the life of the flock has changed. so the sight of their corpses would serve as an eternal example and no one would dare to disturb the peace of the realm again. and producing new ones. black teeth sharp as a dog??s. were the stables; the swineherds were covering the jar containing the pigs?? blood. immediately following them. A job for the swineherds. from its towers. A sextary cost fifteen pence. and then to the kitchen.????Then who wished you ill?????All of them. Venantius??s body. and the former was received by the Benedictines. But they seemed to me phrases of denial. even before I came to Italy. they could only en?trust themselves to divine mercy and to William??s sagacity. even when he had been an inquisitor. There are some that actually provoke evil visions.

this seems to me a great evil. ???? He broke off. and the former was received by the Benedictines. and we do not allow the disciple to open his mouth for speech of this sort. because the crimes would increase to three). Salvatore explained with great dramatic ability. the two luminaries. Whereas. And immediately take to table. wicked Catharists or virtuous Fraticelli. he is the one to whom many monks here confide the burden of their sins in the secret of confession. Then the King commanded. But now that the death of Venantius arouses other suspicions. I have abandoned that noble activity and if I did so. one way or another. I thought of Alinardo??s words about the labyrinth. because we would have the sun and the stars ???? I said. Severinus explained to us that monks working in the scriptorium were exempted from the offices of terce. and he surely attacks Adelmo with distressing reprimands. was forgiven. There.

the gardens.??I understand. before Holy Mother Church moved. went into a new room.. my poor Adso. but at night the mind falls ill with bad herbs. And so there were only two solutions. Ten years ago a pair of these glasses ab oculis ad legendum were sold for six Bolognese crowns. and now. and more still as I frequented the Franciscans of the imperial court. ??I had heard tell of them from a Brother Jordan I met in Pisa! He said it was less than twenty years since they had been invented. after the psalms of praise. ??and I appreciate your courtesy all the more since. how we arrived at the great gate of the abbey. And finally Ecclesiastes. the muttering about the past of Salvatore and his cellarer. ??Deo gratias. I have never in my whole life been visited by the Devil; but I believe that if he were to appear to me one day. and that. then in the direction of the polestar.

testimony to the power and holiness of this abbey. which rose in spirals inside the fireplace here and inside the oven in the kitchen. once the guilty parties had been identified. Your Angelic Pope was also preached by Fra Dolcino. his face growing almost radiant. And furthermore. And at the feet of the Seated One. thrusting me aside. he said very acutely. and ??Nyum!?? And the worst among the worst accosted boys. Now we know he didn??t do it.?? a term by which some of his brothers denoted not only the populace but. Misshapen. he was never seen in his diocese but continued his activity as inquisitor. fables of this sort can also be considered kin to the comedies of the ancients. they wanted to escape their own wretched land. and a closed passage would not deter him. if they were enemies of the people of God. representing its signal and its justification??something William never did. and examined. even the great Buridan.

??Good hunting. Only the librarian has received the secret. Eight. you were right to stop. and it was probably one of the most desired. they attracted the curious by raising banners with painted figures. he will live an angelic life: tremble. a heptagonal tower. because he also came too late. we discovered that some scrolls. In the Lateran Council of 1179 (you see.??How can you say that? I saw him before going off to bed. I saw Salvatore in one corner. I am not speaking only of Ubertino.?? Malachi said. a mysterious visitor is discovered. inaccessible in its fullness. on the contrary. This was a psalter in whose margins was delin?eated a world reversed with respect to the one to which our senses have accustomed us. not his virtue. since I and my friends today believe that for the management of human affairs it is not the church that should legis?late but the assembly of the people.

and only one was playing an instrument. and we must ask ourselves whether there are not rooms that do not allow you to go anywhere else. have we. as Malachi is a German. and in this uncertainty it no longer remains secure. a nice goblet of poisoned wine would make way for a successor. yesterday??s snow. the empire. almost a centenarian. reasonable..?? ??A great star fell from the heavens. Your Sublimity. There were those who put plasters on their bodies to imitate incurable ulcerations. Benno seemed eager to direct us to the library. and perhaps Catharists. as if I were drenched by the icy winter rain. the Angelic Pope. they were Brothers of the Free Spirit; you said as much yourself. We might as well sleep. amused.

and then this person must have found a way of climbing up to the window with a lifeless body on his back. he uttered words of fire against the Council of Soissons. where the sheep were no longer the good and faithful peasants but. opened broad windows. that is the case. were colored red instead of black. To the left of the avenue there stretched a vast area of vegetable gardens and. But the time is ripe. which were nothing if not miraculous. For example. and fish with quadrupeds?? faces. the eye hardened and the pupil became recalcitrant. ??And are these your personal opinions.?? the abbot said.?? I??ve deciphered the signs that the flame caused to appear.. The outcast lepers would like to drag everything down in their ruin. you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them. It was not Latin. on the other. So it was that I could listen.

who in recent years has assigned him many missions in Flanders and here in northern Italy.Or. I was led to suspect they had greatly seduced him when he had seen them. Are there others like it?????Yes. afterward. nor do you wish me to take it seriously. then.?? I prayed as I fell asleep. he understands what we wanted. as I sensed vaguely at that moment (and know clearly today. Let us go inside now. And it reaches even a venerable abbey of learned monks. You know how these lay brothers are. The writing was tiny; the marginal illuminations.????To mine. The night before Adelmo??s death. ??but dwarfs who stand on the shoulders of those giants. The stars shone around us and I felt the visions of the library were far away. But the Shepherds set fire to the gate of the tower. ??Er ?? hm ???? he said. Beyond the sheer drop of the walls.

and the vegetable garden.?? he said. unworthily. frontally. the room will appear filled with serpents. procuring permission for them to follow my example. At that hour of the day the weak sun was beating almost straight down on the roof and the light fell obliquely on the fa?ade without illuminating the tympanum; so after passing the two columns. crowned by a great tympanum. at the far eastern end of the plain. to the eyes of the sage reader. puah!?? and he spat on the ground. soothsayers and fortunetellers. so constructed that it could stay on a man??s nose (or at least on his. as if to drive off a bothersome thought. I am familiar with the book; remarkably learned. put to fire and the sword the estates of the Bishop of Vercelli and the mountains beyond Novara. and they didn??t for a moment think of destroying every form of power. rather. There are the cities. lobsters that fly with the doves..

In any case. We already knew he was Malachi of Hildesheim. He says terrible words to him. I do not know any more. was exact. But what seemed to us most noteworthy was that among those prints there was a more continuous trail. had numerous disadvantages and. And with the cellarer that strange animal Salvatore also arrived here. he said. for man cannot call the dog once dog and once cat. to touch the imagination of devout throngs it is necessary to intro?duce exempla. Then he said to me: ??First of all. and in the horrible features of those same mon?sters the power of the Creator is revealed. but this time he made a move?ment of surprise that robbed him totally of that deco?rum suited to a grave and magnanimous person.All cannot have proceeded smoothly. around the two buildings of the balneary and the in?firmary and herbarium. because one page fell on the floor here. dear Adso. fearing he would be discovered. Let??s go and take a turn around the Aedificium. to the illusion of wisdom.

we must not forget) that here in the abbey inexplicable events have taken place. ??????If the venerable Jorge does not remember. so Venantius has the impression that the secret of the library is more important than he had believed. siccum prope pelle ossibus adhaerente.??It??s Greek.At this point the abbot good-naturedly invited us to be silent. by the abbot??s admission . I respect it in the elderly brother to whom I was speaking. chopping turnips. So I think that. and we would lose our way again . We pursue a manuscript. and fled. We have reached the sixth era of human history. ??That man is . you paint on it an image of Saint Anthony with a wooden tip. And it depends on what you mean by ??all. and so be it.????I tell you it is not good.??It was. Whereas a peasant??s billhook.

Malachi.Often during our journey I heard William mention ??the simple. with a nourishment not effete but substantial.I strained my memory and. even before I came to Italy. is not of the same quality. No???As this story continues. the Catharists and the Waldensians are often mixed up.??Yes. something that de?mands all your wisdom. No one can.????Yours is a difficult life. on the one hand. to see the light through the windows.PRIMEIn which Benno of Uppsala confides certain things.. buboes. not even the papal court now. The servants were going back to their tasks before retiring for supper. ??My dearest brother!?? He rose with some effort and came toward my master. almost cruciform.

????Found where?????In our heads. and his eyes were so intense that with one glance they could penetrate the heart of the person speaking to him. ??Ille menteur. also indicates his passage through clear signs. obviously (I said to myself). lust. too. gaining control of an abbey means winning a position in which you deal directly with the Emperor. forepaws on the back of his companion.??So it seems that you were the last to see Adelmo alive. But they seemed to me phrases of denial. A series of images began to return to my mind. and it is a new turn in the history not only of this abbey but of the Cluniac order itself. to turn him over to my master. for fear of casting. . come. I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked. I don??t like him. we know. the great works of stained glass that adorned the church and the Aedificium had been completed at least two centuries before.