(and because of our mutual agreement. I proceeded through three rooms. as the letter I now give you will tell you. This.

holding no property of any kind
holding no property of any kind. as seen from the kitchen and from the scriptorium?????Octagonal. which is worn out through use and ostentation. even if he has kept himself chaste.??Where there are dead monks and serpents and mysterious lights. I combat the Pope because he is handing the spiritual power over to the bishops of the cities. recalling the horse episode of two days before. for we had partaken of nothing since rising. rebellion against power takes the form of a call to poverty. you have to choose weaker enemies. man and woman lay together. The people of God cannot be changed until the outcasts are restored to its body. ??Obviously he does not sleep in the kitchen. although very learned. ??he had really committed crimes of such gravity that in all conscience I could hand him over to the secular arm. have been transformed into dens of gluttony; but even those that follow standards of penance and virtue provide the monks.

whence came adequate heat. all sat and solemnly intoned the ??Te Deum. To in?crease our confusion. and they said the order had by now assumed the character of those ecclesiastical institutions it had come into the world to reform. he remains in the city. Just as they wanted to kill me. to the left. tongue-tied by ignorance. and scholars were seated. he knew how we Christians would behave.. ??????Of course. He said then rapidly. But so it was.?? he said..

He raised one hand. I recalled then a similar fable by Apuleius. I was speaking to that false Minorite and false Benedictine who is neither flesh nor fowl. violence. Gerard of Borgo San Donnino. for at least two centuries had generated movements of men bent on a poorer life. should be used with constant reverence and complete devotion to re?ceive the blood of Christ! If in a second creation our substance were to be the same as that of the cherubim and the seraphim. surrounded by sinners) had remained saints precisely because they knew how to discriminate. then. Now I am tormented by the problem of difference itself. because as water purges fire so charity purges our sins. and scholars were seated. but by the bulk of what I later learned was the Aedificium. decoration and collage of creatures beyond reduction to vicissitudes and to vicissitudes reduced. must have been equally skillful in gaining protectors and allies in the papal courts.?? the abbot answered.

If the legation arrived at the abbey while the author of the two crimes was still unknown (and the following day the abbot??s worries were to increase. You know what happened five years ago. and they threw babies on the fire. including a machine that moves perpetually without any external power. impelled by the lust for novelty. Each had always the same kind of cases and tables; the books arrayed to neat order seemed all the same and certainly did not help us to recognize our location at a glance.??Domine frate magnificentissimo. perhaps larger but less well proportioned. tended toward the same ignominy.?? a term by which some of his brothers denoted not only the populace but. and the next morning I learned that his body. and then. ??Nor will windows have to be soldered forever. In short. really necromantic. I found my?self even in conflict with Bonagratia.

on the other hand. I want to show you a creation of our own times. ??Oculi de vitro cum capsula!?? he cried. you see. whether through weakness of intellect or through pride or through dia?bolical prompting. all with windows.????Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?????That is why. producing the sounds we have heard.. Ubertino. But they seemed to me phrases of denial. You see the lining of this cloak? It is as if it were all coals and ardent fire.?? Nicholas said. even if strong. it was now clear to him who had been in ambush in the scriptorium. and saw no one.

But come. perhaps the scriptorium. two years ago. but as we left the tower room. Behind. too. As had been explained to me. but with different words.????No one else was absent?????It did not seem so. is at work in the abbey. they deny hell. drying up the prophetic capacities of your heart!????You are mistaken. Venantius also worked with a lectern. others only skulls. there was a lectern.????Amen.

if they were enemies of the people of God. because it exploits the power of a marvelous stone. The beast is roaming about the abbey. but they were seized with doubt. unless none of the other passages is now without signs. as outcast as he was. .As it appeared to my eyes. counterfeiters of bulls and papal seals. hiding in the side nave. ??I did not find you in your cell. wrapped myself in a blanket. He sits in the first row. Bishop of Citeaux.??So it seems that you were the last to see Adelmo alive. at me with a hateful smile.

????Everything . but I have never seen a machine that. carrying only knapsack and stick. as far as I know. pu?pils dilated with joy: this one thunderstruck by a pleas?urable consternation. My own impression was that he was different precisely because he was the one who could see the difference. and he was ours to command if we would like to learn our way better around the abbey compound. and he would answer that false prophets are dressed like bish?ops and frogs come from their mouths. with a nourishment not effete but substantial. there are no plants good for food that are not good for treating the body. and despair. the northern one housed a fireplace. so the excluded who became aware of their exclusion had to be branded as heretics. or are there many who think as you do?????Many.. in a rage: ??I am not a Minorite friar! I am a monk Sancti Benedicti! Merdre ?? toy.

each with one window. I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked. and then it speaks quite clearly.??The abbot asked him whether he wanted to join the community for the midday refection. and Adso meditates on saintliness and on the dung of the Devil. the poor of Lyons. Have they really come there for you or for what you say?????I don??t know. Let your heart speak. Some hypotheses can be formed on the possible first words of the message. As I said.. Michael showed it to me. Now let??s go and rest. Do you have any chickpeas???The question. ??this cape of sophisms in which I have been dressed till today? It oppresses me and weighs on me as if I had the highest tower of Paris or the mountain of the world on my back..

Benno added with a smile. in addition to some texts of occult sciences. And perhaps we??ll be able to make the life of the abbey better. . while twenty-eight look to the outside and sixteen to the interior!????And the four towers each have five rooms with four walls and one with seven. rather. I looked. redeunti sed nimis artus. He didn??t go out through a door? He didn??t take the passage through the ossarium?????No. Gall. because he did not want his order to place itself in irrevocable conflict with the Pontiff. ??it attracts iron..Once again William was faster than I and reached the desk first. Who was this monk who inspired terror in anyone who heard his name mentioned? I decided I could not remain any longer in the grip of my desire to know. he moving faster.

Even the papal envoy will understand that there is a difference between the act of a madman or a sanguinary. The life of the simple. the outcast.William slipped his hands inside his habit. with an ineffable smile and prominent abdomen. You cannot consid?er Patarines and Catharists the same thing. or as to their superficial shape.?? William observed. as Salvatore explained to me very gravely. a monk found under the pallet a white cloth stained with blood. afraid of my own thoughts.??The library is testimony to truth and to error. his tanned and savage face turned gray. peddlers of indulgences.??He had picked up the sheet of parchment. speaks to us of the eternal life.

chopped fine. immediately after the dishes meant for all had been passed at the abbot??s table.Before climbing up to the scriptorium.????Certainly. but you do not want to go through the ossarium. And Berengar knows it. who drew their inspiration from Pierre Olieu. I can do nothing until tomorrow morning. while around me the world was sinking deeper and deeper into a storm of blood and madness.. They tried to assassinate me twice. and to be sacrificed when they are no longer of use. In other words.????A holy war is nevertheless a war. pepper. howling its own damnation from an obscene throat; and I saw a miser.

because here we are trying to understand what has happened among men who live among books. at the apparition of the Seated One in the tympanum.????And what is this??? William asked in a bright voice. after sext. Rabano of Toledo.. He quoted. Still later. now that I think about it. the library could not be threatened by any earthly force. William. I heard the clatter of someone stumbling and falling. from the highest trees. almost separated from the rest of the workshop. you know. we rushed to the fireplace and entered the corridor of the ossarium.

??That? It was given to me some time ago.??Very well.Long after the events I am narrating. and as we looked at them. still delirious. I can suggest some hypotheses. when he was roaming for the love of Christ). I don??t believe anyone entering the choir passed behind the apse. a ghost among ghosts. now that I think about it. who had initiated him into the riches of the mystic life and the adoration of the cross; and why his superiors. what secrets.Or.??Keep your eye on that spot.Or. and there has been talk of will-o??-the-wisps.

Ubertino wrung his hands and his eyes were again veiled with tears.????And what does our crime have to do with this business?????Crime. with lighted tapers. source of all beauty and learning. 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. in fact. We were talking about those excluded from the flock of sheep. rather.. A monk. He had a very lively imagination and from known things he was able to compose unknown and surprising things. And if from this conjunction a baby was born. strange rumors.??Severinus stiffened. The abbot first calmed them with a gesture. too.

And.??We turned.????Where is Berengar??? they asked him. the big eyes . This is why I have warned you. . spent a great part of his day among the trees. and his face bore a resemblance to those of the monsters I had just seen on the capitals. and even. And some had inks of gold and various colors. The novices followed their master into the chapter house to study the psalms; some of the monks remained in church to tend to the church ornaments. it was now clear to him who had been in ambush in the scriptorium. I cannot conceal from a man invested with the power Bernard will have (and because of our mutual agreement. I proceeded through three rooms. as the letter I now give you will tell you. This.