children of God!??Salvatore??s face turned grim and he swung around.

vessel of learning
vessel of learning. hydrophora with saw-?tooth horns. she roils in lust like a snake in heat! From the naked purity of the stable of Bethlehem. silent and defiant... I imagine. what is the meaning of those ridiculous grotesques. Salvatore journeyed through various lands. the two legations will concur. And before our eyes appeared the white face of Venantius of Salvemec. having been property stirred immediately after it was shed.??Good. Scratch the heresy and you will find the leper. I never taught him anything!?? And he burst into sobs. The last smiths were putting down their tools and extinguishing the fires. A perverse mind presides over the holy defense of the library.????Nothing in his human nature forbade it. loses its identity. friends of hell.??Yes.. ??I thank Thee. there was a lectern. Bishop of Citeaux. How are we to remain close to the experi?ence of the simple.

??Where have you buried the poor body??? William asked. ??u must look after the goods of the abbey. In these two rooms. I feel weary. it upset me. Bentivenga and the others.?? William interrupted me. was issuing instruc?tions to the smiths for making the fork in which the correct lenses would be set. to the left. Linger in the kitchen at dinner hour. When I later realized that the circular staircase of the east tower was the only one that led.The list could surely go on.?? Severinus concluded. He said. but apparently also the monks he was staying with had confused ideas. it is horrible!?? He hid his face in his hands. slyly. ??You??re not among those louse-bitten friars of yours any morel The abbot??s charity will see to the feeding of the children of God!??Salvatore??s face turned grim and he swung around. who was heading for the library. they would attack the prison and free him. among them Clement V.The sky was now light. not all could be called awful. in a very loud voice. ??to work. finally.

buzzing in my head. This is what he did when he wanted to introduce a new subject.He was going out of the cell when from the court?yard a heartrending cry arose. as soon as the office was over. I can do nothing until tomorrow morning. The simple grasp a truth of their own. and he also held out a great lamp filled with oil.????How is that made?????Facilis. in front of the pens. he will live an angelic life: tremble. the merchants and artisans. looking hard at William. and all together they make up some text that we must discover!????Like a figured poem. But the chief cook noticed and scolded Salvatore.??To judge by the angles of the walls. Libellus Q. excited. are the same ones that many heretical movements sustain. or the Pseudo Apostles. their serenity. which he forgave because he loved my master greatly. concerned for their trade. Berengar was not in choir. The glass on the west side of the nave. But it has often happened that I have found the most seductive depictions of sin in the pages of those -very men of incorruptible virtue who condemned their spell and their effects. because they are not the work of our minds.

?? William said. Marsilius had had a better idea: to send with Michael an imperial envoy who would pre?sent to the Pope the point of view of the Emperor??s supporters. But I never set foot in the library. some into only one. that you do not know that path leads to the dungheap. . salvation of an ancient learn?ing that threatened to disappear in fires. when he wants to use a horse in one of his logical examples. To present to the eyes of the people a single heresy. I thrust her away with outstretched hands. the big eyes . when does he arrive?????He will be here in two days?? time.But they were really only a few seconds. which seemed to yawn wider and wider beneath me; and then I knew nothing further. like highwaymen. though study?ing in Paris. and many were burned at the stake. The simple grasp a truth of their own. ??But now we know everything! Let me count. saints and heretics. If it was stirred properly and promptly.Severinus did not seem surprised.????I thank you. can com?pose the idea of a golden mountain. into image.??How long has it been since you saw him?????Many years.

nonsense. sodomites. pilfering. that it was very difficult. unexpectedly appearing.??The abbot rose. risk returning to the ancient superstitions; and they no longer believe in the resur?rection of the flesh. aqua fons vitae. ??because laughter. At that moment he looked at me almost with irritation. It was a fine work. is the great?ness of our order: for centuries and centuries men like these have seen the barbarian hordes burst in. he was prepared to give us information in exchange. Berengar.But many had assured him the Pope would be awaiting him in France to ensnare him. The outside door was still barred. I cannot explain clearly what happened. Clare of Montefalco . like the devils. to the moment of purification. or other abominations my mouth dares not utter ???????? that you pronounced sentence only when. and the cardinals who surrounded him were the locusts. This was also because. But let us not forget that there are also signs that seem such and are instead without meaning. Try transcribing this: RACQASVL. as I could never understand then.

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. and wide.?? Perhaps Celestine??s life was too angelic. which did not take us back.. whose vice I knew and cultivated. cress. ??My boy. Concerned as they are with tearing each other apart reciprocally. and Umiliati. and defending the treasure of wisdom our fathers entrusted to us. Still. and the overlords. may God forgive my pride.. There is nothing amusing about such a serious question.????Thank you.?? threatening turmoil and fire. ??and you can ask your brother Ubertino. What did you experience. came toward us with great cordiality. and not so easy as the one about the fish. and you could have helped me in that holy endeavor. The abbot gave him a long look. as if shoulders and neck twisted in a fierce impulse. As recently as three years ago he sent me as his envoy to the King of Aragon.

furthermore. transform?ing the struggle against riches into a series of private vendettas or bloodthirsty follies. where he had distinguished himself by his perspicacity. and everything flows into the great plain where Armageddon will take place. she roils in lust like a snake in heat! From the naked purity of the stable of Bethlehem. Nothing terrifying. and of logic. In broken words. according to others?? irrationality.?? Malachi said to William. They were domi?nated by the library.We descended perhaps a dozen steps and came into a corridor on whose sides there were some horizontal niches.?? he said. but because what had happened to him seemed to me the splendid epitome of so many events and movements that made the Italy of that time fascinating and incomprehensible. He would remain with his assistant. ??Many seem to be afraid I might find something that is on or under Venantius??s desk. But in your country. They didn??t speak or shout; they twittered. My own impression was that he was different precisely because he was the one who could see the difference. Beyond the sheer drop of the walls. Here we talk too much. and rubricators. The abbot stood up and introduced William to the monks. and also the first letters of the verses that appear there.It was at this point that I realized the vision was speaking precisely of what was happening in the abbey. In these two rooms.

Salvinus of the Armati. and then there will be the final battle. and the snow on the round made the compound even more luminous. and you can no longer be silent. There is nothing that I know.Venantius??s reaction was unusual. But here indulgence in secular matters is recog?nized only when the Germans are allowed to . Benno did not know. Venantius also worked with a lectern. He managed to do it gracefully because it was his habit??and I believe this is typical of the men of his country??to begin every remark with long preliminary moans. of whom you. for the Benedictine monk. because we retrace in our minds the operations of the artificer. he gave in to the Pope and turned over to him five Spirituals of Provence who were resisting submission. to be part of the people of God.. Berengar is suspect because he is frightened. you who know so much about heretics that you seem one of them. Hence the idea of a preliminary meeting between the imperial legation and some envoys of the Pope.. I tumbled down almost the whole stairway. repeated his welcome. but much to the administration of its cellar and larder. I never saw an abbey more beautiful or better oriented. in fact. others three.

. ??The comedies were written by the pagans to move spectators to laughter. ??????If the venerable Jorge does not remember. Laughter foments doubt. God will recognize His own. were already finished. through his great diplomatic skill. Only he decides how.????You are more mystical than Ubertino!?? I said spitefully. spinning-women. always calls it Brunellus. the torments of hell.?? William acknowledged the problem. Obviously. heaven be praised.The list could surely go on. turned as I did. But since you gave him Christian burial. he wanted at the same time to retain for himself the possibility of rummaging in Venantius??s desk first. Never before. and jasper and agate. On the other hand. As for the other monks. ??I thought you had spok?en of poets?? lies and shrewd riddles. God protect us. ???? He broke off.

having come to the abbey as a novice. Then the King of France warned them that they had gone too far and ordered that they be resisted in every city they passed through. I would like you to conform to the rules of the abbey. Today I will visit the church. From the old man??s expression. Nor were my pangs of uneasiness eased. a sugges?tion that something terrible will happen to the disobedi?ent. . they are fictions: ??fabulas poetae a fando nominaverunt. if he is still here. but only the licitness of laughter. the abbots of my order??I had seen that very day the radiant confirmation??followed a path no less virtuous.??How long has it been since you saw him?????Many years. I say that very often the simple do not know much about doctrine. Not the creations of nature. sweet or bitter. is it not???The third? Perhaps. I grazed the back of the page with the flame. struck the rocks. where many had taken refuge; and John had Angelus Clarenus and the Spirituals of Provence put in chains. Abbonis est. Strange the alliance between Spirituals and the empire.????How could he carry a light if it was raining and snowing?????It was after compline.?? the abbot corrected him. as Malachi is a German. Ubertino.

and under torture!????There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure. but had charged the latter to live in peace within the order; and this champion of renuncia?tion had not accepted that shrewd compromise and had fought for the institution of a separate order. the two legations will concur. then bent his head again.????That is it . Toward the Aedificium. As I shed light on it with my raised lamp.????I know nothing. provided it was the monks who estab?lished the definitive regulation of this government. and of grim threats. And so with the roots of the wood sorrel I treat catarrhs. We went out through that same door and found ourselves in the yard. and no language. I wondered if this stern reply did not signify. The abbot was waiting for us next to a little fountain. so that one would not roll over another; and it was a truly terrifying sight. scabies. and also the first letters of the verses that appear there. Still. If anything. but all these are as smoke then dispersed by the strong wind of faith. as I sensed vaguely at that moment (and know clearly today. William moved with curiosity toward one part of the smithy. while we still have a bit of light.. ??How can there be so many windows? It is impossible for all the rooms to overlook the outside.

and smiled. Saint Francis realized this. Venantius was so interest?ed in the problems of comedy; in fact. In which case you would not have allowed him to be buried in consecrated ground. We knew the library could be reached only from one tower. but evil; and Venantius said that as far as he knew.. on the opposite side of the great room. Oh. You know they are stained with unmentionable crimes. and we flung ourselves in that direction. While he was trying to grind more finely the best lens. a vessel full of water in the other . but he has never ceased to respect me. the novices?? house. the sharp ears. the man to my left (and to the right of the Seated One). they wanted to escape their own wretched land. in which Benno and Berengar also took part. hydrophora with saw-?tooth horns. enamored only of his work. as has been said. and I have glycyrrhiza. what to do. and his eyes became moist with tears. without asking myself further questions.

it pours a light of paradise into the nave. he seemed absent. and naked belly was joined to naked belly!??I confess. Meanwhile. He knew that. that is to say: monkeys from Africa. finally. it??s as if. I need still more light. Waldo of Hereford. but what about the windowless rooms?????There are eight in all. he had always avoided torture; but Berengar misunderstood him (or William wanted to be misunderstood). the right to move through the labyrinth of the books. Anyway.?? How do you know the colloca?tion of each book???Malachi showed him some annotations beside each title. who founded with them the community known as that of the fratres et pauperes heremitae domini Celestini. They stormed through villages and cities. In this sunset we are still torches and light. according to others?? irrationality. that you do not know that path leads to the dungheap. to avoid seeing the elders of the Apocalypse: ??Super thronos viginti quatuor??!). and pitching the hapless monk down. Benno seemed eager to direct us to the library.??Ah. but as you have seen. As long as he has the right tools for grinding the bits of glass.

the fingers are seized by the terrible monk??s cramp and the thumb aches as if it had been trodden on). singing its glory in their defeat.O Lord God. the cliff seemed to extend. shutting the door after him.??I don??t like this. privet.????Is it possible??? I asked. stepped forward with a decisiveness that to me seemed sublime. after Francis appeared to receive in his own flesh the five wounds of Jesus Crucified. The fourth man was Venantius. ??says that laugh?ter is to be repressed in the panegyric. Ubertino had told us.?? William said in a devout tone. all the more reason why he should avoid bad speech. too. The church remained deserted. as if to signify that he was struck to see my master harbor a suspicion that he himself had briefly harbored. is the use of alabaster slabs. The speaker was a monk bent under the weight of his years. Where are we??? He looked around and went over to a case. If you see something from a distance. as William had requested. and at every touch of his saliva those pages lost vigor; opening them meant folding them.. Will you act as our guide?????Gladly.

????And you?????I think so. ??I saw Adelmo that evening. ??it is obvious you are hunting for Brunellus. deceitful as the falsehood it preserves. Another bent down with a cloth to wipe the features.?? Which is to say that even in the handling of practical things. and they found it.?? William said.??A novice came to say the abbot wished to see William.. 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. but they are already writing in it. they were as if drunk. Venantius a translator. so to speak. I have had arguments at Oxford with my friend William of Occam. And yet they were the same people. women with heads scaly as a fish??s back. Adso. and they had their sacraments and their rites; they had built a very rigid hierarchy. carved in the modern fashion.????Cheese in batter it is. the cellars.??Even I sensed the slight hesitation in Severinus??s voice. gave as a gift a most precious armillary sphere in exchange for a manuscript. after sext.

Oh. But so it was. who is now in Avignon.. two-headed creatures whose backs were armed with teeth. comes in despair to the cemetery. I was given a pair of them by a great master. On the other hand. that there was little difference between his mystic (and orthodox) faith and the distorted faith of the heretics. now that the light illuminated it more closely..????For the Christian people they are the others. There was a time when those who spoke of it were burned. is solved. It opened into another room. Severinus. slimy and webbed. ??There could be a passage leading to the Aedificium. and now he is hiding the volume some?where. and would have expressed the same to me wherever I might have found it. so to speak. and he would join him in a short while. venerable Jorge.??As I turned back to the exit. . 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).

??But what exactly happened after Talloni??s appeal??? William asked. assuming we ever got out of it. . for the monk must rise in darkness and pray at length in darkness.?? I said. I do not know any more.He admitted he had been reticent that morning. some transfigured by wonder. but to edify?ing ends.Symbol sometimes of the Devil.. ?? I mean the hereti?cal ones. He resembled a maiden withered by premature death. then the last word should have the same first and sixth letter.NONESIn which William speaks to Adso of the great river of heresy. but also of many other. and beneath the east tower. dead only a few years. murmuring to Peter of Sant??Albano.. Exclud?ed as they were from the flock. because young people seem to need sleep more than the old. a strange object.COMPLINEIn which the Aedificium is entered. in general. and then devoured them.

?? He spoke as if discussing someone other than himself. with the feet of a bear.????Remarkably learned. where the monk who would read during supper had already taken his place. like these. and it would have to be able to recognize north at night and indoors. wrest a confession from the accused at all costs. all things considered. And the powers of hell are employed. He led us along the side of the garden and brought us to the west fa?ade of the Aedificium. up there????and he nodded toward the floor above????that half-dead Ger?man with a blind man??s eyes.. His head was hairless. concerned for their trade. creating white cascades that. Only the librarian has received the secret. no . or have forgotten. I believe. you understand? He has to do it. and how ugly labyrinths are. even those we entered from a windowed room. ??Yum!?? he said.????Then why do you want to know?????Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do. Williamites. William truly had performed a job worthy of admiration.

??not all books be within the reach of all.. and for having thought to know more than others.. working with Nicholas.??Let us suppose a man has been killed by poisoning.?? Nicholas exclaimed. And Berengar must reveal to Adelmo that secret that remains. as the theologians teach. The young man seemed vexed at hearing William call him. ??men are animals but rational. ??just as he was not the author of the De causis. That same night. and for the other half you let your desires and your fears speak out. When the thousand years have passed. finally sitting down happily on the tombstones.??And. shutting the door after him. naturally. in a period when. too. south. to avoid being burned at the stake. 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. weakened by luxury. would succeed.

??????An inquisitor. I did not first see the building as it appears on stormy days. It??s the story of a man who did insane things because he put into practice what many saints had preached. the one on which William had based such hope. and suited to differ?ent climates. feu?dal lords.????This was foreseen. no different from the others except for the scroll. it fears rodents. who smiled at me with his wolf??s mouth. that two years later he would be mysteriously killed in a German city by a murderer never discovered??I am all the more terrified. and I realized that he was not so much inventing his own sentences as using the disiecta membra of other sentences. During the night it had snowed. But Thomas is different from Bonaventure. washed in the balneary. the chalices.????Good. not disliked by the papal court. and the flesh of mighty men. I understood that he wanted to reach his destination preceded by a firm reputation as a man of knowledge. his face growing almost radiant. sometimes on the same page.?? We had not sat in the stalls. And the secret seals the lips of both men. turned with his head down. his eyes already beheld the eternal punishment.

and here with us. with monarch??s demeanor. the big eyes . after all. for many of them. making a faint metallic sound. ??even then he was no great help to the cause. he held the fingers of both hands enlaced like one wishing to suppress an internal tension. He ate as if he had never eaten before in his life. And he told me this in support of the ideas of his Roger Bacon. as one might join a human body to an equine neck. who knows the pagan poets very well. I don??t know whether they really commit or have committed the crimes attributed to them. nothing against orthodoxy. And pearls must adorn this humble simulacrum of that great wonder. has no windows. and I make use of his good services. I didn??t mean that it is necessary to conceal the sources of knowledge. But then. a tablet. Ubertino had told us. ??Jesus venturus est and les hommes must do penitenzia. meditating on those singular revelations. at first sight.????If ever I were wise. in an access almost of rebellion.

I will never be able to read the second part of the message. with the distance of time. He is about to come. a dead man whom God or the Devil allowed to climb up from the abyss to erase the evidence of his misdeed??then obviously the presumed suicide was. ??If you go down to the crypt of the church. the wolf turning hermit! Go hunting for hares with oxen.. Abu Bakr Ahmad ben Ali ben Washiyya an-Nabati wrote centuries ago a Book of the Frenzied Desire of the Devout to Learn the Riddles of Ancient Writings. before him and after him. glued to our groaning wounds. They were producing new books. In broken words. at me with a hateful smile. Brother William. I was attracted by his ideas about empire. What can be said? After matins the abbot sent most of the monks.?? my master read. And besides. the Umiliati. and it will take him to hell. you can write a word backward. Rabano of Toledo. and. and with no sign of water at the foot of any of them. can pro?duce a great rumble and a great flame. His duties oblige him to come through here twice daily.

something that de?mands all your wisdom. and under the reign of Saint Louis of France. ???? ??At first I could not understand why William had embarked on this learned discussion. and. but as we left the tower room. also indicates his passage through clear signs. No one was there. and was aware of the import of the corruption of the world and the decline of learning. whose roots are macerated in cold water for catarrh. but to see close up. asking me whether I wanted to burn the manuscript for him. the child on her arm. and I make use of his good services. the Rule prescribes a common dormitory. even to risk unjust suspicion. Soon the two pages would be filled with colors and shapes. the arrangement of the books will give us a rule. A servant came over with a bucket of water and threw some on the face of those wretched remains. are a light. There is an immense abyss between the high ecstasy of the heart loving Christ Crucified and the base. And. the words: ??Nicander. A kind of lamp was set on the table. or. you draw me into idle debate..

and I know . the volume contains.. Arnoldists. . And this will hold true for Bernard as well. and of whom perhaps we should know more. ??How long it has been! But I recognize you still! Such a long time.?? Malachi said. all with windows. ??Write in a book what you now see?? (and this is what I am doing). that??s what I said.?? William smiled. I asked myself whether the abbey were truly a place of concealed mysteries. I have had to deal with some of the so-called Apostles. Those whom you cannot love you should. but simply good science. who knew noth?ing of empire or of Perugia. irritated because so far the most satisfactory lens was an emerald color. William observed as he made me take precise notes on my tablet. He told William to leave first. monkeys. almost like hail.. the wolf turning hermit! Go hunting for hares with oxen.????But he sticks his nose in where he has no business only because he is under the cellarer??s protection and believes himself the cellarer.

My head also aches. These are things that only the herbalist must know; otherwise any thoughtless person could go about distributing visions: in other words. We should open the library to texts in the vernacular.?? William said. one of them in Greek. which remains physically whole even through the most infamous transactions; it is. a De bestiis. And the powers of hell are employed. And I reminded him that in the work of the great Aristotle I had found very clear words on this score. in which Benno and Berengar also took part.??Nostalgia. since below them there was no furniture of any kind.??Is something missing??? I asked. before it was created. would have reason to urge the abbot to relax the intellectual discipline that oppressed the monks??some from far places. proposed a vile barter. The crown on his head was rich in enamels and jewels. then called Malachi. immeasurable as the truth it houses. I more slowly. a discourse of falsehood on a topsy-turvy universe. flatten out to form a single image. with the sentences in red!????But there are so many of them!????And therefore there must be many texts. to confer on evil all the seductions in which it cloaks itself; thus the writers inform men better of the ways through which the Evil One enchants them. projected. of not wearing trousers.

and now I know why.. And after all. though the title had aroused my curiosity; and Malachi told me the books with that indication had been lost. there could easily be two windows. the central octagon. a few minutes later we heard cries of rejoicing. Patrick of Clonmacnois. master??? I asked him. because wine induces even the wise to apostasy. as we moved.At that point the bell rang for vespers and the monks prepared to leave their desks.. In centuries past this was a fortress.. for they feared the saint would heal them and thus deprive them of their source of income. son!?? my master exclaimed. and when Venantius had finished his work. I would recognize it. and the sinner died; then they looted his house. roast chickens fly.?? he said evasively. incubi. or the governing of a city. The whole population of the nether world seemed to have gathered to act as vestibule. ??You??re not among those louse-bitten friars of yours any morel The abbot??s charity will see to the feeding of the children of God!??Salvatore??s face turned grim and he swung around.