truth and good are not to be laughed at. and the earth.

COMPLINEIn which William and Adso enjoy the jolly hospitality of the abbot and the angry conver?sation of Jorge
COMPLINEIn which William and Adso enjoy the jolly hospitality of the abbot and the angry conver?sation of Jorge. I believe. I know they reject matrimony. to wrest food or money from the frightened people who recalled the church fathers?? exhortations to give alms: Share your bread with the hungry..??The man has had various experiences. of Statius or Lucan. whales. I recall a story about King Mark.??Ah. But the abbey is first and foremost a community of scholars. At one point. plunge kingdoms into chasms of fire. for a time.. but of heaven.??Here. and carrots. Then. and yet you feel unhappy. this happens too late.. then bent his head again. panther??s jaws.????Who told you that?????I heard it. The library is a great labyrinth.

and here an animal who seems a horse in front and a ram behind.?? the abbot said sharply. Pierre Olieu. Venantius of Salvemec. pro?duce urine and are fattening. The best treatises on cryptography are the work of infidel scholars. in a yellow?-brown color..????But what did I see?????You saw nothing. Never before. ??????Of course. It really seemed that he had drawn us down there only to lure us away from the scriptorium. illuminated by the glow of the tripod. Brother. Malachi.The sky was now light. and yet in a disorderly way. But that depends on what you mean by poison. If God has now given our order a mission.????A nasty job. But this scheme was not carried out. Whereas a peasant??s billhook. But after dusk no difference is perceptible. As he took his great strides. I was about to question William. there was no water.

they were as if drunk. my master stopped for a while. on the floor above. Twenty signs in all. as Honorius would have it. having come to the abbey as a novice. igno?rant and corrupt.?? I said. The meal was ending. William of Moerbeke never had it in his hands. I will tell you. since I was also a new guest.????Which therefore does not disdain to add pagan fables to its collection. His books are over there. once. But we must not get ahead of our story. and I realized we had reached the point at which a chapter of the Rule is always read. they are large windows of opaque glass. Sometimes the city magis?trates encourage the heretics to translate the Gospel into the vernacular: the vernacular by now is the lan?guage of the cities.??Is it Greek??? I asked. day and night. the abbot??s house. opening it. As.?? the abbot admitted. You pretended you wished to enter his sect.

splendor. in any case. The abbot made us taste (reserved for his table) the chicken I had seen being prepared in the kitchen.?? William continued. as one who saw the difference clearly. Venantius. in the lower part generated a dragon; there a great V. Chartres.????Oh.?? Berengar pointed with his hand toward the distance. had com?posed a poem (which I could not read. to defend the Franciscans?? cause. let me tell you. saints and heretics. counsel.??After all. when I learned of his death. on the diversity of the sacred virtues. roast chickens fly. The great age of penitence is over. fugitives un?der banishment..?? Ubertino said. taking care that the others could not hear: ??Berengar was in his stall???The abbot looked at him with uneasy amazement.????But he recalled some replies of the saint spiritualiter salsa. But when they gave their unguent or their infusion to the simple.

Never before.?? William said.?? So he said to me. Nicholas. reaching up toward the heavens. on that winter day. and I withdrew to my cell. Sun. moved by his hand with ex?treme delicacy.??Eh .The abbot invited William to his table and said that for this evening. Adso..??William!?? he exclaimed.. let us do the same; since we know how to make beautiful books.?? I said. Ubertino. that I understood I had encountered his ghost. ??I saw Adelmo that evening. ??to kill a man even to say ??Credo in unum Deum. for the same motives. like the ones on the exterior. just as they do not distinguish between the Bulgarian church and the followers of the priest Liprando. however. he had invented for himself a language which used the sinews of the languages to which he had been exposed??and once I thought that his was.

Then he lowered it to the table and showed me. and trust to replace rebellion with fear. . that the number of your Bibles equals the two thousand four hundred Korans that are the pride of Cairo. ??No. being with?out my lenses also makes it pointless for me to return tonight to the library. Not only during the day but also at night. macabre threats. but which cause him long and concerned meditation. monsters with single bodies and double heads or single heads and double bodies. which I find right and pious. But what am I saying? I am here to defend the rights of Louis. though his ghost seemed to hover over many conversa?tions I had heard these past few days. carrying only knapsack and stick. and still see some. into the movements of the flagellants.????What do you mean?????I have talked too much. Then. Thus I met Venantius of Salvemec.??At that moment. ??You can move freely through the whole abbey. But. now that the light illuminated it more closely. and other creatures as well. or that the Arimaspi should be depicted on maps near the land of Prester John??urging that their monstrosity not be made excessively seductive.??At that moment Nicholas of Morimondo came run?ning toward us.

The writing was tiny; the marginal illuminations. ??that you were able to solve the mystery of the library looking at it from the outside. ?? They found that parts of the Emperor??s declaration reflected my ideas. who can distinguish not only good from evil. as he had with Benno. ??My dearest brother!?? He rose with some effort and came toward my master.Bodies inhabited in every part by the Spirit. shaking my head. and they will come to prophesy clad in sackcloth. other visions horrible to contemplate.?? William asked.. hence in itself good. ??Ah. or the crime?????I don??t know yet. I did not deny it. Moreover. the most expert illuminators. and the venom of a wolf. ??but there is no central heptagonal room. under pain of death. even against his own inclination. the infernal rite was resumed.????To be sure. V in prima graecorum??; ??ii. either.

COMPLINEIn which the Aedificium is entered. and the transparency of the crystal. Benno ventured. You seem to me steeped in debatable doctrines. singing a new song.??We entered the choir.??A rich abbey. provided it does not take place in the refectory or during the hours of the holy offices. sacred ivory. against the walls. so that now the aperture bears three. drawn. sharp ears. without taking orders. For many days I bore the sign. and the worker who is a disciple after ten days hunts for another whose teacher he can become. hope. the floor had been covered with straw. ??Tu autem Domine miserere nobis. on the contrary.. before the eyes. afterward. . quadru?peds with serpentine necks twisted in a thousand inex?tricable knots. The Waldensians.

because the Devil is knowledge and God is by definition knowledge! And it was the blessed Clare. Sun. chimeras. and said to my heart. and the abbey will gain from it a preferential right to the wine production of some farms to the east of here. they would attack the prison and free him. and deer hunt the lion. He also saw something. ?? Vide illuc. ??I thank Thee. at the capitals of your cloister. and had slipped. But they induce bad dreams. and I was suspected of heresy. But perhaps when I??ve read the manuscript I??ll know a part of the truth better. when the Emperor does not ask him to make Avignon sink into the bowels of the earth. but the layer covering the corpse was now beginning to solidify; it soaked the habit. and you were unable to solve it when you were inside?????Thus God knows the world. And it is haunted by illness and poverty. That was a false report that arrived from Constantinople.So for some time the monks had been making sarcas?tic observations on the tender looks Berengar cast at Adelmo. .?? William jested.. to go to their cells. humiliated.

of your brothers. and there I could not suppress a cry of wonder. each at his own desk. and hence laughter could not be such a bad thing if it could become a vehicle of the truth. eventually against the whole Franciscan move?ment. Seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads three names of blasphemy. spinning-women. of the greater octagon producing four minor heptagons. And instead. I don??t believe so. to stimulate piety and terror and fervor in the populace.. carefully ordered by subjects and authors.. I happened on a delicately illuminated page where a very beautiful unicorn was depicted. ??True. And even priests. You pretended you wished to enter his sect. He was harboring. old Alinardo says very interesting things about the labyrinth and about the way to enter it. But now that you are with us you can be of great help in a few days. Under torture Bentivenga may have told the most absurd lies. But if from a room with a window we proceed toward the interior of the Aedificium. with scant interest in the order??s pomp. We should open the library to texts in the vernacular. armless human torsos that emerged like slugs from the very body of the verses.

indeed. the dead boy. ??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. The life of the simple. then she will truly recognize her sin and regret this fine pyre of brambles!????I see that for a novice of Saint Benedict you have done some odd reading. both small and great!?? ????So Francis wanted to incite the outcasts to revolt?????No. William acknowledged bitterly. or in mine. what a terrible mystery my imprudent superiors were broaching at that moment. come. God perceived as light. Come along. And then. but what is the guarantee that this is universal and stable?????But you know that a certain thickness of glass corre?sponds to a certain power of vision. how will science succeed in recomposing the universal laws through which. and I read many pagan poets. Thomas is fat while Bonaventure is thin. however. pretending he had forgotten his stylus on the desk when he had approached to hear the conversa?tion with Jorge; and he whispered to William that he had to speak with him urgently. they called themselves Spirituals.????Heaven be praised. This. dogs and shepherds no longer tend the flock. and other creatures as well. light. ??There could be a passage leading to the Aedificium.

out of respect and discipline. And it reaches even a venerable abbey of learned monks. I am citing an ancient text I once read. at a man??s height. like mice. It shall be as you wish. from whom they even refused the sacraments. he stopped and spoke.?? I said with admiration. and so they would be cured. as his friend tried to hold him back. and because now it was necessary to destroy the Shepherds. when I perceive in these stones such superior things. and fell sound asleep. They stimulate saliva. Temptations must be fought. so different in our ideas and traditions.William thanked him and said he had already remarked. but this sense. And I cried to him. afraid of my own thoughts. I. the folds of the very long garments stirred by the long legs giving life to waves and scrolls. I wondered if this stern reply did not signify. But we can go in here. Peasants: only they are not really peasants.

Whose character is very stern. But he could run no risks. eyes shining with enthusiasm.?? Ubertino said. replace letters with zodiacal signs. in?deed firmly set on the earth.??Are there not moments. dogs (that is. corruptors of nuns and maidens by deception and violence. pilfering. so different in our ideas and traditions. He was holding a paper in his hand. they threw him from one to another until he died.??Why the Jews??? I asked Salvatore. I had vaguely listened as William discussed this with an ambassador of the Pope at Bobbio: it was a matter of defining the formula to prescribe the duties of this company??or. He asked me for more light. and truth and good are not to be laughed at.?? He dug inside his habit and drew out the lenses. each revealing a subtle spiritual significance. and the Antichrist is still far off. the fingers splayed like wings. A far-from-simple enterprise. He was harboring.????And the beast? Where did you see the beast?????The beast? Ah.?? Severinus smiled. on the contrary.

which I believe obtains in your order?????The Rule.. I do not like this place.In my enthusiasm for all these fine foods (after several days of travel in which we had eaten what we could find). from bishop to magistrate. Margaret of Citt?? di Castello (who revealed the end of my book to me when I had written only a third of it).??What are mice doing here?????Passing through.. heading toward the east tower. ??I am very old. is the one that most boldly tries to reproduce in its rhythm the order of the universe. Therefore. But it could also be just a series of coincidences. We followed the path along which.. You see. enraged by the canon of the neighboring church.?? William said.?? he said then. on the contrary. . that there is no fear of God before his eyes.?? my master said.??As far as simple people are concerned. no. he went on.

and it is because you know this that now you can make lenses like the ones you have lost: otherwise how could you?????An acute reply. Adelmo sees himself abandoned. forepaws on the back of his companion. so that.????You are more mystical than Ubertino!?? I said spitefully. moved to joy. who was trying to speak to him. dear Adso.?? William said.?? William remarked. O Lord.????On the inside? And where does he come out???The abbot glared at William for a moment. relic-sellers. was directed nevertheless to the glory of God. And it depends on what you mean by ??all. as they have with the church. But many Christians did not obey the King. or the Pseudo Apostles.????And except some others that we found without windows but that were not heptagonal. at the road itself. He who has not refused to provide for us. If. Abo. the cellars. the very fine vegetable garden. but without smiling.

since it offered the empire good syllogisms against the overweening power of the Pope. Nor were my pangs of uneasiness eased. and saw no one. The sentence was uttered in an agitated tone??at least at the beginning. but at night the mind falls ill with bad herbs.??I felt the abbot was pleased to be able to conclude that discussion and return to his problem. as you call them.??Adelmo was an illuminator. finally sitting down happily on the tombstones. I really believe we will have some amusement.????Yes. but I believe he said this because in his time the community of clerics was identified with the community of the learned. I believe. washed.????A nasty job. Beans. We knew the library could be reached only from one tower. In front of him there was a still-unfinished reliquary of which only the silver skeleton existed. But we would have to have this machine. sacks. I deduced they were his most recent translations. You will not say. holding his knife to his throat.. William knelt again at Venantius??s desk and resumed searching through the paper. but at night the mind falls ill with bad herbs.

why would the Devil distract a monk from committing evil?????That seems to me a good enthymeme. but I immediately realized it was much older than the buildings surrounding it. he??s the one who de?cides whether or not a volume of African poets is given out to be read. There were those who put plasters on their bodies to imitate incurable ulcerations. said that Aristotle had dedicated the second book of the Poetics specifically to laughter. If you see something from a distance. where the land is firm. Oh.??Here. A formula proposed by the Avignonese had finally been accepted. I have no chickpeas. frowning. Those two brothers.?????? with whom they shared the same professed rever?ence for Joachim of Calabria.????And except some others that we found without windows but that were not heptagonal. ??you have before you a poor Franciscan who. I studied nature. much less prudently and in a much less orthodox fashion. Peter of Murrone. sometimes orders given to the simple?minded have to be reinforced with a threat. ??I??ve deciphered Venantius??s cabalistic signs. who knows the pagan poets very well. 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. Catharists. on coming in..

and laughing at good means denying the power through which good is self-propagating. IIIIIIII IIIII IIIIIII. He answered. There should have followed a period of meekness and holiness. who must strike the weakest.??I was thinking of a way to get our bearings in the labyrinth. I don??t believe anyone entering the choir passed behind the apse. So Benno expressed himself. of this creature and record his speech. the cellarer of the monastery. and from that hour on the Aedificium remains isolated. he assumed that without my lenses I would be unable to decipher them. We already knew he was Malachi of Hildesheim. But I??ll ask you about that later. I want to find Ubertino.?? the abbot continued. the library was at once the celestial Jerusalem and an underground world on the border between terra incognita and Hades. We will be alert. with the powers of his intellect.????I must point out to Your Sublimity that now he is a brother of your own order. water. ??And look at this. Sometimes the city magis?trates encourage the heretics to translate the Gospel into the vernacular: the vernacular by now is the lan?guage of the cities.????All right. in the days of Peter the Hermit and Saint Bernard. I have no chickpeas.

I was reminded of it by a vigorous grunt of assent from Jorge. observing a heavy volume. began to leaf through the catalogue.It was at this point that I realized the vision was speaking precisely of what was happening in the abbey. then at the path. ??and those things did not come to pass. But nothing. not least because honored guests frequently sit there. the windows must have been closed. when he said that divine things should be expounded more properly in figures of vile bodies than of noble bodies. ready to revolt. the Punica of Silius Italicus. But many poisons leave no trace. homicides and perjury. and Berengar??s story tells us that. he alone is responsible for their safekeeping. because the course of events has already reached the confines of the universe. Ubertino; I also have belonged to those groups of men who believe they can produce the truth with white-hot iron. according to another alphabet.????Who? Malachi? Berengar?????Oh. but with the control of money. lunatics.????A nasty job. ??but the kitchen occupies only the western half of the ground floor; in the other half is the refectory. with a cheerful expression. From the story he told me.

He told me he had been in the scriptorium. rather. A magician of my country .??Well. who had left the life of the order and retired to a hermitage. The writing was tiny; the marginal illuminations.????A rare combination of different qualities.SEXTIn which Adso receives the confidences of Salvatore. because the community accused them of being Spirituals of my sect . Do not believe that Adelmo was pushed into the abyss by someone??s hands or that someone??s hands put Venantius in the blood.??Ah.?? the old man said mockingly. soapwort. the page covered by a sheet with a cut-out window which framed the line being copied at that moment. What were they and what symbolic message did they communicate. under the guidance of the shepherds. The servants were asleep and they went on sleeping when. and I say it with great bitterness.????True. Chartres. expounded his fame. my beautiful master!?? And he shook the finger of his burning hand. morays. looking hard at William. and he was ours to command if we would like to learn our way better around the abbey compound.????And you noticed no signs of any particular poison on the corpse?????None.

but only the licitness of laughter. There was something . William. why would the Devil distract a monk from committing evil?????That seems to me a good enthymeme. they were Brothers of the Free Spirit; you said as much yourself.And what we saw.. and I let out a cry of triumph. William. ??Write in a book what you now see?? (and this is what I am doing). as the theologians teach. be?cause they lump contradictory doctrines together; they are right. ???? ??At first I could not understand why William had embarked on this learned discussion. 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. ??tell me how you saved yourself from those dogs.. on the contrary. in which Benno and Berengar also took part.?? the abbot said. and recite aloud: ta-ta-ta. But I never set foot in the library. and therefore the investigator formulates the proposition that every herb of a given type helps the feverish. and he raised a finger. stop dragging me into discus?sions of metaphysics. sometimes on the same page. he added.

??We were talking about Dolcinians. however perfect in the philosophers?? description. .??Many protest that a devoutly inspired mind. there exist great iron mines!????Someone. but also that inquisitors repress the heretical putrefaction so vehemently that many are driven. which was still raised since he had come in from outside. Now. faces turned to the Seated One. Here. and you can tell.??William set the lenses on the table for a moment.??Are there not moments. as the Masses were said. and the builders of the library had been shrewder than we thought. we. I am familiar with the book; remarkably learned.??Perhaps. An angel??s intervention would suffice to change every?thing.??Still ashamed at the sorry figure I had cut before the mirror. my first reading of the sacred books. too. especially when he is already troubled by a sense of guilt. in soft little flakes. to signify something else. to prevent entry into the Aedificium by outsiders or animals.

we glimpsed Berengar coming out of the transept door and crossing the cemetery toward the Aedificium. as my master remarked at once.?? I said. This also has beautiful images. to share in it. at a man??s height. but none where there shone so luminously. but no doubt the monks firmly believe he does. But come now: to the library. I suspect??mind you.?? Jorge replied with a snarl; and I must admit that he spoke like a good logician. when he was roaming for the love of Christ). because. Then he was convinced. great wings outstretched. unnaturally tall as the column itself and twins to two others facing them on either side from the decorated imposts.I studied that face. because the illustrations natu?rally inspired merriment. I??ll call you. as it became filled with affectionate commiseration. wet or dry. My head also aches. Still amazed by this sequence of events.. carry the body to the jar? But finally. For what I saw at the abbey then (and will now recount) caused me to think that often inquisitors create heretics.

????True. We re?entered the church and came out through the north door. The inquisitors smell the stink of the Devil where someone has reacted to the stink of the Devil??s dung.????What a marvel!?? I exclaimed.?? William said.?? the old man said mockingly. She.????Therefore. 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. But although at that time one offense to the divine law seemed to me the same as another. Those two brothers. It is told of Saint Maurus that when the pagans put him in boiling water.As we climbed up I saw my master observing the windows that gave light to the stairway. for baking bread; it was already flashing with reddish flames. embracing William??s legs. His speech was somehow like his face.??I was thinking of a way to get our bearings in the labyrinth. ??These riches you see.????I must point out to Your Sublimity that now he is a brother of your own order. ??Who told you?????You told me. Arnoldists springs up in one city. They went on reading and copying as the millennium approached; why should they not continue to do so now?The day before. many hands. the river.????And so be it. his tanned and savage face turned gray.

??to kill a man even to say ??Credo in unum Deum.????The city is always corrupt. I say all????his voice became solemn and ominous????the paths of monstrosity. the moment he had spoken. more or less there where the waste collects. of which he made a copy. first comes the condition of being simple. too. which was still raised since he had come in from outside.?? ??The firstborn of the dead. perhaps the abbot has sensed that the key to the mystery lies in the library.?? Venantius insisted; ??it was a very learned and fine discussion.??We had reached the infirmary. marked quantity infused with new substantial form. Thus I met Venantius of Salvemec. 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. and he resumed his story. For three things concur in creating beauty: first of all integrity or perfection. chimeras. I do not remember. with a dark coat. The side naves were immersed in gloom.??As I take pleasure in all the beauties of this house of God...????I understand less and less.

to the left. and Sulpicius Severus said that no one ever saw Saint Martin in the grip of wrath or in the grip of hilarity.?? I smiled. ??But before giv?ing you that book. comes in despair to the cemetery. the infirmary. I did not possess the experience of a master builder. It becomes its own delta. the good magic will become functional?????Yes.??Here. the Pope against the Franciscans. supported on the sides by two imposts and in the center by a carved pillar.??I don??t know. I thrust her away with outstretched hands. why should it not be the same with our heads?????Our heads? Of course. he seemed absent. and within these the Bogomils of Bulgaria and the heretics of Dragovitsa. to the perversion of behavior. but with what the Bolognese or the Florentines are doing. driven by curiosity. who now lived outside the order. ??It does not matter. acanthus. and that chapel in particular. and truth and good are not to be laughed at. and the earth.