Where Adso admires the church door and found William
Ubertino Casale
The majestic church was not like others I saw later in Strasbourg, Chartres, Bamberg and Paris. Rather like those that already had seen in Italy, unwilling to rise steeply towards the sky and laid firmly on the ground, often wider than high, except that at one level it was topped, like a fortress, a series of square battlements, and above this level rose a second building, more than a tower, a solid second church, topped by a pitched roof and pierced by windows severe. Robust as he built the abbey church in our ancient Provence and Languedoc, away from their boldness and excessive embroidery of modern style, that only in more recent times, I think, was enriched above the choir, a spire boldly pointed toward the sky.
Two columns straight and clean antistatic entry, which appeared at first glance like one big arc, but the two columns branched buttresses, topped by arches and many others, leading the eye, as in the heart of an abyss, to the portal itself, which could be glimpsed in the shadows, dominated by a large pediment, supported at the sides of two piers and the center by a carved pillar, which divided into two entry doors, guarded by oak doors reinforced with metal . In this time of day the sun beat pale almost to the roof and the light fell obliquely on the facade without illuminating the ear drum: so that, more than two columns, we found ourselves suddenly under the canopy of the forest nearly arches that lead from the sequence of columns less than proportionally reinforced the buttresses. Finally his eyes accustomed to the darkness, suddenly the silent speech of the carved stone, it was immediately accessible to the eye and the imagination of anyone (because pictura est laicorum literatura), dazzled my eyes and I plunged into a vision that still barely able to speak my language.
I saw a throne set in heaven, and seated on a throne. The dell'Assiso face was stern and impassive, his eyes wide open and darting up a terrestrial humanity reached the end of his story, his hair and beard that fell on the majestic face and chest as the waters of a river, in streams all equal and symmetrically bipartite. The crown on his head was filled with enamel and jewels, the imperial purple robe is available in the large scrolls on his knees, rich embroidery and lace in gold thread and silver. The left hand, still on his knees, holding a sealed book, rose in the right attitude I do not know if giving a blessing or threatening. The face was illuminated by the tremendous beauty of a cruciform nimbus and flowers, and I saw around the throne and shine above the head dell'Assiso a rainbow of emerald. Before the throne, under the feet of the, flowed a sea of \u200b\u200bglass and all'Assiso around, around the throne and on the throne, four animals terrible - I saw - terrible for me that I looked at them kidnapped, but gentle and sweet for the Seated, which sang the praises without rest.
That is, not everyone could be said to be terrible, because it appeared to me nice and kind the man to my left (and right dell'Assiso) presents a book. But I felt awful on the opposite side an eagle, beak dilated, bristling feathers arranged in Lorica, powerful claws, large wings. And at the feet of the, in the first two figures, two others, a bull and a lion, tightening each of the two monsters in his claws and hooves a book, the body outside the throne but the face Head to the throne, like twisting your shoulders and neck in a fierce rush, hips twitching, the limbs of an animal that is dying, gaping jaws, tails wrapped and twisted like snakes and ending at the apex in tongues of flame. Both winged, both crowned with a halo, despite the formidable appearance were not creatures of hell, but the sky, and if it was because they looked awful roaring in adoration of a Venture that would judge the living and the dead.
Around the throne, beside the four animals and under the feet of the as seen on the screen beneath the waters of the sea of \u200b\u200bglass, almost fill the entire space of the vision, made up on the triangular structure of the eardrum, rising from a the basis of seven plus seven, then three and then two plus three plus two, next to the throne were twenty-four elders, the clock small thrones, clad in white robes and golden crowns. Who was holding a viola, another a bowl of incense, and only one was playing, all the other abductees in a trance, her face turned all'Assiso to sing the praises, too limbs twisted like those of animals, so you can see all the Seated, but not so savage, but with movements of ecstatic dance - as David had to dance around the Ark - so that wherever they had their eyes against the law that governed the size of the bodies, converge at the same point in most splendid. Oh, what Concento of abandonment and impulses, unnatural postures, yet graceful, in that mystical language of limbs miraculously freed from the burden of corporeal matter, signata amount infused new substantial form, as if the sacred host was beaten by a strong wind, the breath of life, the frenzy of delight, joy allelujatico now miraculously, from the sound era image. Bodies and limbs
inhabited by the Spirit, enlightened by revelation, shocked faces with wonder, enthusiasm excited eyes, cheeks inflamed by love, dilated pupils from bliss, the one struck by a delectable dismay, the stabbed ' more dismayed by a beloved, who transformed the wonder, who rejuvenated the joy, here they are all sing with facial expressions, with the drapery of the robes, with the air and the tension of the limbs, a new song, her lips parted in a smile of everlasting praise. And beneath the feet of elders, and arched over them and on the throne and above the group tetramorphe, arranged in symmetrical bands, hardly distinguishable from each other so much knowledge of art made them all mutually proportional, equal unity in diversity and varied, unique in the diversity and different in their coadunazione likely, in a remarkable congruence of the parties with delectable sweetness of colors, miracle of consonance and harmony of voices dissimilar to himself, so the team prepared to strings of the harp, consenting and conspiring continued cognazione for deep inner strength which would make the game unique in the same alternative of Errors, ornate and collation of creatures to each other and mutually irreducible reduced by loving connection governed by a rule heavenly and worldly at the same time (constraint and stable relationship peace, love, virtue, regime, power, order, origin, life, light, splendor, and especially the figure), Equal to the large bright glow of the form over the proportionate share of the subject - that's all intertwined flowers and leaves and vines and bushes and corymbs of all herbs which adorn the gardens of earth and sky, the purple, the Broom, the thyme, the lily, privet, narcissus, the taro, the acanthus, the malobatro, myrrh and opobalsami.
But while my soul is charmed by this concert of earthly beauty and majestic supernatural signs, was about to explode into a song of joy, the eye, accompanying the rhythm of the proportion rose flowers at the feet of the elders, fell on the figures that, woven, made one with the central pillar that supported the tympanum. What were the symbolic messages communicated and that those three pairs of lions placed transversely woven cross, climbing as strings, pointing to the hind feet on the ground and the front resting on the back of his partner, took anguiformi mane in the open mouth a menacing growl, related to the body of the pillar by a pasta, or a nest of vines? To calm my spirit, as was perhaps to tame the evil nature of the lion and transform it into a symbolic allusion to higher things, on the sides of the pillar, were two human figures, unnaturally tall as the twin of the column itself and two others symmetrically both sides facing them on the outer sides decorated piers, where each of the oak doors had its strains: they were therefore four figures of old men, from whose paraphernalia knew Peter and Paul, Jeremiah and Isaiah, also twisted like a step Dance, his long bony hands outstretched finger raised like wings, and wings like beards and curly hair from a prophetic wind, the folds of the clothes long troubled by long legs, creating waves and swirls, as opposed to the lions but the lions of the same material. And while depicting the eye fascinated by the mysterious polyphony of limbs and fragments holy hell, I saw a side of the portal, under the arches and deep, sometimes decorated in the foothills in the space between the slender columns that supported them and adorned, and yet on dense vegetation on the capitals of each column, and from there branching out into the wild once the multiple arches, horrible to look at other views, and justified in that place only for their strength parabolic and allegorical or moral teaching that transmitted: and I saw a female stripped naked and lustful, rose by unclean toads, snakes sucked, coupled by a satyr swollen belly and legs covered with bristly hairs of snout, throat, obscene, shouting their condemnation, and I saw a miser, stiff to the rigidity of death on her bed lavishly colonnade, now cowardly prey of a cohort of demons in one's snatched from the mouth gasping soul in the form of infant (alas no more baby to eternal life), I saw a proud and which sets up a demon on his back thrusting its claws into his eyes, while two others are greedy tore into a melee repugnant, and even other creatures, a goat's head, hair of a lion, jaws of a panther, prisoners in a mass of flames which could almost feel the fiery breath. And around them, mixed them, above them and below at their feet, other faces and other members, a man and a woman who was grabbed by the hair, two asps that sucking the eyes of a madman, a man who dilated grinning with his hands hooked the jaws of a hydra, and all Satan's bestiary of animals, gathered in the consistory and guarding the crown and throne that faced them, to sing of the glory with their defeat, fauns, creatures from the double sex, from the hands of brutes with six fingers, sirens, ippocentauri, gorgons , harpies, nightmares, dracontopodi, minotaurs, Lynx, Leopards, chimeras, cenoperi-faced dog who threw fire from his nostrils, dentetiranni, policaudati, hairy snakes, salamanders, chickweed, Chelydri, snakes, biceps from the back armed with teeth, hyena, otters, ravens, crocodiles, dropsy saw horned, frogs, griffins, monkeys, cynocephali, leucroti, Manticore, vultures, parandri, weasels, dragons, hoopoe, owls, basilisks, ypnali, Prester, spectafichi, scorpions, lizards, mammals, scytale, anfisbene, Jacula, dipsadi, lizards, hesitations, octopus, moray eels and turtles. The entire population of hell seemed to have given to congress to lobby, dark wood, plain desperate exclusion, dell'Assiso appearance of the eardrum, promising to his face and threatening them, the losers of Armageddon, opposite to those who will definitely separate the living from the dead. It stunned (almost) by that vision, not sure now if I were friend or in a place in the valley of the Last Judgement, Fear, and barely held my tears, and I thought I heard (or heard really?) that voice and saw the visions which had accompanied my childhood as a novice, my first readings sacred books and nights of meditation in the choir of Melk, and in my senses swoon weak and weakened I heard a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "what you see write in a book" (and I'm doing this now) and I saw seven golden lamps and lights in the midst of one like a son of man, girded in the chest with a band of gold, white head and white hair like wool, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like bronze glowing in the furnace The voice as the sound of many water, holding in his right hand seven stars, and from his mouth came a double-edged sword. And I saw a door open in heaven and He who was seated seemed like jasper and sardonic and rainbow around the throne and the throne came flashes of lightning and thunder. And the Seated took a sharp sickle in his hands and shouted: "It vibrates your sickle and reap, it is time to harvest is ripe for the harvest of the earth," and him who was seated shook his sickle and the earth was reaped.
was then that I realized that the other did not speak the vision, if not of what was happening in the Abbey and we had caught from the lips of Abbot reticent - and how many times in the following days did not go back to contemplate the portal, safe to live same story it told. And I understood that there were increased to witness a great and heavenly carnage.
trembled, as if I were soaked by freezing rain in winter. And I heard another voice again, but this time it was from my shoulders and it was a different voice, because he was starting from the ground and not by the radiant center of my vision, and even broke the vision, because William (at that point I riavvidi of his presence), also hitherto lost in contemplation, as he turned me. The
be behind us looked like a Monaco, although dirty and tattered robe made him look like a pretty hobo, and his face was not unlike that of the monsters that I had just seen on the capitals. It never happened in life, as it happened to many of my brethren, be visited by the devil, but I think if it were to appear one day, unable to divine decree to hide even when its full nature would be similar to humans , it would not have other features of the ones I had at that moment our party. The shaved head, but not for repentance, but for the remote action of some viscid eczema, a low forehead, because if he had hair on his head they would be confused with the eyebrows (which had overgrown and dense), the eyes were round, with eyes small and movable, and the eyes do not know whether innocent or malicious, and perhaps both, at times and at different times. The nose could not be said that if not because of a bone that began in the mid-eyes, but how quickly it fell from the face, turning into nothing more than two dark holes, broad nostrils thick with hair. The mouth, combined with the nose by a scar, was wide and awkward, more extensive on the right and left, and between the upper lip, non-existent, and the lower, prominent and fleshy, irregular rhythm emerged with teeth sharp as blacks and of a dog. The man smiled
(or so I thought) and raising his finger as if to admonish, said
"Penitenziagite! When he saw est draco venturus rodegarla to your soul! The mortz est super nos! Pray who is coming to liberate the holy Pope nos a malo de todas our sins! Ha ha, I pias de ista necromancy Our Iesu Christi Domini! And yet Jois m'es dols and Plazer m'es Dolors ... Cave el diabolo! Semper m'aguaita in some part to the adentarme Carcagnì. But Salvatore insipiens non est! Bonum monasterium, if aqui et magna et dominum nostrum if prays. Et el valet a cool rest with him. Et amen.No? "I'll
, in furthering this story, speak again, and much of this creature and to report the speeches. I confess that I find it very difficult to do because I can not say now, as never understood then, what kind of language he spoke. It was not Latin, in which we speak of men of letters to the abbey, was not the vernacular of those lands, or any other vernacular I had ever heard. I think I have given a faint idea of \u200b\u200bhis speech referring to just above (as I remember them) the first words I heard from him. When I later learned of his adventurous life and the various places where he lived, without finding any roots in, I realized that Salvatore spoke all languages, and no. Or was it invented its own language that he used the fragments of the languages \u200b\u200bwith which he had been in touch - and once I thought that his was not the Adamic language that humanity had spoken happy, all united by a single utterance, from its origins the world to the Tower of Babel, and even one of the languages \u200b\u200bthat arose after the tragic event of their division, but just the language of the first day after Babel divine retribution, the language of confusion before. Nor on the other hand I could call the language speaks of the Savior, because in every human language there are rules and every word means something to placitum, according to a law that does not change, because man can not call the dog once dog and once a cat, or to utter sounds which the consent of the people have not given a definite meaning, as would those who say the word "blitiri. And yet, for better or worse, I understood what he meant Savior, and so others. A sign that he spoke not one, but all languages, not the right way, taking his words just hours from one another. I also noticed later that he could appoint something now in Latin now Provence, and I realized that, rather than invent their own phrases, he used disiecta members of other sentences, you hear a day, depending on the situation and the things he wanted to say, as if he could speak of a food, I mean, just the words of the people with whom he had eaten that food, and expressing his joy that he had heard only with judgments issued by joyful people, the day that he had also tried joy. It was as if his speech was that his face, put together with pieces of other people's faces, or sometimes as I saw the precious reliquaries (Licet Magnis you compose parva, the evil or divine) that arose from the debris of other sacred objects. At that moment, when I met him for the first time, the Saviour appeared to me, and for the face, and the manner of speaking, a being not unlike the hairy and hoofed animals from the breeding I had just seen in the portal. Later I realized that the man was probably good-hearted and humorous mood. Later still ... But let's order. Also because, if he had spoken, my teacher asked him with great curiosity.
"Why did you say Penitenziagite" he asked.
"Domine magnificentisimo brother," said Salvatore with a sort of bow, "Jesus venturus them homini est et facere debent penitents. No?
William looked at him fixedly: "You came here from a convent of minority?"
"No, I mean."
"I ask if you lived among the monks of St. Francis, wondering if you knew the so-called apostles ..." Salvatore
turned pale, that his face was tanned and savage gray. He took a deep bow, spoke in a half-lips "vade retro, crossed himself piously and fled, looking back every now and then.
"What did you ask?" Asked William.
He remained a little lost in thought. "Never mind, I'll tell you later. Now we get. I want to find Ubertino. "
had just passed the sixth hour. The sun, pale and penetrated from the west, and then by a few thin windows in the interior of the church. A thin strip of light yet touched the altar frontal which seemed to glow with a golden glow. The aisles were plunged into darkness.
At last chapel before the altar, in the left aisle, stood a slender column in which she was a virgin stone, carved in the style of modern, smile ineffable, the prominent belly, the baby in her arms, dressed in a pretty dress, with a good corset. At the foot of the Virgin in prayer, almost prostrate, was a man, dressed in the clothes of the Cluniac order.
We approached. The man, hearing the sound of our footsteps, raised his face. He was an old man, his face clean-shaven, his skull without hair, big blue eyes, a thin, red lips, white skin, the bony skull to which the skin clung like a mummy stored in milk. The hands were white, the fingers long and thin. It looked like a girl withered from an early death. He put on us a first look lost, as we had disturbed him in an ecstatic vision, then his face brightened with joy.
"William!" He said. "My dearest brother!" He rose with difficulty and there was a meeting with my teacher, embracing and kissing on the mouth. "William!" He repeated, and his eyes grew moist with tears. "How long! But I recognize you again! How long, how many events! How many trials that the Lord has imposed on us! " She cried. William made the embrace, clearly moved. We were in front of Ubertino Casale.
I had heard about him and long, even before coming to Italy, and even more attending the Franciscans of the imperial court. Someone had even said that the greatest poet of those times, Dante Alighieri of Florence, who died a few years ago, had composed a poem (which I could not read because it was written in Tuscan vernacular) which had had a hand in both heaven and earth , and in many ways were nothing more than a paraphrase of songs written by Ubertino in his Arbor vitae crucifixae. Nor was this the only way of credit for the famous man. But to allow my reader to understand better the importance of this meeting, I will try to reconstruct the events of those years, as well as I understood, and during my short stay in central Italy, from random words of my teacher, and listening to many conversations he had with William abbots and monks in the course of our travel.
I'll try to name a thing I knew, even if they are not safe to say these things well. My teachers Melk had told me often that it is very difficult to get a clear idea of \u200b\u200bnorthern religious and political vicissitudes of Italy.
The peninsula, where the power of the clergy was more evident than in any other country, and in which more than any other country, the clergy paraded power and wealth, had generated at least two centuries movements men aim a poor life, in contrast with the corrupt priests, of which even refused the sacraments, meeting in the autonomous communities, while disliked by the rulers, the empire and the city magistrates. Finally he came
St. Francis, and had spread a love of poverty that did not contradict the teachings of the church, and through him the church had accepted the call to the severity of the customs of those ancient movements and had purified them from the elements of disorder that lurked in them. Would follow a period of meekness and holiness, but as the Franciscan order grew and attracted to itself the best men, it became too powerful and connected with worldly affairs, and many Franciscans took it back the purity of the past. Something very difficult for an order to the time when the abbey was already counted more than thirty thousand members around the world. But this is so, and many of them monks of Saint Francis were opposed to the rule that the order was given, saying the order had now taken the ways of those institutions to reform the church which he was born. And that this had already happened in the days when Frank was alive, and that his words and his intentions were betrayed. Many of them then rediscovered the book a monaco Cistercian who wrote at the beginning of the twelfth century of our era, called Joachim and who was credited with the spirit of prophecy. In fact, he predicted the advent of a new era, in which the spirit of Christ, broken for some time at the hands of his false apostles, would again be achieved on earth. It announced that all those deadlines seemed clear that he spoke without knowing the Franciscan order. And this many Franciscans were very glad, since it seems too much, so that by mid century the doctors of the Sorbonne in Paris, condemned the propositions of that abbot Joachim, but it seems that the Franciscans did so (and Dominicans) were becoming too powerful and scholars, the University of France, and wanted to eliminate them as heretics. This does not then you did and it was a lot of good for the church, because it allowed them to be disseminated the works of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure Bagnoregio, which certainly were not heretics. Where do you see that in Paris the ideas were confused, or someone wanted to confuse its purpose. And this is the evil that is heresy to the Christian people, that makes dark ideas and encourages all to become inquisitors for your personal property. Then what I saw at the abbey (and which I will later) made me think that often inquisitors create heretics. And not only in the sense that if they appear when there are, but with such vehemence that repress the heretical tabe to push many to do with it participates, to hate them. Truly, a circle conceived by the devil, God save us. But I said
heresy (even if it had been) Joachim. And she saw in Tuscany, a Franciscan, Gerard from Borgo San Donnino, become the voice of the predictions of Joachim and the environment for lots of children. Thus arose among them a number of supporters of the ancient rule against the reorganization of the order attempted by the great Bonaventure, who was later to become general. In the last three decades of the last century, when the Council of Lyons, saving the Franciscan order against those who wished to abolish granted him ownership of all property that was in use, as was already the law for the older orders, some monks in the Marches rebelled because they believed that the spirit of the rule was finally handed over, as a Franciscan should not own anything, either personally or as a convent, or as an order. Put them in prison for life. I do not think that preach things contrary to the gospel, but when it comes into the possession of earthly things is difficult for men to reason justly. They told me that years later, the new general order, Raymond Gaufredi, found the prisoners in Ancona, and freeing them, saying: "Would to God that all of us and all the order we were guilty of that sin." Sign that is not true they say the heretics and the church still live men of great virtue.
There was among these prisoners released, Angelo Clareno, which then met with a monk from Provence, Peter John Olivi, who preached the prophecies of Joachim and then Ubertino Casale, and there was born of the spiritual movement. Saliva in those years to the papal throne a holy hermit, Pietro da Morrone, who reigned as Celestine V, and he was greeted with relief by the spiritual: "You will see a saint," she told him, "and observe the teachings of Christ, will be angelic life, corrupt prelates tremble. "Perhaps Celestino was too angelic life, or the prelates around him were too corrupt, or could not stand the strain of a war far too long with the emperor and other kings of Europe ; fact is that Celestine gave up his dignity and retired as a hermit. But in the short period of his reign, less than a year, hopes the Spirituals were met: they came to Celestine, who founded their community with that of the fratres et pauperes heremitae Celestini domains. On the other hand, while the Pope was to act as a mediator among the most powerful cardinals in Rome, there were some as a Colonna and Orsini, who secretly supported the new trends of poverty that was actually quite curious choice for powerful men who lived between extravagant luxuries and riches, and I never know if they used just for spiritual purposes of their government or in any way they felt justified in their carnal life by supporting the spiritual tendencies, and perhaps both were true, for what little I understand things Italian. But just to make a example, Ubertino was accepted as a chaplain when Cardinal Orsini, who became the most influential of the spiritual, ran the risk of being accused as a heretic. And the cardinal made him a shield to Avignon. As with
but in such cases, first and Angelo Ubertino preached according to doctrine, the other large masses of simply accepting that their preaching and spreading around the country, beyond all control. Thus Italy was invaded by these friars and monks from the poor life that seemed dangerous to many. By now it was difficult to distinguish the spiritual masters, who kept contact with the ecclesiastical authorities, and their followers simply, that just now lived outside the order, begging and living day to day work of their hands, without holding any property. And these are the ones that the public voice now called Fraticelli, Beghards not unlike the French, who were inspired by Pietro di Giovanni Olivi.
Celestine V was replaced by Pope Boniface VIII and this hastened to show very little indulgence for spiritual and friars in general: in the last few years of the century marked a dying bull, Signature caution with which he condemned in one fell swoop bizochi, wandering beggars moving about the extreme limit of the Franciscan order, and the same spirit, that those who took away the life of the order to give himself to the hermitage. The spiritual
then tried to obtain the consent of other popes, as Clement V, in order to be able to remove a non-violent. I think they would have succeeded, but the advent of John XXII took away their hope. As he was elected in 1316 he wrote to the king of Sicily because these monks expelled from their land, because many had sought refuge there: and he put in irons Angelo Clareno and Spirituals of Provence.
should not have been an easy task and many in the curia you resisted. The fact is that Ubertino Clareno and managed to be left free to abandon the order they were received and the one by the Benedictines and the other from Celestine. But for those who remained free to conduct their lives, John was ruthless and did persecute them and many were burned by the Inquisition.
He understood, however, that to destroy the evil weed of the Fraticelli, the bases that undermined the authority of the church, it was necessary to condemn the propositions on which they based their faith. They claimed that Christ and the apostles did not have any property either individually or jointly, and the pope condemned as heretical idea. Amazing thing, because you do not see why a pope should consider the perverse idea that Christ was poor, but is that just a year ago when he played the general chapter of the Franciscans in Perugia, who had supported this view, and condemning each Pope condemns the other. As I said, the chapter most adversely affect its struggle against the emperor, that's a fact. So since then many friars, who knew nothing of either empire or of Perugia, were burned to death.
These things I thought watching a legendary figure as Ubertino. My teacher introduced me and the old man had caressed his cheek with one hand hot, almost burning. At the touch of her hand I knew that I had heard many things about this holy man and others that I read in the pages of Arbor Vitae, understood the mystic fire that had consumed him since his youth when, while studying in Paris, he had withdrawn by theological speculation and had imagined it to be transformed into the penitent Magdalen, and the relationship intense he had with the Holy Angela of Foligno, who has been initiated into the mystical treasures of life and worship of the cross, and because his superiors a day, worried by the ardor of his preaching, he had been sent on retreat to Verna .
peered that face, sweet-featured as those of the saint which had been in fraternal trade spiritualissimi senses. I guessed he must have known when taking the toughest stretches well into 1311, the Council of Vienne, with the decretal Exivi de paradise had eliminated more than hostile to the spiritual Franciscans, but it had imposed on them to live in peace within the order, and this sample of the surrender did not accept compromise and had quell'accorto beaten because he was made a separate order, based on the maximum penalty. This great warrior had then lost his battle, because in those years John XXII advocated a crusade against the followers of Peter John Olivi (including himself was numbered) and ordered the monks of Narbonne and Béziers. But Ubertino did not hesitate to defend in front of the memory of the pope and the pope, subdued by his holiness, had not dared to condemn him (although he condemned the other). On that occasion he had even offered a way of salvation the first board and then ordered him to enter the Cluniac order. Ubertino, which also must be able (as he apparently unarmed and fragile) in gaining protections and alliances in the papal court had indeed agreed to enter the convent Gemblach in Flanders, but I had never even gone there, and had remained at Avignon, under the banner of Cardinal Orsini, to defend the cause the Franciscans.
Only in recent times (and the voices I heard were unclear) his fortune at court had waned, he had been away from Avignon and the Pope as a heretic indomitable man was chasing that discurrit vagabundus mundum. Him, he said, there was no trace. In the afternoon I had learned from the dialogue between William and the abbot, that he was now hidden in this abbey. And now I saw him in front of me.
"William," was saying, "were about to kill me, you know, I had to flee at night."
"Who wanted him dead? John? "
" No. John never ever loved me, but I have always respected. In the end it was he who offered me a way to escape the trial, ten years ago, commanding enter the Benedictines, and this silencing my enemies. They murmured at length, joked that a sample of poverty came in an order so rich, and lived at the court of Cardinal Orsini ... William, you know how to take things of this earth! But it was the way to stay in Avignon and defend my brother. The fear of Orsini pope, he would never have turned a hair. More three years ago I sent a messenger to the King of Aragon. "
" So who would you hurt? "
" All. The curia. They tried to assassinate me twice. They tried to silence me. You know what happened five years ago. They had been sentenced to two years and Berengar of Narbonne Beghards Heels, who was one of the judges, had appealed to the pope. They were difficult times, John had already issued two bulls against the spiritual and the Michael of Cesena had given - by the way, when it arrives? "
" It will be here in two days. "
" Michael ... It 'so have not seen him. Now he turned, he understands what we wanted, the chapter of Perugia has proved us right. But then, yet in 1318 he transferred to the pope and put in the hands of five spiritual Provence who resisted submission. Burned, William ... Oh, it's horrible! "He hid his head in his hands.
"What exactly happened after the appeal of the heel," asked William.
"John had to reopen the debate, you know? He must, because even in the curia were men seized with doubt, even the Franciscans of the curia - the Pharisees whitewashed tombs, ready to sell for a prebend, but they were seized with doubt. It was then that John asked me to draft a statement on poverty. It was a beautiful thing, William, God forgive me pride ... "
" I read it, Michele gave it to me shown. "
" There were hesitant, even among our own, the province of Aquitaine, the Cardinal of San Vitale, the bishop of coffee ... "
" An idiot, "William said.
"Rest in peace, he flew to God two years ago."
"God was not so merciful. It was a false report came from Constantinople. It 'still with us, they tell me that will be part of the legation. God protect us! "
" But it is favorable to the chapter of Perugia, "said Ubertino.
"Exactly. He belongs to that breed of men who are always the best samples of their opponent. "
" To tell the truth, "said Ubertino "Even then it did not help much to the cause. And then it all ended in a stalemate, but at least it was determined that the idea was heretical, and that was important. As for the others I have never forgiven him. They tried to harm me in any way, they said I was at Sachsenhausen three years ago when Louis proclaimed John heretic. Yet everyone knew that I was in July in Avignon by Orsini ... They found that parts of the emperor's statement reflected my ideas, that madness. "
" Not really, "William said. "The ideas I had given them to him myself, taking them out of your statement of Avignon, and some pages Olivi."
"You?" He said, in amazement and joyful, Ubertino, "but then you agree with me!"
William appeared embarrassed: "They were good ideas for the emperor, at the time," he said evasively.
Ubertino looked at him suspiciously. "Ah, but you do not really believe it?"
"Tell us again," William said, "tells how you've saved by those dogs."
"Oh yes, dogs, William. Rabid dogs. I found myself fighting with the same Bonagrazia, you know? "
" But Bonagratia Bergamo is with us! "
" Now, after that I had spoken at length. Only then was convinced, and protested against the Ad conditorem canonum. And the Pope imprisoned for a year. "
" I heard that now is close to my friend who is the curia, William of Occam. "
" I knew little. I do not like. A man without fervor, all head, no heart. "
" But it is a beautiful head. "
" It may be, and will take him to hell. "
" Then I shall see him there, and discuss the logic. "
" Shut up William, "said Ubertino smiling with deep affection," you're better than your philosophers. If I only wanted to ... "
" What? "
" When we saw the last time in Umbria? Remember? I had just been healed from my ills through the intercession of that wonderful woman ... Clare of Montefalco ... "he murmured, his face radiant," Chiara ... When the female nature, by its nature so perverse, sublimated in holiness, then it knows how to be the highest vehicle of grace. Do you know how my life has been inspired by the purest chastity, William, "(I was grabbing his arm convulsively)" You know how ... Savage - yes, it's the right word - with a ferocious thirst for penance which I have tried to mortify me in the beating of the flesh, to make me one transparency to the love of Jesus Crucified ... Yet three women in my life for me were three heavenly messengers. Angela of Foligno, Margaret from Città di Castello (which I anticipated the end of my book when I wrote that I had a third), and then Clare of Montefalco. It was a reward in heaven that I, myself, had to investigate his miracles and proclaim the sanctity of the crowds, before the holy mother church that moved. And you were there, William, and you could help me in this holy enterprise, and you would not ... "
" But the holy enterprise to which I was invited to Bentivenga to burn, and Jacomo Giovannuccio, "William said softly.
"They were besmirching the memory of her, with their perversions. And you were inquisitor! "
" And then I asked to be relieved of that position. The story does not appeal to me. I did not like, I'll be frank, even the way inducesti Bentivenga to confess his errors. You pretended to want to get into his sect, where the sect was, you've taken away his secrets and have him arrested. "
" But this is done against the enemies of Christ! They were heretics, pseudo apostles were, smelled of sulfur between Dolcino "
" They were friends of Clare. "
" No William, do not touch even with a shadow memory of Clare! "
" But in its circulation group. .. "
" They were handicapped persons, said the spiritual, and instead were brothers of the community! But you know I was clear in the investigation, which Bentivenga from Gubbio proclaimed himself apostle, and then Giovannuccio Bevagna seduced by the nuns by telling them that hell does not exist, you can satisfy carnal desires without offending God, that you may receive the body of Christ (Lord forgive me!) after having slept with a nun, that was more acceptable to the Lord of the virgin Agnes Magdalene, that what the vulgar call the devil is God himself, because the daemon is wisdom, wisdom and God is just! It was the blessed Clare, having heard these words, to have that vision in which God himself said that they were followers of the evil Libertatis Spiritus! "
" Minorites were lit by the same mind with visions of Claire, and often the pace between vision and ecstatic frenzy of sin is minimal, "William said.
Ubertino shook hands and his eyes still clouded with tears: "Do not say that, William. How can you confuse the moment of ecstatic love, which burns the bowels with the scent of incense, and the disorder of the senses that smacks of sulfur? Bentivenga inciting to touch the bare limbs of a body, said that the only way to attain liberation from the empire of the senses, homo nudus cum naked iacebat ... "
" And not to commiscebantur invicem ... "
" Lies! Seek pleasure, whether the stimulus was felt carnal, they do not believe that sin to quiet man and woman lying together and kissing and touching each other in every hand, and that congiungesse her naked belly naked belly with this! "
confess that the manner in which the vice Ubertino stigmatized leads me to thoughts of others is not virtuous. My master must have realized that I was disturbed, and interrupted the holy man.
"You are a fiery spirit, Ubertino, the love of God as hatred against evil. What I meant is that there is little difference between the zeal and ardor of the seraphim of Lucifer, why are always the extreme ignition of the will. "
" Oh, there is a difference, and I know "said Ubertino inspired. "You want to say that between good and evil will there is a small step, because it is Always the same desire to direct. This is true. But the difference is in the subject and the object is recognizable so clear. Hence God, beyond the devil. "
" And I am afraid of no longer being able to distinguish Ubertino. It was not your Angela of Foligno to tell of that day, rapt in spirit, stood in the tomb of Christ? He did not say how first she kissed his chest and saw him lying with closed eyes, then kissed her mouth and felt up by those lips an ineffable sweetness of smell, and after a short pause, she laid her cheek on the cheek of Christ and Christ put his hand to her cheek and held her, and - so he said it - his joy became top ?..."
"What has this to do with the impetuosity of the senses?" Asked Ubertino. "It was a mystical experience, and the body was that of our Lord."
"Maybe I'm used to Oxford," William said, "where even mystical experience was of another kind ..."
"All in the head," Ubertino smiled.
"O eyes. God perceived as light, in sunlight, the images of mirrors, in the spread of the colors over the parts of ordered matter, in the reflections of the day on wet leaves ... It is this love closer to that of Francis when he praises God in his creatures, flowers, herbs, water, air? I do not think this kind of love may be some pitfalls. While I do not like a love that moves in the conversation with the Almighty that you feel the shivers in the contacts of the flesh ... "
" You blaspheme William! It is not the same thing. There is a jump, huge, top to bottom, between the ecstasy of the loving heart of Jesus Crucified and the ecstasy of corrupt pseudo apostles of Montefalco ... "
" They were not pseudo apostles were brothers of the Free Spirit, 'you said. "
" What difference does it make? You have not heard all of that process, I myself have not dared to put on record some confessions, not even for an instant touch with the shadow of the evil atmosphere of sanctity that Clare had created in that place. But I knew certain things, certain things, William! They gathered at night in a cellar, took a newborn child, if they threw at each other as long as he died, of beatings ... or other ... And who received it alive for the last time, and died in his hands, became the leader of the sect ... And the baby's body was torn apart, and mixed with flour to make communion wafers blasphemous! "
" Ubertino, "William said firmly," these things have been said, many centuries ago, the Armenian bishops, of the sect of Paulicians. E of the Bogomil. "
" And what does it matter? The devil is dull, follows a rhythm in its snares and seductions, he repeats his rituals at a distance of millennia, he is always the same, for this he is recognized as the enemy! I swear, lit the candles, the night of Easter, and brought in the basement of the girls. Then he extinguished the candle and threw themselves on them, even if they were related by blood ... And if a child born from this embrace, the ritual began again hell, all around a jar full of wine, which they called the barrel, to get drunk, and chopped the baby, and poured blood into a cup and threw children still alive on the fire, and poured the ashes of the child, his blood, and drank! "
" But you wrote the book on Michael Psellos operations of demons, three hundred years ago! Who He told these things? "
" They Bentivenga and others, and under torture! "
" There's one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and pain. Under torture as live under the rule of grasses that produce visions. Everything you've heard, everything you read, you comes to mind, as if you were kidnapped, not to heaven but to hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because it establishes a link (yes, really evil) between you and him ... These things I know, Ubertino, I too was part of those groups of men who believe they produce the truth the hot iron. Well, we know, the incandescence of truth is another flame. Bentivenga under torture may have told the most absurd lies, because he no longer spoke, but his lust, the demons of his soul. "
" Lust? "
" Yes, there is a lust of pain, such as c ' is a lust for adoration, and even a luxury of humility. If it takes so little to rebel angels to change their fervor of adoration and humility in ardor of pride and revolt, what about a human being? There, now you know, was this thought that I took during my inquiries. That was the reason I gave up that activity. I miss the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered that the same weaknesses of the saints. "
Ubertino had heard the last words of William as if he understood what he was saying. From the expression on his face, more and more inspired affectionate commiseration, I realized that he felt very guilty feelings prey to William, that he forgave him because she loved much. Interrupted him, and he said very bitterly: "It does not matter. If you felt that way, you did well to stop. We must fight the temptation. But I miss your support, and we could vanquish the evil gang. But you know what happened, I myself was accused of being too weak with them, and was suspected of heresy. You have been too weak, too, in fighting evil. Evil, William: this sentence will never cease, this shadow, this mud that prevents us from touching the source? "We approached even more to William, as if afraid that someone will hear:" Even here, even within these walls consecrated to prayer, you know? "
" I know, the abbot told me, he even asked to help shed some light. "
" So light, dig, look with lynx in two directions, lust and pride ... "
" Lust? "
" Yes, lust. There was something ... feminine, and therefore diabolical in that young man who is dead. His eyes were a little girl looking for business with a nightmare. But I also called pride, the pride of mind, in this monastery consecrated to the pride of the word, the illusion of wisdom ... "
" If you know something help me. "
" I know nothing. There is nothing that I know of. But some things you feel with your heart. Let your heart talk, question faces, do not listen to the languages \u200b\u200b... But come on, why do we talk of these sad and frighten our young friend? "He looked at me with his blue eyes, touching my cheek with his long white fingers, and I almost had the urge to draw back, I restrained myself and I well, because I offended him, and his intention was pure. "Tell me rather than you," he said, turning back to William. "What have you done since then? It's been ... "
" Eighteen years. I returned to my country. I studied at Oxford. I studied nature. "
" Nature is good because it is a child of God, "said Ubertino.
"And God must be good, if nature has created," William smiled. "I studied, I met a lot of friends wise. Then I met Marsilio, I was attracted by his ideas on empire, the people, from a new law for the kingdoms of the earth, and so I ended up in that group of our brothers who are advising the Emperor. But you know these things, I had written. I cheered when they told me to Bobbio you were here. I thought you were lost. But now that you are with us you can be of great help in a few days, when you get too Michele. It will be a hard battle. "
" I will not have much to say most of what I said five years ago in Avignon. Who will be with Michael? "
" Some who were at the chapter of Perugia, Arnaldo d'Aquitaine, Hugh of Newcastle ... "
" Who? "Asked Ubertino.
"Hugh Novocastra, sorry, I use my tongue when I speak good Latin. And then William Alnwick. And by the Franciscans Avignon we can count on Jerome, the fool of coffee, and will perhaps Berengar Bonagratia heels and Bergamo. "
" We hope in God, "said Ubertino," they do not want to antagonize the Pope too. And who will be there to support the positions of the curia, I mean, between the hard-hearted? "
" From the letters I received I imagine there will be Lorenzo Decoalcone ... "
" An evil man. "
" Jean d'Anneaux ... "
" This is fine in theology, guardatene. "
" forbid. And finally Jean de Baune. "
" If Berengar Heels will play. "
" Yes, I think we'll have fun, "said my teacher in high spirits. Ubertino looked with an uncertain smile.
"I do not understand English when you never talk seriously. There is nothing funny about a matter so serious. It is survival of the order, which is yours and that deep in my heart is still. But I scongiurerò Michael not to go to Avignon. John wants it, seek him, invites him too hard. Beware of that old French. Oh Lord, in whose hands has fallen your church! "He turned his head toward the altar. "Transformed into a whore soaked in luxury, wrapped in lust like a snake in heat! Naked from the purity of the stable of Bethlehem, wood was the wood lignum vitae of the cross, the bacchanalia of gold and stone looks, even here, did you see the portal, no one escapes the pride of images! Finally, the next day and I fear the Antichrist, William! "He looked around, staring barred by the dark aisles, as if the Antichrist were to appear at any moment, and I indeed I expected to see it . "His lieutenants are already here, sent as Christ sent the apostles to the world! They trample on the City of God, seduced by deceit, hypocrisy and violence. It is then that God will send his servants, Elijah and Enoch, which he kept alive in the paradise on earth for one day confuse the Antichrist, and will to prophesy in sackcloth, and preach penance by example and by word ... "
" I'm already here, Ubertino, "William said, showing off her habit of a Franciscan.
"But they have not won yet, it is time that the Antichrist, full of fury, shall command to kill Elijah and Enoch and their bodies so that everyone can see them and want them to imitate the theme. Just as they wanted to kill me ... "
At that moment, terrified, I thought it was Ubertino prey to a kind of divine mania, and feared for his reason. Now after some time, knowing what I know, namely that a few years later, he was mysteriously killed in a German city, and never heard from those who are still terrified, because obviously that evening Ubertino prophet.
"You know, the Abbot Joachim was telling the truth. We have reached the sixth era of human history, in which appear two antichrists, the mystic Antichrist and the Antichrist proper, this is happening now in the sixth era, after Francis appeared to set in its own flesh the five wounds of Jesus Crucified. Bonifacio was the mystic Antichrist, and the abdication of Celestine was not valid, Boniface was the beast from the sea whose seven heads represent the offenses to the deadly sins and the ten horns the offenses to the commandments, and cardinals around him were locusts, whose body is Appolyon! But the number of the beast, if you read the name in Greek letters, and Benedict, "I looked to see if I understood and raised an admonishing finger. "Benedict XI was the Antichrist proper, the beast that ascends from the earth! God has allowed such a monster of vice and iniquity to govern his church because the virtues of his successor blaze of glory! "
" But the holy father, "objected in a low voice, making me courage," his successor is John! "
Ubertino rested his forehead as if to erase a disturbing dream. He breathed with difficulty, he was tired. "Yeah. The calculations were wrong, we are still awaiting the Angelic Pope ... But meanwhile, appeared to Francis and Dominic. "He raised his eyes and said as praying (but I was sure he was reciting a page of his great book on the tree of life): "Quorum primus seraph calculus purgatus Celico inflammatus totum et ardor ignite videbatur. Secundus true verb predicationis fecundus super mundi tenebras Clarius radiavit ... Yes, if these were the promises, the Angelic Pope will come. "
" So be it Ubertino, "William said. "Meanwhile, I'm here to prevent it from being driven out the Emperor human. Your angelic pope also spoke between Dolcino ... "
" Do not pronounce the name of that snake over, "cried Ubertino, and for the first time I saw him transformed from heartfelt it was, in a rage. "He has defiled the word of Joachim of Calabria, and made it the seeds of death and dirt! Messenger of the Antichrist, if ever there was one. But you talk like that because William does not actually believe the advent of the Antichrist and your teachers have taught at Oxford you idolize reason drying up the prophetic ability of your heart! "
" Ubertino You're wrong, "William replied with great seriousness. "You know I revere more than any other of my teachers ... Roger Bacon"
"What raving of flying machines," quipped bitterly Ubertino.
"Who spoke clear and limpid Antichrist, has warned the signs corruption in the world and in weakening of wisdom. But he taught that there is only one way to prepare for his coming: to study the secrets of nature, use of knowledge to improve the human race. You can prepare to fight the Antichrist by studying the healing properties of herbs, natural stones, and even designing flying machines you smile. "
" The Antichrist of your Bacon was a pretext for cultivating the pride of reason. "
"Good excuse."
"Nothing is holy pretext. William, you know I love you. You know very confident in you. Punish your intelligence, learn to weep over the wounds of Christ, throw away your books. "
"Will I keep only your" William smiled. Ubertino smiled too, and threatened him with his finger: "You fool of an Englishman. And do not laugh too much of your neighbors. Indeed, those who can not love, Temile. And look at the Abbey. I do not like this place. "
" I just know him better, "William said bye," we Adso. "
" I tell you that is not good, and you say you want to know. Ah, "said Ubertino shaking his head.
"By the way," said William again by the middle of the aisle, "Who is that animal that looks like a Monaco and speaks the language of Babel?"
"Savior?" turned Ubertino which was already kneeling. "I think I have made a gift to this abbey ... Together with cellarer. When I left the Franciscan habit for some time I returned to my old monastery at Casale, and there I found other brothers in distress, because the community accused them of being my spiritual sect ... expressed it this way. I ADOP in their favor, getting that they could follow my example. And two, Salvatore and Remigio, I found right here when I arrived there last year. Salvatore ... Really, looks like a beast. But it is helpful. "
William hesitated a moment. "I heard Penitenziagite."
Ubertino silent. Moves hand as if to banish a thought troublesome. "No, I do not think. You know how these lay brothers. Country people, who have heard maybe some wandering preacher, and do not know what they say. A Savior I have more to blame, it's a beast, greedy and lustful. But nothing, nothing against orthodoxy. No, the abbey is another evil, look into who knows too much, not those who know nothing. Do not build a house of a suspect word. "
" I would never do, "William replied. "I stopped making the inquisitor in order not to do this. But I like to listen to the words, and then we think about. "
" You think too much. Boy, "she said to me," not to draw too many bad examples by your teacher. The only thing you have to think, and I realize at the end of my life, is death. Mors est quies viatoris - finis est omnis laboris. Let me pray. "
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