Where Benno of Uppsala expects some things, others confident
Berengar of Arundel and Adso learns what true repentance
The unfortunate incident had devastated the life of the community. The turmoil due to the discovery of the corpse had disrupted the sacred office. The abbot, the monks had been driven back into the choir, to pray for the soul of their brother.
The voices of the monks were broken. We put ourselves in a situation suitable to study their appearance when, according to the liturgy, the cap was lowered. We saw immediately the face of Berengar. Pale, contract, glistening with sweat. The day before we had heard two grumbling about him as a person who had something to do especially with Adelmo, and was not the fact that the two peers were friends, but the elusive tone of those who had alluded to this friendship. We noticed
beside him Malachi. Dark, sullen, impenetrable. In addition to Malachi, impenetrable as the face of the blind Jorge. Detected but the nervous movements of Benno of Uppsala, the student of rhetoric known the day before in the scriptorium, and a surprising glimpse that he was throwing in the direction of Malachi. "Benno is nervous, Berengar is scared," William said. "It will question them immediately."
"Why?" I asked naively.
"Ours is a hard job," William said. "Tough job to Inquisitor, you must beat the weakest and the date of their greatest weakness. "
fact, just finished the office, we reached Benno, who was heading to the library. The young man seemed annoyed to be called by William, and camped some lame excuse of work. He seemed in a hurry to go to the scriptorium. But my teacher reminded him that he was investigating the mandate of the Abbot, and led him into the cloister. We sat on the railing inside, between two columns. Benno was waiting for William to speak, at times looking toward the building.
"So," William asked, "what you said you were that day to discuss Adelmo's marginalia, you, Berengar, Venancio, Malachi, and Jorge?"
"The Have you heard yesterday. Jorge stated that it is not permissible to decorate pictures ridiculous books that contain the truth. And Venanzio observed that Aristotle himself had spoken of witticisms and wordplay, as better tools to discover the truth, and therefore the rice should not be bad thing if he could be the vehicles of truth. Jorge said that, as pointed out, Aristotle had spoken of these things in the book of the Poetics and about metaphors. Already there were two disturbing circumstances, because the first book of the Poetics, which remained unknown to the Christian world for so long and perhaps by divine decree, we came across the Moors infidels ... "
" But it was translated in Latin by a friend of the Angelic Doctor Aquinas, "William said.
"It 's what I said to him," said Benno immediately reassured. "I read the greek evil and I could bring this great book right through the translation of William of Moerbeke. Here is what I said. But Jorge added that the second reason of concern there is the talk of A. 's poetry, which is tiny and lives doctrine of Figment. And Venancio said that the Psalms are the work of poetry and use metaphors and Jorge was angry because he said that the Psalms are the work of divine inspiration and uses metaphors to convey the truth while the works of the pagan poets use metaphors to convey the lie and in order to mere Beloved, what offended me that much ... "
" Why? "
" Why do I take care of rhetoric, and I read many pagan poets and I know ... or rather I believe that through their word shall also be forwarded naturally Christian truth ... Well, at that point, if I remember correctly, Venanzio spoke of other books and Jorge was very angry. "
" What books? "
Benno hesitated:" I do not remember. What does it matter which books we have talked? "
" matter much, because here we are trying to figure out what happened between people who live among books, with books, books, and therefore their words on books are important. "
'E' true, "Benno said, smiling for the first time and almost glowing in the face. "We live for books. Dolce mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay. Maybe then you'll understand what happened that day. Venancio, who knows ... he knew very well the greek said that Aristotle was especially devoted to rice, the second book of the Poetics and that if a philosopher of that size had a whole book devoted to rice, the rice had to be something important. Jorge said that many fathers had whole books devoted to sin, which is an important thing but bad, and Venancio said that he knew what Aristotle had spoken of rice as a good thing and an instrument of truth, and then asked Jorge with scorn if by chance he had read this book on Aristotle, and Venancio said that no one could have read it yet, because there was never found and may have been lost. In fact, nobody has been able to read the second book of Poetics, William of Moerbeke not ever had in my hands. Then Jorge said that if he had not found was because it had never been written, because Providence did not want to glorify the things that were trivial. I wanted to calm people because it is easy to anger, and Jorge Venancio spoke to provoke him, and said that we know of in the Poetics, and Rhetoric, there are many wise observations about the clever puzzles, and he agreed with Venanzio me. Now there was with us Pacific Tivoli, which is well acquainted with the pagan poets, and said that as no more than a witty riddles African poets. He cited the fact enigma of the fish, to SINFOS:
Est domus in terris, quae clara voice resultat.
resonat Ipsa domus, sed Sonat hospes Tacitus. Ambo tamen
currunt, hospes a simul et domus.
Then Jorge said that Jesus had recommended that our talk was yes or no and the more was the evil one, and say that enough fish to name the fish, without concealing the concept sounds as liars. And he added that did not seem wise to model the Africans ... And then ... "
" So? "
" Then something happened that did not understand. Berengar laughed, Jorge scolded him and he said he laughed because it had occurred to me that to look for good among the Africans would find many other puzzles, and not as easy as that of the fish. Malachi, who was present, became furious, Berengar took almost the cap by sending him to look after its affairs ... Berengar, you know, is your help ... "
" And then? "
" Then Jorge ended the debate away. All we left for our things, but while I was working and then I saw that first Venanzio Berengar Adelmo came to ask him something. I saw from afar that screen, but during the day they both came back to him. And then that evening I saw Berengar and Adelmo confabulation in the cloister, before going to the refectory. Here is all I know. "
" You know that is that the two people who recently died in mysterious circumstances had asked for something to Berengar, "William said.
Benno answered uncomfortably, "I said that! I said what happened that day and how you asked me ... "He thought a moment, then added quickly:" But if you want to know my opinion, Berengar spoke to them of something that is in the library, and it is there you should try. "
" Why do you think the library? What did he mean by the words Berengar search among the Africans? He did not mean that you had better read African poets? "
" Perhaps, it seemed, but then why would Malachi rage? At the bottom is up to them to decide whether to grant read a book of African poets, or not. But I know one thing: those who browse the catalog of books, will find, among the indications that only the librarian knows, one often says 'Africa' and I even found one that said "finis Africae. I once asked a book which bore the sign, can not remember which, the title had me intrigued, and Malachi said that the books had been lost with that sign. Here's what I know. To this I say is right, check Berengar, and check it when it goes to the library. You never know. "
" Do not You never know, "William concluded he took leave. Then he began to walk with me in the cloister, and observed that: first, once again, Berengar was beckoned to the murmurings of his brothers, second Benno seemed eager to push us towards the library. I remarked that maybe he wanted us there, we discover things that he wanted to know, and William said he probably was, but that could well be pushing for the library would move away from somewhere else. Which one? "I asked. And William said he did not know, maybe the scriptorium, perhaps the kitchen, or the choir, or dormitory, or hospital. I noticed that the day before he was, William, to be fascinated by the library and he replied that he wanted to be fascinated by the things he liked and not those that others advised him. But the library had to keep an eye on, and at that point would not be hurt even try to enter them in some way. The circumstances entitling him to be curious now to the limits of courtesy and respect for the customs and laws of the abbey.
We were moving away from the cloister. Servants and novices were leaving the church after mass. And while rounding the western side of the temple we saw Berengar coming out from the portal of the transept and through the cemetery towards the building. William called to him, that he stopped and we joined him. It was even more shocked when we saw him in chorus, and William evidently decided to take advantage, as he had with Benno, his state of mind.
"So it seems that you were the last to see Adelmo alive," she said.
Berengar reeled as if he were to fall into a swoon, "I?" He asked in a faint voice. William had thrown his application almost at random, probably because although he had said he saw the two confabulation in the cloister after vespers. But it must have hit the mark and Berengar was clearly thinking of another and very last fight, because he began to speak in a broken voice.
"How can you say that, I saw before going to sleep like everyone else!" Then William decided
that was wise not to give him breathing, "No, you saw him again and know more things than I want to believe. But here are at stake now two dead and can no longer remain silent. You know very well that there are many ways to talk to a person! "
William had told me several times that, even by inquisitor, had always shrunk from torture, but Berengar misunderstood (or William wanted to be misunderstood), and in any case its game was effective.
"Yes, yes," Berengar said, breaking into tears, "I saw Adelmo that night, but I saw him already dead!"
"How?" Asked William, "the foot of the cliff?"
"No, no, I saw him here in the cemetery, proceeded through the tombs, larva of the larvae. I met him and immediately I realized that I had before me a living, his face was that of a corpse, his eyes were already looking to the eternal punishment. Of course, only the next morning, learning of his death, I realized that I had encountered the ghost, but even at that moment I realized I was having a vision in front of me and that was a damned soul, a lemur ... Oh Lord, how grave voice spoke to me! "
" And what did he say? "
" "I'm damned!" So he told me. "I see you have such and such in front of you from hell and hell need a veteran to come back." So he said. And I cried, "Adelmo, you really come from hell? How the hell? "And I was shaking because I was recently released by the office of Compline, where I had heard terrible sull'ira read pages of the Lord. And he said, "The hell are infinitely greater than our tongue can say. See you, "he said, 'hood to sophistry of which I was dressed up to today? This weighs me and how I had borne most tower in Paris or in the mountains of the world on his shoulders and I can never put down more. And this sentence have been given by divine justice for my vanity, for believing my body a place of joy, and for having supposed to know more of others, and for myself dabbled monstrous things, who dreamed of in my imagination have produced much more monstrous things inside of my soul - and now I have to live with them forever. Do you see? The sheath of this hood is like all embers and burning fire and the fire that burns my body, and this punishment given to me as dishonest sin of the flesh, which spoils me, and this fire hours without stop, I flares up and burns me! Give me your hand, my good master, "she said again," so that my meeting is a useful lesson to you, making you in exchange for many of the lessons you gave me, give me your hand my good master, "and shook his finger they burned, and fell on my hand a small drop of his sweat and it seemed to me forasse hand, which for many days I took the sign, just hid it all. Then he disappeared among the graves, and the next morning I learned that that body, I was so terrified, she was already dead at the foot of the fortress. "
Berengar was panting, and crying. William asked: "How come you called her beautiful teacher? Were the same age. He had perhaps learned something? "
Berengar hid his head, pulling his cap over his face, and fell on his knees hugging the legs of William:" I do not know, do not know why they call me, I do not I taught him nothing, "and burst into sobs. "I fear, father, I confess to you, mercy, a devil eats me guts! "
William pushed him away from himself and held out his hand to lift it. "No Berengar," she said, "do not ask me to confess. Do not close your open my lips. I want to know you will tell me otherwise. And if not tell me I'll find out on my own. Ask me for mercy, if you do not ask me the silence. Too many are silent in this abbey. Tell me rather, as you saw his pale face if it was night, how could burn your hand if it was night of rain and hail and sleet, what were you doing in the cemetery? Next, "and shook him with brutality by the shoulder," tell me at least this! "
Berengar was trembling in every limb:" I do not know what I did in the cemetery, I do not remember. I do not know because I saw his face, maybe I had a light, no ... He had a light, carrying a candle, I may have seen his face in the light of the flame ... "
" How could bring a light if it was raining and snowing? "
" It was after Compline, after Compline, it was still snowing, began after ... I remember starting to get off the first blast as he fled toward the dormitory. Flee to the dorm, in the direction opposite to that which was the ghost ... And then I do not know anything, please do not interrogatemi more, if you do not confess. "
"Okay," William said, "Now go, go in the choir, go talk with the Lord as I do not want to talk about with men, or go look for a monaco who wants to hear your confession, because if not then confess your sins, you approached the sacraments sacrilegious. Go We'll see. "
Berengar disappeared in a hurry. And William rubbed his hands as I had seen done in many other cases in which he was pleased with something.
"Well," he said, "Now many things become clear."
"Clear, master?" I asked, "clear now that we have the ghost of Adelmo?"
"Dear Adso," William said, "I think that ghost little ghost and in any event, read a page I've already read a few books on the use of preachers. These monks read perhaps too much, and when they are excited relive the visions that were on the books. I do not know whether Adelmo has really said those things or if the Berengar had heard because he needed to hear them. It 's a fact that this story confirms a number of my assumptions. For example: Adelmo committed suicide, and the history of Berengar tells us that, before his death, turned in the throes of great excitement and remorse for something they had committed. He was excited and scared for his crime because someone scared him, and perhaps had told him the episode of the apparition hell he has played with so much to Berengar and hallucinatory skill. And because the cemetery was passed by the choir, where he was told (or confessed) with someone who had inflicted terror and remorse. And from the cemetery was started, as we've learned Berengar in the opposite direction to the dormitory. Towards the building, therefore, but also (you can) to the wall behind the stables, where I should have thrown in the raised cliff. And he threw before you became a storm, has died at the foot of the wall, and only after the landslide brought his body between the north tower and east. "
" But the sweat burning? "
" He was already in history that he heard and repeated, or that Berengar is figured in his excitement and his remorse. Because there is remorse in antistrophe Adelmo, Berengar of remorse, you've heard. And if Adelmo was led by the choir, perhaps a candle, and drop on the hand of his friend was just a drop of wax. But Berengar felt burn much more because Adelmo certainly called him his mentor. Sign so that Adelmo rebuked him of having learned something that now he was desperate to death. And Berengar knows, he suffers because he knows he pushed Adelmo's death by making him do something he should not. It is not difficult to imagine what, my poor Adso, after what we heard on our assistant librarian. "
"I think I understand what happened between the two," I said ashamed of my vision, "but we all believe in a God of mercy? Adelmo, say, you probably had confessed because he tried to punish his first sin a sin with some even bigger, or at least of equal gravity? "
" Because someone told him the words of despair. I said a few pages as a preacher of the day someone must have suggested that the words scared that Adelmo Adelmo and Berengar scared. Never before in recent years, preachers have offered to the people, to stimulate their pity and terror (and the fervor and obedience to divine and human law), words gore, disturbing and macabre. Never in our times, amid processions of flagellates, have been heard sacred hymns inspired by the pain of Christ and the Virgin, as never before has insisted in driving through the faith of the simple evocation of the tortures of hell. "
" Perhaps you need for repentance, "I said.
"Adso, I have never heard so many calls to repentance as today, now in a period when neither preachers nor bishop, nor my spiritual brothers are no longer able to promote a true repentance ..."
"But the third age, the Angelic Pope, the chapter of Perugia ... "I said bewildered.
"Nostalgie. The great period of penance is over, and we can speak of penitence also the general chapter of the order. There was a hundred, two hundred years ago, a great wind of renewal. There was when whoever was speaking was burnt, he was a saint or a heretic. Now everyone is talking about. In a sense being discussed even the pope. Beware of renovations of the human race when talking about the curiae and the courts. "
" But among Dolcino, "I ventured, curious to know more about what name I had heard him say several times the day before.
"It 's dead, and how badly he lived, because he came too late. And then what do you know? "
" Nothing, that's why I ask you ... "
"I'd rather not talk about it ever. I had to deal with some of the so-called apostles, and have observed them closely. A sad story. Ails you. In any case has troubled me, and even more you disturb my own inability to judge. It 's the story of a man who did insane things because he had put into practice what many Saints have preached. At one point I no longer knew who he was at fault, I was like ... as clouded by a family resemblance that was blowing in the two opposing camps, the saints who preached repentance and sinners who put into practice, often at the expense of others ... But I was talking about something else. Or maybe not, always spoke of this: over the period of penance to penitents the need for repentance has become need of death. And those who killed the penitents crazy, death to death by returning to defeat the true repentance, which produced death, replaced the repentance of the soul of the imagination a penance, a reference to supernatural visions of suffering and blood, calling them ' mirror "of true repentance. A mirror in which to live life to the imagination of the simple, and sometimes even of the learned, the torments of hell. So that - they say - no sin. Hoping to hold souls from sin through fear, and trust to replace fear rebellion. "
" Really do not sin? "I asked anxiously.
"It depends on what you mean by sin, Adso, "said the teacher. "I would not be unfair to the people of this country I live for some years, but I think it is typical of the few virtues of the Italian people do not sin for fear of some idol, for what they call the name of a saint. They are more afraid of Saint Sebastian or Saint Anthony than of Christ. If anyone wants to keep a clean place here, because there are pools, as do Italians in the manner of dogs, we paint over an image of St. Anthony with the tip of wood, and this will drive out those standard to piss. So the Italians, and by their preachers, could return to ancient superstitions and no longer believe in the resurrection of the flesh, have only a great fear of bodily injury and misfortune, and therefore they are more afraid of Saint Anthony than of Christ. "
" But Berengar is not Italian, "I said.
"Never mind, I'm talking about the climate that the church and preachers have orders posted on this peninsula, and from here spreads everywhere. It also reaches a venerable abbey of monks, scholars, such as these. "
" But at least no pity, "I insisted, because I was willing to make do just that.
"If this abbey was a speculum mundi, you would have the answer."
"But is it?" I asked.
"For there to be mirror of the world should be that the world has a shape, "William concluded, that it was too philosophical for my adolescent mind.
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