Chapter 24 Chapter Nineteen

Ninth Prayer William speaks to Adso of heresy, of the role of the simple man in the Church, of his doubts about the possibility of knowing universal laws, and of how he deciphers the magic symbols left by Venantius I found William at the forge, working with Nicholas, both very attentive.They laid out on the workbench many circular pieces of glass, which must have been part of the window pane; and they cut the glass to the desired thickness with tools.William picked up pieces of glass and put them in front of the eyes to test them one by one; Nicholas instructed the blacksmiths to make a fork for placing the lens.

William grunted indignantly, because the amber lens was by far the most satisfying lens, and he said he didn't want to look at the parchment like he was looking at a meadow.Nicholas went aside to supervise the blacksmith.While William continued to audition for films, I told him about my conversation with Salvatore. "That man has a lot of experience," he said. "Perhaps he will really be with the Dolcinos. This monastery is a microcosm of the world, and when Pope John's emissary and Brother Michael arrive, it will be even more so." Complete." "Master," I said to him, "I really don't understand."

"About what, Adso?" "First, about the difference between the Pagan groups. But I'll ask you about that later. It's the 'difference' itself that confuses me the most. When you talked to Ubertino, it seemed to me that you wanted to Prove to him that heretics and saints are the same. But later, when you talked to the abbot, you tried to explain to him the difference between heresies, and between heretics and Orthodoxy. In other words, you accused Uberti of Nor should he say that what is essentially the same is different, and that the dean sees what is essentially different as the same."

William put the glasses back on the table: "My good Adso," he said, "now we'll try to tell the difference, let's use the parlance used by the schools in Paris, well, they say all It's all the same entity, right?" "Of course," I said proudly, "man is also an animal, only rational, and the characteristic of man is the ability to laugh." "Excellent. But there's a difference between Thomas and Bernardin; Thomas is fat, Bernardin is thin, maybe Huff is bad, and Francis is nice, Aman is dull, Archer Ra is impatient. Am I right?"

"Yes, there is no doubt that this is the case." "Then this means that although human beings are the same entity, they have different properties, and there are variations in their apparent form." "It's not bad at all." ※Bandhammer Academyの精学E Book※ "When I said to Ubertino that human nature is very complex, loving both good and evil, I wanted to persuade Ubertino to believe in the sameness of human nature. However, when I said to the dean that the Casa believers and Val Densi are different, and what I insist on is the variability of events. I insist because what a Kasa does can cause a Waldensi to be burned, and vice versa. When you burn When a human being, you burn his personal entity, without any influence on the concrete action of existence, and the 'good' in that action, at least in the eyes of God.Do you think this is a good reason to insist on differences? "

"The problem," I said, "is that I can no longer distinguish between Waldensi, Casa, the poor of Lyon, Umirardi, Bougeret, Bergade, Pertalini, the apostles, the poor Lombards." , Arnold, Willimet, and Luciferin. What shall I do?" "Oh, poor Adso," William smiled, patting the back of my neck, "you're not wrong! You see, for nearly two centuries, if not earlier, our world has suffered from tolerance, hope, and despair. Wait for the blows of the mixed storm... No, that's not a good analogy. Think of a river that's wide and big, with an extremely long flow, and solid ground on either side. At some point, because the river It has flowed a long way, flowed in many places, merged into many small rivers, is about to enter the sea, no longer knows what it is, has lost its original appearance. The main flow is still there, but many tributaries flow in all directions, and some flow Together, they merge into another, and you can't tell which one produced which, and sometimes you can't tell where it's still a river, and where it goes has become a sea..."

"If I am not mistaken in your implication, the river is the city of God, or the kingdom of justice, approaching the millennium's bliss, which is no longer stable and safe in this change, and true and false prophets are born together, and all They all flowed into the battlefield of the final decisive battle..." "That's not what I meant. I meant to explain to you that over the centuries the body of the church, that is, the body of society, has become too rich, too vast, and so much dross has settled in it over time that it has become Lost its own purity. The branches of the delta are like so many rivers rushing as fast as they can to the bottom of the sea, that is, to the moment of cleansing. My moral is only to tell you that when the river is no longer whole, heretical branches and innovations The actions will be countless and mixed. You can also imagine a poor man who wants to rebuild the river bank by his own strength, but can't do it. Some small tributaries are blocked by silt, and others are reflowed by artificial channels. Big rivers, and some are still running forward along the original river course. Because it is impossible to stop everything, it is better to let the river lose part of its water, but keep its progress."

"The more I listen, the more confused I become." "Me too. I'm not a man of metaphors, forget about the river. Try to understand that many of the actions you're referring to were at least two centuries old and have since disappeared, while others are modern times..." "But every time heresies are discussed, they're all brought up." "Yes, this is also one of the ways that heresy expands and destroys." "I don't understand again." "God, it's very difficult. Well. Imagine that you are a moral reformer, and you recruit companions on the top of a mountain to live a life of poverty. After a while, many people come to you, and there are even people from From far away places, they thought you were a prophet, or a new apostle, and they followed you. Did they really go there because of you or your theory?"

"I don't know. I hope so, why maybe not?" "Because their ancestors told them stories of other reformers, and legends of a perfect society, they believed it was your place." "So every action inherits the results of every other action?" "Of course, because the masses who followed the reformers were, for the most part, simple people, ignorant of the teachings. Morality, however, can be reformed in different ways and in different places with different teachings. For example, Waldensians and Kasas are often mixed together, but there is a big difference between the two orders. The Waldensian preaches to improve the morals within the church, while the Kassal preaches something different The church, looked at from another point of view of God and morality. The Kasa believers believe that the world is divided into two opposing forces, good and evil. They founded a church where simple believers can recognize perfection. They have their own sacraments and ceremonies, And created a very strict class system, similar to our Notre Dame sect, and they never thought of overthrowing every power entity. This explains why powerful people, landowners, feudal monarchs, will also join the Kasa sect Nor did they try to reform the world, for they believed that the antagonism of good and evil could never be reconciled. The Waldensians (and the Arnolds, or poor Lombards), on the other hand, wanted to to build a different world for their own ideals, so they were driven out to live in separate societies that lived by their own labor."

"So why do people confuse them and think they're all equally evil?" "I told you that the same object that kept them alive caused their death. Actions multiplied, and more and more simple people, motivated by other actions, believed that all actions had the same Rebellion and Hope; they were destroyed by the Inquisitors, who would assign the mistakes of one sect to the other, and if a certain act of a breakaway sect was sinful, every act of each sect would be considered Guilty. Logically, the Inquisitors were wrong in conflating conflicting teachings; and they were right in terms of other irrationality, since usually if the Arnolds initiate some kind of action in a certain city, other The Caesars or Waldensians of the same place would follow suit. The apostles of the Dolcino brothers preached the physical destruction of missionaries and lords, and committed many atrocities; the Waldensians opposed violence, and Phradis So did Li. But I believe that in the time of Brother Dolcino there were many in his group devoutly following the dogmas of the Phradis Li or Waldensian sects. Simple men cannot choose personal heresies; these heresies may Simultaneous abstinence of sexual pleasure and communion, yet good missionary technique, shows that paganism is a diabolical contradiction that defies common sense."

"Then there is no relationship between them. Is it the deception of the devil that makes a simple person want to become a Jochim follower, or join the Kasa sect?" "No, it's not like that. Let's try again, Adso. But first I want to tell you that what I'm trying to explain to you is something I don't know for sure. The mistake is to believe that heresy came first. , and then the fools join it (seeking death). In fact, there should be fools first, and then heresies." "I do not understand what you were saying." "You have a clear conception of God's people. A great flock of sheep--good and bad--guarded by dogs; warriors, or worldly power--emperors and princes; and they obey The guidance of the clergy—that is, shepherds, analytic theists. It’s a clear system.” "But it is wrong. The shepherd and the bulldog fight, because they covet each other's power." "Yes, that's why the temperament of the flock is hesitant. The dogs and the shepherds only care about fighting each other, and they no longer take care of the flock. Some of the sheep are pushed out." "What do you mean by 'outside'?" "On the outskirts. Farmers, they are not really farmers, because they don't have land, and even if they had land, they don't enjoy all the crops. There are citizens, but they are not citizens, because they don't belong to the A guild or a municipality, they're a minority, squeezed out by everyone. Have you ever seen hordes of lepers in the country?" "Yes, once I saw hundreds of people together. Their flesh was rotten, and they were all white, and they were walking on crutches. Their eyelids were swollen, and their eyes were bleeding. They couldn't speak or cry, but they were like mice. Squeaking the same way." "To Christians, they're a different kind of people, people who stay on the fringes of the flock. The flock hates them, and they hate the flock, because the Christians want all the lepers like them to die." "Yes, I remember a story about King Mark of Ireland; when King Mark rebuked Miss Isso, the beauty, to burn her alive, the lepers came, and they told the king that burning was a milder punishment and that something more Harsh method. They cried to him: Give us Miss Isso, let her belong to each of us, our disease makes our desires high, give her to your lepers. Look at our rags , all glued to the wound. She has always been by your side, enjoying the rich life of good food and clothing. When she saw the leper's yard, when she had to come into our hut and sleep with us, she would Will really realize her sin, and regret not dying in the flames of the bushes!" William looked at me and said, "For a novice monk of the Order of St. Benedict, the book you read is really strange." I blushed, for I knew novices were not supposed to read legends, but in the Abbey of Melek we young men circulated them secretly, peeking at them by candlelight at night. "But that doesn't matter," William went on, "you know what I mean. Outcast lepers like to drag others to perish with them. The more you loathe them, the more wicked they become; the more you describe them The more they become a group of lemurs that must be exterminated, the more they are abandoned by ordinary people. Saint Francis realized this, and his first decision was to go and live with lepers. After the expelled people returned to the group Before, it was impossible for God's people to change." "But you speak of other outcasts. It is not lepers who practice heresy." "The flock is like a series of concentric circles, from the outermost periphery of the flock to all around it. The leper is a symbol of the outcast. St. Francis knew this. He didn't just want to help the leper, if it were His behavior was nothing more than pathetic and ludicrously benevolent, if he didn't. He was trying to show something else. Have you ever heard of his preaching to the birds?" "Oh yes, I've heard that lovely story, and I have great admiration for the saints who are the companions of God's tender creatures," I said eagerly. "Ah, what you have heard is a false story, which has been corrected by later Orders. St. Francis exhorted the townspeople and justices of the peace, seeing that they were obstinate, to go to the cemetery and begin to treat the crows. , magpies, eagles and other carrion-eating birds to preach.” "What a dreadful thing!" said I, "then they are not very good birds!" "They are banished birds, like lepers. St. Francis must have thought of the verses of the Apostles: 'I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out to every bird that flew in the sky. Say: Come down and eat the supper that God has prepared for you, and you may eat the flesh of kings, of lords, of powerful men, of horses, and of their riders, and of all men, whether they Free or bound, small or great!" "So St. Francis wanted to incite the exiles to riot?" "No, if anyone wants to do it, it's Brother Dolcino and his disciples. God only wants to call the exiles to be part of God's people. If the flock is going to gather again, The excommunicated must return to them again. St. Francis did not succeed, and I am very sorry. To save the expelled, he must be active in the church. If he wants to be active in the church, he His rules had to be sanctioned before an order could be formed to reshape the image of a circle so that the exiles would no longer remain on the fringes of the circle. Now you will understand why Fradisley and Joachim taught Regiment, gather the exiles around them again?" "But we were not talking about St. Francis just now. We were talking about how heresies arise from the simple and the outcast." "Yes, we are talking about those who are excluded from the flock. Popes and emperors have fought each other for power for centuries, and these people live on the margins, such as lepers. The real leper is God In order for us to understand what this wonderful allegory describes, when it comes to "lepers", we think of "exiled, poor, simple, wandering, unable to gain a foothold in the country, and humiliated in the city".But we do not understand that the mystery of leprosy haunts us because we have not yet recognized the nature of the symbol.They were driven out of the flock, and everyone wanted to hear an admonition that would condemn the dogs and the shepherds to their retribution someday.The powerful have always understood this.To get the excommunicated back, the authority of the powerful would be relatively diminished, so that the excommunicated knew that they had to be accused of heresy in order to be exiled, no matter what their teachings were.As for them, angry at being exiled, they are not interested in any teaching, which is the delusion of heresy.Everyone is a pagan, everyone is Orthodox.The act of faith does not count, only the hope it offers.All heresy is a true and excluded banner.Strip away the heresy and you'll find the leper.Every campaign against heresy has but one purpose: to keep the lepers in the status quo.As for lepers, what can you ask of them?Are they to discern what is right and what is wrong in the doctrine of the Trinity or in the definition of the Eucharist?Well, Adso, these are the games we ink-drinkers play.Simple people have other problems, and they solve them in the wrong way, and that is why they are accused of being heretics. " "But why do some people support them?" "Because these people have a purpose, and their purpose has nothing to do with beliefs, and most of them are related to the conquest of power." "So the Holy See accuses everyone who opposes it of heresy?" "That's right. For this reason, the Holy See will call the heresy and power that it has come under its control to have grown so strong that it has to accept the heresy as the 'orthodox church'. But there are no certain rules to follow. Depends on the individual and the situation. This is also a picture of a secular monarch. Sometimes the governor of the city encourages the pagans to translate the Gospel into tongues: those tongues are now the language of the cities, and Latin is the language of the Holy See and the monasteries. There are At that time, the members of the Autonomous Palace would support the Waldensea Church, because they declared that all people, whether male or female, high or low, could teach and preach, and a person who had been an apprentice for ten days should find another If you are a novice, you will become his teacher..." "In this way, the unique difference of missionaries is eliminated! But why did officials in the same city once oppose heretics and help the church burn them to death?" "Because they realized that the growth of heretics could also endanger the authority of the incumbent. In the Lateran Council of 1179 (you see, these issues go back a hundred and fifty years), Walter Maple warned What would happen if the foolish and ignorant people of the Waldensea were allowed to have the altar, he said, if I remember correctly, they had no fixed abode, wandered about barefoot, owned nothing, and thought everything Is communal, naked after Christ. They start the denomination in this very humble way because they are outcasts. But if you give them too much space, they put everyone else in For this reason the cities love the Mendicant Orders, and especially our Franciscans; we cultivate a harmonious balance between the needs of the penitent and the life of the city, between the church and the townspeople, Concerned about their trade..." "Is there then harmony also between the love of God and the zeal for trade?" "No, the acts of spiritual reformation were hindered; they were resisted by the restriction that the orders had to be sanctioned by the Pope, but the undercurrents were not. On the one hand, this undercurrent formed the actions of the self-flagellation ascetics, who endanger no one; or form armed groups like the Dolcino brothers, or form the witchcraft rituals of Montefalco that Ubertino talks about..." "But who is right and who is wrong?" I asked in confusion. "They could be both right and wrong at the same time." "Why don't you take a stand?" I cried rebelliously. "Why don't you tell me what the truth is?" William was silent for a while, holding a lens and staring at the sun.Then he put the lens back on the table and let me look through it at a tool: "Look," he said to me, "what do you see?" "Tools are bigger." "So, all we can do is take a closer look." "But this tool is forever!" "The manuscript of Venantius will remain the same forever, and I will be able to read it when I have glasses. Maybe after I read that manuscript, I will understand a part of the truth better. Maybe We can restore peace to monastery life." I said: "But that's still not enough!" "I don't take it at face value, Adso. It's not the first time I've told you about Roger Bacon. He may not have been the brightest man who ever lived, but he was inspired by his love of learning." I have always been fascinated by the hope raised. Bacon believed in the powers, needs, and inventions of the spirit in general. He would not be a good saint if he had not thought of the poor, the outcast, the idiot, and the illiterate, and often quoted God. Member of Zig. Simple people in general understand truth better than scholars, because scholars tend to lose themselves in the pursuit of broad and general laws. The average person has a sense of individuality, but this feeling alone is not enough. The average person has his own truth The concept of the church may be more real than the scholars in the church, but they destroy it in their unthinking actions. So what is to be done? Let the common people acquire knowledge? Too simple to say, but too easy to do. Difficult. The teachers of St. Francis considered this question. St. Bonaventure said that a wise man must be strengthened by the truth contained in the actions of ordinary people. A clear concept..." "Like the learned memory of the Perugia and Ubertino," I said, "they turn theological judgments into admonitions for the common man to live in poverty." "Yes, but you have also seen that this change happened too late, and by the time it happened, the truth of the common people had been transformed into the truth of those in power, which was more important to Emperor Louis than to a friar living in poverty. Useful. How are we to remain inseparable from the experience of ordinary men, that is, to maintain their morality and capacity to work to effect change and improve the world? This is what Bacon had in mind. He said: 'The experience of ordinary men has Brutal and uncontrollable consequences. Even to deal with practical affairs, whether it is agriculture, machinery, or the governance of a city, a theory is required.' He believes that the great current enterprise of scholars is the new natural science. The different knowledge of the process, harmonizing and at the same time presenting the basic need in anticipation, is correct and true though confused. The new science, the new natural magic, according to Bacon, this great enterprise should be led by the Church. But I believe he said that because in his day the body of the clergy was separate from the body of the scholar. This is no longer the case today, the learned live outside the monasteries and churches, not even at the universities I therefore thought that since my friend and I believed that the present management of human affairs lay not in the Church but in the hands of the people, the scholars of the future must come up with this new and humane theology; The philosophy of nature is also an incredible power." "A marvelous undertaking," I said, "but is it possible?" "Bacon thought it possible." "What about you?" "I think so too. But we have to be sure that it is right for the average person to have a sense of individuality in order to believe it. But if only the sense of individuality is good, how can science transform the laws of the world by becoming a practical force? " "Yes," I said, "how is that possible?" "I don't know anymore. At Oxford I debated with my friend, Willy of Occam - now living in Avignon - and he planted the seeds of doubt in me. Because if only the individual It is true that the same cause will produce the same effect is difficult to prove. A single entity may be hot or cold, sweet or bitter, wet or dry, with different changes depending on where it is. If I even How do I discover the world contract that commands everything when lifting a finger creates infinite new entities? Because just such a simple action will also change the status relationship between my fingers and all other objects.My mind relies on this relationship to perceive the relationship between entities and entities, but what guarantees that this is global and stable? " "However, you know that a certain thickness of glass is suitable for a certain vision, and because of this knowledge, you can make the same pair of glasses as the one you lost, otherwise you can't help it?" "Good answer, Adso. In fact, I have also thought about the proposition that the same thickness must accommodate the same vision. I am sure of this, because I have had the same kind of personal insight on other occasions. Indeed, anyone who has experimented with herbs knows that the same kind of herb produces the same effect in patients, so researchers have made definite claims that a different herb of a certain kind can treat a fever, or that a certain kind Lenses of different thicknesses improve vision to the same extent. The science Bacon refers to is undoubtedly based on these claims. You understand, Adso, I must believe that my proposition works, because that is what I have learned from I know from experience, but in order to believe this I have to assume that there are universal rules. Yet I cannot say this, because the concept of universal rules and the existence of some established order implies that God is their prisoner, but God is absolutely free, so if he wants to, a little bit of willpower can change the whole world." "Well, if I don't misunderstand you, you act and you know why you act, but you don't know why you know what you're doing, don't you?" I must proudly say that William gave me a look of admiration: "Probably so. Anyway, now you can see why I hesitated about my truth, even though I believed it." I said, "You are even more mysterious than Ubertino!" "Perhaps. But, as you know, it is the nature of things that I probe. In our ongoing investigation, I do not want to know who is good and who is bad, but who was in the office last night, Who took the glasses, who left trails of dragging a body in the snow, and where Berengar is. These are the facts. Then I'll try to connect them - if possible, after all to tell cause and effect Relationships are not easy. One angel stepping in is enough to change everything, so it is not surprising that one thing cannot be proven to be the cause of another. Although one has to try, like I am now. " I said, "You're going to be racking your brains." "But I found Brunales." William recalled the incident with the horses two days ago, and exclaimed. I proudly said: "Then there is indeed an order in this world!" William replied: "Then there is some order in my poor head." Just then Nicholas returned with a nearly finished frame, excitedly holding it up. "When this frame is put on my poor nose," said William, "maybe my poor head will be in more order." A novice came in and said that the abbot wanted to see William and was waiting for him in the garden.As we were leaving, William patted him on the forehead, as if remembering something he had forgotten. "By the way," said he, "I have solved Venantius' cryptic symbol." "All? When?" "While you were sleeping. It depends on what you mean by 'all'. I deciphered the symbols you copied after being smoked out. Those Greek notes are waiting for me to get new glasses I'll talk about it later." "Oh, the 'End of Africa' secret?" "Yes, and the solution is quite simple. In the arrangement of Venantius, there are the zodiac and the other eight: the five planets, the two luminaries, the sun and the moon, and the earth. There are twenty signs in all. It fits the Latin alphabet because you can pronounce the initials of 'unum' and 'velut' with the same letter. We all know the order of the letters. So what is the order of the signs? I think of the astronomical In order, arrange the zodiac houses farthest. The resulting order is: Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, etc., followed by the traditional order of the zodiac, beginning with Aries and ending with Pisces. Now, Try this solution, and you will understand the meaning of Venantius' message." He handed me a piece of parchment on which he translated the message in Latin letters: Secretum finis Africae manus supra ido lum age primum et septimum de quatuor "Understood?" he asked. "The hand on the idol runs on the first and seventh of the four..." I read, shaking my head, "I don't understand at all!" "I know. First we must know what Venantius' 'idol' means. An image, a ghost, or a person? Then the 'four' with the 'first' and the 'seventh' would be What? And what about movement? Moving them out of the way, or pushing or pulling them?" I said despondently, "Then we still don't know anything, we're still at the beginning." William looked up at me with a stern expression: "Son," he said, "in front of your eyes is a poor Franciscan friar, with little knowledge and limited skills, who spent hours deciphering these codes... ...and you, you ignorant little bastard, dare you say we're still at the beginning?" I apologized clumsily.I hurt William's pride, but I knew he was very proud of his quick and precise deduction.Wilhelm has indeed done an admirable job, and it is William's fault that Venantius not only concealed his discovery with the zodiac alphabet, but went further and designed it into an insoluble riddle. "It's okay, it's okay, there's no need to apologize." William interrupted me and said, "You're right, we still know too little. Let's go."