Explore "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In which a sermon is heard about the coming of the Antichrist, and Adso discovers the power of proper names.
Vespers had been sung in a confused fashion while the interrogartion of the cellarer was still under way, with the curious novices escaping their master's control to observe through windows and cracks what was going on in the chapter hall. Now the whole community was to pray for the good soul of Severinus. Everyone expected the abbot to speak, and wondered what he would say. But instead, after the ritual homily of Saint Gregory, the responsory, and the three prescribed psalms, the abbot did step into the pulpit, but only to say he would remain silent this evening. Too many calamities had befallen the abbey, he said, to allow even the spiritual father to speak in a tone of reproach and admonition. Everyone, with no exceptions, should now make a strict examination of conscience.