Explore "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In which Severinus speaks to William of a strange book, and William speaks to the envoys of a strange concept of temporal government.
The quarrel was still raging when one of the novices guarding the door came in, passing through that confusion like someone walking across a field lashed by hail. He approached William, to whisper that Severinus wanted urgently to speak to him. We went out into the narthex, which was crowded with curious monks trying, through the shouts and noise, to catch something of what was going on inside. In the first rank we saw Aymaro of Alessandria, who welcomed us with his usual condescending sneer of commiseration at the foolishness of the universe. "To be sure, since the rise of the mendicant orders Christianity has become more virtuous," he said.