(no subject)
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose:
"And as for the heretics, I also have a rule, and it is summed up in the reply that Arnold Amalaricus Bishop of Cîteau, gave to those who asked him what to do with the citizens of Béziers: Kill them all, God will recognize His own."
William lowered his eyes and remained silent for a while. Then he said, "The city of Béziers was captured and our forces had no regard for dignity of sex or age, and almost twenty thousand people were put to the sword. When the massacre was complete, the city was sacked and burned."
"A holy war is nevertheless a war."
"For this reason perhaps there should not be holy wars."
(p.153)
[...] The whole universe is surely like a book written by the finger of God, in which everything speaks to us of the immense goodness of its Creator, in which every creature is description and mirror of life and death, in which the humblest rose becomes a gloss of our terrestrial progress. [...]
(p.279)