A Canticle for

Leibowitz
Study Guide by Course Hero

honor of Isaac Edward Leibowitz, a long-dead engineer and

What's Inside
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1
survivor of a nuclear war. Members of the abbey hope
Leibowitz will be canonized. A hymn of praise asking for God's
mercy that forms part of a church service, which refers to the
canticle in the novel, also contains a code word for the atomic
bomb.

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3

h Characters .................................................................................................. 4 d In Context

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 9

c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 15

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 40 Nuclear Weapons and the Cold

l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 43
m Themes ...................................................................................................... 44
War
A Canticle for Leibowitz is postapocalyptic fiction, starting
hundreds of years after the destruction of modern civilization
in a nuclear war. It was published in 1959 during a period of

j Book Basics intense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union
that centered on a race to attain superiority in nuclear
weaponry.
AUTHOR
Walter M. Miller, Jr. Along with Britain, France, and other countries, the United
States and the Soviet Union were allies during World War II
YEAR PUBLISHED
(1939–45). However, as soon as World War II ended, alliances
1959
shifted, and the United States and the Soviet Union became
rivals. Within its sphere of influence the Soviet Union now had
GENRE
power over the Eastern European countries it had liberated.
Dystopian, Science Fiction
These countries now had communist or socialist governments.
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR The United States established a rival sphere of influence in
A third-person omniscient narrator tells the story. Western Europe. The United States and its allies worried that
the Soviet Union would install communist governments
TENSE throughout the world, which was indeed the Soviet Union's
The novel is narrated in the past tense. stated aim. The two powers continued their political and
economic rivalry—known as the Cold War—which included
ABOUT THE TITLE
broadcasting propaganda and amassing nuclear weapons.
Most of the novel is set in and around a monastery named in
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Although the two powers did not engage in conventional
battles, the Cold War was more than mere posturing. The
Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin in 1948, cutting off its
supplies in an attempt to push the United States, Britain, and
France out of Allied-controlled West Berlin. In 1949 the United
States joined with Western European nations to form the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO's aim was to
counter Soviet influence in Europe to prevent the Soviet bloc
from advancing farther west. From 1950 to 1953 Soviet-
supported and communist-led North Korea fought against
American-supported South Korea in the Korean War. The
United States and the Soviet Union's rivalry also expanded to
the newly decolonized nations of Africa, as each superpower
sought to shut down the other's influence on the economically
vital continent. In 1979 the Cold War moved to Afghanistan
where the United States supported rebel fighters and the
Soviet Union supported the Afghan government.
The term cold war first was used by British author George
Orwell (1903–50), who predicted a standoff between "two or
three monstrous super-states," each possessing nuclear
weapons. Indeed, much of the Cold War was about such a
nuclear standoff. During World War II, the United States poured
resources into creating nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union
followed suit, using information supplied by spies. By bombing
Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons, in August 1945,
the United States demonstrated it had and would use a
weapon more powerful than any the world had yet seen.
Paradoxically, the destructive force of nuclear weapons limited
their usefulness. In theory, the possession of nuclear weapons
by one side would deter aggression by the other side.
However, nuclear weapons were not useful in small-scale
conflicts, civil wars, or any conflicts in which the nuclear power
was unwilling to decimate a civilian population.
The Soviet Union produced a nuclear bomb in 1949. This
achievement led to the U.S. doctrine of "mutually assured
destruction," which held neither side would actually use their
nuclear weapons, each being unwilling to cause so many
civilian deaths. A Canticle for Leibowitz lampoons, or mocks,
this doctrine in a fable about princes. The Cold War ended in
the late 1980s, first as tensions relaxed considerably under
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and then as the Soviet Union
collapsed in 1991.
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In Context 2
The Monastery System
A Canticle for Leibowitz takes place in the fictional Leibowitz
Abbey, where monks work to preserve literacy and education
in a postnuclear Dark Age. Many religions have monastic
traditions, in which monks live either alone or communally.
Typically, Christian monks take a vow to live in celibacy and
poverty, dedicating themselves primarily to prayer, social
service, or both. The Roman Catholic Church has a large
monastery system comprising orders of monks (men) and nuns
(women). A monastic order is a group of monks dedicated to a
particular saint or particular way of living together. For
example, the order of Benedictine monks is made up of monks
dedicated to living under the religious rule of St. Benedict. An
order can be made up of individual monasteries in which the
monks live. Catholic monks and priests have a suffix after their
names, indicating the monastic order to which they belong. For
example, names of priests in the Jesuit order are followed by
SJ, for "Society of Jesus." In A Canticle for Leibowitz, the
Leibowitz monks' names are appended with AOL, for "Albertian
Order of Leibowitz."
In the novel Isaac Edward Leibowitz seeks refuge with the
Cistercian order of monks, an actual order founded in 1098
and named for the French city of Cîteaux (in Latin, Cistercium).
The Cistercian order was founded by a group of Benedictine
monks who wanted to live according to a stricter interpretation
of the rule of St. Benedict. Like nonfictional monastic orders,
the monks of Leibowitz Abbey live under a system of strict
hierarchical rule, governed by an abbot, or head monk.
Obedience to monastic authority and ritual is essential. At the
beginning of the novel, Brother Francis Gerard is a novice,
someone admitted to the monastery on a trial or probationary
basis. Brother Francis is sent to the desert to meditate on his
religious vocation—that is, on whether he has been divinely
called to monastic life. Typically, a novice becomes a monk
when he is certain of his vocation and then takes his vows to
live according to the order's rules. However, in A Canticle for
Leibowitz Abbot Arkos punishes Brother Francis by making
him remain a novice for seven years.
During the Middle Ages, many Roman Catholic monks
dedicated themselves to copying sacred and secular
manuscripts. Until the invention of the printing press in the 15th
century, books were reproduced by copying them by hand.
Similarly, the monks of Leibowitz Abbey dedicate themselves
to preserving the few texts that have survived "the great
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Author Biography 3

Simplification," a frenzy of book burning. Brother Francis

spends 15 years making an "illuminated copy" of an engineering a Author Biography
blueprint. Illuminated copies are texts with decorative hand-
drawn illustrations and ornamental capital letters.

Early Life and War Experience

The Middle Ages Science fiction writer Walter Michael Miller Jr. was born on
January 23, 1923, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Little is
The Middle Ages are a period of European history that spans
known about his early life. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force
about 1,000 years from the collapse of the Roman Empire in
shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on
500 CE to the beginnings of the Renaissance in the early 13th
December 7, 1941. He served as a radio operator and tail
century. The achievements of the Roman Empire include
gunner, flying more than 50 combat missions. Among these
roads, communications, and aqueducts. These structures and
was the Allied bombing of the Monte Cassino monastery, a key
systems fell into disrepair with the vanishing of the empire and
battle site in the fight for control of Italy. Believing the Germans
the attacks of the warrior tribes, the Visigoths. These
were using it as an ammunition storehouse, the Allied
attacks—called the "sacking," or looting, of Rome—are
command ordered a full-scale attack. On February 15, 1944,
sometimes depicted as a triumph of ignorant, tribal peoples
American airplanes dropped more than 400 tons of explosives
over the sophisticated Romans. Therefore, the Middle Ages, in
on the monastery. Although most of the monks had already
the centuries following, have been associated with Rome's
fled, hundreds of civilians who had sought refuge there were
destruction and have been, at times, considered an age of
killed in the brutal attack. This incident had a profound and
ignorance, decline, and superstition. For this reason, the period
enduring effect on Miller.
has also been known as the Dark Ages. Historians have since
reassessed the Middle Ages, considering achievements in
philosophy and art as well as the rise of Europe as a distinct
cultural unit. During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic
Writing Career
Church was the center of learning, engaged in preserving and
After the war, Miller married Anna Louise Becker in 1945. He
translating ancient texts from Greece, Rome, and the Middle
also studied engineering at the University of Texas. In 1947 he
East.
converted to Catholicism. Three years later, in 1950, he
The first part of A Canticle for Leibowitz, titled "Fiat Homo," published his first short story, "MacDoughal's Wife." Although
depicts a historical period similar to the Middle Ages, especially not science fiction, it contains technological and religious
the so-called Dark Ages. Six centuries before the start of the imagery, as does much of his later work. Throughout the 1950s
novel, the cultural and political dominance of the United States Miller published short stories and novellas in science fiction
has collapsed as nuclear war has engulfed the world. After this magazines, such as Amazing Stories, Galaxy, and Astounding
war, called "the Flame Deluge," a willfully ignorant group known Science Fiction. He also wrote scripts for the television show
as the "simpletons" burn books and attack educated people. Captain Video and His Video Rangers. By 1955, between his
Indeed, the "Great Simplification" has some parallels with the short stories and his TV scripts, Miller had published a million
sack of Rome. Moreover, as in the Middle Ages, the center of words.
learning in A Canticle for Leibowitz is the Roman Catholic
Although Miller published 41 science fiction stories, his literary
Church. The actual Middle Ages were succeeded by the
reputation comes from the one novel he published during his
Renaissance, a period of great activity in philosophy, art, and
lifetime, A Canticle for Leibowitz. The novel began as three
science. Similarly, in the second part of A Canticle for
separate novellas, still discernible in its three-part structure. It
Leibowitz, titled "Fiat Lux," the dark period of superstition has
tells the story of human civilization repeatedly destroyed by
been succeeded by one that sees advances in technology and
nuclear war and then rebuilt after the Catholic Church saves
science.
learning and literacy.

Shortly after publishing A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller's output

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
diminished, and after 1959 he published no more new fiction.
He continued to write, working on a Canticle-related novel, but
did not live to see it published. He also coedited an anthology
of postapocalyptic science fiction stories called Beyond
Armageddon (1985). Some of his previous science fiction
stories were republished in collections.
Depression, Death, and Legacy
Miller lived reclusively in Florida for most of his life. His
longtime literary agent, Don Congdon, never met him face to
face. In fact Miller once wrote an admiring letter to a fellow
science fiction writer, closing it with the words, "This does not
mean I want to meet you."
The bombing of Monte Cassino continued to haunt Miller
throughout his life. "Walt was deeply depressed by post-
traumatic stress disorder and had been for half a century,''
fellow writer Joe Haldeman told the Washington Post. The
same article quotes Miller's agent, Don Congdon, as saying
"depression and booze" dogged Miller.
On January 9, 1996, Miller took his own life by gunshot at the
age of 72. At the family's request no obituaries appeared in
major newspapers, and so his death attracted no public notice
or retrospectives on his literary career. A year and a half later,
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (1997), a sequel of
sorts to A Canticle for Leibowitz, was posthumously published
to mixed reviews.
Miller's legacy remains primarily his thought-provoking novel A
Canticle for Leibowitz. It presents the suffering caused by
nuclear weapons and asks how and why human civilizations
can continue after acquiring this world-destroying power.
h Characters
Brother Francis
Brother Francis gives thoughtful, thorough confessions and
refuses to make blanket statements. He will not give in to
pressure to do so even though such action would benefit him.
His superiors find his rectitude, or virtuous behavior, grating,
and Abbot Arkos delays Francis's progress toward the
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Characters 4
priesthood out of resentment. A lover of learning, Francis
comes to the abbey to obtain an education he could find
nowhere else. He feels guilty because his primary motivation in
monastic life is learning rather than faith. After he spends
years making an illuminated copy of a Leibowitz blueprint, it
gets stolen. However, his delivery of the original to New Rome
may be responsible for the 32nd-century Renaissance, when
technology is rediscovered.
Abbot Arkos
Abbot Arkos is a shrewd political maneuverer. When Brother
Francis discovers relics of the Blessed Leibowitz, Arkos
doesn't let himself get carried away by religious enthusiasm.
Instead, he coolly considers the effect of a miraculous
discovery on Leibowitz's canonization. Deciding the rumors
could harm the Leibowitz cause, Arkos does everything in his
power to quash Francis's discovery. However, Abbot Arkos
does behave better toward Francis once Leibowitz's
canonization is assured.
Dom Paulo
At the start of Part 2, Dom Paulo is already an old man. He
knows he will have to give way to a successor but is reluctant
to let word get around too soon, which would diminish his
power. He keeps his illness a secret, even though he's
hemorrhaging blood. By Dom Paulo's time, secular scholarship
has sprung up. Dom Paulo sees the possibility of the abbey's
becoming superfluous, hoarding learning in an age when
others have it as well. However, his response is to try to be
more generous with the abbey's resources. When he learns
Hannegan's men are making sketches of the abbey's
fortifications for military purposes, Dom Paulo neither
confiscates the drawings nor evicts the men. He sticks to his
principles of openness, hoping free communication will
improve conditions.
Abbot Zerchi
Abbot Zerchi firmly believes people must wait for God to
decide when the end will come. Zerchi sees much suffering
among the radiation-poisoned refugees who gather at the
abbey. Still, Zerchi refuses to consider euthanasia as a
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Characters 5

justifiable alternative, calling it "mass, state-sponsored suicide."

Enduring a difficult death himself—buried in rubble after a
nuclear blast—he bears his fate with equanimity, or mental
calmness and composure.
Leibowitz
Leibowitz worked on nuclear armaments in the desert in the
Southwestern United States in the 20th century. Some of his
writings turn up in a hidden fallout shelter Brother Francis

Thon Taddeo discovers some 600 years later. Leibowitz's life story is
recounted in religious texts written centuries after his death.
Leibowitz dedicated what remained of his life after the war to
Thon Taddeo Pfardentrott is an intelligent man who keenly
preserving books and literacy in the postnuclear world. He took
admires 20th-century mathematics and engineering. He
refuge with an order of Cistercian monks, converted to
cannot reconcile the present state of 32nd-century
Catholicism, and founded a religious order dedicated to saving
society—the superstition and illiteracy—with the towering
books through "booklegging" (smuggling books) and
achievements of the past. Therefore, he falls under the sway of
memorization. Centuries after his death he is canonized and
a scarcely scientific theory about a second human race of
thereafter called Saint Leibowitz.
rebellious, low-intellect servants. Other than this weakness in
his worldview, Taddeo is a proud man of science. However, his
pride is wounded when he learns Brother Kornhoer has
reinvented the light bulb. Thon Taddeo expected him, and the
other monks at the abbey, to be religious caretakers of texts
they didn't understand.

Old pilgrim
The old pilgrim lives in a hut near Leibowitz Abbey for much of
the novel and appears at significant moments. He first appears
when he shows Brother Francis a stone that turns out to
conceal the opening to a fallout shelter. Not long after this
incident, rumors abound: the old pilgrim is said to be Leibowitz
himself. The old pilgrim believes he is thousands of years old,
and the book supports this belief. He appears in Part 1, is still
alive 600 years later in Part 2, and is still present another 600
years later in Part 3. He is known as Benjamin Eleazar and the
Old Jew in Part 2. Dom Paulo thinks the old man has
overidentified himself with the Jewish people, a people now
apparently vanished. As the lone Jew in the desert, he has
perhaps confused his life story with the history of the Jewish
people—according to Dom Paulo's theory. However, Benjamin
Eleazar may be correct in identifying so strongly with the
Jewish people. Called Lazarus in Part 3, he says in Part 2 he
was once told to "come forth." In the Bible Jesus says these
words to Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. Miller has
made it difficult—even impossible—to say for sure who the old
pilgrim is: Leibowitz, Lazarus, or some other figure. Ultimately,
the man's identity is like Brother Francis's view: he can't be
sure the old wanderer is not Leibowitz.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Characters 6

Character Map

Abbot Arkos
Stern, stubborn abbot
of Leibowitz Abbey;
26th century
Advocate for
sainthood

Leibowitz Abbot Zerchi

Engineer, abbey founder, Monastic Active, decisive abbot
preserver of books; superior of Leibowitz Abbey;
20th century Object of 38th century
inspiration

Brother Francis
Possibly same Upright, truth-seeking monk
person at Leibowitz Abbey;
Enabler of 26th century
discovery

Old pilgrim Thon Taddeo

Seemingly immortal Proud, secularist scholar
wanderer with many from Texarkana;
names; all centuries 32nd century

Friends Rivals

Dom Paulo
Succeeds 600 years later
Ailing, generous abbot
of Leibowitz Abbey;
32nd century

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Full Character List
Character Description
Honest and scrupulous, Brother Francis
Gerard of Utah is the novice at the
Brother Leibowitz Abbey in the 26th century
Francis who discovers the Leibowitz relics. After
many years as a novice, he finally
becomes a monk.
Abbot of Leibowitz Abbey in the 26th
century, Arkos is a hairy, physically
Abbot Arkos
imposing man who looks like a "were-
bear" and has a short temper.
Dom Paulo is the abbot of Leibowitz
Abbey in the 32nd century. As head of
Dom Paulo
the abbey, he fosters its goal of
preserving learning and literacy.
Abbot Jethrah Zerchi, a strict and
principled man, is the head of Leibowitz
Abbot Zerchi
Abbey in the 38th century during a
period of nuclear attacks.
Thon Taddeo Pfardentrott is a scholar
at the secular collegium in the state of
Texarkana in the 32nd century. The
Thon Taddeo
honorific Thon seems to be a variation
of the Spanish form of address Don, or it
may be a 32nd-​century word for scholar.
Often referred to as the wanderer, the
old pilgrim has different names
according to the part in which he
appears. In Part 1 he is called the old
Old pilgrim
pilgrim, in Part 2 the Old Jew and
Benjamin Eleazar, and in Part 3 Lazar
and Lazarus. The possibility also exists
that he is Leibowitz.
Leibowitz, whose full name is Isaac
Edward Leibowitz, does not appear in
the novel, having died more than 600
years previously. He was most likely an
Leibowitz
electrical engineer in the 20th century
who survived nuclear war only to be
martyred by a mob of book burners that
turned on educated people.
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Characters 7
The 26th-​century postulator, or
advocate, Monsignor Aguerra, whose
Monsignor
first name is Malfreddo, comes to the
Aguerra
abbey from New Rome to support
Leibowitz's beatification.
In the 32nd century Marcus Apollo is the
papal nuncio (ambassador) to the court
Marcus of Hannegan, mayor-​royal of Texarkana.
Apollo Apollo is hanged for sending a coded
message warning New Rome of
Hannegan's war plans.
In the 32nd century Brother Armbruster
Brother is the librarian of Leibowitz Abbey. He
Armbruster wants to preserve books but resents
those who want to read them.
In the 26th century Father Cheroki is a
priest at Leibowitz Abbey. His name,
Father
Cheroki, may hint at Native American
Cheroki
ancestry or may be the linguistic relic of
a vanished social reality.
In the 38th century the child is gravely ill
from radiation poisoning. Her mother,
The child
the woman, brings her to a "mercy
camp" for euthanasia.
Brother In the 32nd century Brother Claret is the
Claret secretary to Marcus Apollo.
Doctor Cors is the 38th-​century
physician who works at a camp for
treating victims of radiation poisoning.
Doctor Cors
He and Abbot Zerchi disagree about
euthanasia, and Doctor Cors breaks his
promise not to advise it.
In the 38th century the defense minister
Defense
evades reporters' questions about
minister
nuclear war.
A skull—presumably that of Emily, or
Emma, Leibowitz's wife, is discovered in
Emily
the cave together with Leibowitz's
papers.
A mutant, or "sport," in the 26th century,
good-​natured and cheerful Brother
Brother Fingo is afflicted with a skin condition of
Fingo uneven pigmentation and considered
"the ugliest man alive." A woodworker,
he carves a statue of Saint Leibowitz.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
An unpleasant man, 26th-​century
Monsignor horned mutant Monsignor Flaught is the
Flaught devil's advocate who argues against
Leibowitz's beatification.
In the 32nd century Father Gault is Dom
Father Gault
Paulo's prior, or second in command.
In the 38th century Mrs. Grales is a two-
headed mutant woman who sells
Mrs. Grales
tomatoes. She calls her comatose head
Rachel.
The mayor-​royal of the city-​state of
Texarkana, Hannegan is a ruthless
Hannegan
manipulator who sets his allies against
one another so he can rule alone.
A 38th-​century nun, Sister Helene works
Sister Helene at the laboratory. She accidentally walks
in on Brother Joshua in the bathtub.
Together with Zerchi, Cardinal
Hoffstraff, whose full name is Sir Eric
Cardinal Hoffstraff, activates the
Cardinal
Church's Quo peregrinatur protocol,
Hoffstraff
which provides for the preservation of
the Church in exile in space colonies
during the 38th century.
In the 26th century Brother Horner is the
Brother
ailing and benevolent master of the copy
Horner
room at Leibowitz Abbey.
In the 32nd century Brother Jeris is a
copyist at Leibowitz Abbey. A cynical
Brother Jeris man, he teases Francis about the futility
of his project, an illuminated copy of a
Leibowitz blueprint.
In the 38th century Zerchi chooses
Brother Brother Joshua, of Leibowitz Abbey, to
Joshua lead the exiled Church into space in the
Quo peregrinatur program.
In the 32nd century Brother Kornhoer is
a scientific-​minded monk at Leibowitz
Abbey. He invents, or reinvents, an
Brother
electrical dynamo, a device much like a
Kornhoer
generator, that powers an arc lamp—by
turning mechanical energy into electrical
energy.
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Characters 8
In the 38th century Father Lehy is
Father Lehy
Zerchi's prior, or second in command.
Mad Bear, also called Hongan Os, is the
warlord of a nomadic tribe active in the
Mad Bear
32nd century. He is manipulated by
Hannegan.
In the 38th century Brother Pat is
Brother Pat
secretary to Abbot Zerchi.
A 32nd-​century hanger-​on at Leibowitz
Abbey, the Poet likes drinking and joking
The Poet because he has a way with language. He
often removes his glass eye and lets it
stare at people in his absence.
In the 32nd century the pope's children
are mutants with minimal intelligence
The pope's
and personality. Because the pope
children
protects them from slaughter, they are
called the pope's children.
In the 38th century Priscilla is Mrs.
Priscilla
Grales's dog.
In the 38th century Rachel is Mrs.
Grales's mute, comatose second head,
seeming always to sleep on Mrs.
Rachel
Grales's shoulder. After a nuclear bomb
explodes nearby, Rachel wakes up when
Mrs. Grales appears to die.
The lady reporter questions the evasive
Lady reporter
defense minister in the 38th century.
In the 26th century the robber steals
Francis's illuminated copy of Leibowitz's
blueprint, which the monk spent years
creating. With scorn for the work, the
The robber
robber steals the decorative object out
of spite, ignoring the simpler
original—and far more
valuable—blueprint.
A 32nd-​century copyist in the Leibowitz
Abbey, Brother Sarl invents a method of
Brother Sarl deducing the missing words in damaged
texts and painstakingly recreates a
handful of pages in 40 years.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
In the 38th century the woman is
seriously ill with radiation poisoning in
addition to a broken hip. She seeks
The woman
euthanasia for herself and the child,
even though Abbot Zerchi tries to
dissuade her.
k Plot Summary
Part 1: Fiat Homo
The first part of A Canticle for Leibowitz is set in the
southwestern desert region of the former United States 600
years after a nuclear war has destroyed much of the world. It is
Lent, the season of the Christian calendar just before Easter.
Brother Francis, a novice at the Leibowitz Abbey, is fasting and
praying in the desert. A wanderer, known as the old pilgrim,
comes by, and after some initial hostility, the men become
friendly. Francis is building a stone shelter to protect himself
from wolves, and the old pilgrim finds him a stone for it. When
Francis lifts the stone from its resting place, he finds the
entrance to an underground chamber, a fallout shelter sealed
since the 20th century. Inside are papers written by the
abbey's founder, the "Blessed Leibowitz." Most papers and
books were burned after the nuclear war in what is called "the
Great Simplification." The Leibowitz Abbey preserves surviving
papers as sacred "Memorabilia."
Francis tells the head of the abbey, Abbot Arkos, about the
discovery. The abbot is angry, for he is hoping Leibowitz will be
canonized; having too many miracles and relics attributed to
Leibowitz could harm his progress toward canonization. Even
worse, rumors have spread that Francis met Leibowitz himself
in the desert. For years, Francis remains a novice, held back
because the abbot is angry with him for being unable to claim
without a doubt that the old pilgrim is just an old man, not
Leibowitz. Honest and upright, Francis cannot be sure of the
pilgrim's identity and will not succumb to pressure.
Eventually, Francis is allowed to become a monk and begins to
work in the abbey's copy room, making an illuminated copy of a
Leibowitz blueprint found in the fallout shelter. When Leibowitz
is canonized, Francis is invited to the ceremony in "New Rome."
He brings the illuminated copy and the original blueprint as
gifts. Along the way he is robbed of the illuminated copy but
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Plot Summary 9
delivers the original blueprint to the pope.
On the way home, hoping to buy back the stolen copy, Francis
looks for the robber. Some other brigand, or robber, finds
Francis and shoots an arrow into his skull. The old pilgrim, who
had showed Francis the rock, comes by and buries Francis.
Part 2: Fiat Lux
Roughly 600 years later, in the year 3174, secular scholar Thon
Taddeo asks permission to examine the Memorabilia. The
abbot, Dom Paulo, invites him to the abbey. When Taddeo
arrives, he is accompanied by warrior nomads and soldiers
from his home country, Texarkana. War is brewing among
Texarkana, Laredo, and Denver. Dom Paulo leaves the abbey
momentarily to visit Benjamin Eleazar (old pilgrim), a Jewish
hermit who claims to be thousands of years old and to have
met Francis hundreds of years ago.
At the abbey Taddeo is impressed by the documents'
authenticity. One of the monks, Brother Kornhoer,
demonstrates an electric light he built. The printing press, too,
has been rediscovered. It seems a new Renaissance is coming,
and Dom Paulo hopes communication between scholars and
monks will ensure harmony. But war also threatens. The
soldiers who have accompanied Taddeo draw sketches of the
abbey's fortifications. Other powers will want to use the abbey
as an armed fortress.
Hannegan II of Texarkana declares the pope a heretic and
announces himself to be the Church's proper leader. Taddeo, a
relative of Hannegan's, leaves the abbey. Benjamin Eleazar
leaves his nearby hut and once again becomes a wanderer.
Dom Paulo dies, and war breaks out.
Part 3: Fiat Voluntas Tua
The year is 3781, roughly 600 years after Part 2. Civilization is
once again technologically advanced: there are starships,
space colonies, and nuclear weapons. Two world powers, the
Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy, are in an uneasy
peace.
The peace erodes as radiation readings in the Pacific
Northwest suddenly spike. This information is a sign someone
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Plot Summary 10

has been testing nuclear weapons. The Asian and Atlantic

powers threaten war. At the Leibowitz Abbey a message is
received: "Lucifer has fallen." The message means a nuclear
bomb has been detonated. The Church has long had a secret
plan, called Quo peregrinator, to send monks and Memorabilia
to space colonies and leave Earth behind forever. The new
abbot of Leibowitz Abbey, Dom Jethrah Zerchi, asks the novice
Joshua to lead the mission. Joshua accepts and heads to New
Rome to prepare.

The detonation of the nuclear weapon, not far from the abbey,
has brought devastation. Hundreds of refugees gather near
the abbey. A camp is set up, and Doctor Cors administers aid
to the many who are grievously injured. Adamantly opposed to
what he calls "mass, state-sponsored suicide," Zerchi makes
Doctor Cors promise not to offer euthanasia. Two miles down
the road, another camp, Mercy Camp 18, is unpacking urns and
a furnace, getting ready to euthanize many people. Doctor
Cors soon breaks his promise, issuing a euthanasia permit for
Camp 18 to a badly wounded woman and her child. Zerchi
evicts Doctor Cors, who was finished with his work anyway.

Coming upon the woman and her child on the highway, Zerchi
picks them up and gives them a ride. He harangues, or lectures
in a critical manner, the woman about the evils of suicide.
Finally, he commands her to refuse euthanasia. She wavers,
but then an officer at Camp 18 intervenes. Wanting to be at
Camp 18, she and the child leave the car.

Back at the abbey Zerchi hears the confession of Mrs. Grales,

a two-headed mutant woman. Her other head, apparently mute
and comatose, is called Rachel. Mrs. Grales wants Rachel
baptized. As Mrs. Grales confesses, a nuclear bomb explodes,
and Zerchi is buried under rubble. The two-headed woman
appears, but now the Mrs. Grales head is comatose while
Rachel babbles. Rachel hands Zerchi a communion wafer just
before he dies. From a secret location, the Church's starship
launches, carrying monks and children to the space colonies.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Plot Summary 11

Plot Diagram

Climax

11

10
12
9
Falling Action

Rising Action 8
13
7

6 14
5
15
4
Resolution
3

2
1

Introduction

9. Conventional war breaks out between Denver and

Introduction Texarkana.

10. Nuclear war breaks out between Asia and the Atlantic.
1. Brother Francis discovers papers written by Leibowitz.

Climax
Rising Action
11. A nuclear bomb explodes near the abbey.
2. Arkos punishes Francis by keeping him a novice for years.

3. Francis makes an illuminated copy of Leibowitz's blueprint.

4. The Church canonizes Leibowitz at last. Falling Action

5. Francis delivers the original blueprint to the pope. 12. Abbot Zerchi is buried in rubble.

6. The pope's children murder Francis. 13. Rachel gives Zerchi communion.

7. Brother Kornhoer invents an electric arc lamp. 14. Abbot Zerchi dies.

8. Thon Taddeo comes to Leibowitz Abbey to study its papers.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Plot Summary 12

Resolution

15. The Church's starship heads for the space colonies.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Plot Summary 13

Timeline of Events

20th century

Nuclear war causes the end of civilization, ushering in an

age of intellectual barrenness.

Lent, 26th century

Guided by the old pilgrim, Brother Francis finds papers

written by Leibowitz.

7 years later

Francis begins work on an illuminated copy of a

Leibowitz blueprint.

15 years later

Francis is robbed of the illuminated copy on the way to

Leibowitz's canonization.

Soon after

After delivering the original blueprint to the pope, Francis

is murdered on his way home.

The year 3174

In an age of renewed interest in science, Brother

Kornhoer invents an electric arc lamp.

Soon after

While secularist Thon Taddeo studies at the Abbey,

soldiers make sketches of its fortifications.

Some time later

Hannegan, ruler of Texarkana, declares the pope a

heretic.

Soon after

Following broken treaties, war breaks out between

Texarkana and Denver.

Soon after

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Plot Summary 14

Benjamin Eleazar (old pilgrim) becomes a wanderer

again shortly after Dom Paulo dies.

The year 3781

Peace between the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic

Confederacy erodes.

Soon after

A nuclear bomb is detonated, perhaps in a test.

Soon after

The Church's plan to leave Earth is activated, with

Brother Joshua heading to New Rome.

Soon after

Doctor Cors breaks his promise to Zerchi and

recommends euthanasia to victims of nuclear poisoning.

Soon after

Abbot Zerchi argues futilely against euthanasia.

Soon after

The two-headed Mrs. Grales confesses to Zerchi.

Simultaneously

Another nuclear bomb explodes near Leibowitz Abbey.

Immediately after

Buried in the rubble, Zerchi briefly survives.

Soon after

Mrs. Grales's other head, Rachel, offers Zerchi

communion shortly before he dies.

Soon after

As monks and children climb aboard, the Church's

starship is launched.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
c Chapter Summaries
A Canticle for Leibowitz has three parts and 30 chapters. For
the purpose of summary and analysis, this guide examines the
novel's contents in groups of two chapters, with two sections
containing three chapters.
Part 1, Chapters 1–2
Summary
Chapter 1
In a dystopian future, several centuries after the 20th,
somewhere in the United States, Brother Francis Gerard, a
novice, sits alone in the desert. He is fasting for Lent, the
period in the Christian calendar between Ash Wednesday and
Easter. A pilgrim, seemingly on his way to visit Leibowitz
Abbey, appears. The pilgrim is interested in the legendary man,
now dead, named Leibowitz. Leibowitz is now called "Beatus
Leibowitz," meaning he is blessed but not yet canonized as a
saint.
The pilgrim is initially frightened of Francis, whom he did not
expect to encounter. "Stay back, sport!" cries the pilgrim. Sport
and sport of nature are old-fashioned terms for a genetically
mutated creature. Francis assures him he is not a sport but
rather a novice at the abbey.
The pilgrim offers Francis some bread and cheese. Suspecting
the pilgrim is a demon tempting him to break his fast, Francis
reacts with anger and splashes him with holy water. The two
men come to blows, but soon they stop. Francis's stay in the
desert has been plagued by wolves, and he shows the pilgrim
the stone shelter—a roofed, arched structure—he is building to
keep the animals at bay. The pilgrim goes to search for a stone
to fit a particular spot in Francis's arch. He shouts he has found
one, and then heads toward the abbey. Departing, he calls to
Francis, "May you find your voice soon, boy."
When Francis finds the stone, he sees the pilgrim has chalked
a mark on it: two letters in ancient Hebrew. Francis lifts the
stone and sees a cavernous hole beneath it. After working on
his arch some more, Francis returns to the cavern. He loosens
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Chapter Summaries 15
more rocks to widen the hole so he can see into it. His actions
cause a rockslide, knocking him into the cavern. There he
reads words in the ancient language of "pre-Deluge English":
"Fallout Survival Shelter/Maximum Occupancy: 15." Francis
recognizes this phrase as a reference to "the Flame Deluge,"
or nuclear war. However, he also thinks "Fallouts" are
malevolent creatures of some kind, and he is terrified to have
stumbled "into the abode ... of not just one, but fifteen of the
dreadful beings."
Chapter 2
The chapter starts with "snatches of versicles," or little verses,
from "the litany of the saints." In the novel the prayer asks God
to deliver "us" from evils such as "the place of ground zero," the
"curse of the Fallout," and "the curse of the misborn."
Francis goes down the stairwell of the fallout shelter. Afraid of
creatures that might be lurking there, he prefers to face them
by day. He finds a door with stenciled letters reading "INNER
HATCH/SEALED ENVIRONMENT." The door is blocked by
rubble, so Francis couldn't open it if he wanted to. He reads
another sign, a complicated one about the "steps of safety
procedure prescribed by Technical Manual CD-Bu-83A."
From the color of the rubble in front of the door, Francis can
tell the door has been sealed "for centuries," since "the time of
the Flame Deluge, before the Simplification." Now less worried
about the fallout monsters bursting from the hatch, he builds a
fire from scraps of furniture and settles down to ponder "the
meaning of that ancient sign: FALLOUT SURVIVAL SHELTER."
Looking around, he finds a row of lockers, a desk, and a skull
with a gold tooth. He realizes "the shelter ... might well be
teeming with rich relics."
Francis proceeds cautiously, remembering the monk
Venerable Boedullus, who once came upon something called
"the site of an intercontinental launching pad." Boedullus went
to explore the site and blew up himself, the launch pad, and the
neighboring village. After Boedullus, monks excavating sites
were cautioned to explore only "Memorabilia"—valuable, rare
papers from pre-Deluge times—rather than "tamper with
"interesting hardware." Francis finds a rusty metal box
containing papers and takes it outside.
The box also contains "small tubular things with a wire whisker
at each end." The pagan people of Francis's time consider
these objects "'parts of the body of the god'—the fabled
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Machina analytica, hailed as the wisest of their gods." Francis
then finds a note, addressed to "Carl." The note's author says
he is about to grab a plane and urgently says, "keep Em there
until we know if we're at war." The note is signed "I.E.L."
Another note contains a shopping list.
There is also a small notebook labeled Memo, which Francis
handles with awe "because its title was suggestive of
'Memorabilia.'" The notebook contains handwritten dates
ranging "through the latter part of the fifth decade, and earlier
part of the sixth decade" of the 20th century, a period Francis
knows as "the twilight period of the Age of Enlightenment." He
finds blueprints, which he recognizes by their blue background
and white text, though he has seen only facsimiles made by the
monks. One blueprint says, "CIRCUIT DESIGN BY: Leibowitz,
I.E." Francis realizes he has "uncovered relics of the Saint."
As bells toll at the abbey, Francis realizes the day is ending and
continues building his shelter. Later, on the verge of sleep, he
wonders what to do. He would like to rush back to the abbey to
announce what he has found, but he must fast in the desert for
Lent. If he does not maintain his fast, he will have to renounce
his calling as a monk. He then fantasizes about a shrine being
built to commemorate his discovery and how he, now "Father
Francis of Utah," would show pilgrims around the site. Thinking
that Leibowitz is not yet a saint, Francis goes to sleep while
wolves pad around outside his shelter.
Analysis
Brother Francis's reaction to the fallout shelter sign is
indicative of the state of civilization in Francis's world, in which
scraps of preserved knowledge are mixed with myth and
superstition. People know a great cataclysm occurred, yet they
call it "the Flame Deluge" rather than "nuclear war." Their
knowledge of nuclear war is mixed with superstition: Francis
fears monsters he calls "fallouts." Still, monsters—the radiation
mutants called "sports"—do roam Francis's world, so Francis's
fears are not entirely irrational.
Walter M. Miller Jr. mixes scientific language with both
superstition and religious language, recasting the Catholic
prayer, the litany of the saints, into the imagery of nuclear
weaponry and war. British writer Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
did something similar with automobile manufacturing in his 1931
dystopian novel Brave New World, but with different results. In
Brave New World, time is measured in two eras based on
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Chapter Summaries 16
automobile maker Henry Ford: BF (before Ford—and
streamlined factory production methods) and AF (after Ford).
People pray to T, in honor of Ford's automobile, the Model T. In
Huxley's novel, however, this mixture of religion and technology
works satirically. Huxley uses religious language to criticize the
idea that the purpose of civilization is to produce heaps of
technologically advanced consumer goods.
In contrast to Huxley's satirical edge, Miller takes a more
positive view of religion. In later chapters it gradually becomes
apparent that religion, for good and ill, preserves knowledge
during these new Dark Ages. In this chapter the clumsy but
reverent way Christians refer to computers shows they
respect technology enough to safeguard it from the
"Simplification." They call the computer "the fabled Machina
analytica, hailed as the wisest of their gods."
In these opening chapters Miller puts readers off balance,
making it none too easy to tell what is happening. Often, it
requires some interpretive work to understand what Francis is
seeing because his language is so different. In the shelter he
finds "small tubular things [of glass] with a wire whisker at
each end of each tube." Readers can piece together that these
are vacuum tubes and, knowing that early computers used
them, can discern "the fabled Machina analytica" to be a
computer.
At other times, readers can understand more "pre-Deluge"
English than Francis or the other monks can. Readers may
recognize "Pound pastrami" as a Yiddish-inflected American
phrase: the non-Yiddish version would be "pound of pastrami."
Readers are thus aware that "Saint" Leibowitz likely was
Jewish. (In Chapter 6 Leibowitz's conversion to Catholicism is
recounted although no mention is made there of his former
religion.) It is not clear what Miller intended by giving the
abbey's founding "saint" some Jewish characteristics. The two
religions, Judaism and Christianity, are closely related; they
share some sacred texts (the Old Testament), and Jesus was
Jewish. The name Leibowitz may also be intended to recall the
American nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67),
who led the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the
first American nuclear weapons were tested.
As he prepares to eat, the old pilgrim chants, "Blest be Adonoi
Elohim, King of All, who maketh bread to spring forth." This
prayer tells readers the pilgrim in search of Leibowitz Abbey is
Jewish. The Pilgrim is also called "the Wanderer" and thus
reminiscent of the legend of the Wandering Jew. Not
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
supported by the Bible, the story was long told by Christians. A
Jewish man was said to have mocked Jesus on the way to the
Crucifixion. In retaliation, Jesus condemned him to wander
Earth until Jesus's return at the end of time. This punishment
effectively makes the Wandering Jew immortal. The legend of
the Wandering Jew has anti-Semitic elements, for it treads
close to the anti-Semitic notion that Jews killed Jesus and that
its principal character, the Wandering Jew, is cursed. However,
Miller uses the legend to tie the old pilgrim to the end of time.
In A Canticle for Leibowitz the world has both ended and not
ended. Although nuclear war has devastated the world, neither
the Christian Savior nor the Jewish Messiah has yet appeared.
In later chapters of A Canticle for Leibowitz it is suggested the
old pilgrim— the wanderer—is waiting for Jesus or the Messiah.
Part 1, Chapters 3–4
Summary
Chapter 3
Father Cheroki has come to the site where Francis is fasting.
He has brought the Eucharist, and Francis is making his
confession. He confesses to splashing the pilgrim with holy
water and to other sins. The exactitude with which Francis
combs over his sins exasperates Father Cheroki. Francis then
says he thinks his vocation has come to him. Father Cheroki is
skeptical. Francis then confesses to a worry: whether it is
sinful to think "rather scornfully of the handwriting" in which his
vocation was announced. To the puzzled Cheroki, he says he is
talking about the handwriting of "the Blessed Leibowitz."
Father Cheroki has a hard time understanding what Francis
means. Francis then shows him the papers, but Father Cheroki
thinks Francis is in an unstable mental condition and
commands him to return to the abbey immediately. On the road
Francis weeps in despair at not being believed. He would have
liked to show Father Cheroki the fallout shelter as proof. But
because Father Cheroki was carrying the Eucharist, he
couldn't stray from his solemn duty and visit an archeological
site.
On the way back to the abbey, Francis meets Brother Fingo,
who is bringing food to the novices. A man of "exuberant good
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Chapter Summaries 17
cheer," Fingo is a "sport" and "the ugliest man alive," with a skin
condition of uneven pigmentation. Francis tells Fingo what has
happened, including Father Cheroki's assessment of his mental
condition. Francis asks Brother Fingo to look at the fallout
shelter, just to verify it's really there. Fingo does and, from a
distance, waves and nods affirmatively.
Francis has been praying in the desert for two weeks. On the
way back, still one mile short of the abbey, he collapses. Father
Cheroki, who has since talked to Fingo, later finds Francis
unconscious by the road. He revives him and notices the box
Francis is carrying. Father Cheroki thinks Francis must have
been "misinterpreting real events rather than confessing
hallucinations."
Chapter 4
In his study, Abbot Arkos discusses Francis's discovery with
Father Cheroki. "You did the right thing," Abbot Arkos says of
the decision to send Francis back to the monastery. The
Leibowitz papers are on Abbot Arkos's desk. The abbot is
upset; like an overexposed celebrity, a Beatus credited with "a
flood of improbable miracles" could become less powerful. The
surplus of miracles could damage Leibowitz's "case" for
canonization. Some rumors in the monastery claim Leibowitz
appeared to Francis and told him where to look for the stone.
The Hebrew letters on the stone, which Francis could have
made himself, contain a lamedh, which could stand for
"Leibowitz." Abbot Arkos tells Father Cheroki to have a talk
with Francis and then send him to the abbot's study.
At nine on a Monday morning Francis comes to Abbot Arkos's
study. At first the abbot is cheerful, but he soon becomes
scornful and sarcastic about "this JUNK box" Francis has
found and the rumors that an angel or saint told him how to
find it. Arkos tries to corner Francis into saying he found the
box "with no help." But Brother Francis won't deny the
existence of the old pilgrim, though he doesn't claim the man
was Leibowitz. The abbot points out Francis might have made
the chalk marks on the stone himself. Trying to force Francis
to admit he imagined the old pilgrim, the abbot beats Francis
with a ruler. Although penitent, Francis will not change his
story.
Dropping the tactic of beating Francis into submission, the
abbot talks further. He says Francis will go back to continue his
vigil, but in a different site, far from his discovery. He explains
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Chapter Summaries 18

the other novices are saying it was Leibowitz whom Francis
met out there. "The Blessed Martyr wouldn't do such a thing,"
says Francis, explaining the old man's attempt to hit him with a
stick. The pilgrim, supposedly on his way to the abbey, never
appeared there and cannot verify Francis's story. The abbot
continues to browbeat Francis, trying to get him to deny his
story. Francis sticks only with what he can verify. He can't say
for sure the pilgrim was, in the abbot's words, "beyond a doubt
... just an ordinary man." Failing to get what he wanted, the
abbot dismisses Francis.
wants Francis to make a plain, flat avowal of the old pilgrim's
ordinariness, but Francis is too scrupulous to assent to
anything he cannot ascertain. Francis's habits of
mind—rigorous self-doubt, respect for truth, and a talent for
interpretation—are monastic ones. Far from showing the rise of
religion as a backward, unscientific force, A Canticle for
Leibowitz depicts Francis's monastic turn of mind as the right
one for preserving truth in a dark time. Because Francis will not
gloss over any details he doesn't understand, he is perfectly
suited to preserve the incomprehensible technical papers of
"Saint" Leibowitz.

Analysis
Part 1, Chapters 5–6
Both Father Cheroki and Abbot Arkos are more cynical and
worldly than Francis. Father Cheroki has allowed the
sacrament of confession to become routine. Abbot Arkos is
more concerned with the strategic positioning of his abbey
Summary
than with whether Francis has encountered a miracle. Arkos's
worldliness is echoed in the physical description of his
character: from "the black fur on his chest" to his "bloody" big
Chapter 5
toe, Arkos is bodily, physically of this world. He is also shrewd,
Francis returns to the desert to finish his Lenten vigil and
able to unsettle Cheroki by repeating "You did the right thing"
reflects on what has occurred at the abbey, surprised by "the
so often it begins to seem Cheroki did wrong in bringing
excessive interest ... in the old wanderer." He expected some
Francis to the abbey. Finally, Arkos supplements his
excitement about the papers, but everyone, including the abbot
ecclesiastical authority with brute force by beating Francis
and Father Cheroki, focused on the pilgrim. In the days that
with a ruler. Together, Arkos and Cheroki present a negative
follow, he finds himself brooding on these matters instead of
image of the church as a home for careerists and cynics.
praying.

The names of the two older monks are also significant. Father
Thinking about his vocation, Francis compares himself with
Cheroki's name hints at a Native American origin (Cherokee),
"the fabled cat who studied ornithology." By nature, the cat is
while the altered spelling suggests the way English has
drawn to "ornithophagy" (the eating of birds), but studying
changed since "pre-Deluge" times. However, he might not be of
birds gives his appetites a sophisticated veneer. "So was
Native American ancestry. The altered spelling also hints at
Francis called by nature to hungrily devour knowledge," the
obsolescence, just as people named Smith or Cooper are no
narrator writes. Becoming "a professed monk of the Order" is
longer professional blacksmiths or barrel makers. Cheroki is
the only way Francis could fulfill that desire for knowledge.
also said to be of "baronial stock," suggesting a feudal social
order has replaced the democracy of the former United States. Francis's options are few. He can't go back to "his homeland,
Abbot Arkos's name evokes the Ark in which Noah saved the the Utah." There he'd been sold, while still a child, to a shaman.
beasts of Earth from the Flood in the Bible. He ran away, effectively stealing "the shaman's property"
(Francis's own person) and would face "grisly tribal justice" if
The way Francis clashes with these two men of the church
he returned. The other "industries" of the former United States
illustrates something about Francis's character, something
are "hunting, farming, fighting, and witchcraft." Francis's
essential to the story. Father Cheroki has heard countless
education at the monastery suits him for none of these. Only
confessions, and he would like Francis to hurry up and make a
the Church needs "scribes and secretaries." It has become,
general, simple confession. However, Francis plunges into self-
"without meaning to," a communications network of a kind. If a
examination, turning each of his acts over and over to
plague or war breaks out on some part of the continent, a
determine whether it reveals a sin. Likewise, Abbot Arkos

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
letter from the pope might be "read from all the pulpits," asking
church members to respond.
Thinking about the cat who became an ornithologist when he
was really only "an ornithophage," Francis becomes
despondent. Giving in to temptation by eating a lizard, he
confesses this sin to Father Cheroki, who is unperturbed.
Lent ends, and Holy Week begins. The "hermits"—that is, the
novices—return from the desert, but hunger and loneliness
have taken their toll. Francis is "thirty pounds lighter and
several degrees weaker." He collapses in his cell, babbling
about Leibowitz.
When the abbot hears this news, he commands Francis to be
brought to him. Once again, Abbot Arkos and Francis go
around and around, the abbot demanding Francis make firm
statements and the scrupulously truthful Francis saying he
cannot. The abbot wants Francis to deny the old man was
Leibowitz. Francis truthfully says he cannot say for sure, "never
having seen Leibowitz." The abbot angrily dismisses Francis,
telling him, "DON'T expect to profess your vows with the
others this year. You won't be permitted." The news hits
Francis "like a blow in the stomach."
Chapter 6
The abbot has forbidden everyone in the abbey to talk about
the old pilgrim, and Francis is not supposed to think about him.
However, the monks have begun work on Francis's documents
and some others discovered at the site. Consequently, "of
necessity" there is talk about the relics and papers, but Francis
is forbidden to participate. Moreover, the abbot "has ordered
that the shelter be closed," to Francis's dismay. A rumor
spreads: the skull with the gold tooth is said to be that of Emily,
Leibowitz's wife, known to have had a gold tooth. Leibowitz
apparently survived the Flame Deluge, but Emily did not.
The focus of the narration shifts to the Flame Deluge and its
aftermath. The Cold War and the arms race between the
United States and the Soviet Union are recounted in biblical
terms: "God ... had commanded the wise men of that age ... to
devise great engines of war." Leibowitz had been one such
wise man. God told each "prince" his enemies also had such an
engine of war and that every prince was capable of destroying
all the others. This knowledge was supposed to make the
princes afraid to use the weapons. Instead, each prince
secretly thought he could strike first—and then "the earth shall
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Chapter Summaries 19
be mine." Because of the princes' "folly," civilization was
destroyed in the Flame Deluge, which lasted only weeks, or
perhaps days. Afterward, much of life on Earth was destroyed,
and the nations collapsed.
The survivors, worldwide, became refugees and wanderers. As
a result, "there was a great confusion of tongues," resulting in
fear and hate. Inspired by this hatred, people decided to take
revenge on the learned, "those who wrought this crime,
together with their hirelings and their wise men." People called
this revenge the "Great Simplification." Educated people were
persecuted and killed, and texts and technological objects
were destroyed.
Educated people called those who did the burning and killing
"bloodthirsty simpletons." People readily adopted the term,
gleefully calling themselves simpletons. Educated people took
refuge in monasteries, but their safety was not guaranteed.
Simpletons attacked the monasteries, killing people and
burning books. Once the educated people were mostly wiped
out, the simpletons turned on anyone who could read.
Leibowitz sought refuge with an order of Cistercian monks.
After six years with the Cistercians, Leibowitz went to search
for his wife, Emily, "in the far southwest" of the United States.
Not finding her, he returned to the Cistercians and became a
monk and then a priest. Years afterward, Leibowitz was
permitted by the pope in "New Rome" to found "a new
community of the religious."
In Leibowitz's new order, monks were devoted to preserving
learning in one of two roles: "bookleggers" and "memorizers."
Bookleggers "smuggled books to the southwest desert and
buried them there in kegs." Because the caches of books could
be found and destroyed, memorizers actually memorized
books. When a mob of simpletons caught Leibowitz
"booklegging," they put a burlap hood on his head and
simultaneously hanged and burned him. The monastery was
attacked multiple times, and many of its books were destroyed.
All that remained were "a few kegs of original books and a
pitiful collection of hand-copied texts."
Now, at the time of Francis's story, it is six centuries after the
Flame Deluge, or the 27th century by the calendar with which
readers are familiar. If anything, things are worse than they
were. The original monks of Leibowitz's order thought people
would want to return to learning within a few generations, but
people did not. Instead, "the new 'culture' was an inheritance of
darkness." The term simpleton was used proudly, like citizen.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
The monks' knowledge was now useless, "empty of content."
All that remained was "a symbolic structure," an "interplay" of
symbols to be observed. The monks of Leibowitz's order
believe "an Integrator would come," someone who can put this
fragmented knowledge back together. All the monks of the
order carry a book with them as part of their habit.
The narration returns to Francis's present. The abbot has
"quietly rounded up" all the documents found at the shelter and
keeps them locked away. Francis returns to the desert the
following year to fast once again. Afterward, he is again called
to the abbot's study and asked to say the old man he saw was
only an old man. Francis can't help qualifying the statement: "I
think it was just an old man." Enraged, the abbot again beats
Francis with a ruler and denies him permission to take his
vows.
Analysis
The ban on rumors about the old pilgrim being Leibowitz
seems to only fan the flames. Similarly, Walter M. Miller Jr. uses
denial to suggest the old pilgrim really is Leibowitz, by
repeatedly linking the two characters. No explanation is given
for Leibowitz's having lived for centuries, but the encounter is
rumored to be a miracle. Another issue is the old pilgrim's
Jewishness. Leibowitz is supposed to have converted to
Christianity and become a monk, but the old pilgrim is Jewish.
Throughout the novel Miller keeps alive the possibility the old
pilgrim is somehow Leibowitz while never fully confirming or
denying his identity.
In Chapters 3 and 4 Francis seems more religious than the
other monks: more innocently awed than Abbot Arkos and
more scrupulously self-examining in confession than Father
Cheroki was prepared to deal with. In Chapter 5 it becomes
apparent that Francis thinks of himself as perhaps less
spiritually inclined than other monks. He believes that, like the
cat, he was born with a particular appetite. In Francis's case it
is an appetite for learning, having sought shelter in the
monastery because no other institutions were devoted to
learning. However, Francis is a complex character. He doubts
his motives for joining the order, yet he also believes his
vocation was revealed to him in the desert.
The religious language in Chapter 2 is mixed with technological
terminology relating to nuclear weapons to show the Church
has become the sheltering place of scientific knowledge in the
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Chapter Summaries 20
26th century. The religious language of Chapter 5, however, is
given "straight," with no admixture of incongruous scientific
terms. It is Holy Week in Chapter 5, the week up to and
including Easter. The use of unaltered religious language
suggests the main Christian ideas and images in A Canticle for
Leibowitz are serious rather than satiric. For example, Abbot
Arkos, who at other times appears to be a cynical careerist,
"perform[s] the Mandatum at each hermitage." This means he
goes to novice monks in the desert and performs the
ceremony of washing their feet, in memory of a passage about
Jesus doing so in John 31:34.
Chapter 6 provides much of the back story about which
readers have had to guess before now. What is ancient history
in Francis's world is the 20th century, so readers have a
chance to look at their world from a strange perspective. By
recounting the nuclear war as a kind of fable or Bible story,
Walter M. Miller Jr. points out the 20th-century American
policy of nuclear deterrence was a matter of faith, perhaps
misplaced faith. Nuclear deterrence was the idea that because
every country with nuclear weapons knew other countries also
had them, no country would use them. As Miller writes, "They ...
know thou hast it also, and fear to strike." However, deterrence
did not work in Francis's world: each leader thinks, "If I but
strike quickly ... I shall destroy the others in their sleep." Thus
Miller's futuristic fable is a warning for present-day countries
with nuclear arms: the arms race puts the world on the edge of
destruction.
It is interesting to note that the "simpletons" turned against the
learned but not against the powerful. Perhaps the idea is that
powerful people no longer existed, as nations collapsed in the
aftermath of the Deluge. In any case, technicians, rather than
politicians, take the blame in the "Great Simplification." The
"simpletons" believe that after they destroy everything, "the
world shall begin again." At this point, however, readers may
realize, as the simpletons do not, that the world begins again in
A Canticle for Leibowitz only to be destroyed again. The
knowledge Francis and others so painstakingly save will once
again be used to create nuclear weapons, and the world will be
destroyed again.
Part 1, Chapters 7–8
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Summary
Chapter 7
Seven years have passed since Chapter 6. Francis has spent
"seven Lenten vigils in the desert." He has learned to imitate
wolves, for he spends so much time in the desert on vigils.
A messenger comes to the abbey from "New Rome," the new
site of the Vatican, since the Flame Deluge destroyed what had
been Rome. The messenger seeks out Francis and tells him
they have been studying the documents he found. "Quite a few
of us are convinced they're authentic," he says. The messenger
is surprised to find a man of Francis's age still a novice.
The messenger, an old monk of the Dominican order, assures
Francis it's all right to speak of the matter now. He also says
the case for the canonization of Leibowitz will soon be
reopened and praises the wisdom of Abbot Arkos in closing
the fallout shelter. Because the abbey has an interest in seeing
its founder canonized, it's better that neutral parties examine
the shelter.
There is also a matter of the gold-toothed skull. The advocatus
diabolic, or devil's advocate—the person appointed to argue
against a canonization—has been casting doubt on whether
Leibowitz was truly a widower at the time of his ordination. If
the remains found in the shelter are those of Emily Leibowitz,
they might provide a date for her death. The Dominican asks
Francis to tell him the story of how he found the site.
A few days later Abbot Arkos calls Francis to his study to tell
Francis he can take his vows now. Francis faints at the news.
Two weeks later, he is ordained as a monk of the Albertian
Order of Leibowitz.
Now that he is ordained, Francis's monastic life changes. He
stops working in the kitchen and begins as a copyist. Texts
have to be recopied periodically because they fade and decay.
Brother Horner, in charge of the copyists, explains the duties.
After Francis completes his assigned task for the day, he will
be allowed to work on a copying project of his own. Brother
Horner explains Brother Sarl's personal project: he uses
mathematic formulae to fill in missing words in torn or
damaged texts. In 40 years Brother Sarl has completed four
pages.
Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 21
For his own project, Francis chooses to copy the Leibowitz
blueprint he found in the shelter. He also asks permission to
work on it among a set of texts, still afraid Abbot Arkos will
notice his interest in the relics and disapprove.
The Leibowitz blueprint puzzles Francis, who doesn't
understand its technical language. He is puzzled by the odd
shapes on the page: "doohickii, squiggles, quids, laminulae, and
thingumbob." Jeris, a fellow copyist, teases Francis, skeptically
mocking his goal of interpreting the drawing. He tries to get
Francis to say what the drawing represents. Francis admits he
doesn't know yet but thinks it may be a representation of "an
abstract concept rather than a concrete thing." Jeris mocks
him for not understanding the engineering text on the drawing.
There is something about "electrons," but Francis doesn't know
what those are.
When Francis finishes his copy of the drawing, he is
unsatisfied. He has exactly reproduced the blueprint, white
lines on a blue background, but it seems "too stark." Then,
reading another text, he discovers blueprints were just a cheap
method of reproducing technical drawings. "The ancients"
(those who lived in the 20th century) didn't care about the
white-on-blue color scheme—it was just cheap. At first, the
discovery embarrasses Francis, who thinks of all the ink monks
have wasted over the years. Then he realizes he is free to
reproduce the blueprint with dark lines on a white background.
He decides to produce an illuminated copy, like one of the
many illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. (Illuminated
manuscripts are hand-copied books with lavish illustrations
and decorated letters.)
Francis prepares a lambskin parchment and goes to work. One
day he realizes Abbot Arkos is looking over his shoulder. The
abbot asks why, if it's a copy of the Leibowitz blueprint, it
doesn't look like the blueprint. Francis nervously explains it's an
illuminated copy. When the abbot shrugs indifferently and
walks away, Francis faints.
Chapter 8
Eleven years have passed since Francis found the shelter and
the documents, and some years since he became a monk. The
abbot no longer worries about the documents. The case for
canonization of Leibowitz progresses slowly. Francis continues
his personal project, the illuminated copy of the Leibowitz
blueprint. He is philosophical about the slow passage of time.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
"A lifetime was only a brief eddy," as the narrator says; the only
moment of importance comes after death, when one appears
before God and is damned or saved. Brother Sarl collapses
and dies in the copy room after finishing his fifth page.
Francis still enjoys the company of Fingo, whom he sometimes
observes working on his woodcarving. Francis works on
sketches of Leibowitz's face, of which no definite images exist.
Fingo is also carving a human face, which Francis thinks he
might recognize.
Horner, the head of the copyists, falls ill and dies. Jeris
becomes master of the copy room and the next day tells
Francis to stop work on his project. Francis obeys. He is
philosophical: some day Jeris will die, and Francis will get back
to work.
Things turn in Francis's favor sooner than he expected. A
visitor comes to the abbey, a "prothonotary apostolic," a high
court official of the Catholic church. He is Monsignor
Malfreddo Aguerra, the postulator, an advocate who argues in
favor of Leibowitz in the canonization process. The abbot
summons Francis and makes him nervous, sternly telling him to
"be very careful what you say to Monsignor Aguerra." He
claims other monks are ready to kick Francis to death. When
Francis talks to the monsignor, however, he finds him "a suave
and diplomatic elder who seemed keenly interested in the
small monk's life."
Aguerra shows Francis a large scroll. On it is written the story
of Francis's meeting with the old pilgrim as recounted by
monks over the years. The story has been wildly embellished,
with mention of a halo, a heavenly choir, and a "carpet of roses
that grew up where [the Pilgrim] walked." Francis tells Aguerra
none of that happened. Aguerra asks to see Francis's
illuminated copy. He pronounces it beautiful and says Francis
must continue his work on it. Hence, Jeris is overruled.
Analysis
Francis's discovery about the blueprint reveals he has wasted
a great deal of ink, and effort, reproducing the white-on-blue
look of the blueprint. This discovery also highlights a
hermeneutic quandary: Is a given aspect of an ancient text
accidental or intentional? Hermeneutics, the study of
interpretation, originally referred to the study of the Bible.
These issues matter for the legend of "Saint" Leibowitz, not yet
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Chapter Summaries 22
a saint at this point in the novel. Some of the revered
"Memorabilia" clearly played a trivial role in Isaac Leibowitz's
life, such as the note about picking up bagels and pastrami.
Unable to know Leibowitz's intentions, the monks have
sometimes given in to wild speculation.
Just how far the speculation can go is illustrated by the scroll
Aguerra shows to Francis. Created years after Francis's
encounter with the old pilgrim, the story has become one in
which the Blessed Leibowitz appeared, wearing a halo and
treading on a carpet of roses, to the accompaniment of a
heavenly choir. Readers know this scene is untrue because the
narrator recounts this incident in Chapter 1. However, the
extravagant legend also casts doubt on what readers know so
far about "Saint" Leibowitz. Perhaps he was only a Jewish
technician, mad with grief for his wife, who tried to save some
documents and sought refuge in a monastery, only to be killed
by brigands roving the nuclear wasteland. Leibowitz's
conversion, his founding of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz,
and his martyrdom at the hands of the simpletons may be no
more real than the carpet of roses.
Chapter 6 also brings up the novel's theme of cyclical history.
A text from the Memorabilia quotes the simpletons as saying,
"Let us make a great simplification, and then the world shall
begin again." In subsequent chapters, readers may become
aware of this statement's dramatic irony. The simpletons hope
destruction engenders a new beginning, but they are unaware
this new beginning is also the renewed beginning of the end,
part of the cycle of destruction. In the course of A Canticle for
Leibowitz civilization recovers technological knowledge only to
deploy it, once again, to end the world.
Part 1, Chapters 9–11
Summary
Chapter 9
A few months later Monsignor Flaught arrives from New Rome.
Flaught is the advocatus diaboli, or devil's advocate, who
argues against the canonization of Leibowitz. A mutant with
"small horns and pointy fangs," he questions Francis
thoroughly and skeptically about his testimony. Talking about
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
the old pilgrim, Francis expresses himself with his usual
caution: "I always said I thought he was probably just an old
man." Like Abbot Arkos, Flaught is frustrated by Francis's
unwillingness to make a definitive statement.
Flaught leaves, and several years pass. Jeris wants to build a
printing press, but Abbot Arkos refuses permission. A
messenger arrives from New Rome: Leibowitz will be
canonized. Francis is invited to the ceremony in New Rome.
Arkos decides to send the Leibowitz blueprint and Francis's
illuminated copy as gifts to New Rome.
Chapter 10
Francis sets out for New Rome on a donkey. His trip will take
roughly three months; the speed depends on how soon he is
robbed of the donkey.
Two months later Francis rides into the Valley of the Misborn,
where a colony of mutants lives. Mutants generally are called
"the Pope's children," for the pope decided they could not be
killed because of their deformities. A robber and several
accomplices, one of whom wears a robe with two hoods,
accost Francis. Francis is not sure whether two heads are
inside the hoods.
Francis begs to keep the blueprint and the illuminated copy. He
admits he worked on the copy for 15 years. The robber hoots in
scorn: "Fifteen years to make that! Ho ho ho! What a woman's
work!" The robber says he will wrestle Francis for the prize.
Francis loses, and the robber keeps the illuminated copy,
thinking it is the original. To get it back, Francis must return
with two "heklos" of gold.
Chapter 11
Francis attends the canonization ceremony in New Rome and
then has an audience with the pope. He is surprised to find the
pope's habit looks a little shabby, for despite its dignity, the
Church is apparently poor. Francis shows him the blueprint and
tells him of the robber's mistake and insistence on two heklos
of gold to ransom the illuminated copy. Upset, Francis says he
wasted 15 years on the copy, but the pope replies that the
copy kept the blueprint safe. "Some day the meaning of the
original may be discovered, and may prove important," says the
pope, and then he blinks or winks at Francis. The pope says he
will give Francis "a special token of our affection." It turns out
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Chapter Summaries 23
to be two heklos of gold.
On the way back to the abbey, Francis returns to the spot
where he was robbed. He sees someone familiar in the
distance. However, the robber's accomplices, called "Two-
Hoods" and "One-Hood," see Francis, but he doesn't see them.
After one of them shoots Francis in the head with an arrow,
Francis collapses and dies. The person Francis saw in the
distance arrives at the spot. It is the old pilgrim from the desert
encounter many years before. The buzzards circle Francis's
dead body, and the old pilgrim buries him. Time passes, and it
is now 3174.
Analysis
Francis has been the novel's main character, and one third of
the way in he's murdered. Fate, in the person of the robber, is
cruel to Francis. His life's work, or 15 years of it, is robbed in a
flash. When he returns with two heklos of gold, it seems like a
fairy tale: told to perform an impossible task, he has done it.
Readers might expect, given Francis's unlikely success, that
Francis will win back the illuminated copy. Francis's death,
then, comes as a shock, and one of the novel's most appealing
characters exits.
In part, the shock of the death has to do with the novel's origin
as three separate stories published in science fiction
magazines. Only as he wrote the third story did Walter M. Miller
Jr. realize he had a novel on his hands. However, Francis's
death is not a flaw in the novel, for it spans several thousand
years, and each part focuses on a distinct age: a postnuclear
Dark Age (Part 1, Fiat Homo), a budding Renaissance (Part 2,
Fiat Lux), and a renewed space age and nuclear war (Part 3,
Fiat Voluntas Tua). With the Dark Age ended, Francis's
function in the novel ends. Although Francis comes to New
Rome feeling like a failure because he lacks the illuminated
copy, his discovery and preservation of the Leibowitz blueprint
will have far-reaching effects. From that find and others like it,
civilization gradually reacquires a knowledge of science and
technology.
Francis's burial is the first reappearance of the old pilgrim,
already an old man when Francis was a 17-year-old novice in
the desert. Francis waited seven years to become a monk, and
then spent 15 years working on the illuminated copy. Whatever
age the wanderer was then, he is now 22 years older. However,
the old pilgrim's reappearances become more improbable as
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
the novel progresses. He will also return in Part 2 as the Old
Jew or Benjamin Eleazar and again in Part 3 as Lazar or
Lazarus. Therefore, the hint in Chapter 1 of the old pilgrim
being the legendary Wandering Jew seems borne out. He
appears to be cursed with immortality and closely connected
to the fate of Leibowitz Abbey.
Part 2, Chapters 12–13
Summary
Chapter 12
The year is 3174, which is 600 years after the beginning of Part
1, and the novel's cast of characters has changed. The setting
of Chapter 12 is the court of the mayor of Texarkana,
Hannegan II, where a party is taking place. The papal nuncio
(pope's ambassador) Marcus Apollo realizes war is about to
begin with the Plains tribes. From the camp of a nomad named
Mad Bear, a courtier has "returned with his skin intact," and
Marcus Apollo realizes "war [is] brewing."
Seeing a dead roach in the punch bowl, Marcus Apollo offers a
cup to Brother Claret, a man he apparently doesn't like.
Another party guest, Thon Taddeo, asks Marcus Apollo
whether the Order of Saint Leibowitz would lend its
Memorabilia to him at "the collegium." Thon Taddeo would like
to study the Memorabilia without having to visit the monastery.
Marcus Apollo says no, although he agrees to talk it over with
Thon Taddeo in his office later. Thon Taddeo leaves.
Marcus Apollo says that because Thon Taddeo is the kinsman
of Mayor Hannegan, they must treat him courteously. Marcus
Apollo tells Brother Claret to go to New Rome to discuss the
upcoming war Mayor Hannegan is pursuing. Hannegan is trying
"to unite this butchered continent," and his action may affect
the Church. Marcus Apollo doesn't want to risk putting his
message in writing.
That evening Thon Taddeo visits Marcus Apollo in his office. At
the collegium they received a list of the Leibowitz Abbey's
documents sent by a Brother Kornhoer. The abbey also has
documents from mathematicians and scientists as well as
information on "electrical essence" and "planetary motion."
Thon Taddeo wants to examine these documents for
Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 24
authenticity, but he wants the documents brought to him.
When asked why he wants to see them, Thon Taddeo gives a
long answer. He points to a man outside, walking next to a
donkey. In the morning the donkey's back was loaded with
sacks of corn. Now, with empty bags on the way home, the
donkey could carry the man, but "it doesn't occur to him." The
man with the donkey lacks common sense and basic
reasoning, it seems. Thon Taddeo wants to know how the
same race of humans could have invented so many wondrous
things when this is what human beings have come to.
Thon Taddeo asks Marcus Apollo to write to Leibowitz Abbey
to persuade them to lend the documents. Apollo agrees,
without much enthusiasm, and Thon Taddeo leaves. Marcus
Apollo gives Brother Claret a new task. After he delivers the
message to New Rome, he is to stop at Leibowitz Abbey and
deliver the letter with Thon Taddeo's request.
Chapter 13
At the Leibowitz Abbey the new abbot, Dom Paulo, has Marcus
Apollo's letter read to him. Dom Paulo has already heard the
letter many times. He is having it reread because he thinks
Marcus Apollo is "trying to warn him—but of what?" His mind
drifts to the upbringing of Thon Taddeo, who is related to
Mayor Hannegan II through an illegitimate birth. Taddeo was
raised in a monastery. His father, an uncle of Hannegan's, and
his mother, a servant, visited him occasionally, but the contact
was just enough to "make him vaguely aware that he was
deprived of love to which he was entitled." Thon Taddeo grew
up both irreligious and resentful of the royal relatives who
scorned him.
Dom Paulo drifts back to the letter announcing Thon Taddeo is
coming to visit the abbey to examine the documents. The letter
from Marcus Apollo is additionally "signed" with the seal of
Hannegan II. Mayor Hannegan is illiterate, so the signature is
an X.
Father Gault arrives. Outside, at the mesa of Last Resort,
buzzards are circling. Father Gault wonders if "old Eleazar,"
meaning Benjamin Eleazar (the old pilgrim) is dead yet, and
Dom Paulo says he'll go visit "the Old Jew" soon. Father Gault
tells Dom Paulo there is business to attend to. They need to
evict "the Poet" from the guest room so Marcus Apollo can
stay there. Gault also says Brother Kornhoer and Brother
Armbruster have been quarreling about "Brother Kornhoer's
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Chapter Summaries 25

experiment." Kornhoer says his work will bring about "the
matins of the millennium," meaning the dawn of a new age.
Armbruster replies, in Latin, "vespero mundi expectando,"
meaning he is expecting the experiment to bring about
evening, or end, of the world.
another end, and inventions such as Kornhoer's will eventually
spiral into a renewed arms race, ushering in another end of the
world.

In the guest room Dom Paulo finds a mutant goat with a blue
Part 2, Chapters 14–15
head. The Poet won it from Benjamin in "a game of mumbly-
peg." Dom Paulo tells the Poet to move out and take the goat
back to Benjamin.
Summary

Analysis Chapter 14
In the basement of the Leibowitz Abbey, where the library is
The court intrigue and political machinations seem deliberately
located, Dom Paulo is thinking a "Dark Age" seems to be
obscure. No exposition defines the borders of "Texarkana" or
passing. After 12 centuries of ignorance, the world once again
reveals how many forces Mayor Hannegan rules. His title
seems ready to start learning. Dom Paulo then ponders the
suggests a city, so Texarkana may be a kind of city-state.
nature of truth. Long ago, "certain proud thinkers claimed that
However obscure the manipulations at court, it is clear Marcus
valid knowledge was indestructible," but Dom Paulo has a
Apollo is a skilled courtier. The obscurity of the political plot
different view. The "objective meaning" in the world is "God's,
also puts readers in the same position as Dom Paulo, who
not Man's." God's meanings find "an imperfect incarnation, a
knows Marcus Apollo is "trying to warn him—but of what?"
dark reflection," in human knowledge, and human knowledge
Thus the Church is clearly in a tricky position with regard to the
can be destroyed: "For Man was a culture-bearer as well as a
state, represented by the illiterate figure of Hannegan.
soul-bearer, but his cultures were not immortal." Dom Paulo
Because Hannegan represents the state, or princely power, thinks about the Memorabilia. He compares the Leibowitz
Thon Taddeo's kinship with him is significant. Walter M. Miller Abbey's preservation of Memorabilia to "press[ing] a sort of
Jr.'s inclusion of the relationship of science to power, or the Veronica's Veil to the face of a crucified civilization."
university to the court, raises questions about whether Nonetheless, Dom Paulo thinks "the books could help."
researchers can be free or whether they are beholden to state
Dom Paulo descends farther into the basement, where Brother
power. For example, Leibowitz, in the 20th century, sees his
Kornhoer is working on a new invention, a lamp. Kornhoer says
research used to wage nuclear war. For the moment, Thon
it will be the greatest thing "since we got the printing press a
Taddeo's proximity to the court stands him in good stead: Dom
hundred years ago." Kornhoer has invented a dynamo that will
Paulo must treat him carefully. Later in the novel, however,
produce enough electricity to run an arc lamp.
Thon Taddeo's relationship to Hannegan will trouble him.

Paulo, Kornhoer, and the librarian—Brother Armbruster—talk

The relationship between Brother Kornhoer and Brother
about readying an alcove in the basement library where Thon
Armbruster in some ways stands for the relationship between
Taddeo can work. The library's most valuable books are
science and religion. Both are members of the Church, but
chained to the desks. Kornhoer says they should make things
Kornhoer is an inventor and experimenter. He applies the
simple for Thon Taddeo and take off the chains. If not, he'll
knowledge he gleans from the abbey's vast collection of
have to keep walking back and forth from his desk to the
Memorabilia. Armbruster, by contrast, holds to the values of
chained-up books. Dom Paulo refuses. Kornhoer suggests
the Dark Age. He saves books but does not care whether
hanging the arc lamp in Thon Taddeo's alcove. To make room,
anyone reads them. The debate between the two also touches
Kornhoer says, the crucifix should be taken down. Armbruster
on the novel's theme of cyclical time. Kornhoer thinks his
is horrified, but Dom Paulo reminds him the room is a library,
inventions—the arc lamp and the dynamo—will bring about a
not a sanctified church.
new morning, whereas Armbruster expects an evening. In the
novel's cyclical time, every new beginning is the beginning of
Suffering from painful gastrointestinal symptoms, including

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
bleeding, Dom Paulo stays in his office the next day while the
lamp is tested. He amuses himself by gazing at the wooden
statue of Saint Leibowitz carved so many centuries ago. In
great pain, Dom Paulo reminds himself that "the crucifixion is
always now." Father Gault finds Dom Paulo slumped over his
desk and with "blood ... between his teeth." Gault tells him the
test of the lamp was successful. Refusing medical attention,
Dom Paulo thinks to himself he should keep news of his illness
quiet. He doesn't know if it's safe yet to let people realize "the
old man is finished."
Chapter 15
In a nomad camp, leader Hongan Os, also known as Mad Bear,
finds some of his warriors harassing prisoners of war. Mad
Bear has the warriors flogged and banishes them from camp
for 12 days. When one warrior protests they have a pact with
"the East," meaning Hannegan, Mad Bear tells him to keep
quiet. In fact, Mad Bear "clasped arms across a treaty fire with
a messenger from Texarkana." He has agreed to not wage war
on Texarkana, and in return Hannegan has given him weapons.
However, Mad Bear doesn't like to bring up the treaty because
his warrior culture frowns on treaties.
A few weeks earlier, Mad Bear "led a 'war party' to the east"
and returned with 100 horses, some weapons, "and one
prisoner." On his return he puts on a wolfskin robe, paints his
face, and ceremonially drinks the blood of a freshly butchered
steer. Water is for cattle, says Mad Bear; milk is for children;
and "blood is for men." One of the captives starts a
conversation about the practice. This captive turns out to be
Thon Taddeo, who says nomads would need to preserve water
for the cattle, and so they reinforce this idea with a religious
taboo.
Thon Taddeo asks Mad Bear to send some of his warriors to
accompany him as he travels west. Mad Bear laughs, claiming
the "grass-eaters," as the nomads call the others, are afraid of
a fight. Still, he agrees to send an escort. Thon Taddeo says he
is going to Leibowitz Abbey to learn about "an ancient
sorcery." Skeptical because the abbey's messengers are weak,
Mad Bear nonetheless agrees.
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Chapter Summaries 26
Analysis
The Veronica's Veil image in Chapter 14 is significant. A cloth
reputed to have been pressed to Jesus's face after the
crucifixion, a Veronica's Veil supposedly shows Jesus's image
supernaturally imprinted on it. Dom Paulo senses a new age of
learning is coming, but it will have to make sense of the ragged,
unclear imprint of a dead culture. Similarly, Dom Paulo's
reflection on the mortality of human cultures is significant.
Because God's meanings are different from "Man's," the end of
a human culture is not God's end of the world. It is not unusual
to call science fiction novels about what happens after nuclear
war "postapocalyptic novels." Apocalypse comes from the
Greek term meaning "uncovering" or "revelation." The end
times predicted in the Christian religion are sometimes called
the "apocalypse," after the final book of the New Testament,
variously called Revelations, the Book of Revelation, or the
Apocalypse of John. However, in A Canticle for Leibowitz the
end of a human culture is not the apocalypse foretold in the
Bible. Consequently, A Canticle for Leibowitz is in some ways a
"preapocalyptic" novel. While human learning ebbs and flows,
the end ordained by God has not yet come. This theme returns
in Part 3, as Abbot Zerchi debates the difference between a
death willed by human beings and a death willed by God.
Although the Revelation has not yet come, there is a different
temporal aspect to Dom Paulo's experience of suffering and
faith. Feeling his physical agony, he asks God whether "the
chalice [has] to be right this very minute Lord or can I wait a
while?" The lack of punctuation in the sentence may represent
the urgency of Dom Paulo's pain. The word chalice recalls
Jesus's urgent plea to God in Gethsemane on the night before
the Crucifixion: "Let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39),
meaning, "let me not have to endure this yet, let me not have to
die yet." However, in that same verse Jesus immediately
follows the plea with the words, "nevertheless not as I will, but
as thou wilt." This is Dom Paulo's same experience. He asks
God if his end can be delayed, but he immediately realizes it
cannot. "Crucifixion is always now," Dom Paulo thinks. Although
human cultures rise and ebb cyclically in A Canticle for
Leibowitz, for Dom Paulo and presumably other believers,
"truth and meaning reside, unseen, only in ... the ineffable
Logos of God." Logos is a Greek word that can be translated
as "word," "reason," or "plan."
The chained books in the abbey's basement library set up the
approaching conflict between science and religion, between
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Dom Paulo and Thon Taddeo. The secular Taddeo wants
knowledge to be free. Dom Paulo is caught between wanting
the abbey to be a beacon of learning and wanting to protect
the valuable, rare Memorabilia. In this part of the novel he sides
with protection. He refuses both to have the Memorabilia sent
to the collegium and to unchain the rare books. Later, however,
he shows some signs of openness: he is committed to allowing
access to the abbey, even to the point of tolerating the
presence of Hannegan's soldiers.
After the brief flashback at Mad Bear's camp, Taddeo arrives
at the abbey in the company of nomadic warriors. This is
Taddeo's way: as a secular scholar, he relies on the protection
of secular state powers. Taddeo is in an uncomfortable
position: his kinsman, Hannegan, is a manipulative scholar, and
his temporary ally, Mad Bear, is a brute. Ultimately, Taddeo will
side with Hannegan. Therefore, although Taddeo promotes
free inquiry he, too, is chained like the abbey's books.
Part 2, Chapters 16–17
Summary
Chapter 16
Benjamin (the old pilgrim) stands on a mesa and watches
someone approach. The man passes through the village of
Sanly Bowitts (a corruption of Saint Leibowitz). When the man
gets closer, Benjamin goes "bounding down the arroyo" to
meet him, calling out, "For a child is born to us." He then
recognizes the man as Dom Paulo, however. "It's not Him,"
Benjamin says in disgust.
Dom Paulo says he has brought back "your prodigal," the blue-
headed goat. Benjamin waves off the gift, saying the Poet won
the goat from him fairly, "although he cheated miserably."
Benjamin also complains the abbot hasn't come to visit him for
years.
The abbot has heard Benjamin has been throwing rocks at
novices in the desert. Benjamin says they're just pebbles. He
also remarks one of the novices "once mistook me for a distant
relative of mine": Saint Leibowitz. Dom Paulo protests
Leibowitz has been dead for 12 centuries, but Benjamin replies
this incident happened "only six centuries ago." Later, says
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Chapter Summaries 27
Benjamin, he buried this same novice. This was during
Benjamin's early career "as a wanderer." Dom Paulo is
skeptical about Benjamin's being "older than Methuselah," but
impressed by Benjamin's knowledge of the abbey.
At the watering hole Benjamin offers the abbot a drink of
water. The abbot is repelled but takes the drink to avoid
offending Benjamin, who then says, "Wouldn't touch it myself."
The muddy water is "for animals." Then, being serious,
Benjamin notices the abbot looks unwell. The abbot says it's
nothing, and they climb the mesa to Benjamin's hut.
The talk shifts to Thon Taddeo. Benjamin says he will be a pain,
but perhaps "a birth-pain" of something new. The abbot is
skeptical of the "secular scholar" Taddeo. Then Benjamin says,
"I have been called a 'secular scholar' ... I've been staked,
stoned, and burned for it." Dom Paulo wonders if Benjamin's
delusion has to do with his being perhaps the last Jew, or at
least the only Jew here in the desert. Maybe Benjamin
overidentifies himself with the Jewish people, thinking their
history is "the history of his own lifetime."
Dom Paulo and Benjamin talk about their respective religions.
Dom Paulo says the burden of being chosen (Jewish) is like the
burden of original sin (Christian). They banter a bit, and Dom
Paulo says that "all these years of waiting for One-Who-Isn't-
Coming" have made Benjamin shrewd. Benjamin counters he
did see "Him": "He's already here. I caught a glimpse of him
once."
Dom Paulo tells Benjamin the arc light test was successful.
Then he says he's worried about what will happen when, if,
civilization is reborn. What will be the point of Leibowitz Abbey
once everyone has knowledge again? It will be like trying "to
sell shoes in a village of shoemakers." Benjamin says "the
children of the world" wrote the books in the abbey, and the
"children of the world" will take those books back.
They tease each other about prophesying, and then Dom Paulo
asks Benjamin what he's waiting for. Benjamin says he's
waiting for "someone who shouted at me once." This person,
whoever it was, called to Benjamin, "Come forth." Benjamin
then asks Dom Paulo to bring Thon Taddeo out to the mesa to
meet him. When Dom Paulo refuses, Benjamin shrugs and
hopes "this thon will be on our side, and not with the others this
time."
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Chapter 17
Back at the abbey Dom Paulo receives a message from New
Rome. The messenger says, "I can tell you definitely: there will
be war." The warring parties seem to be Laredo, Mad Bear's
nomads, the State of Chihuahua, and Hannegan's Texarkana.
Hannegan has arrested Marcus Apollo on a charge of spying
for New Rome. Thon Taddeo is still on his way to visit the
abbey, and the abbot wonders how the thon "expects to get
across the Plains without picking up a few musket-ball holes
just now."
The abbot asks why the messenger was sent to report on
Hannegan's moves. "We're in the empire of Denver," says the
abbot, "and I can't see how this region is affected." The
messenger replies, "Hannegan hopes to unite the continent
eventually." After Laredo is neutralized, Hannegan will move
against Denver. The messenger has come "to discuss ... the
problem of keeping the Memorabilia safe." The messenger
notes the marauders have new weapons: "a bountiful supply of
gunpowder and grapeshot."
"Shortly before evening prayers on the Feast of Saint Bernard"
(August 20), a rider appears in the distance. It is too late to
investigate. The next day a party of 20 or 30 riders appears.
They are nomads, and some wear wolfskins. "Man the walls!
Close the gates!" shouts the abbot, but the nomads are merely
Thon Taddeo's escorts. As the scholar arrives at the abbey's
gate, Dom Paulo senses a momentous occasion. The meeting
of the scholar and the abbot is "a bridge across 12 centuries."
Dom Paulo also feels old and out of date. He remembers what
Benjamin said about "the children of this world": that they will
come to take back their books from the abbey.
Analysis
Some of the "others" mentioned in Chapter 16 were rulers of
biblical nations. Manasses was a 7th-century BCE king of
Judah, Cyrus a 6th-century BCE king of Persia, and
Nebuchadnezzar a 12th-century BCE king of Babylon.
In Chapter 16 Old Benjamin reveals he is the old pilgrim from
Part 1, set 600 years earlier. This is just the beginning of the
puzzles over Old Benjamin's identity. Old Benjamin's being
mistaken for Leibowitz raises the possibility he is Leibowitz,
even as he denies it. However, Old Benjamin also displays
characteristics of the legendary Wandering Jew. In the legend,
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Chapter Summaries 28
a Jew taunts Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion, denying
Jesus a chance to rest on his doorstep. In return, Jesus
condemns the Jew to wander Earth until Jesus's resurrection.
This condemnation effectively makes the Wandering Jew
immortal. Old Benjamin, in addition to being remarkably old, is
apparently waiting for "Him," perhaps Jesus. Benjamin claims
he is waiting for someone who once shouted at him "come
forth." These are the words Jesus says to Lazarus, the leper he
raises from the dead, in the New Testament: "Lazarus, come
forth!" Thus, Old Benjamin—who is also the old pilgrim —has
characteristics of Leibowitz, the Wandering Jew, and Lazarus.
If Old Benjamin resembled only Leibowitz, readers might be
able to believe the two men are the same person. Because
Walter M. Miller Jr. piles on the resemblances, however, they
seem to have another function. The legend of the Wandering
Jew has been used for anti-Semitic purposes, though not by
Miller. For example, the legend suggests all Jews are
fundamentally wanderers who will never be settled like
Christians. Rather than being historical fact, Jews' migrations
are made into an essential personal trait and compared
unfavorably to the character of settled civilizations. Ultimately,
in A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller suggests everyone, including
Christians, becomes a wanderer as a result of nuclear war.
This idea becomes clearer in Part 3, when Abbot Zerchi
receives the message that the Church's spaceship emigration
policy is now in effect. "Grex peregrinus erit," reads the
message, which translates as "the flock becomes a wanderer."
Additionally, the story of the Garden of Eden, common to both
Judaism and Christianity, represents humans as outcast
nomads, forever banished from their true home. Miller
emphasizes this in Part 3 as well, remarking that humanity has
been trying to "seize by brute force again [the gifts of Eden]
from Heaven ever since [humanity] first lost them."
However, at this point in the novel those meanings of Old
Benjamin's multiple resemblances are not yet clear.
Additionally, Miller poses another complication. Dom Paulo
proposes a psychological interpretation in thinking Benjamin
Eleazar is a lonely Jew, bereft by the deaths of other Jews in
the nuclear war. In his solitude Benjamin identifies himself with
all other Jews, imagining he is thousands of years old—or so
Dom Paulo thinks. Readers thus are offered two different
characters' testimonies: Benjamin says he's thousands of years
old, and Dom Paulo thinks that figure is a grief-induced
delusion. Just as Brother Francis, in Part 1, cannot say for sure
who the old pilgrim is, readers cannot be sure of his identity
either.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Part 2, Chapters 18–19
Summary
Chapter 18
In the abbey's refectory, or dining hall, a monk reads aloud
from a sacred text about the Flame Deluge. The text makes a
parallel between "now" and "in the time of Job." As in the
biblical Book of Job, a conversation between God and Satan
takes place. In the Book of Job, God and Satan bet God's
servant, Job, will curse God if God treats him badly enough. In
A Canticle for Leibowitz, God and Satan bet on the faithfulness
of "[God's] servant Name." The text ends with Leibowitz
repenting because "great knowledge, while good, had not
saved the world." Leibowitz "turned in penance to the Lord,
crying:"—but then the abbot interrupts, and readers never learn
what Leibowitz said. The abbot and Thon Taddeo discuss the
reading and the various accounts of the Flame Deluge. The
abbot doubts any versions give a "completely accurate
account."
Thon Taddeo asks when he can see the Memorabilia. "You
may begin at once," says the abbot, and the two men make
their way to the alcove prepared for Thon Taddeo. Also in the
basement are Brother Kornhoer and several monks. The other
monks mount a kind of treadmill, pedaling to create electricity.
Brother Kornhoer reads from Genesis in Latin. The reading
includes the passage, "Dixitque Deus: FIAT LUX " (God said,
Let there be light). Then Kornhoer shouts "CONTACT!" and the
arc lamp fills the basement with a blaze of light. Everyone is
stunned, including Dom Paulo and Thon Taddeo. Dom Paulo
thinks it was "ghastly" to surprise their guest that way. Thinking
it an old relic Thon Taddeo asks why they have kept the
invention hidden. He is upset he has spent "all these years
trying to arrive at a theory of electricity" when, apparently, the
monks have had this working model all along.
Chapter 19
The abbot has tried to smooth things over with Thon Taddeo,
but without much success. Kornhoer has explained he invented
the lamp only recently, but Thon Taddeo is still upset. He is like
a mountain climber who "has scaled an 'unconquerable' height
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Chapter Summaries 29
only to find a rival's initials carved in the summit rock." When
Thon Taddeo realizes the lamp requires four novices pedaling
to keep it lit, he tries to have it removed, but Dom Paulo insists
the lamp remain.
Thon Taddeo and his assistant spend several days "study[ing]
the library itself." Brother Kornhoer finds them measuring the
stones in the refectory one day. "We're looking for ways of
determining dates," Thon Taddeo says. Kornhoer replies the
abbey has complete architectural records, but Thon Taddeo
wants to make his own objective measurements.
Some soldiers who have accompanied Thon Taddeo are also
making measurements. Dom Paulo finds out they are making
sketches of the abbey's fortifications. This information has
come from the Poet, who "took an instant dislike to the thon."
Father Gault and Dom Paulo talk about what the sketches
mean. Hannegan might use the abbey as a fortress for
"marching on Denver."
After several days of measurements, Thon Taddeo starts
studying the Memorabilia, and what he discovers excites him:
"fragments from a twentieth-century physicist!" Kornhoer
cannot understand the physicist's papers, but Thon Taddeo
can, at least partly. "The mathematics is beautiful, beautiful!" he
exclaims. He has Brother Armbruster unseal lead casks so he
can look at their valuable, early Memorabilia.
To make peace, Dom Paulo invites Thon Taddeo to give a talk
to the abbey about his work. Skeptical about lecturing to
nonscientists, he explains physics and mathematics texts are
already in "the simplest possible language—for that subject
matter." He agrees to speak nonetheless. He also marvels at
Kornhoer's skill in invention, thinking Kornhoer has somehow
made "a standing broad jump across about twenty years of
preliminary investigation." Dom Paulo thinks the lecture will
narrow the "gulf between the Christian monk and secular
investigator." Gault reminds Dom Paulo he saw the officers
sketching the abbey's fortifications: "You can't ignore the
officers and their sketchbooks."
Analysis
Chapter 18 offers a version of the story of Job. In the Bible, Job
is a good man who suffers greatly. Thus, the story is an
example of theodicy, an attempt to explain, theologically, why
evil exists in the world. The version of Job in A Canticle for
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Leibowitz attempts to explain why the evil of nuclear war exists
in the world. It comes about when God's servant, called Name,
stops trusting God and, fearing the enemy, uses nuclear
weapons in a first strike. "I must strike before the enemy
overwelmeth me," thinks Name.
However, Name is not an individual. In Catholic liturgy Name is
often a placeholder. In a prayer such as "Bless your servant,
Name," the placeholder would be filled in with the name of the
parish's bishop or the name of an ill parishioner. Therefore, this
version of Job focuses on the way in which many rulers
disproved the theory of mutual assured destruction: by making
a first strike with nuclear weapons.
Mutual assured destruction was a 20th-century theory of
nuclear deterrence between the two main nuclear powers for
much of the 20th century: the United States and the Soviet
Union. In the 1960s Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara
put forth the theory of mutual assured destruction. Each side
knew the other side could retaliate and destroy it, and
therefore the enmity of the United States and the Soviet Union
would remain stable, with neither power disarming nor using its
nuclear arsenal. The sacred text in A Canticle for Leibowitz
points out a flaw in this theory. If Power A completely wipes out
Power B with the first strike, the destruction goes only one way
and is thus not "mutual." All the 20th-century
princes—Name—in A Canticle for Leibowitz seem to have taken
this gamble. As Dom Paulo says, "Name ... [was] probably
Legion," a statement with two meanings. Legion means "many,"
so there were many rulers who used nuclear weapons in a first
strike, attempting to wipe out their enemies. Legion also recalls
the devil's statement in the Bible, "My name is Legion," meaning
there are many devils. Thus, the princes have done the devil's
work, unleashing evil in the world in the form of nuclear war.
In Chapter 19 Thon Taddeo marvels at—and is miffed by—
Brother Kornhoer's invention, thinking the monk has jumped
across 20 years of work. The comment on Kornhoer's speed
may also be doing the work of offering readers an explanation
for the speed of technological progress in the novel. In the
course of 1,800 years, the world goes from a postnuclear Dark
Age to another Space Age. The novel's cycles of progress and
destruction seem faster now.
Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 30
Part 2, Chapters 20–21
Summary
Chapter 20
On the evening of Thon Taddeo's lecture, a banquet in the
refectory honors the event. The reader at the lectern
announces the suspension of the usual rule of silence for the
evening. Wine glasses have replaced "the familiar milk mugs,"
and roses are scattered on the tables.
During the blessing of the meal, someone sneaks in and sits at
the same table with the abbot and Thon Taddeo. It's the Poet,
who speaks in a mocking way. Dom Paulo apologizes for the
Poet, who then launches into a long, joke-filled speech about
apologies, scapegoats, and bedbugs in the abbey's guest
room. He then makes a wisecrack about the soldiers' sketches
of the abbey, angering the soldiers at the dinner. One of them
draws a sword, and both he and the Poet are dismissed from
the dinner. As the Poet leaves, he takes out his glass eye.
"Watch him carefully," the Poet says as he sets the eye on the
table to stare at Thon Taddeo.
When dinner conversation resumes, Thon Taddeo doesn't
know what the Poet was talking about. Dom Paulo tells him the
Poet was speaking the truth: the soldiers are "preparing a
comprehensive report on the military value of our abbey as a
fortress." Embarrassed by this subterfuge on the part of
Hannegan's men, Thon Taddeo wonders why Dom Paulo didn't
make the soldiers leave the abbey. Dom Paulo replies, "We
keep no secrets." Thon Taddeo then promises to talk to
Hannegan about using the abbey "as a storehouse of ancient
wisdom" rather than a fortress.
Thon Taddeo begins his lecture: "I have been amazed at what
we've found here." Reading between the lines, Dom Paulo
thinks Thon Taddeo is also saying with some disappointment
that "some of his [Taddeo's] discoveries are only
rediscoveries." Thon Taddeo also talks about the peculiar
situation of post-Deluge science, adding that physical science
generally is based on inductive reasoning and tested by
experiment. With the abbey's Memorabilia, however, they have
a wealth of theory, and they must proceed by deductive
reasoning to discover what the supporting experiments were.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Thon Taddeo goes on to say he thinks the relics belong
elsewhere, not locked up in the abbey.
The topic of moving the relics makes people in the room
uneasy, so Taddeo switches to a discussion of refracted light.
He apologizes in case what he says about light "offends
anybody's religious sensibilities." When the abbot questions
him, Thon Taddeo explains a view he heard from Marcus
Apollo, who said "refrangible light [could not have existed]
before the Flood, because the rainbow was supposedly—" He
has to break off because the room has exploded in laughter.
They know he was going to say God gave the rainbow to Noah
as a sign, and therefore refracted light could not have existed
before that. The monks of Leibowitz Abbey find Marcus
Apollo's strict interpretation of the Bible ridiculous. Everyone
but Brother Armbruster, the librarian, finds Taddeo's speech
interesting. After Armbruster makes some sarcastic remarks,
Dom Paulo throws him out.
In his concluding remarks Thon Taddeo says, "Tomorrow, a
new prince shall rule ... His name is Truth." The reign of truth
will restore "the mastery of Man over the Earth." However, for
truth to be installed on the throne, it has to displace the current
ruler: "Ignorance is king" at present. The party of ignorance will
use violence to retain its power. A new society will emerge only
after "the structure of society as it now exists is reduced to
rubble."
Benjamin (the old pilgrim) enters the refectory. He jumps up on
the dais and grabs Thon Taddeo's arm. Staring into Taddeo's
eyes, he shrugs and turns away. "It's still not Him," he says and
leaves.
Chapter 21
In the 10th week of Taddeo's visit to the abbey, a messenger
brings news of the world. The king of Laredo was poisoned,
and war has been declared between Texarkana and Laredo.
Marcus Apollo, the papal nuncio to the court of Hannegan, was
found guilty of treason and executed in a grisly way: "hanged,
and then while still alive ... cut down, drawn, quartered, and
flayed, as an example to anyone else who might try to
undermine the Mayor's state."
"Because of my nationality, I offer to leave at once," says Thon
Taddeo, hoping to avoid more trouble for the abbey. Dom
Paulo declines, saying, "Whatever your nationality, your
common humanity makes you welcome." Still, relations
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Chapter Summaries 31
between the scholar and the rest of the abbey cool.
Fearing attack, the people of Sanly Bowitts ask the abbey to
grant them sanctuary. Dom Paulo agrees to take in "all the
women, children, invalids, and aged" but not "men capable of
bearing arms." Doing so would undermine the abbey's
neutrality in the war. As a compromise, he will let them in only if
they pledge "to defend the abbey" according to the abbey's
orders.
The Poet leaves the abbey. Dom Paulo tells Thon Taddeo the
Poet's departure is "a bad sign" and warns the thon to check
his belongings. Thon Taddeo realizes the Poet has stolen his
boots, but the thon chuckles because he has the Poet's glass
eye. He'd intended to give it back, but now it's too late. Dom
Paulo tells him the Poet claims to see better when the glass
eye is in place. He also claims the eye is his "removable
conscience." The Poet "used the eyeball as a running joke,"
says the abbot. He would take it out and put it in, elaborately
pantomiming having a conscience with it in and giving in to his
appetites when it was removed. Amused, Thon Taddeo says, "I
think I know who does need it more than the Poet."
Dom Paulo and Thon Taddeo talk about the situation. "I can't
fight the prince who makes my work possible," says Thon
Taddeo, even though he abhors Hannegan's actions. Dom
Paulo is upset: what is the point of restoring "Man's control
over Nature" if someone like Hannegan remains in control of
"Man"? Taddeo counters: science can't wait for the day "when
Man is good and pure and holy and wise."
Dom Paulo replies, "It's time you met our founder" and points to
Fingo's carving of Leibowitz and to the kindling heaped at
Leibowitz's feet. People wanted to burn science and scientists
in Leibowitz's day after the Deluge. "To serve God first, or to
serve Hannegan first—that's your choice," he tells Thon
Taddeo. Taddeo asks, scornfully, "Would you have me work for
the Church?" From the "scorn in his voice" it is clear to Dom
Paulo that Taddeo has chosen Hannegan.
Analysis
The hecklers at Thon Taddeo's lecture are significant, for the
secular scholar's speech is disrupted by people with literary
and religious commitments. First, the Poet mocks the exalted
occasion of the banquet, bringing the tone down by joking
about bedbugs. The Poet "took an instant dislike to the thon,"
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
readers learned in Chapter 19. The Poet's attitude toward the
thon symbolizes the separation between literary and scientific
culture. In The Two Cultures and Scientific Revolution (1959),
writer and scientist C.P. Snow points out practitioners of
literary culture knew almost nothing about science, and vice
versa. Since Snow's book was published in the same year as A
Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr. had already written
the three separate stories that compose it. However, both
writers were responding to the same situation in the mid-20th
century: science had no connection to literary culture, to the
detriment of civilization. The other dissenter at Thon Taddeo's
speech is Brother Armbruster, the librarian. A fundamentalist in
his views on religious texts, Brother Armbruster represents a
clash between the Church and science.
The Poet's glass eye is a symbol of literature. The glass eye is
not a real organ of perception, for one can't see the world with
it. Similarly, literature opens a view on a fictional world, so with
literature one cannot see the real world. Yet, the Poet claims to
see better when he wears the glass eye. Dom Paulo says, "One
never knows whether the Poet is speaking fact, fancy, or
allegory." Thus, one never knows whether literature refers to
the real world (fact) or an imaginary world (fancy), or whether
literature is making a relationship between real and imaginary
(allegory). Allegory is a literary mode in which symbolic or
imaginary figures stand for general truths about real existence.
The Poet's claim to see better when he wears the glass eye
means, allegorically, that human wisdom is greater when it
includes literature. The Poet calls his glass eye a "conscience,"
suggesting what literature supplies is an ethical dimension. The
English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
expresses a similar idea in his essay "The Defence of Poetry,"
in which he calls poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the
world." When Thon Taddeo says he knows someone who could
use the glass eye, he probably means the ruler Hannegan. In
Taddeo's view Hannegan could use the counsel of poets and
poetry.
In his lecture Thon Taddeo makes a similar case for science as
a legislator of the world, claiming "Truth" is a "new prince" that
soon will rule the world. However, this opinion does not
address the situation in Thon Taddeo's relationship to actual
princes. The secular collegium is financially supported by the
state of Texarkana, and the state protects the scholars from
the wanton brutality common in this era. When Hannegan
begins making war on other nations, Thon Taddeo believes he
has three options: approve of Hannegan's actions, disapprove
of them and thus fight against them, or treat Hannegan like a
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Chapter Summaries 32
natural accident—a fact of the world Taddeo can do nothing
about. This last is what Thon Taddeo chooses, to Dom Paulo's
disappointment.
Part 2, Chapters 22–23
Summary
Chapter 22
On a Thursday early in the first week of November, shortly
after All Saints' Day, Thon Taddeo is preparing to leave. He and
Brother Kornhoer talk about an experiment with polarized light.
Thon Taddeo asks if Kornhoer could join him at the collegium,
"at least for a while." He wonders whether the abbot would give
Kornhoer leave, but Kornhoer says, "My vocation is to Religion,"
although he admits he would go to the collegium if the abbot
asked him to.
Dom Paulo runs into Father Gault, who asks, "Have they heard
about it yet?" Brother Claret has returned from New Rome with
a smuggled document. Dom Paulo goes to see him. Brother
Claret is badly wounded and will not survive. The smuggled
document is a declaration from Hannegan, claiming the pope a
heretic and he (Hannegan) "the only legitimate ruler over the
Church."
Back in the basement Thon Taddeo and Father Gault discuss
the book of Genesis. Father Gault admits many monks believe
"Genesis is more or less allegorical." Thon Taddeo claims to
have found in the abbey's library a fragment "that suggests a
very revolutionary concept." It seems "man was not created
until shortly before the fall of the last civilization," thereby
dating the origin of humankind to 1,200 years ago. Taddeo's
conjecture is that present-day humanity is the dregs of "a
servant species" created by Adam's descendants. These
servants rebelled, resulting in the Great Simplification. For
Taddeo, the theory explains why present-day people have
fallen so far below their past achievements.
Dom Paulo enters the basement alcove just then. He is
scandalized by Thon Taddeo's theory and demands to see the
fragment. It is a "fragment of a play or a dialogue." He thinks if
Thon Taddeo had read more carefully, he would have realized
the Venerable Boedullus classified this fragment as an
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
allegory. The argument between Thon Taddeo and Dom Paulo
peaks when Thon Taddeo declares the church records should
"be placed in the hands of competent people!" Just then
Kornhoer's lamp sputters out as the novices stop pedaling in
preparation for Taddeo's departure. The crucifix is returned to
the alcove. After a few moments, the scholar and the abbot
continue more calmly. The abbot says to tell people at the
collegium "anyone who wishes to study here will be welcome."
Later, before Thon Taddeo leaves, he hands over the sketches
of the fortifications to Dom Paulo. They shake hands, but Dom
Paulo thinks of the gesture only as a sign of "mutual respect
between foes." The chapter ends with the narrator repeating
the phrase "that was the year" and detailing various
occurrences. These include treaties and battles between
Denver and Texarkana, the resumed wanderings of Benjamin
Eleazar (the old pilgrim), and the death of Dom Paulo.
Chapter 23
On a battlefield the wounded Poet lies on a hillside, buzzards
circling overhead. He ran into a group of refugees who were
being chased by mounted cavalry. The Poet hid in a bush, but
then a "blind impulse" overtook him, and he stabbed a cavalry
officer three times. The officer had been "hacking and hacking"
at a refugee woman, angering the Poet. However, his attack on
the officer accomplishes nothing, for the officer's men have
shot the Poet in the abdomen.
Now the wounded Poet and the wounded officer lie on the
ground near each other. The officer moans, calling for God and
a priest. The Poet, annoyed by the officer's "bleating," crawls
toward him. The officer recognizes him and fires his pistol but
misses. As if he were a priest, the Poet absolves the officer
and in the same instant stabs him to death.
Eventually the Poet dies also. After his flesh decays, the
buzzards eat him. The narrative shifts to the perspective of
buzzards, who see the world as designed to provide them with
rotting flesh. Then the narrative shifts to a long perspective,
focusing on humans once again. "Generations of the darkness"
follow, and then come "the generations of the light." It is "the
Year of Our Lord 3781."
Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 33
Analysis
The fragment Thon Taddeo finds suggests humans created a
race of servants who then rebelled and killed their creators.
Because the fragment is "a play or dialogue," it could be a
reference to the 20th-century play RUR: Rossum's Universal
Robots (1920) by Czech writer Karel Čapek (1890–1938). In the
play scientists create humanlike machines they call robots—a
word Čapek invented. The robots rebel against humans and
almost destroy them, although in the end humanity is saved.
However, Thon Taddeo's fragment also resembles the Jewish
legend of the golem. In Jewish folklore golems are humanlike
effigies supernaturally endowed with life and made to serve
their creators. In some versions the golems' only flaw is
carrying out their orders too literally and mechanically. A
similar tale is told in "The Apprentice Magician," a poem by
German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). In
this poem a magician's helper uses magic to bring household
items—such as brooms—to life to complete household chores,
and the items run out of control.
In all these tales—RUR, the golem, and "The Sorcerer's
Apprentice"—the perspective is from human creators. The
stories can be read as warnings about what could happen if
human-created technology spirals out of control. The strange
thing about Thon Taddeo's interpretation, however, is his
assumption that he and Dom Paulo descend from the race of
magically created servants. Taddeo assumes he is one of the
out-of-control servants whose masters have long since
vanished. This assumption explains, for Taddeo, how the
people who once invented space flight are now apparently too
ignorant to ride a donkey. (Taddeo previously observed a
merchant laboriously plodding alongside his donkey, incapable
of making the logical leap that the donkey could bear him on
his back.)
If Taddeo's interpretation were right, it would mean all people
in the novel are not original human beings but creatures
created by the original human beings. Taddeo's interpretation
is similar to Gnosticism. Gnosticism refers to religious and
philosophical movements in ancient Greece and in Rome
during the early Christian era. According to some Gnostic
beliefs, two gods exist: a higher god who gives human souls a
divine spark and a lesser god, called a demiurge, who created
Earth. Earth is a failed creation, and divine souls have their true
home elsewhere. This Gnostic belief can be thought of as a
theodicy, a theological explanation for the existence of evil in
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
the world. The Gnostic answer is this evil world is a lesser one,
and the real world—the true home of divine spirits—is
elsewhere. Dom Paulo alludes to this belief when he says to
Thon Taddeo, "Are we but creatures of creatures, then, Sir
Philosopher? Made by lesser gods than God?" As Dom Paulo
notes, this belief would explain why people are
"understandably less than perfect."
Walter M. Miller Jr. gives the buzzards circling the Poet's
corpse a religious outlook on the world. They worship
Cathartes aura regnans. Cathartes aura is the species name for
the American turkey buzzard and also means "golden purifier,"
because buzzards purify the world by consuming corpses.
Cathartes aura regnans could be translated to mean the
"reigning turkey buzzard." Miller's buzzards imagine God as a
Big Reigning Buzzard that has ordered the world to provide
plenty of rotten corpses. The idea of God as a buzzard and a
world created for buzzards might seem preposterous to
readers. However, it shows the fragmentary, or partial,
understanding any of God's creatures can have of God.
Part 3, Chapters 24–25
Summary
Chapter 24
Now it is 3781, and spaceships have been reinvented. The
narrator comments on the vanity of humankind and claims
humans are now "a race of impassioned after-dinner
speakers."
Marching soldiers shout, "Hut two threep foa!" and break into a
Nazi marching song, the official song of the Hitler Youth. The
we becomes the voice of the passing years: "We bury your
dead and their reputations. We bury you. We are the centuries."
The narrator then addresses readers, saying, "Hear then, the
last Canticle of the Brethren of the Order of Leibowitz." The
verse of this canticle is "Lucifer is fallen."
The narrative is replaced by dialogue in play script or
screenplay format. Reporters question a defense minister
about suddenly spiking radiation levels "on the Northwest
Coast." The reporters try to find out whether a nuclear bomb
has exploded, but the defense minister refuses to "indulge in
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Chapter Summaries 34
wild speculation."
The abbot of Leibowitz Abbey, Dom Jethrah Zerchi, tries to
write a message on his Autoscribe, a machine that can
translate several languages. The Autoscribe is malfunctioning
and tends to write gibberish or use capital letters randomly.
Zerchi calls Brother Pat and asks for a stenographer. Now
several languages are spoken in the former United States,
including "Alleghenian" and "Anglo-Latin."
Finally, Zerchi uses the Autoscribe to send a message to "His
Most Reverend Eminence, Sir Eric Cardinal Hoffstraff," in
which he discusses "reports of a clandestine nuclear
armaments race." He mentions a policy called "Quo
peregrinatur grex, pastor secum": Where the flock wanders, the
pastor goes too. Zerchi says, "Our state of readiness with
regard to Quo peregrinatur has been maintained." If they
decide "to execute the plan, we would need perhaps six weeks'
notice," Zerchi adds. After Zerchi dictates his message, the
machine writes it in Alleghenian, but it malfunctions, writing the
words backward, right to left. Zerchi calls for help. Brother
Joshua tells him the "Zone Defense Interior" has ordered a halt
to all on-air transmissions at this time.
In the afternoon a "dusty wind" blows, bringing sounds of
"practice rocketry" and "ground-to-space interceptor missiles."
Brother Joshua is on the roof, measuring radiation levels.
Below, some children shout about "old Lazar" (the old pilgrim),
an "old tramp." Lazar is the "same one 'ut [what] the Lor' Hesus
[Lord Jesus] raise up," the children say.
Brother Joshua leaves the roof for a laboratory. Once there, he
climbs inside a deep sink and has a bath. Sister Helene enters,
is shocked by the naked monk, and drops a tray of laboratory
glassware on the floor. She leaves, and Brother Joshua sets
about examining the dust he gathered on the rooftop. The
levels show "a perplexing upswing." Then he calls Zerchi on the
"viewphone." Zerchi asks, "Luciferum ruisse mihi dictis?"—"Are
you telling me that Lucifer has fallen?" Then Zerchi says he
wants Brother Joshua with him when he gets an answer to his
message about Quo peregrinatur. Joshua turns pale at the idea
Quo peregrinatur could go into effect.
After the call Joshua looks out the window and sees the two-
headed mutant, Mrs. Grales, standing at the gate. He spins a
globe on the desk, wondering where a bomb has fallen. His
finger lands on India. He spins the globe backward, thinking
about whether one could reverse time that way. Joshua
considers how he is a booklegger and a memorizer. He goes to
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
the abbey, where Abbot Zerchi waits for him. On the way
Joshua avoids Mrs. Grales.
Chapter 25
A "Lady Reporter" questions the defense minister, who once
again tries to evade answering clearly. When the lady reporter
asks about a "disaster" at a city called Itu Wan, the defense
minister says a "sub-surface nuclear detonation ... got out of
hand. It was rather obviously a test of some sort." She also
asks the defense minister about his "abiding faith in
Motherhood."
A telegram has come from Sir Eric Cardinal Hoffstraff in New
Rome. Abbot Zerchi shows it to Brother Joshua. The message
says the Quo peregrinatur program will be "reactivated
immediately by request of Holy Father." Abbot Zerchi explains
to Joshua that Quo peregrinatur is "an emergency plan for
propagating the Church on the colony planets if the worst
[comes] to pass on Earth." Space colonies already exist, but
Quo peregrinatur would ensure the Church would continue in
the space colonies if Earth is destroyed. Abbot Zerchi says he
has three questions for Brother Joshua: whether he is willing to
go on the Quo peregrinatur mission; whether he is ready to
become a priest; and whether he is willing to lead the Quo
peregrinatur mission. He gives Brother Joshua three days to
decide.
On their way to the refectory, Abbot Zerchi and Brother
Joshua run into Mrs. Grales, a two-headed mutant woman. She
asks Abbot Zerchi to baptize Rachel, her mute, comatose
second head. He tells her to have her parish priest do the
baptism. Brother Joshua, listening to the conversation, thinks
he sees Rachel smile.
At dinner in the refectory Father Lehy informs the brothers
that "Lucifer is fallen," to which Abbot Zerchi adds, "That is
Brother Joshua's inference." No one official has confirmed it,
and he adds, "Don't be disturbed." Then Father Lehy makes
announcements, including preparing for a "space-strike or
missile-attack alert." After the announcements, Zerchi again
pleads for calm, telling the monks war is not necessarily
imminent. After all, the world has already seen nuclear war.
"Only a race of madmen could do it again," Zerchi says. He is
brought up short by the sight of a smiling face in the crowd. It
is an old man, apparently skeptical of Zerchi's faith in
humankind. After he finishes speaking, Zerchi goes to the old
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Chapter Summaries 35
man and asks his name. "Call me Lazarus" (old pilgrim), the
man says.
That night Joshua dreams about Mrs. Grales. A doctor tries to
remove the second head, which opens its eyes and tries to talk
to Joshua. "I am the Immaculate Conception," says the head.
This "blasphemous" thought wakens Joshua, and the
nightmare recurs throughout the night. "It was ... a night that
belonged to Lucifer," and it is also the night of "the Atlantic
assault against the Asian space installations." In retaliation, "an
ancient city died."
Analysis
The monks and the media use a religious code phrase to
describe the detonation of a nuclear bomb. In Jewish, Islamic,
and Christian traditions, Lucifer, or Satan, was an angel who
rebelled against God. In retaliation God banished Lucifer from
Heaven. Lucifer then fell to Earth and reigned over the
underworld. Thus, Lucifer's fall can be seen as an early
precursor of Adam and Eve's banishment from Eden. In
Paradise Lost, the epic poem by English poet John Milton
(1608–74), Lucifer tempts Adam and Eve in revenge for his
banishment from Heaven. Therefore, the code Lucifer is fallen
means bad things are about to happen; the world (Eden) is
about to be destroyed.
The words Lucifer is fallen also recall those of American
nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967). When
the first nuclear bomb was detonated in a test at Los Alamos,
New Mexico, in 1942, Oppenheimer quoted a line from the
Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become
Death, the destroyer of worlds." In either version,
Oppenheimer's or Abbot Zerchi's, the phrase indicates the
irrevocable world-changing nature of the bomb's detonation.
The lady reporter asks the defense minister a question about
his "faith in Motherhood." Walter M. Miller Jr. never explains
this question, and the topic vanishes from A Canticle for
Leibowitz. However, that the lady reporter can ask the question
is significant. Motherhood is apparently no longer self-evident
in the 38th century. Rather it has become a matter of "faith."
Perhaps increasing numbers of people are no longer having
babies, or perhaps many women are no longer raising them. In
any case, the succession of the generations no longer seems
assured.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Rachel, the second head of the two-headed mutant woman, is
associated with innocence. In Brother Joshua's nightmare she
says she is "the Immaculate Conception." Perhaps this
statement means she was created, like Jesus, without sexual
intercourse. There are rumors Mrs. Grales was born with one
head and that the Rachel head grew on later. When Rachel
reappears in Chapter 29, she is associated with Eden. For an
innocent, Rachel is a frightening figure with her eerie smile.
The cyclical view of history in A Canticle for Leibowitz also
occurs on a mythic or spiritual level. Humans try to rebuild
Eden, and occasionally a new innocence enters the world. For
example, the pope's children are innocent and protected by
the pope, but as with Rachel, the pope's children are
frightening to behold. With all these creatures, innocence is
accompanied by a terrifying ignorance.
Part 3, Chapters 26–27
Summary
Chapter 26
The next day Brother Joshua arrives in Zerchi's study. Zerchi
has sent for him. They listen to a broadcast: "a cease-fire order
has been issued by the World Court of Nations." The
government will honor the cease-fire for 10 days, if special
conditions are met. Asian governments make counterclaims.
"Where's the truth?" asks the abbot. He looks at his wooden
statue of Saint Leibowitz, standing on its pyre. (Saint Leibowitz
was burned to death by simpletons.) Abbott Zerchi thinks,
"That's where we all of us are standing now." The response to
Zerchi's message arrives. A robot reads the message, which
says, in part, "Grex peregrinus erit": the flock becomes a
wanderer.
Zerchi tells Joshua the message means he needs Joshua's
answer now. Joshua is uncertain, so Zerchi gives him a little
more time. Joshua goes into the courtyard and ponders
despairingly. "If Rome had any hope," he thinks, "why send the
starship?" Begging God for a sign, Joshua thinks he hears a
snake but is not sure whether this is the sign. Frightened, he
goes inside the church, where Zerchi asks him a question in
Latin. Joshua replies he is ready and adds, in Latin, he is ready
to accept the honor. "You misheard me," Zerchi says; he's
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Chapter Summaries 36
asked if Joshua is ready to accept the burden, not the honor.
That evening 27 monks, including Joshua, board a plane for
New Rome. Abbot Zerchi briefly boards the plane and
addresses them: "Remember this Earth. Never forget her,
but—never come back." They are leaving as if expelled from the
Garden of Eden. "Space is your home hereafter." The plane
leaves, and Zerchi thinks the monks are on "a new Exodus
from Egypt." The people who stay behind "have the easier
part," he thinks. They only have to "wait for the end and pray it
would not come."
Chapter 27
Abbot Zerchi and a visitor, Dr. Cors, listen to the news on the
radio. The local fallout area "remains relatively stationary."
Additionally, the government announces private citizens are "in
no way" empowered to "administer euthanasia to victims of
radiation poisoning." Legal euthanasia is available at "Green
Star Relief Stations," where a judge can issue "a writ of Mori
Vult [Latin for 'he will die']." The abbot opposes euthanasia,
calling it "mass, state-sponsored suicide." His visitor disagrees,
saying, "it's better than letting them die by degrees, horribly."
Doctor Cors wants to set up a relief station near the abbey to
treat those with radiation sickness. He figures the work will
take two days. Although he does not plan to administer
euthanasia, he would issue permits for the "mercy camps,"
where patients are euthanized. Zerchi says Dr. Cors can set up
the relief station on the condition he does not recommend
euthanasia to anyone. "Don't tell them to go kill themselves,"
says Zerchi. Dr. Cors puts up some objections but finally
agrees.
Brother Pat arrives with a letter saying Joshua and the other
monks have "departed from New Rome for an unspecified
location" in preparation for space flight but that "the starship
was not yet in space." Because word has gotten out about the
Quo peregrinatur plan and the "launching of an unauthorized
starship," the monks are delayed.
A monk informs Zerchi a refugee camp is being set up by
Green Star Relief two miles down the road from the abbey.
Zerchi says, "Good! We're overflowing here." The refugees at
the abbey are making a lot of noise, causing Zerchi anxiety. He
takes a volume of poetry up to the tower to be in a quiet place.
The book, very old and attributed to "Saint Poet of the
Miraculous Eyeball," is "a satirical dialogue in verse between
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
two agnostics." They try "to establish by natural reason alone
that the existence of God [cannot] be established by natural
reason alone."
From the tower Zerchi watches the setting up of "MERCY
CAMP NUMBER 18." Puzzled by men unloading pottery, he
realizes the pots are urns for human remains. He also sees the
men unloading fire bricks and notes the presence of a boiler
for an oven or furnace. The mercy camp is indeed a euthanasia
center. "Evenit diabolus!"(the Devil comes)," curses Zerchi. For
help he goes to Dr. Cors, who is indifferent. "Well, I have
nothing to do with that end of it, nothing at all," says Dr. Cors.
Zerchi calls for some monks and tells them to paint five large,
bright signs. "Make it scream at the eye," he says. He also calls
for "five good, young, healthy novices, preferably with martyr
complexes." The chapter ends with no explanations, but Zerchi
worries what will happen "when New Rome hears about it."
Analysis
In Chapter 26 the author uses biblical references to compare
the wanderings of the spaceship to fabled or biblical journeys.
When Brother Joshua prays for a sign from God, he thinks he
hears a snake slithering but is uncertain whether it could be
the sign. He reflects, "Would a sign from Heaven slither? An
omen or portent might." The snake Joshua hears could refer to
his situation, whether it is a sign from God or a portent from
some other power. The snake is associated with Satan. In the
Bible Satan assumes the form of a serpent to tempt Adam and
Eve. In Brother Joshua's time, Satan or Lucifer is a code for
nuclear weapons. The words Lucifer has fallen mean a nuclear
weapon has been detonated. Therefore, the snake may be a
sign Joshua is about to leave Earth as Adam and Eve were
expelled from the garden. The trip to the space colonies has
another biblical association: Abbot Zerchi thinks of the mission
as "a new Exodus from Egypt." In the Bible the Jewish people
leave Egypt, where they were enslaved. Their flight is known as
"the Exodus," or the departure. Eden and Egypt are different
references—one a paradise and the other a place of
captivity—but both involve expulsion or wandering. As Cardinal
Hoffstraff's message indicates, Grex peregrinus erit," the flock
becomes a wanderer. The Christians in the novel are now
wanderers like the Wandering Jew of legend or the Jewish
people in the Bible.
Abbot Zerchi and Dr. Cors's discussion of euthanasia is only
the first of several such discussions and underscores the
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Chapter Summaries 37
uneasy truce between Church and state. Initially, Abbot Zerchi
and Dr. Cors think both the Church and "Caesar" (a metaphor
for the state) can be satisfied. Abbot Zerchi can forbid Dr. Cors
to recommend euthanasia, even while telling the refugees
euthanasia is an option as state law demands. "If you find
hopeless radiation cases, tell them what the law forces you to
tell them," says Abbot Zerchi. "But don't tell them to kill
themselves." But this uneasy and somewhat illogical
solution—tell them about suicide but don't recommend it—can't
be sustained. Similarly, when Abbot Zerchi turns to Dr. Cors for
help in fighting the mercy camp, Dr. Cors acts as though it is
something entirely separate, claiming, "I have nothing to do
with that end of it." In the end, Abbot Zerchi can no longer
tolerate Dr. Cors and his refugee camp because there is no
way to separate them from the euthanasia camp.
Part 3, Chapters 28–30
Summary
Chapter 28
That evening Zerchi stays in the church to pray. At midnight Dr.
Cors arrives to tell Zerchi, "I just broke my promise!" Together
they walk to Dr. Cors's relief station. Dr. Cors explains the
situation. A woman and her child are grievously ill with radiation
sickness. The woman has a broken hip as well, and the child
"almost glows in the dark." They vomit and cry from the pain.
Dr. Cors tells the woman, "If you love your child, spare her the
agony." He advises both to "go to sleep mercifully quick as you
can." Dr. Cors agrees to leave the abbey, for his work is done.
Zerchi finds the woman and her child lying on a cot. She has a
red ticket, her permit for euthanasia. He gives her a rosary and
tells her, "Don't be an accomplice." Although she doesn't
answer, he sees her hands are familiar with the rosary and
realizes she is already familiar with his arguments against
euthanasia.
The next day Zerchi and Father Lehy watch the news, which
reports on a peace conference in Guam. "There is a weird and
brooding silence from both capitals," says the newscaster. On
the one hand, "murder has been done," but on the other,
"neither side wants total war." The news also reports, "Pope
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Gregory ceased to pray for peace in the world." Instead, he is
saying the "Mass against the Heathen" and "Mass in Time of
War." Zerchi snaps off the news and says he's going out for
some air.
Mrs. Grales is in the courtyard and offers Zerchi some
tomatoes for the refugees. She asks him to hear her
confession, but he demurs, saying this is for her parish priest
to do. He sees the Rachel head smile, unnervingly. Zerchi then
agrees to hear her confession, telling her to meet him in the
Lady Chapel in half an hour.
Zerchi climbs into a car with "automatic controls." He dials in a
destination but then presses the Cancel button when he sees
the sick woman and child. Although the woman has a cast on
her hip and uses crutches, she is trying to walk to town. When
he tells her someone else can go to town for her, she answers,
"Nobody else can do it for me." He is sure she is lying about her
destination, which must be the mercy camp. He lifts them into
the car, causing them considerable pain. He dials a destination
on the car's controls: the Green Star encampment. When they
arrive, he sees the five monks carrying picket signs saying,
"ABANDON EVERY HOPE/ YE/ WHO ENTER HERE."
At the entrance to the camp is a statue erected by the camp
workers. It is made of "composite human images" of various
traits people find pleasing. The statue repels Zerchi, for it
reminds him of "the effeminate images" by which some artists
"traditionally misrepresented ... Christ. The sweet-sick face,
blank eyes, simpering lips, and arms spread wide in a gesture
of embrace."
The woman is still in the car. Zerchi tells her to offer her pain to
God. Of euthanasia, he says, "Don't do it, daughter. Just don't
do it." Zerchi tells her a story: his cat was hit by a truck and
badly injured. People told him the cat "ought to be destroyed."
Finally, Zerchi agreed and resolved to do it himself. He shot the
cat, but, amazingly, the cat clambered out of the grave, still in
pain. Then Zerchi severed the cat's spine with the blade of a
shovel, but still it wouldn't die. Zerchi's actions only increased
the animal's suffering. Then Zerchi says to the woman, "I am
commanding you by the authority of Almighty God not to lay
hands on your daughter." He commands her "in the name of
Christ the King" not to commit suicide.
Zerchi seems to have won. He drives around the town on
errands, leaving and returning to the car while the woman
meekly waits for him. They head back to the abbey, passing
the Green Star camp as they go. An officer at the camp stops
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Chapter Summaries 38
the car and accuses Zerchi of being behind all this picketing
ruckus. When the woman says she wants to get out here at the
camp, Zerchi grabs her arm and forbids her to leave. The
officer lets her out.
Zerchi is served some legal papers about the picketing and
agrees to desist. He tells the novices to throw away their
picket signs. Dr. Cors turns up, looking "grave, if not guilty." He
tries to placate Zerchi, who punches him in the jaw. Dr. Cors
declines to press charges, and the officers at the camp let
Zerchi go. As he heads back to the abbey with the five novices,
he looks back to the camp. A calliope is playing, and a carousel
is turning. Zerchi feels "alone with his shame."
Chapter 29
On his knees, Zerchi confesses to Father Lehy about punching
Dr. Cors. Father Lehy assigns Zerchi a penance, and he is late
getting to the chapel to hear Mrs. Grales's confession.
Seeming unwell, she touches "the Rachel face, exploring its
eyelids and lips with withered fingers." She also tells Zerchi she
senses "the Dread One about," adding she needs to give
"shriv'ness [shriveness, or forgiveness] to Him, as well." Mrs.
Grales wants to forgive God for making her the way she is.
Zerchi is scandalized by the notion of forgiving God—"God is
Justice, He is Love," but nevertheless, Zerchi decides to get on
with it.
Mrs. Grales gives her confession. Unable to see her through
the confession grille, Zerchi finds her confession long and
unoriginal, the "whimper of a voice of Eve." Then they both hear
"a distant roaring, and the faint snort-growl of missiles being
fired." Mrs. Grales shouts, "The Dread One! The Dread One!"
Zerchi absolves her of her sins. The curtain of the confessional
booth smolders, and Zerchi cautions Mrs. Grales to wait until
the light dies down before leaving—that is, until the flash of the
bomb is over. A "strange soft voice" from the confession booth
starts mimicking Zerchi: "wait wait wait till it dies." He tells Mrs.
Grales to run, and he himself runs out of the booth. He grabs
the container holding Eucharist wafers and runs. The church
building collapses on him.
Returning to consciousness, he determines the explosion
"swept him clean out of the church," and now he is buried
under rubble. He painstakingly picks up the scattered
Eucharist wafers and then hears the "strange soft voice" again,
saying, "Jesus Mary Joseph! Help!"
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Chapter Summaries 39

Afraid of "the Awful Dark," death, Zerchi tries to pray. He starts

to go over his conversation with Dr. Cors, thinking of what else
he could have said to the doctor. He would have liked to tell the
doctor the root of evil was not suffering but the fear of
suffering, and its corollary, "the craving for worldly security."
Society desires "minimize[d] suffering and maximize[d]
security." However, the result of making these "the only ends"
is that people find only the opposites: "maximum suffering and
minimum security." He concludes, "the trouble with the world is
me"; the trouble is people: "thee me Adam Man we."
The nuclear explosion has broken open the church's crypts.
Feeling around, Zerchi comes upon a skull and picks it up.
There is a hole in the skull, from which an arrow protrudes.
Then Zerchi hears the voice again: "la la la, la-la-la." A buzzard
lands near Zerchi, who tells the carrion bird, "Dinner's not quite
ready." Zerchi calls for help, and the two-headed woman
appears, but she only echoes everything Zerchi says. He
realizes the Mrs. Grales head "slept soundly on the other
shoulder while Rachel smiled."
Rachel seems oblivious to pain. Zerchi removes some glass
splinters from her arm with no apparent effect on her. He also
notices Mrs. Grales appears to be dying. He traces a cross on
Rachel's forehead and begins to say the liturgy for baptism, but
Rachel "leans away," breaking off the ceremony. Against
Zerchi's wishes Rachel grabs the ciborium, and he faints. When
he comes to, he accepts a communion wafer from Rachel's
hand. She utters the word "live," causing him to wonder at
God's having given Rachel "the preternatural gifts of Eden." In
Rachel's eyes Zerchi sees "primal innocence and the hope of
resurrection." Then he dies.
Analysis
Abbot Zerchi has the novices picket the mercy camp with
signs reading, "ABANDON EVERY HOPE/ YE/ WHO ENTER
HERE." This is the motto on the entrance to hell in The Divine
Comedy, the epic poem by Italian poet Dante Alighieri
(1265–1321). The mercy camp is hell, in Abbot Zerchi's analysis,
because it is the end result of trying to create Eden on Earth.
As Abbot Zerchi thinks, the "root of evil" is "the craving for
worldly security, for Eden." When security and freedom from
suffering become society's only goals, the results are
"maximum suffering and minimum security." Thus, the picket
signs indicate that trying to recreate Eden means building a
new hell.
This same principle is symbolized in a statue near the gate of
the mercy camp. The statue is made from a "composite image."
People have been polled about which human faces they find
most appealing, and the composite combines these traits. The
resulting image causes Zerchi to "wince," for it reminds him of
the "effeminate" images of Christ. What has mass appeal is
empty, according to Abbot Zerchi. The pedestal of the mercy
camp statue says "COMFORT," but it does not comfort Zerchi.
Just as most people think they want worldly security, in
seeking they create a hell on Earth, so the "rabble-mind" does
not know what is best when it comes to art.
Abbot Zerchi, in one way, wins the argument about euthanasia,
a long argument he has with many people: Dr. Cors, the
woman, a guard at the mercy camp, and even with a phantom
of Dr. Cors as Zerchi lies dying. Abbot Zerchi marshals all the
best arguments as well as the irrefutable anecdote of the all-
suffering cat. Church authority is also on Abbot Zerchi's side.

Chapter 30 In another way, Abbot Zerchi loses the argument because the
woman finally elects euthanasia.
Monks and nuns are singing as they hand children into a
Of the Leibowitz Abbey's three abbots—Arkos, Paulo, and
spaceship. The last monk pauses before entering. "Sic transit
Zerchi—Abbot Zerchi is perhaps the sternest. Even the ruler-
mundi," he thinks; thus passes the world. The spaceship lifts
wielding Arkos finds Brother Francis occasionally amusing.
off. The narrative focus shifts to the sea. A seaplane fractures
Abbot Zerchi listens to Mrs. Grales's confession with what
a wing and crashes into the water. For a time "the sportive
seems to be contempt for her "whimper of a voice of Eve," and
brutality of the sea" continues as usual; shrimp "carouse" in the
he notes wryly that "even a woman with two heads could not
waves, whiting eat the shrimp, and sharks eat the whiting. Then
contrive new ways of courting evil." But Abbot Zerchi is at least
a wind brings "a pall of fine white ash" over the sea. Dead
as stern with himself. He believes "the trouble with the world is
shrimp wash up on shore and then dead whiting. The shark
me." The trouble is people. This problem does not bode well for
keeps swimming. "He was very hungry that season," the
the Quo peregrinatur program, which is sending frail, fallible
narrator remarks.
monks into space.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Quotes 40

Mrs. Grales and Rachel are upending some Christian rites and — Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 1
doctrines. For example, Abbot Zerchi receives communion
from the eerie, ambiguous figure, Rachel. Mrs. Grales starts
Brother Francis has discovered a 20th-century underground
things off by telling Abbot Zerchi she wants to give God her
chamber labeled "Fallout Survival Shelter." Francis's difficulty in
"shriv'ness," wanting to absolve God for the evil he has done to
understanding these words illustrates how much meanings
her. Abbot Zerchi practically sputters in response, for it is not a
have changed and even disappeared in the 600 years
human being's place to forgive God. Still, in making this
following the nuclear war. For Francis these words are "pre-
scandalous remark, Mrs. Grales points to the problem of
Deluge English," and the things they refer to no longer exist.
theodicy: why is there evil in the world? The inversion
Thus, Francis's interpretation is mixed with wild imaginings as
continues as Rachel refuses baptism and instead offers
he thinks "fallouts" are some kind of monster. He also
communion to Abbot Zerchi, as though she were a priest. She
incorporates an old myth about salamanders being born in
also enigmatically tells him "live," as if commanding him to live,
flames. These lapses in knowledge indicate the level of culture
just as he commanded the woman to do. Abbot Zerchi sees in
in Francis's age: superstition and ignorance reign.
Rachel's eyes "primal innocence" and "a promise of
redemption." However, Rachel's hollow speech suggests
Zerchi may be wrong about her. The promise of resurrection
he sees in her just before he dies could be an illusion.
"'Pound pastrami ... can kraut, six
bagels, bring home for Emma.'"

g Quotes — Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 2

These words make up the content of two notes written by

"I'm not a sport, good simpleton."
20th-century electrical engineer Isaac Edward Leibowitz.
Brother Francis finds these notes—along with other
— Brother Francis, Part 1, Chapter 1
"Memorabilia," or valuable prewar texts—in an underground
fallout shelter.
Brother Francis is talking to the old pilgrim, who became
For readers of the novel, Leibowitz's notes are trivial and easy
frightened upon seeing him in the desert. He assures the old
to understand: they form a shopping list. Along with the
pilgrim he is not a "sport," that is, a mutant. Francis's short
shopping list and a blueprint, Francis also uncovers a "racing
sentence reveals much information about the world of A
form." These texts refer to a vanished world about which
Canticle for Leibowitz. Mutants are a danger, which indicates
Francis knows nothing. Hence, he cannot separate the trivial
nuclear radiation has affected this world. Additionally, the
from the significant when he interprets Leibowitz's writings.
narrator remarks Francis is using the "polite form of address."
In the 26th century it is polite to address a stranger as
"simpleton." After the nuclear war, people turned against the
learned for having invented nuclear weapons. Distrust for "There was no neat straight line
learning is now ingrained in the culture and inscribed in
separating the Natural from the
everyday language: "good simpleton."
Supernatural but ... an intermediate
twilight zone."
"Brother Francis visualized a
Fallout as half-salamander, — Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4

because ... the thing was born in

Abbot Arkos has angrily asked Brother Francis to affirm that
the Flame Deluge." the old pilgrim was just an old man. Francis, painfully honest,

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Quotes 41

cannot do this. To Arkos there are clearly opposite

explanations: a natural one and a supernatural one. The natural
explanation is that the old pilgrim is just an ordinary man. The
supernatural explanation is that the old pilgrim is the Blessed
Leibowitz, 600 years after his martyrdom. For Francis the
question of the identity of the old pilgrim is not so simple, for a
vast "intermediate twilight region" exists between the natural
and the supernatural. This is the position in which A Canticle
for Leibowitz leaves readers about the identity of the old
pilgrim —unable to say whether he is a mortal man or an
immortal saint.
"Such was the folly of princes, and
"Eat! Eat! Eat!"
— The pope's children, Part 1, Chapter 11
On the way back to the abbey after visiting New Rome, Brother
Francis returns to the scene of the robbery and tries to buy
back the stolen copy. The robber's henchmen— the pope's
children—find Francis and attack him. One of them shoots
Francis with an arrow, killing him. Another cries, "Eat! Eat! Eat!"
The words of the pope's children show their cannibalistic
appetites. The implication is that the attackers will devour
Francis's dead body and the monk will not receive a Christian
burial. However, the old pilgrim comes along and buries him.

there followed the Flame Deluge."

"Ego te absolvo, son."
— Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 6

— The Poet, Part 2, Chapter 23

In a style reminiscent of the biblical account of Noah and the
Flood, the narrator recounts the events of the "Flame Deluge."
The Poet says these words just before plunging a knife into the
In doing so the narrator uses elements of 20th-century
throat of the officer he found brutalizing a woman. For
theories of nuclear deterrence, particularly the theory of
intervening, the Poet was shot. As the officer and the Poet lie
"mutual assured destruction." The flaw—or folly—is that each
dying, the officer has been pleading for the sacrament of
"prince" reasons he can strike first and hardest and thus
confession, but the only person around is the Poet, who says
ensure victory without the attacked nation striking back.
the words of absolution: "Ego te absolvo" (I absolve you). Even
However, the result of the flaw is the Flame Deluge: all-out
though priests often call parishioners "son," in the Poet's voice,
nuclear war.
the combination of Latin and English sounds sarcastic. "Ego te
absolvo, son" sounds like a wisecrack. After he punishes the
man for his cruelty, the Poet, who has started out as a cynic,
"What a woman's work!" dies as a hero.

— The robber, Part 1, Chapter 10

"Cathartes aura regnans had
The robber says this in scorn when he learns Brother Francis
created the world especially for
spent 15 years working on the illuminated copy of the original
Leibowitz blueprint. The robber thinks the drawing is useless buzzards."
and can find no worse an insult than "a woman's work." This
comment indicates something about the robber's culture in — Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 23
which reputations are upheld by violence, goods are
distributed to those who take them most violently, and women
The narrator is representing the way buzzards look at the
are oppressed, violently. The robber's statement also points to
world. Feasting since Texarkana erupted in war, the buzzards
another aspect of A Canticle for Leibowitz: there are few
take this situation of plenty as their due. The species name for
women characters in it.
the American turkey buzzard, cathartes aura, also means
"golden purifier" because buzzards clean up carrion. Cathartes

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A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
aura regnans could be translated to mean "reigning turkey
buzzard." The buzzards imagine God as a big reigning buzzard
who has ordered the world so as to provide plenty of rotten
corpses. This concept shows that any of God's creatures have
only a partial understanding of God.
"I am commanding you by the
authority of Almighty God not to
lay hands on your child."
— Abbot Zerchi, Part 3, Chapter 28
Abbot Zerchi is talking to the woman who is suffering from
radiation poisoning and a fractured hip. She and her child are
on their way to the mercy camp where the woman will submit
herself and the child to euthanasia. Abbot Zerchi has been
arguing forcefully against euthanasia—"state-sponsored
suicide," in his words. After his argument falls on deaf ears, he
calls on his authority as a priest. In the end he fails, in part
because an officer at the camp intervenes.
The argument against euthanasia takes up a large part of the
final chapters and finally favors Zerchi's side. It is not right for
humans to decide when the end will come, either the end of a
life or the end of the world. Only God knows when a creature is
meant to die, and only God can bring about the end of time in
the form of Judgment Day.
"The wind threatened to send the
small flakes of Christ wandering."
— Narrator, Part 3, Chapter 29
Abbot Zerchi is trapped under tons of rubble. He has rescued a
ciborium, which holds the communion wafers—or, if already
been blessed, the Eucharist. Some of the wafers have been
scattered, and Abbot Zerchi tries to gather these "small flakes
of Christ." According to Roman Catholic doctrine, the
communion wafers actually become the body of Christ.
The word wandering brings Jesus—and Christians—together
with the legendary figure of the Wandering Jew, condemned to
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Quotes 42
wander Earth until the end of time. In A Canticle for Leibowitz,
after the end of the world, everyone becomes a wanderer. The
"flakes of Christ" are scattered, and monks have set out for the
stars. With their earthly home destroyed, Christians must wait
elsewhere for the Resurrection.
"Wrong blood, Lord, mine, not
Yours. Dealba me."
— Narrator, Part 3, Chapter 29
Although these are the narrator's words, the narrator is voicing
Abbot Zerchi's thoughts as he lies buried under rubble.
Considering he's trapped, he thinks to himself, "Anyone
needing the last rites? ... They'll have to drag themselves to
me." He sees some communion wafers have been scattered on
the ground, and he picks up the ones he can reach. In doing so
he stains the wafers with blood from his injured hands. He
thinks to himself, "Wrong blood, Lord, mine, not Yours. Dealba
me."
Abbot Zerchi means that the blood of Christ should be mixed
with the body of Christ in the sacrament of Communion, not his
own blood. Then he adds the words "dealba me," Latin for
"wash me" or more literally "whiten me." This is a reference to
several Bible passages, including Revelation 7:14, whose
narrator, John, refers to "those who have washed their robes
and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb." This is
also a key phrase in Catholic priests' "vesting prayers," the
prayers said as they don their vestments (sacred clothing):
"Make me white, O Lord, and cleanse my heart." Thus, Abbot
Zerchi speaks as if he is preparing to celebrate mass. He also
means that the blood of Christ should whiten him, not his own
blood. The next thing Abbot Zerchi hears is the voice of
Rachel, whom Mrs. Grales had hoped to have baptized. Having
said his vesting prayer, Abbot Zerchi is ready to baptize
Rachel, which in fact he decides to do. However, she refuses,
and in the end she gives Abbot Zerchi Communion.
"Inevitably, then ... we found only
their opposites: maximum
suffering and minimum security."
— Narrator, Part 3, Chapter 29
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
The narrator is voicing Abbot Zerchi's thoughts as he lies
dying. The goals of society, Zerchi thinks, have been to
maximize security and minimize suffering. In making peace and
plenty the only goals, and thus omitting spiritual goals, society
has achieved the opposite: terrible suffering and terrible
insecurity as the world threatens to collapse in nuclear war.
The mistake made by "society and Caesar" is that of trying to
recreate Eden on Earth, in trying to evade the suffering that is
the human lot.
"You're hurt."
— Rachel, Part 3, Chapter 29
As Zerchi lies trapped under the rubble, the two-headed
mutant woman he knew as Mrs. Grales comes upon him. The
Mrs. Grales head seems dead, and the Rachel head has come
alive. Seeing Rachel is wounded, Abbot Zerchi cries out,
"You're hurt!" Rachel hollowly echoes his words. The author
indicates the flatness of Rachel's emotional response by using
only lowercase letters for her words and leaving out the
exclamation point. Rachel seems to have no self; the "you" in
"You're hurt!" is only a sound to her. Similarly, when Abbot
Zerchi points at her, she doesn't understand he is indicating
her. Instead, she mimics Zerchi's gesture, pointing back at him,
and their fingertips touch, like God's and Adam's in the Sistine
Chapel's ceiling. Rachel has been granted "Edenic gifts," Zerchi
thinks. In her eyes he sees "primal innocence" and "a promise
of redemption." However, Rachel's hollow speech suggests
Zerchi may be wrong; the promise of resurrection he sees in
her just before he dies could be an illusion.
"The shark ... munched the whiting
and found them admirable, in the
sportive brutality of the sea."
— Narrator, Part 3, Chapter 30
The 27 monks have departed for the space colonies, leaving
Earth behind forever. Presumably there are still people on
Earth, but the world has been devastated again by nuclear war.
In the final paragraphs the narrative shifts focus from the land
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Symbols 43
to the sea and from human civilization to nature. By
commenting only on nature now, the narrator gives the
impression that all higher life forms have been destroyed. The
word sportive means "playful." In place of civilization now there
is only playful brutality.
l Symbols
The Poet's Glass Eye
The Poet's glass eye is a symbol of literature. The glass eye is
not a real organ of perception through which one can see the
world. Similarly, literature opens a view on a nonexistent, or
fictional, world. Through literature one cannot see the real
world, yet the Poet claims to see better when he wears his
glass eye. Dom Paulo says, "One never knows whether the
Poet is speaking fact, fancy, or allegory." Thus, one never
knows whether literature refers to the real world (fact), an
imaginary world (fancy), or a relationship between real and
imaginary (allegory). Allegory is a literary mode in which
symbolic or imaginary figures represent general truths about
real existence. The Poet's claims to see better out of his real
eye when he wears the glass eye means, allegorically, human
wisdom is greater when it includes literature. The Poet calls his
glass eye a "conscience," suggesting what literature supplies is
an ethical dimension. The English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe
Shelley (1792–1822) expressed a similar idea in his essay "The
Defence of Poetry," in which he called poets "the
unacknowledged legislators of the world." When Thon Taddeo
says he knows someone who could use the glass eye, he
probably means the ruler Hannegan. In Taddeo's view
Hannegan could use the counsel of poets and poetry.
Statue of Saint Leibowitz
The wooden statue of Saint Leibowitz is a symbol of the
fragility of human culture, the endurance of religious meanings,
and the comedy of human failings. The statue also seems to
confirm that the old pilgrim, with his different names, is
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
Leibowitz. In Part 1 Brother Fingo carves a wooden statue of
"the Martyr," the Blessed Leibowitz. He works so slowly that
Brother Francis can barely see the form of the statue, but
Francis notices that "the face of the carving was smiling a
vaguely familiar smile." Francis has forgotten "who had smiled
so wryly," but readers might remember the wry smile of the old
pilgrim. He smiles this same smile hundreds of years later when
he reappears as Lazarus and smiles wryly at Abbot Zerchi's
claim that "only a race of madmen" could start another nuclear
war. The old pilgrim, or perhaps Leibowitz, smiles because he
knows full well human beings are "a race of madmen."
Brother Fingo's wooden statue endures for hundreds and
hundreds of years. Abbot Zerchi approves of the blocky, stout
wooden figure, much more so than the "effeminate" paintings
of Jesus over the centuries: "the sweet-sick face, blank eyes,
simpering lips, and arms spread wide in a gesture of embrace."
In contrast he admires the wooden saint's "slightly satiric
smile." Indeed, Abbot Zerchi rescues the statue "from oblivion
because of that smile." Because it commemorates the
martyrdom of Saint Leibowitz, the statue also symbolizes how
human cultures can fall apart. It is a representation of
Leibowitz, martyred by a mob of book-burning "simpletons,"
standing on a pile of wood. "That's where all of us are standing
now," thinks Abbot Zerchi.
m Themes
Church and State
In A Canticle for Leibowitz the theme of church and state
suggests the conflicts between them are not easy to solve and
people may have to choose one over the other. In Part 1 the
Church alone has retained a level of civilization while all around
it exists the brutality of warlords and feudalism. Walter M.
Miller Jr. often uses the figure of Caesar to mean the state. In
this sense Caesar means any emperor of Rome and, by
extension, any earthly ruler. The Bible also uses the word
Caesar this way, as when Jesus is asked whether it is right to
pay taxes to the state. "Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," Jesus says in
Mark 12:17. This comment suggests there is no conflict—God
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Themes 44
and Caesar have separate spheres—but in A Canticle for
Leibowitz there is conflict.
"We have to be courteous to Caesar and his kin whether we
like him or not," says Dom Paulo when the secular scholar
Thon Taddeo visits the abbey. Taddeo is related to Hannegan,
the mayor of Texarkana, and is therefore kin to "Caesar."
However, it is not always possible to remain courteous to
"Caesar." For example, soon after Thon Taddeo arrives, his
kinsman Hannegan makes war on Laredo and Denver, laying
waste and causing people to flee. Abbot Zerchi, in Part 3,
eventually defies the state by picketing the state-run
euthanasia center.
For Abbot Zerchi the solution to the tension between church
and state is to put the church in charge, or rather, to put God in
charge. "God's to be obeyed by nations as by men," thinks
Abbot Zerchi, and "Caesar's to be [God's] policeman, not His ...
successor, not His heir." The trouble comes when the state
puts itself in the place of God, in Abbot Zerchi's view. "Caesar's
divinity is showing again," says Abbot Zerchi, meaning the state
is trying to assume for itself the powers of God.
Wandering
The theme of wandering in A Canticle for Leibowitz suggests
that all remaining humans will become wanderers after nuclear
war. Many of the thematic mentions of wandering come from
the legend of the Wandering Jew, with whom the novel's
wanderer, the multinamed old pilgrim, shares characteristics.
According to the story, as Jesus walked to his Crucifixion, he
asked a Jewish man if he could rest on his doorstep. The man
refused, and in some versions of the legend he taunted Jesus.
In response, Jesus told this man he must wander Earth until
Jesus's return at the end of time. This curse effectively makes
the Wandering Jew both immortal and condemned to
permanent homelessness. The legend has no support in the
Bible. It is merely a legend and has been used at times for anti-
Semitic purposes. For example, the legend represents Jews as
enemies of Jesus although Jesus himself was Jewish. The
Wandering Jew of A Canticle for Leibowitz does not assume
any anti-Semitic significance. Instead, wandering is the state
everyone enters after nuclear war destroys the world.
Other thematic mentions also show wandering as everyone's
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide
condition, not just that of Jews. The Church's secret plan to go
into exile in the space colonies is nicknamed Quo peregrinatur,
or "where it wanders." The name is part of a longer quotation
meaning "Where the flock wanders, the pastor follows." When
Cardinal Hoffstraff sends a message to say the plan has been
activated, he writes, "Grex peregrinus erit," which could be
translated as "the flock becomes a wanderer."
Cyclical Time versus End
Times
In the course of A Canticle for Leibowitz humanity goes from
advanced civilization to dark age, to another advanced
civilization, and finally ends on the brink of another dark age.
The scraps of knowledge saved by Leibowitz Abbey enable
renewed scholarship, which leads to nuclear weapons, which
lead again to destruction. "Have we no choice but to play the
Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall?" wonders
Abbot Zerchi. The phoenix is a legendary bird said to have
been born again and again from its own ashes. Zerchi then
thinks about the many empires that have risen and fallen:
"Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece ... Spain, France, Britain,
America."
The point of cyclical time in the novel, however, is not to
suggest these cycles will never end. The sequences of the rise
and fall of earthly powers stand in contrast to the theme of
linear time. Lying buried in rubble, Abbot Zerchi senses the
world has already ended, "as if the last prayer had already
been said, the last canticle already sung." However, even when
earthly empires have fallen, the Kingdom of Heaven is still to
come, according to Christian belief. The cycles will end when
the Christian prophecy comes true. When Jesus returns, the
Wandering Jew will at last rest, and the cycles of rising and
falling empires will cease.
However, A Canticle for Leibowitz is not a straightforward
religious pamphlet, exhorting readers to believe, even though
many of its characters are Christian monks of varying degrees
of faith. In Part 1 the scrupulously honest Brother Francis
cannot say for sure whether the old pilgrim is "Natural" or
"Supernatural": an ordinary man or a saint. This is the situation,
regarding questions of faith, in which the author leaves
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Themes 45
readers. The old pilgrim seems to be the miraculously immortal
Wandering Jew, but the author also takes pains to provide a
natural, psychological explanation as well: the old pilgrim may
be a Jewish man driven mad by grief and loneliness. Abbot
Zerchi appears to receive communion from a new Eve, in the
person of Rachel, but it is possible he is simply tormented by
the echoes of the mutant woman's babbling as he dies.
Decline of Meaning and Growth
of Legends
Walter M. Miller Jr. uses "pre-Deluge English" to enable
readers to understand more about the discovered texts than
the monks themselves do. For example, Brother Francis
stumbles over the phrase fallout survival shelter when readers
can easily understand it as a place in which to survive nuclear
fallout. The difference in reading comprehension between the
20th century and the 26th century suggests the ways
meanings provided by humans can decline.
In Part 2 Dom Paulo thinks about the decline of meaning.
Before the "Flame Deluge," a 20th-century nuclear war, some
"proud thinkers had claimed valid knowledge was
indestructible—that ideas were deathless and truth immortal."
Dom Paulo sees it differently. God's truth and God's meanings
are immortal. In "Man," God's truths find "an imperfect
incarnation, a dark reflection, within the mind and speech and
culture of a given human society." When that society dies, or
ages, its already imperfect truths start to come apart. Human
"cultures were not immortal and they could die with a race or
an age," thinks Dom Paulo. The point of showing Francis
struggling with the now-indecipherable "pre-Deluge English" is
to contrast mortal human meanings with the deathless, eternal
meanings of God.
The decline of meaning has a corollary, or corresponding
result, in the novel. Just as human meanings decline, they also
grow, as in the growth of legends. Brother Francis's encounter
with the old pilgrim is gradually transformed into the legend of
a meeting with Saint Leibowitz, complete with a heavenly choir
and "carpet of roses." Brother Francis insists none of that
happened. This contradiction opens the possibility that
nothing—or almost nothing—about Saint Leibowitz is true. It
A Canticle for Leibowitz Study Guide Themes 46

seems true he was an electrical engineer who had a wife

named Emily or Emma and who wrote a note about picking up
pastrami. Did he convert to Catholicism and die a martyr,
however? All such testimony comes only from the same people
who talk about the carpet of roses.

The growth of religious legends does not mean religion is a lie.

On the contrary, because human interpretation of God's
meanings is imperfect, there will always be distortions, dark
reflections, and even falsehoods in the stories with which
people try to comprehend God's meanings. Disproving the
carpet of roses story does not disprove the existence of God
or the validity of his meanings.

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