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Having reached the end of my poor sinner's life...
... I prepare to leave, on this parchment, my testimony...
... as to the wondrous and terrible events that I witnessed in my youth...
... towards the end of the year of our Lord, 1327.
May God grant me the wisdom and grace...
... to be the faithful chronicler of the happenings that took place...
... in a remote abbey in the dark north of Italy.
An abbey whose name it seems even now...
... pious and prudent to omit.
May my hand not tremble now that I start to relive the past...
... and revive the feelings of uneasiness that oppressed my heart...
... as we entered the battlements.
Should we tell him?
No.
He will look in the wrong places.
But...
...what if he should learn it of his own accord?
You overestimate his talents, my lord abbot.
There is only one authority capable of investigating such matters.
The Holy Inquisition.
What is your opinion, Venerable Jorge?
Dear brethren...
...I leave such worldly matters to younger men.
Adso.
Yes, master? In order to command nature...
...one must first learn to obey it.
Return to the forecourts, get the edificium on your left...
...enter the quadrangle on your right, you'll find the place you need.
Behind the third arch.
But you told me you'd never been to this abbey.
When we arrived, I saw a brother making for the spot in some haste.
I noticed, however, that he emerged more slowly...
...with an air of contentment.
Thank you, master.
On behalf of the Benedictine order, I am honored to welcome you...
...and your Franciscan brothers to our abbey.
The other delegates, they have arrived?
Ubertino de Casale has been here for some weeks.
The others are due tomorrow.
You must be very tired after your long journey.
No.
Not particularly.
I trust you're not in need of anything?
No. Thank you.
Well...
Well, then I bid you peace.
I'm sorry to see one of your brethren has recently been gathered unto God.
Yes, a terrible loss.
Brother Adelmo was one of our finest illuminators.
- Not Adelmo of Otranto. - You knew him?
No, but I knew and admired his work.
His humor and comic images...
...were almost infamous.
- But he was said to be a young man. - Oh, yes.
Yes, very young indeed.
- An accident, no doubt? - Yes.
Yes, as you say, an accident.
Well, that is, I...
Brother William...
...may I speak with you candidly?
You seem most anxious to do so.
When I heard you were coming to our abbey...
...I thought it was an answer to my prayers.
"Here," I said, "is a man who has knowledge, both of the human spirit...
...and of the wiles of the evil one."
The fact is, Adelmo's death has caused much spiritual unease among my flock.
This is my novice, Adso...
...the youngest son of the Baron of Melk.
Please do continue.
We found the body after a hailstorm...
...horribly mutilated, dashed against a rock at the foot of the tower...
...under a window, which was...
How shall I say this?
- Which was... - Which was found closed.
- Somebody told you. - Had it been found open...
...you would have concluded that he'd fallen.
Brother William...
...the window cannot be opened...
...nor was the glass shattered...
...nor is there any access to the roof above.
Oh, I see.
And because you can offer no natural explanation...
...your monks suspect the presence of a supernatural force within these walls.
That's why I need the counsel...
...of an acute man such as you, Brother William.
Acute in uncovering...
...and prudent, if necessary...
...in covering up...
...before the papal delegates arrive.
Surely you know, my lord, I no longer deal in such matters.
I am indeed reluctant to burden you with my dilemma...
...but unless I can put the minds of my flock at rest...
...I will have no alternative but to summon the help of the Inquisition.
Adso!
That is Ubertino de Casale...
...one of the great spiritual leaders of our order.
Come.
Many revere him as a living saint...
...but others would have him burned as a heretic.
His book on the poverty of the clergy isn't favored reading in papal palaces.
So now he lives in hiding like an outlaw.
Fellow Franciscans...
...you must leave this place at once.
The devil is roaming this abbey.
Ubertino...
...it's William.
William of Baskerville.
William...?
No.
William is dead.
William, my son...
...forgive me.
We had lost trace of you for so long.
I tried very hard to be forgotten.
When we heard of your troubles...
...I prayed to our virgin for a miracle.
Then your prayers met with a favorable response.
This is my young novice, Adso of Melk.
His father has entrusted me with his education and welfare.
You must get him out of here!
Have you not heard, the devil is hurling beautiful boys out of windows?
There was something...
...feminine...
...something diabolical...
...about the young one who died.
He had the eyes of a girl...
...seeking intercourse with the devil.
Beware of this place.
The beast is still among us.
I can sense him now, here...
...within these very walls.
I'm afraid, William...
...for you, for me...
...for the outcome of this debate.
Oh... My son.
The times we live in.
But let us not frighten...
...our young friend here.
She's beautiful, is she not?
When the female...
...by nature, so perverse...
...becomes sublime by holiness...
...then she can be the noblest vehicle of grace.
IN LATIN:
- I don't like this place. Really?
I find it most stimulating. Come.
Adso, we must not allow ourselves to be influenced...
...by irrational rumors of the Antichrist.
Let us instead exercise our brains...
...and try to solve this tantalizing conundrum.
IN LATIN:
My master trusted Aristotle, the Greek philosophers...
... and the faculties of his own remarkable, logical intelligence.
Unhappily, my fears were not mere phantoms of my youthful imagination.
A rather dark end for such a brilliant illuminator.
Another generous donation by the church to the poor.
Now, what if it wasn't that tower that he fell from...
...but somewhere over there, and then the body rolled all the way down here?
Adso?
No devil needed anymore.
Yes. More blood here.
That's where he fell from. He jumped.
Adso, are you paying attention?
Yes. He jumped.
He jumped? You mean that he committed suicide?
Yes. Why else would someone go up there at night in a hailstorm?
- Certainly not to admire the landscape. - No. Perhaps...
Perhaps someone murdered him.
And then toiled all the way up there with the body?
Easier to get rid of it through that sluice gate they pour charity through.
No, no. My dear Adso...
...it's elementary.
Suicide.
Do you think that this...
...is a place abandoned by God?
Have you ever known a place where God would have felt at home?
We praise almighty God...
...that there are no grounds for suspecting an evil spirit among us...
...either of this world or another.
We praise our Lord that the debate...
...which we are so greatly honored to host...
...may now proceed without a shadow of fear.
We also praise the Almighty for sending Brother William of Baskerville...
...whose experience in previous duties...
...although onerous to him...
...has been of such service to us here.
May serenity and spiritual peace...
...reign once more in our hearts.
IN LATIN:
Master? Hmm?
If I may ask, what...
..."onerous duties"...
...was the abbot talking about?
Were you not always a monk?
Even monks have pasts, Adso.
Now, do try to sleep.
I just...
Yes, master.
IN LATIN:
The beast...
The virgin...
This one, I grant you, did not commit suicide.
- Water! Here.
I am to blame.
Had I not been so eager to believe your convenient explanation...
...this might have been prevented.
I am absolutely convinced that Brother Adelmo took his own life.
- Now, whether... - Then the hail...
Whether this death is connected in any way with it, I intend to find...
after the hailstorm...
...with the second trumpet...
...the sea became blood...
...and behold...
...here is blood.
- The prophecy of the apocalypse! - The third trumpet.
A burning star...
...will fall in fountains of water.
Do not squander! The last seven days!
Grated stem of waterwort for treating diarrhea.
And as for onions...
...administered in small quantities, warm and moist...
...they help prolong the male erection...
...in those who have not taken our vows, naturally.
Do you find many circumstances...
...in which you apply arsenic, Brother Severinus?
Yes, indeed. It is a most effective remedy for nervous disorders...
...if taken as a compound in small doses.
And what of not-so-small doses?
Death.
What was this man's function here?
He was our finest translator of Greek...
...entirely devoted to the works of Aristotle.
Was he on friendly terms with the handsome young Adelmo?
Oh, indeed so. They worked together in the scriptorium.
But in a brotherly way, you understand. Not like...
I mean, flesh can be tempted according to nature...
...or against nature.
And they were not of the latter disposition...
...if you ascertain my meaning.
Watch out for the dracul who cometh in futurum to gnaw on your anima!
Ugly con Salvatore, eh?
My little brother, penitenziagite.
"Penitenziagite."
You said, "penitenziagite." I heard you.
Master?
What language was he speaking?
All languages, and none.
And what was the word you both kept mentioning?
Penitenziagite.
- What does it mean? - It means the hunchback, undoubtedly...
...was once a heretic.
Penitenziagite was the rallying cry of the Dolcinites.
Dolcinites? Who were they, master?
Those who believed in the poverty of Christ.
So do we Franciscans.
But they also declared that everyone must be poor.
So they slaughtered the rich.
You see, Adso...
...the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy...
...is all too brief.
Well, then, could he not have killed the translator?
No. No. Fat bishops and wealthy priests...
...were more to the taste of the Dolcinites.
Hardly a specialist of Aristotle.
But, yes, you're right. We must keep an open mind.
Hmm...
We are very fortunate to have such snowy ground here.
It's the parchment on which the criminal unwittingly writes his autograph.
Now, what do you read from these footprints here?
That they are...
...twice as deep as the others. - Good, Adso.
And thus we may conclude...?
- Well, that the man was very heavy. - Precisely.
And why was he very heavy?
Because...
...he was very fat? - Or because he was being burdened...
...with the weight of another man.
Let us commit the autograph of this sole...
...to our memory.
But the footprints lead away from the jar...
...in this direction.
Oh, you turnip, Adso. You're discounting the possibility...
...that the man was walking backwards, dragging the body thus...
Hence, the furrows created by the heels.
Now, where did the erudite Greek translator...
...meet the anonymous author of his death?
Hmm?
Brother librarian.
Perhaps you will permit us to examine the work of the two unfortunates...
...so distressingly gathered unto God.
Your request is most unusual.
As are the circumstances of their deaths.
Brother Adelmo sat there.
Thank you.
IN LATIN:
A donkey teaching the scriptures to the bishops. Hmm.
The pope is a fox.
The abbot is a monkey.
He really had a daring talent...
...for comic images.
IN LA TIN:
I trust my words did not offend you, Brother William...
...but I heard persons laughing at laughable things.
You Franciscans, however, belong to an order where merriment...
...is viewed with indulgence. - Yes, it's true.
St. Francis was much disposed to laughter.
Laughter is a devilish wind...
...which deforms the lineaments of the face...
...and makes men look like monkeys.
Monkeys do not laugh.
Laughter is particular to man.
As is sin.
- Christ never laughed. - Can we be so sure?
There is nothing in the scriptures to say that he did.
Nothing in the scriptures says that he did not.
Even the saints have employed comedy...
...to ridicule the enemies of the faith.
For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurus into the boiling water...
...he complained his bath was too cold. The sultan put his hand in, scalded it.
A saint immersed in boiling water does not play childish tricks.
He restrains his cries and suffers for the truth.
And yet, Aristotle devoted his second book of Poetics...
...to comedy as an instrument of truth.
- You have read this work? - No, of course not.
- It's been lost for many centuries. - No, it has not. It was never written.
Because providence doesn't want futile things glorified.
- Oh, that I must contest... - Enough!
This abbey's overshadowed by grief...
...yet you would intrude on our sorrow with idle banter!
Forgive me, Venerable Jorge. My remarks were truly out of place.
- Which was the Greek translator's desk? This one.
Come, Adso.
Well, Adso, what did you deduce from that visit?
That we are not meant to laugh in there.
But did you notice how few books there were on the scriptorium shelves?
All those scriveners, copyists, translators, researchers, thinkers...
But where are the multitude of books that they need for their work?
And for which this abbey is famed? Where are the books?
- Are you testing me, master? - What do you mean?
Well, with all due respect...
...it seems that whenever you ask me a question, you already have the answer.
- Do you know where the books are? - No.
But I'll wager my faith that that tower contains something other than air.
Did you notice that little door the librarian closed as we came in?
Yes. Could that lead to the library?
Master! Master, quick! I have him!
Stop! Enough! Master, he tried to kill us!
Salvatore!
Please, my lord, don't talk to the abbot about his past.
He's innocent of the deaths in this abbey. I swear it.
Brother, we need you. My price is some information.
I could not comprehend why my master so quickly dismissed...
... my suspicions of the heretical hunchback...
... and why it was so urgent that we visit the tower.
I assumed he could not resist the temptation...
... to penetrate the library and look at the books.
No lock. Just as I thought, it must be bolted from the inside.
How do we get in?
Well, obviously, there must be another entrance.
Let us see what the moon-faced assistant librarian...
...was trying to conceal from us this morning, shall we?
Tiny Greek letters, perhaps written by an ant with inky feet.
Ah, yes.
Written with lemon juice.
Sagittarius.
The sun.
Mercury.
Scorpio.
It's some zodiacal code giving directions, but to where?
Hey! Who's there?
Who's there?
- My magnifying glasses! They were on that book.
You go that way.
Come on out, you little bitch.
I know you are here. I can smell you.
What's the matter with you, huh? Are you afraid of me?
Huh?
I'll find you.
Who was she?
Who was this creature that rose like the dawn...
... was bewitching as the moon, radiant as the sun...
... terrible as an army poised for battle?
Good evening, Salvatore.
This is where you catch them?
You see, they are piu grasso. Bigger, eh?
You...
You eat them?
You like?
Thank you, no. No.
As you're a good Christian, you must tell me this.
So Adelmo gave the parchment to Berengar.
No, no.
To the translo... The transla...
Translator! Venantius, the black monk.
- And what happened then? - Then...
Master! In here, quick. I found another one.
Where are your wits, boy? Have you ever met anyone...
...with a rib cage large enough to accommodate a heart of that dimension?
No.
It is the heart of an ox.
One of the monks probably gave it to that peasant girl...
...in exchange for her favors.
Girl? Well, what...?
The one I saw scuttling out of here.
- He must have been a very ugly monk. Why ugly?
If he'd been young and beautiful...
...she would no doubt have blessed him with her carnal favors for nothing.
In any event, whatever happened in this dreadful kitchen...
...has no bearing on our investigations.
Salvatore convinced me that Brother Berengar, the assistant librarian...
...is the key to the whole enigma. What did you say?
Nothing, master. - Good.
Master?
There's something I must tell you.
I know.
Then will you hear my confession?
Well, I'd rather you told me first as a friend.
Master.
Have you...
...ever been...
...in love?
In love? Yeah. Many times.
- You were? - Yes, of course.
Aristotle, Ovid, Virgil...
- No, no, no. I meant with a... - Ah.
Are you not confusing love with lust?
Am I?
I don't know.
I want only her own good.
I want her to be happy.
I want to save her from her poverty.
- Oh, dear. - Why "oh, dear"?
You are in love.
Is that bad?
For a monk, it does present certain problems.
But doesn't St. Thomas Aquinas praise love above all other virtues?
Yes. The love of God, Adso. The love of God.
And the love of woman?
Of woman, Thomas Aquinas knew precious little.
But the scriptures are very clear.
Proverbs warns us, "Woman takes possession of a man's precious soul."
While Ecclesiastes tells us, "More bitter than death is woman."
Yes, but...
- What do you think, master? - Well...
Of course, I don't have the benefit of your experience.
But I find it difficult to convince myself...
...that God would have introduced such a foul being into creation...
...without endowing her with some virtues. Hmm?
How peaceful life would be without love, Adso.
How safe.
How tranquil.
And how dull.
How beautiful. Lord, you have guided our steps...
...to this refuge of spiritual peace...
...because you wish for reconciliation as much as we Franciscans.
- Let us go, brothers. Thy will be done, O Lord.
Amen. Amen.
Brother Berengar?
He's probably hiding somewhere...
...with the book and my magnifying glasses.
Brother Berengar.
Master, look. The door.
Ah.
Brother Malachia. I was just looking for your assistant, Brother Berengar.
- Is he here? - No.
Oh, I see.
- Do you know where we might find him? - No.
- Is he perhaps upstairs in the library? - No.
I am curious to see the library for myself.
- May I do so? - No.
Why not?
It is a strict rule of the abbot that no one is permitted...
...to enter the abbey library other than myself and my assistant.
I see.
Thank you again.
Maybe something's happened to him.
- Maybe we'll find him in water. - What?
The third trumpet, master, as Ubertino said.
- The book of Revelation. - That is not the book we're after.
You call this chicken, do you? It looks more like a sparrow.
Welcome to our abbey, Brother Michele, and to your fellow Franciscan delegates.
Hey, you, paesano! Go! You get in line like the others. Go!
Unhand me! - Salvatore, let him go.
This is Cuthbert of Winchester, one of our most esteemed Franciscan guests.
Come, Your Grace. We have a most urgent matter to discuss.
The abbot and his colleagues seem convinced...
...that the devil is at work within these walls.
He is.
The only evidence I see of the devil...
...is everyone's desire to see him at work.
What if Ubertino is right and you wrong?
Don't forget this debate is crucial to us all.
We suspect the pope wants to crush our order.
Yes, and declare us all heretics.
I only have one brother to question, and the entire matter is resolved.
William, we place our trust in you.
Pray God you do not abuse it.
Brother William.
Did you find a book in Greek?
No.
I was right.
So was the book of Revelation.
- We must talk at once. - Indeed, we must.
And I have much to tell.
Just as soon as he and I have examined this corpse.
Lime leaves in the bath are always used to alleviate pain.
- He was left-handed. Yes, yes.
Brother Berengar was inverted in many ways.
Are there other left-handed brothers in the abbey here?
None that I know of.
Ink stains.
He did not write with his tongue, I presume.
- A few lines of Greek. Yes.
Written by Venantius.
Some random notes from the book he was reading just before he died.
Do you see how the calligraphy changes?
From this point on, he was dying.
And what, my lord, do you conclude from that?
A smudge of blue paint.
Yes, but a unique smudge of blue...
...blended by your finest illuminator, Brother Adelmo...
...who possessed this parchment before Venantius.
And how do we know that? Because those random notes...
...overrun Adelmo's blue smudge, and not vice versa.
Brother William, this abbey is enshrouded in a terrifying mystery.
Yet I detect nothing in your obscure dissertation...
...that sheds any light upon it.
Light.
Someone was at great pains to conceal a secret of the first magnitude.
Now, the calligraphy is, without question, left-handed.
And the only left-handed member of your community is...
...or rather was, Brother Berengar, the assistant librarian.
Now, what kind of secret knowledge would he have been privy to?
I have the feeling that you're about to tell me.
Books. Restricted books.
Spiritually dangerous books.
Everyone here knew of the assistant librarian's passion for handsome boys.
When the beautiful Adelmo wanted to read such a forbidden book...
...Berengar offered Adelmo the key to its whereabouts...
...enciphered on that parchment...
...in exchange for unnatural caresses. - Enough, Brother William!
Adelmo agreed and duly submitted to Berengar's lustful advances.
Afterwards, wracked by remorse, he wandered...
... crying and desperate in the graveyard, where he met the Greek translator.
- How could you know this? - There was a witness.
The hunchback...
... who saw Adelmo giving this parchment to Venantius.
Then running towards the small tower and hurling himself out of the window.
The night of my arrival, while Berengar punished his sinful flesh...
... Venantius, helped by the coded instructions on the parchment...
... made his way into the forbidden library and found the book.
He took it back to his desk in the scriptorium and began to read it.
After scribbling down those few mysterious quotations...
... he died with a black stain on his finger.
The assistant librarian discovered the body...
... and dragged it down to the pigpens to avert suspicion falling on him.
But he left his autograph behind.
The book remained on the translator's desk.
Berengar returned there last night and read it.
Soon after, overcome by some agonizing pain...
... he tried to take a soothing bath with lime leaves and drowned.
He, too, had a blackened finger.
All three died because of a book which kills...
...or for which men will kill.
I therefore urge you to grant me access to the library.
Brother William!
Your pride blinds you.
By idolizing reason...
...you fail to see what is obvious to everyone in this abbey.
They have arrived, the papal delegation. Bernardo Gui...
Thank you, Brother William.
We are mindful of your efforts...
...but I should now ask you...
...to refrain from further investigations.
Happily, there will be someone arriving with the papal delegation...
...who is well-versed in the wiles of the evil one.
A man, I believe, you know only too well.
Bernardo Gui...
...of the Inquisition.
Master.
Who is Bernardo Gui?
William! I've been searching the entire abbey for you.
Michele wishes to speak with you at once.
Alone.
Do you know who is coming? - I know, I know. Bernardo Gui.
Ubertino must be moved to a safe place.
The arrangements have been made. It is you that concerns us, William.
You must now put aside these totally irrelevant investigations.
- And erroneous conclusions. - It is the truth, and I am right.
William is right. William is always right!
No matter what the consequences, to himself or anyone else...
...William of Baskerville must always prove himself right.
Was it not your vanity, your stubborn intellectual pride...
...that brought you into conflict with Bernardo before?
Do not tempt fate twice, William.
Even the emperor won't be able to save you if you tangle with Bernardo again.
My flesh had forgotten the sinful pleasure that our union had given me...
... but my soul could not forget her.
And now...
Now that I saw her in the midst of her poverty and squalor...
... I praised God in my heart that I was a Franciscan.
I wanted her to know that I did not belong to this rapacious abbey...
... but to an order dedicated to lifting her people out of their physical destitution...
... and spiritual deprivation.
Farewell, William.
You are mad and arrogant...
...but I love you and shall never cease to pray for you.
Goodbye, dear child.
Try not to learn too many bad examples from your master.
He thinks too much.
Relying always on the deductions of his head...
...instead of trusting in the prophetic...
...capacities of his heart.
Learn to mortify your intelligence.
Weep over the wounds of our Lord!
Oh. And do throw away those books!
There is a side of Ubertino that I truly envy.
Remember, fear the last trumpet, my friends.
The next will fall from the sky, and then will come 1000 scorpions.
Yes, yes. We won't forget.
Which one frightens you most?
- They all do. - No. Look closely.
- That one. - My choice exactly.
Well...
After you.
Those are the foundations of the tower.
But how we reach the library...
The rats love parchment even more than scholars do.
Let's follow him.
166. Bolted scriptorium door. 167, 168, 169, 170.
317, 318...
Oh...
I knew it!
Adso! I knew it!
Adso, do you realize...
...we're in one of the greatest libraries in the whole of Christendom?
How will we find the book we're looking for?
In time.
Oh... The Beatus of Liébana.
That, Adso, is a masterpiece.
And this is the version annotated by Umberto de Bologna.
How many more rooms, huh? How many more books?
No one should be forbidden to consult these books freely.
Perhaps they are thought to be too precious, too fragile.
No. It's not that, Adso.
It's because they often contain a wisdom different from ours...
...and ideas that could encourage us to doubt...
...the infallibility of the word of God.
Master?
And doubt, Adso, is the enemy of faith.
Master?
Master!
Wait for me!
But I am waiting for you.
But I can hear you walking.
I'm not walking, Adso. I'm down here.
Is that you up there?
Where are you, boy?
I'm lost!
Well, Adso...
...it would appear that we're in a labyrinth.
Are you still there?
Yes.
How will we get out?
With some difficulty...
...if at all.
You see, Adso, that is the charm of a labyrinth.
Adso, stay calm.
Open a book and read aloud.
Leave the room you're in and keep turning left.
"Love does not originate as an illness...
...but is transformed into it when it becomes obsessive.
The Muslim theologian Ahmed Hasim states...
...that the lovesick person does not want to be healed...
...and his dreams cause irregular breathing and quicken the pulse.
He identifies amorous melancholia with lycanthropy...
...a disease that induces wolflike behavior in its victims.
The lover's outward appearance begins to change.
Soon his eyesight fails, his lips shrivel...
...his face becomes covered with pustules and scabs.
Marks resembling the bites of a dog appear on his face...
...and he ends his days by prowling graveyards...
...at night...
...like a wolf."
Master, I can see a lantern.
Don't move. Stay where you are.
I can see a man. He stopped.
What is he doing?
He's raising his lantern.
How many times?
Three times.
It is I. Raise your lantern.
Look! There!
You foolish boy.
It's only a mirror.
Master!
- The books, boy! Save the books! - I'm trying to save you!
A trap door and a mirror. We must be almost there.
If I have deciphered the instructions...
...of the Greek translator correctly...
You did not think me so foolish...
...as to surrender our parchment to the abbot without making a copy?
"Manus supra idolum, age primum et septimus de quatuor" is what?
"With the hand above the idol...
...press the first and the seventh of four."
Very good.
What idol?
That is what we're here to find out.
And the first and the seventh of four what?
If I had the answers to everything, I'd be teaching theology in Paris.
And again.
Do you hear that?
- It's my teeth, master. - What?
My teeth.
Don't be afraid.
I'm not afraid. I'm cold.
Oh. Well, we shall return.
Don't leave on my account.
No, no, no. I must confess, it eludes me for the moment.
Now, let me see...
To find your way out of the labyrinth...
...when you come to a fork, you mark it with an arrow... No, no, no. No.
Master?
Please, dear boy. I'm thinking.
- lf there are arrows at the forks... - Master!
Well done, boy!
Your classical education serves us well.
Thank you.
Lucifer, be at my service.
Lord Bernardo, look what we found!
Search the creature.
My lord abbot, you invited me to investigate the presence...
...of the evil one in your abbey...
And I have already found it.
How many times have I seen these objects of devil worship:
The black cockerel and the black cat?
But she did it for the food, not the devil.
William of Baskerville must surely recall the trial he presided over...
...in which a woman confessed to having intercourse with a demon...
...in the form of a black cat.
I'm very sure that you don't have to draw on my past experiences...
...to formulate your conclusions, Lord Bernardo.
No, indeed. Not when faced with such irrefutable evidence.
A witch! A seduced monk! Satanic rites!
Tomorrow...
...we endeavor to learn if these events are connected...
...with the even graver mystery that afflicts your abbey.
Lock them up that we may all sleep safely tonight.
You said... You said nothing.
I said nothing...
...because there was nothing to be said.
You're ready enough to speak the truth...
...when it comes to books and ideas.
She is already burnt flesh, Adso.
Bernardo Gui has spoken. She is a witch.
But that's not true, and you know it.
I know.
I also know that anyone who disputes the verdict of an inquisitor...
...is guilty of heresy.
You seem to know a lot about it.
Oh, yes.
Won't you tell me...
...as a friend?
Well, there's not much to tell.
I too was an inquisitor...
...but in the early days, when the Inquisition strove to guide...
...not to punish.
And once I had to preside at the trial of a man...
...whose only crime was to have translated a Greek book...
...that conflicted with the holy scriptures.
Bernardo Gui wanted him condemned as a heretic.
I acquitted the man.
Then Bernardo Gui accused me of heresy for having defended him.
I appealed to the pope.
I was put in prison...
...tortured...
...and I recanted.
What happened then?
The man was burned at the stake.
And I am still alive.
Brother Salvatore...
...these torments will cause me as much pain as you.
But you can put an end to them before we even begin.
Open the gates of your heart. Search the depths of your soul.
Search.
I search!
I search. I search.
Then tell me...
...who, among your brethren...
...is the heretic responsible for these murders?
Me don't know nothing.
Did I lie awake that night suffering for the girl or for myself?
I did not know.
With the dawn came the envoys of the pope...
... our adversaries in the forthcoming debate.
But it meant so little to me now.
Your Eminence, venerable brothers...
...at last we meet for this long-awaited debate.
We have all journeyed great distances in order to put an end to the dispute...
...that has so gravely impaired the unity of our Holy Mother Church.
Good people throughout Christendom...
...are directing their gaze at these venerable walls...
...anxiously awaiting our answer to the vexed question:
Did Christ...
...or did he not...
...own the clothes that he wore?
Beloved brethren of the Franciscan order.
Our Holy Father, the pope, has authorized me and these, his faithful servants...
...to speak on his behalf.
The question is not whether Christ was poor...
...but whether the church should be poor.
You Franciscans wish to see the clergy renounce its possessions...
...and surrender its riches...
...the abbeys dissipate their sacred treasures...
...and hand over their fertile acres to the serfs...
I found the book.
I found it in the dispensary.
A book in Greek was hidden behind one of my jars.
Don't touch it.
Return. Lock yourself inside.
I'll be there just as soon as I can.
Thereby depriving the church of the resources needed...
...to combat unbelievers and wage war on the infidel.
You forget that even the greatest monument to our Lord...
...is but a pale reflection of his infinite majesty and glory...
...far outstripping the church...
Quick, Father, quick.
Salvatore has confessed to his radical past, and yours.
You have but little time to escape the flames.
Thank you, brother.
Where are you going? Let me go. I'm the cellarer.
Come with us!
You call the pope's province "God's palace on earth"?
Answer that!
They are a sign that reconciliation...
The gospels state categorically that Christ possessed a purse.
That is a lie! You know it!
The Lord commanded his disciples on no less than seven occasions:
- "Carry neither gold..." - Venerable brothers!
Brethren, if you please!
A matter has occurred of the utmost gravity.
Let me go! I swear, I didn't kill him!
I was at the granary taking the inventory!
I never killed anyone! I swear it!
Then explain to us the purpose of your escape.
I was...
I had already ordered your arrest on other charges.
I see now that I was correct.
Had someone else not chosen to look in the wrong direction...
...several men of God might still be with us.
"To use vulgar persons.
Take pleasure from their defects."
Please, dear boy. I am trying to think!
So am I, master. So am I!
Then try using your head instead of your heart...
...and we might make some progress.
A book's more important than people to you?
Did I say that they were?
You never seem to care about anyone.
Couldn't you at least show a little pity?
Perhaps that is the style of my pity.
But pity won't save her from the fire.
I remind all present that they are bound by their vow of obedience...
...and on pain of excommunication...
...to aid the inquisitor in his painful struggle against heresy.
To sit with me on this tribunal...
...and to share the burden of the verdict...
...I will require the counsel of two fellow judges.
My lord abbot...
...and...
...Brother William of Baskerville.
Salvatore.
Salvatore...
...will you repeat your confession of last night?
That you and your accomplice, Remigio de Varagine...
...were members of the heretical Dolcinites?
Thank you.
- You forgive me. - Enough!
Remigio de Varagine, do you deny the confession of your accomplice?
No.
I don't deny it.
I'm proud of it!
For the 12 years I lived here...
...I did nothing but stuff my belly...
...shag my wick...
...and squeeze the hungry peasants for tithes.
But now you have given me the strength...
...to remember what I once believed in with all my heart...
...and for that, I thank you.
To remember that you wantonly looted and burned the property of the church?
Yes! To give it back to the people...
...you stole it from in the first place.
And did you not also slaughter many bishops and priests?
Yes!
And I'd butcher you people if I had half the chance!
Holy Mary, Mother of God, hear my humble prayer.
I know that my sin was very great...
...but I beg of you...
...do not let her suffer for my wrongdoing.
Blessed Mother...
...many years ago, you granted a miracle by saving my master.
Will you not do the same for this girl?
My master says that the simple folk always pay for all.
But please, Holy Mother, do not let it be so.
Guilty is that witch...
...who has seduced a monk...
...and has practiced her diabolical ritual within this hallowed place.
Guilty is Salvatore...
...who has confessed to his heretical past...
...and was caught in flagrante delicto with a witch!
Guilty is Remigio de Varagine...
...who, in addition to being unrepentant of his heresies...
...was caught attempting to escape after murdering Severinus.
That's a lie!
I never killed the herbalist or anyone else in this abbey!
I therefore request you...
...to confirm my sentence, my lord abbot.
My heart is filled with sorrow...
...but I can find no reason to contest...
...the just sentence of the Holy Inquisition.
And you, William of Baskerville?
Yes.
He is guilty.
Guilty of having, in his youth...
...misinterpreted the message of the gospels.
And he is guilty of having confused...
...the love of poverty with the blind destruction of wealth and property.
But, my lord abbot, he is innocent of the crimes...
...that have bathed your abbey in blood.
For Brother Remigio cannot read Greek.
And this entire mystery...
...hinges on the theft and possession of a book written in Greek...
...and hidden in some secret part of the library.
Since the verdict of the Inquisition has been disputed...
...we are obliged to extract the prisoner's confession to murder.
Take him to the forge and show him the instruments.
I'll confess anything you want...
...but don't torture me.
I can't live through it, not like Salvatore.
Very well.
Why did you kill them?
Why?
I don't know why.
- Because you were inspired by the devil? - Yes.
That's it. I was inspired by the devil.
I am inspired by the devil!
Adrammelech, Lucifer, I summon you, lords of hell!
Alastor!
Azazel!
The shepherd has done his duty...
...and the infected sheep must now be consigned to the purifying flame.
You may burn Brother Remigio...
...but you will not stop the crimes being committed in this abbey.
Other monks will meet their deaths here...
...and they also will have blackened fingers...
...and blackened tongues!
Your Eminence, I beg of you.
We Franciscans are appalled by Brother William's outburst.
Again, we have seen that your theories...
...protect heretics and lead to murder.
- The debate is concluded. No.
It seems Brother William of Baskerville has relapsed...
...into the errors of which he was formerly purged.
Having sought yet again to shield a heretic...
...from just punishment by the Inquisition...
...he will accompany me to Avignon for confirmation of my sentence...
...by His Holiness Pope John.
I'm right.
If only I could find the book and prove that Bernardo Gui was wrong.
But the Antichrist was victorious once more...
... and nothing seemed to be able to hinder him further.
Come.
When the pyres are lighted tonight...
...let the flames purify each of us in his own heart.
Let us return to what was and ever should be the office of this abbey.
The preservation of knowledge.
"Preservation," I say, not "search for."
Because there is no progress in the history of knowledge...
...merely a continuous and sublime recapitulation.
Let us now praise the Almighty...
...that the bloody-eyed and cloven-hoofed Antichrist...
...has been purged from our sacred precincts...
...and our monastery has returned to peace.
It had the power of 1000 scorpions! He told me.
Who told you? His tongue is black!
His fingers as black as pitch...
...just as Brother William foretold. Adso!
It's Brother Malachia. - Malachia?
- Yes, Father, yes. - Dear God.
Not Malachia!
Will it never end?
Malachia.
Bernardo, William of Baskerville was right.
- He said that... - Yes! He knew.
Just as I, too, would have known, had I been the murderer.
Find William of Baskerville.
We still can't open the mirror!
Perhaps by pressing the first and seventh letters of "four."
"Four" only has four letters! - In Latin.
Quatuor, remember? The inscription above the mirror?
But we have to press above an idol.
Not "idolum," as in the Latin, but "eidolon," as in the Greek.
Meaning "image" or "reflection." Our reflection.
This way, master. - No, this way, Adso.
Here, Q. Q and R.
Pray God we're not mistaken.
Come.
Good evening, Venerable Jorge.
I have been expecting you these several days past, William.
You must have flown to this chamber to have reached it ahead of us.
You have discovered many things since your arrival at this abbey...
...but the short route through the labyrinth is not among them.
So now, what is it that you want?
I want to see the book in Greek that you said was never written.
A book entirely devoted to comedy...
...which you hate as much as you hate laughter.
I want to see what is probably the sole surviving copy...
...of the second book of the Poetics of Aristotle.
William, what a magnificent librarian you would have been.
Here is your well-earned reward.
Read it.
Leaf through its secrets.
You have won.
Close, now!
"We shall now discuss the way comedy...
...stimulates our delight in the ridiculous...
...by using vulgar persons and taking pleasure from their defects."
Carry on, William. Read it, read it!
Master, please, we must hurry.
If the light is too dim for you...
...give it to the boy. I'm sure he can read it.
I would not want my faithful pupil to turn your poisoned pages.
Not without the protection of a glove, such as I am wearing.
The door, quick! Before he shuts us in!
Push!
Stay, stay!
Shh!
Venerable brother, there are many books that speak of comedy.
Why does this one fill you with such fear?
Because it is by Aristotle. - Adso, this way.
Do you, Salvatore, renounce the devil and embrace Jesus Christ...
...as your lord and savior?
Do you, Remigio de Varagine, renounce the devil...
...and embrace Jesus Christ...? What for?
It's better to die fast than to spend the rest of your life in a prison!
The devil I renounce is you, Bernardo Gui!
Do you renounce the devil and embrace Jesus Christ as your savior?
But what is so alarming about laughter?
Laughter kills fear.
And without fear, there can be no faith.
Because without fear of the devil, there is no more need of God.
But you will not eliminate laughter by eliminating that book.
No, to be sure.
Laughter will remain the common man's recreation.
But what will happen if, because of this book...
...learned men were to pronounce it permissible to laugh at everything?
Can we laugh at God?
The world would relapse into chaos.
Therefore, I seal that which was not to be said...
...and the tomb I become.
That's him! He was there, behind the arch!
Adso!
- Master! - Go on! I insist!
Leave this place at once! I insist!
Please, God, save him.
Hold them back.
Burn the witch!
You dare raise your hands to the church?
Come!
No! You're not going to leave!
All of this is your doing!
My master found the true murderer!
Help me. Quick!
Help me!
Help me! No!
No, no!
Master.
Adso!
I have never regretted my decision...
... for I learned from my master much that was wise and good and true.
When at last we parted company, he presented me with his eyeglasses.
I was still young, he said, but someday they would serve me well.
And, in fact, I am wearing them now on my nose as I write these lines.
Then he embraced me fondly, like a father, and sent me on my way.
I never saw him again and know not what became of him...
... but I pray always that God received his soul and forgave...
... the many little vanities to which he was driven by his intellectual pride.
And yet, now that I am an old, old man...
... I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past...
... the one I see most clearly is that of the girl...
... of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years.
She was the only earthly love of my life...
... yet I never knew nor ever learned...
... her name.
Subtitles by SDI Media Group
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