b. The Novel’s Summary
The narrator of the story is the
elderly monk Adso of Melk now nearing the end of days in his German monastery
(or abbey). He recounts the adventures of his youth spent as an apprentice to
the English Franciscan Friar of great wisdom and erudition, William of
Baskerville, a follower of Roger Bacon and William of Ockham and a man who at
that time was beginning to use implements that seemed curiously modern and
unheard of by many people, including Adso himself.
In 1327, the pair found
themselves travelling towards a wealthy Benedictine monastery in Italy, where
William received an appointment to mediate in a discussion between the
Franciscan Spirituals and the delegates of the Avignon resident-pontiff Pope
John XXII. The idealistic sons of St. Francis, protected by Emperor Louis the
Bavarian, posed as a threat to the papacy’s claim to temporal and political
authority all over Europe because of the Franciscans’ insistence in declaring
and practicing the utter poverty of Christ and his disciples, and therefore by
extension, in their day, the poverty that the church must as a whole, observe.
If the Franciscan Spirituals were indeed pushing for valid proposition, then
the pope’s luxurious and comfortable life, as well as his grand design to
impose his divine mandate on political leaders would seem a contradiction to
the Gospel. A weak papacy would in turn expose the pope to the possibility of
manipulation by the imperial power.
Slated to stay in the monastery
for seven days, William and Adso are welcomed by the anxious abbot (superior),
Abo who reveals to William the puzzling death of a young monk believed to have
fallen from the top of the Aedificium, the imposing building that houses the
monastery’s main treasures. These treasures refer to the abbey’s incomparable
collection of vast, rare, and classical manuscripts, including those deemed
dangerous for ordinary readers. The abbot apprised of William’s skills in
methodical investigation (William being a retired member of the Inquisition)
asked for help in solving the young illustrator-monk’s death.
As if following an apocalyptic signal,
six more deaths occur during the week, all cases enveloped in perplexing
circumstances. These harrowing events put to the test the investigative acumen
of William, trailed by his assistant Adso, to whom he explained his thoughts,
plans, and discoveries. As William freely roamed the premises, talking to
people and visiting places, a host of possible suspects emerge. Some of the people
William discussed his concern soon after join the ranks of the murdered.
William and Adso took great pains
to undertake nocturnal visits to the forbidden zone of the monastery – its
famous library - that was built as a labyrinth to confuse anyone who wants to
liberally take hold of the restricted books. William is convinced that the
deaths all point to a secret in the library that a person or some persons want
to secure very tightly.
During their brief sojourn in the
monastery, and while delving into the mysterious deaths, William and Adso saw
the coming of the Inquisitor Bernardo Gui, whose arrival sows fear in the
hearts of some of the pious inhabitants. In fact, the notoriously successful
interrogator is searching for priests or brothers who may have been linked to a
condemned heretical figure, Fra Dolcino. Some followers of the heretic are said
to be have fled and sought refuge in Benedictine (or Cluniac) monasteries like
the one William and Adso visited. Indeed, the Inquisitor discovers some said
links between particular monks and the banned association. Filled with
satisfaction, he promptly hands the accused to civil guards to torture and execute.
The novel is by no means a total
drab foray into the antiquated ways of the medieval world with its church
processes, theological debates and philosophical discussions. It makes way too,
for a sensual delight in an otherwise gloomy atmosphere of religious austerity
and heart-pounding detective chase. In one of Adso’s nightly visits to the
library, he ventured into a place where he met a woman with whom he had a tacit
consensual carnal awakening. Couched in the ecstasy of scriptural
rationalizations, Adso unquestioningly abandons even for just a moment his
monastic discipline of continence. After the encounter, the disturbed Adso goes
to confession to William to appease his conscience.
William and Adso amusingly find
their nemesis in one of the monastery’s most unlikely suspects, and this by
accident and not by design. The monk jealously protects an ancient copy of the
lost manuscript of the Second Book of Poetics by Aristotle. In this book, the
philosopher scribbled his thoughts on comedy and in particular on the
characteristically human experience of mirth, that is laughter. While Aristotle
taught that comedy and laughter were paths to knowledge and to truth, the monk
decried the deforming and degrading effects of laughter. The monk maintained that
the Lord Jesus himself never laughed as the Bible attests. The villain
considers the book dangerous for human consumption and sets out to destroy it. In
the process, he also annihilates himself.
Adso’s final image of the great
monastery was that of a raging inferno. The monastery was razed to the ground
by three days of unabated fires. The fire destroyed the precious library and
its collections, fragments of which Adso stealthily brought home with him as
mementoes. None of the splendid buildings within the abbey’s wall survived the
fire. At Munich, William and Adso said goodbye to each other, never to meet
again.
