The Name of the Rose Film - Movie Review Example

The Name of the Rose Film 1. What is the important and secret mission that brings William of Baskerville, a Franciscan English monk who was an Inquisitor, to an Italian Benedictine Abby? The story of the film takes place in the 14th century, in an era where a long dispute had emerged on the issue of Apostolic poverty between religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church. The Apostolic poverty is a doctrine that emphasizes Christ’s and the Apostles’ absolute lack of possession and was strongly supported by the Franciscan religious order. The Dominicans opposed this doctrine and their views were upheld by the Pope John XXII who considered the poverty doctrine as subverting his authority (Harvey, 2004). At the same time there was a great conflict between the Pope and the Bavarian Emperor Louis regarding the boundaries between religious and lay power and the Pope’s claim to intervene on lay issues such as the Emperor’s Coronation (Eco, 1983). This is in brief the historical setting of the film. According to the plot, the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville arrived to the Benedictine Abbey to participate in a meeting between the Pope’s and the Emperor’s delegates in an attempt to bring together the two opposite sides. His mission was to convey the views of the Emperor’s theologists on the issue of Apostolic poverty and to ensure that there would be arrangements for a second meeting in Avignon, the Pope’s court, where the Emperor’s delegates would have the opportunity to express their views directly to the Pope. 2. What is the significance of the murdered monks that were translators, copyists and illustrators? What is the message behind these murders? Why are people who work with the transmission of culture and knowledge being murdered? In my opinion there is a twofold meaning hidden behind the deaths of the monks. First, all dead monks but Severinus worked in the library and their duty was to preserve and protect its content. However, their wish for knowledge became their death sentence. Adelmo killed himself out of shame, after he had succumbed to Berengar’s anethical proposals with the exchange to have unlimited access to the library. Venantius, Berengar and Malachi were poisoned because of their curiosity to read the secret book. Seeking for truth can be a dangerous path with dreadful consequences. Their lust for knowledge, their quest for truth in the writings of secular philosophers was an hubris, an insult to God, a doubt of Genesis, that yielded a fatal punishment. Man uses his intellect and skills to give meaning to his universe, to produce civilization, to obtain and convey knowledge and finally, in his quest for the ultimate cause of things, he is eliminated by the limitations of his own mortal, disposable nature. Death terminated the monks’ curiosity and fire destroyed the library thus depriving humanity from a thesaurus of knowledge. What a great irony! It was the light that Adso held that caused the fire and eventually led to cultural and philosophical darkness. Second, William of Baskerville was particularly interested in Logic and based all his conclusions in deductive reasoning. However, he eventually realized that his investigation comprised of a series of false deductions that accidently led to the right final conclusion. The fact that the deaths he investigated, although interconnected, were not part of a specific unified plan, but were independent events with separate causes and perpetrators, may be a symbolism on human life and the issue of causality. Things happen not because of a predetermined plan but as logical consequenses of sporadic events which are governed not only by complex rules but by chance as well. Similar to the case of William of Baskerville, people’s knowledge of things and their causes may in large be based in serendipity. This view is absolutely in contrast with religious and scientific determinism as it is expressed by the Christian religion and the Aristotelian philosophy, respectively. 3. The girl and Salvatore are accused of witchcraft by Bernardo Gui [the Inquisitor], what does that say about the role of truth in this movie? Is she a sorcerer? Why does William of Baskerville allow her to be burned when she was poor and innocent? In this film, truth is a term frequently discussed and appealed to, however people’s actions have nothing to do with its quest and seem to be guided by concealed motives. In line with this, Bernard Gui was not interested in the truth but in leading the meeting between the Pope’s and the Emperor’s delegates to a failure.He falsely accused the young girl for sorcery, despite the lack of solid evidence, in order to prove that the Benedictine Abbey and the Franciscans friars who had found refuge there, were involved in heretic actions. In a similar vein, William of Baskerville, although he knew the truth, chose not to defend the poor girl’s innocence because such an action could be considered heretic and it would endanger his mission. In this case, he gave priority to the completion of his mission at the expense of the truth and of the girl’s life. 4. What was the real battle about between the two factions of Franciscan monks, the poor ones who lived from charity and the wealthy ones who possessed land and money? The issue of Christ’s poverty has led to great dispute within the religious orders. There were major implications in this conflict, that exceeded the question of whether Christ had any possession and that encompassed the issue of cleric property and the Pope’s jurisdiction to intervene and regulate lay matters (Eco, 1983). In light of these considerations, the acceptance of the poverty doctrine would imply the rejection of the Church’s right to have possessions and to manage affairs of the lay through legislation. This would enfeeble the Pope’s authority and would strengthen the Emperor’s position. 5. Why does William of Baskerville believe that the use of torture by the Inquisition was unreliable? What does Remigio's confession prove? Why does William of Baskerville say that Remigio is only guilty of misinterpreting the message of the Bible? William of Baskerville believed that the pain inflicted by torture led people to lie in order to please their torturers and escape from suffering. In his opinion, inquisition by torture is unreliable because it usually leads to false confessions (Eco, 1983). His belief was confirmed by Remigio’s confession. After Bernard Gui threatened to torture him, he broke down and confessed not only his participation to the sect of Dolcino but also the murders he did not commit. Being an Inquisitor for many years, William of Baskerville realized that there was a very thin line between canonical and heretical views, which in many cases was very hard to discern. According to him, Remigio was consistent to the teachings of the Bible when he embraced the doctrine of Apostolic poverty and started wandering around prompting people to abandon all possessions and show repentance. However, his zeal to live a pure life according to Christ’s paradigm led him to participate in extreme heretic groups, whose actions were entirely opposed to the Sacred Canon. References Harvey, M. (2004). Pope John XXII and his Franciscan Cardinal. Bertrand de la Tour and the Apostolic Poverty Controversy. Journal of Theological Studies, 55(2), 738-739. Eco, U. (1983). The name of the rose. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace & Company. Read More