The Name of the Rose Page #4

WILLIAM:
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. Hm?

How peaceful life would be without love,

Adso. How safe. How tranquil. .. and how

dull.

EXT. DAY

DELEGATES:
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, oh Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

WILLIAM:
(knocks)

Brother Berengar?

He's probably hiding somewhere with the

book and my magnifying glasses.

SCRIPTORIUM:

WILLIAM:
Brother Berengar?

ADSO:
Master, look. The door.

ADSO:
Oh!

WILLIAM:
Brother Malachia. I was just looking

for your assistant, Brother Berengar.

Is he here?

MALACHIA:
No.

WILLIAM:
I see. Do you know where we might find

him?

MALACHIA:
No.

WILLIAM:
Or is he perhaps upstairs in the library?

MALACHIA:
No.

WILLIAM:
I am curious to see the library for myself.

May I do so?

MALACHIA:
No.

WILLIAM:
Why not?

MALACHIA:
It is a strict rule of the abbot that no

one is permitted to enter the abbey library

other than myself and my assistant.

WILLIAM:
I see. Thank you again.

INT. CHAPEL

ADSO:
Maybe something's happened to him.

Maybe we'll find him in water.

WILLIAM:
What?

ADSO:
The third trumpet, master, as Ubertino

said. The book of Revelation.

WILLIAM:
That is not the book we're after.

EXT. YARD

(peasants present the tithe)

SALVATORE:
You call this a chiken, do you?

It looks more like a sparrow.

(Delegates arrive)

SAVATORE:
Franciscans.

ABBOT:
Welcome to our abbey, Brother Michele,

and to your fellow Franciscan delegates.

MONK:
Hey, you, 'paesano'! Go!

SALVATORE:
You get in line like the others. Go!

DELEGATE:
Unhand me!

ABBOT:
Salvatore, let him go.

This is Cuthbert of Winchester, one of our

most esteemed Franciscan guests.

Come, Your Grace. We have a very urgent

matter to discuss.

INT.

MONK 1:
But the abbot and his colleagues seem

convinced that the devil is at work within

these walls.

UBERTINO:
He is!

WILLIAM:
The only evidence I see of the devil...

is everyone's desire to see him at work.

MONK 2:
What if Ubertino is right and you are wrong?

MONK 3:
Don't forget, William, this debate is crucial

to us all.

MONK 4:
We suspect the Pope wants to crush our order.

MONK 5:
And declare us heretics.

MONK 3:
Yes, and declare us all heretics.

WILLIAM:
I only have one brother to question, and

the entire matter is resolved.

MONK 1:
William, we place our trust in you.

Pray God that you do not abuse it.

(another monk comes up to them)

MONK:
Brother William.

(Berengar's body floats)

WILLIAM:
Did you find a book in Greek?

SEVERINUS:
No.

WILLIAM:
(sees Berengar's shoe)

I was right.

ADSO:
So was the book of Revelation.

ABBOT:
We must talk at once.

WILLIAM:
Indeed, we must.

And I have much to tell.

Just as soon as he and I have examined

this corpse.

SEVERINUS:
Lime leaves in the bath are always used to

alleviate pain.

WILLIAM:
He was left-handed.

SEVERINUS:
Yes, yes. Brother Berengar was inverted

in many ways.

WILLIAM:
Are there other left-handed brothers at

the abbey here?

SEVERINUS:
None that I know of.

WILLIAM:
Ink stains.

He did not write with his tongue, I

presume.

INT.

ABBOT:
A few lines of Greek.

WILLIAM:
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?

ABBOT:
A smudge of blue paint.

WILLIAM:
Yes, but a unique smudge of blue blended

by your finest illuminator, Brother Adelmo

who possessed this parchment before

Venantius.

(cont'd) And how do we know that?

Because those random notes overrun Adelmo's

blue smudge, and not vice-versa.

ABBOT:
Brother William, this abbey is enshrouded

in a terrifying mystery. Yet, I detect

nothing, in your obscure dissertation...

that sheds any light upon it.

WILLIAM:
Adso, 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?

ABBOT:
I have the feeling that you're about to

tell me.

WILLIAM:
Books. Restricted books. Spiritually

dangerous books.

(cont'd) 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

him the key to its whereabouts...

enciphered on that parchment in exchange

for unnatural caresses.

ABBOT:
Enough, Brother William!

WILLIAM:
Adelmo agreed and duly submitted to

Berengar's lustful advances. But

afterwards, wracked by remorse, he

wandered weeping and desperate in the

graveyard, where he met the Greek

translator.

ABBOT:
How could you know this?

WILLIAM:
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.

(cont'd) 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 mysterious quotations he died with

a black stain on his finger.

(cont'd) 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.

(cont'd) 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.

JORGE:
Brother William, your pride blinds you.

By idolizing reason you failed to see what

is obvious to everyone in this abbey.

MALACHIA:
(whispers in the abbot's ear)

The papal delegation's arrived. Bernardo

Gui.

ABBOT:
Thank you, brother William.

We are mindful of your efforts but I

should now ask you to refrain from further

investigations.

(burns the parchment)

(cont'd) 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.

EXT.

ADSO:
Master, who is Bernardo Gui?

MONK 1:
William! I've been searching the entire

abbey for you! Michele wishes to speak

with you at once.

WILLIAM:
Alone.

MONK 2:
Do you know who is coming?

WILLIAM:
I know, I know. Bernardo Gui.

Ubertino must be moved to a place of safety.

MONK 1:
The arrangements have been made. It is you

that concerns us, William.

MONK 3:
You must now put aside these totally

irrelevant investigations.

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