On page 157 of The Name of the Rose, William on a walk "in the
cold evening air" happens upon "old Alinardo of Grottoferrata who,
miraculously like a Greek god, doesn't seem to "feel the cold." He then
offers a return greeting that has mythological connotations when he
states that affairs are "peaceful in the heavens, but grim on earth."
Then upon questioning from William, like an oracle, he offers a prophecy
about the "beast" he thinks is "roaming about the abbey." He states:
"The great beast that comes from the sea...Seven heads and ten horns and
upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads three names of blasphemy.
The beast like unto a leopard, with the feet of a bear, and the mouth of
a lion...I have seen him." Then he goes on to give William a sign to
guide him. Alinardo,like Theseus is first to accept Hercules, is the
first one to tell William that the "library is a labyrinth." Then,
acting very much like a prophetic god, he cautions Williams about it by
telling him that "You enter and you do not know whether you will come
out [of the underworld]. You must not transgress the pillars of
Hercules..."
The scene could easily be translated to Greek mythology especially
since Eco brings in the pillars of Hercules, beasts, prophecies, and
references to the underworld.
(1) Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and
Heroes. (Ny,Ny: New American Library, 1940.
Donation of Constantine (p. 158): [Joe Motta
comments] Alinardo believes that the coming of the Antichrist must be dated from
the donation of Constantine, three centuries after the birth of Christ.
The donation refers to a document, purportedly issued by Constantine
near the time of his conversion, by which he invested Pope Sylvester I
(314-15) with the same privileges and authority as the emperor,
including the right to wear an imperial crown, a purple cloak and tunic,
and all imperial insignia. The document also makes a gift to the Pope
and his successors of Rome and various provinces in Italy and Western
Europe. It further states that the Constantine has established a new
capital in the East and is moving his government there because it is
inappropriate for a secular emperor to exercise power at the seat of the
Church.
In the 15th century the document was recognized as a forgery that was
drafted sometime
between the years 750 and 850. Many historians contend that the forgery
was perpetrated at
Rome and was intended to support the claims of the popes to secular
power. Some assert that
its primary objective was the increase of papal power over imperial
authority and the
establishment of the political supremacy of the pope over the whole
West.
The first pope who relied on the document to justify his secular
authority was Leo IX, who in a
letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople dated 1054, cites the
“Donatio” to establish that the
Holy See possessed both earthly and heavenly imperium. Thereafter, the
document acquired
more importance and was cited more frequently in the ecclesiastical and
political struggles
between popes and secular rulers.
At the time of the events of The Name of the Rose, the donation of
Constantine would not have
been recognized as a forgery. As a consequence it undoubtedly played an
important role in
battle between Louis of Bavaria and John XXII for control of Western
Europe. Louis’ support
for the theologians who asserted the poverty of Christ represented an
attempt to discredit the
Church’s claim to secular authority based on the donation of
Constantine.
The next study page is Second Day: Compline (pp. 160-68)