For the real person see Bernard Gui.
Bernardo Gui is a secondary antagonist within Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose. He is based on the real figure Bernard Gui.
Character[]
An inquisitor of the Roman Catholic Church in the service of Pope John XXII, Bernardo is an extreme zealot who frequently uses torture and other immoral means to punish "heretics". He is cold and callous.
History[]
Some time before The Name of the Rose, Bernardo and William of Baskerville served as inquisitors. While William seeked to use his status to guide the faithful and actually investigate cases of heresy, Bernardo used his position to kill and torture those who deviated from the "correct" view of scripture. When a man was sentenced to death for translating a Greek book that conflicted with scripture, William tried to have this overturned. Due to Bernardo's machinations, the man was burned at the stake and William was sent to be tortured for "heresy" until he recanted his view.
Several years after this, in 1321, Gui was sent to an abbey to take part in a religious debate between allies of the Pope (who Bernard represented) and a group of Minorites (led by Michael of Cesena). The abbey was also the sight of several murders which were already being investigated by William but Bernardo decided to hunt down the "true" murderers. By pure chance, a deformed monk known as Salvatore and a young girl were captured trying to perform a black magic ritual. Bernardo discovered that Salvatore and the cellarer of the abbey were effectively pimping out poor village girls and had both of them "interrogated". Due to these "interrogations", the cellarer confessed to all of the murders. Satisfied with this result, Bernardo departed from the abbey with the cellarer, Salvatore, and the young girl - intending to have them (possibly minus Salvatore) burned at the stake.
Notes[]
- Gui's fate is left less ambiguous in the movie. He is pushed to his death by a mob of villagers. In real life, Bernard Gui died in 1331 in his episcopal residence.