A Potential Philosophical Idea Endangering a Dogma of Christianity
The concept of personal spiritual freedom, implying independence from any external force, including God, is compelling but would have been dangerous for medieval Christianity. No one can know for sure whether such a book ever existed or what its name might be. Either it is impossible to know whether such ideas were present in a single book or distributed across many books. However, considering that Christian zealots destroyed many pieces of knowledge that were not in accordance with their religion, one can suppose that such an idea existed and was suppressed by them.
The depiction of laughter as something great and glorious, shown in The Name of the Rose, can be another example of such an idea. It defies the necessity to be highly serious in facing God’s inevitable power and can even enable one to mock it. Therefore, laughter should be prohibited as something low and dirty, typical only for animals (LeopardFixJeopardy 2:20).
The Need to Suppress and Eliminate the Idea
However, the idea of personal spiritual freedom would be even more dangerous. Ancient mystics could easily grasp the concept that a person is free in their intentions, and no almighty god is necessary at all.
Such a book could be small, consisting of only a few dozen pages, covering the fundamental principles of spiritual freedom, but it would be sufficient.
There may also be practices that lead to spiritual enlightenment, with descriptions of why and how they can be achieved, allowing everyone to try them and experience their power. People can pray for themselves and govern their own lives, communicating directly with God, without the need for intermediaries such as priests. Similar to Jorge de Burgos from The Name of the Rose, who argued against the laughter and demanded the suppression of such an idea, Christian authors, leaders, and the Inquisition would suppress and persecute it (LeopardFixJeopardy 2:15). Such ideas can be interpreted as profoundly ruinous for the social and moral order, leading to chaos and anarchy where no one can recognize the true God and true faith.
In that way, a book detailing the idea of personal freedom would be perilous for dogmatic Christianity. While such books are widely available today, in the 14th century, they would have been destroyed, and their readers could have been burned alive for heresy. After that, they would destroy everything connected with the idea, prohibit people from talking about it, and kill those who continue to spread it. Their justification for such actions would be the preservation of order and the claim that Jesus was allegedly opposed to such immorality.
Work Cited
LeopardFixJeopardy. “The Name of the Rose – Did Christ Laugh.” YouTube, 2010.