Salvatore of Montferrat Character Analysis

Adso talks to Salvatore about his days as a follower of various popular religious movements. Salvatore says that he joined these groups after fleeing the poverty and starvation of his native village. Adso then finds William and asks him to explain the “accidental differences” between heretical groups, and between what is heretical and what is orthodox. William tells Adso that he thinks these movements are a symptom of larger social ills: “scratch the heresy and you will find the leper.” What he means by this is that the majority of those who follow the reformers are those who are social outcasts in some way (i.e. “lepers”). People like Salvatore—who are poor and uneducated—are more likely to join these movements because they are powerless and feel they have nothing to lose. The specific doctrine of the reformers is not important. Rather, they attract the “lepers” because they offer hope and the possibility of changing the order of society. Fra Dolcino, for instance, preached abolition of private property in the hopes of creating a fairer and more equal world. William suggests that the church is so harsh in its persecution of these groups because it wants “to keep the leper as he is,” preventing any social upheaval that would threaten their own power. In this way, Eco seems to be suggesting that the religious persecution of heretics is often a matter of maintaining the political status quo.