Death of Malachi

The Death of Malachi is the fifth murder in the abbey, occurring during the chanting of the 'Sederunt' at matins on the sixth day. Malachi, the librarian, collapses and dies with blackened fingers and tongue, poisoned by the same substance that killed Venantius and Berengar after he touched the forbidden book of Aristotle's Poetics II. His dying words—'He told me ... truly. ... It had the power of a thousand scorpions'—confirm Jorge of Burgos as the orchestrator of the poisonings and reveal that Malachi was a knowing but ultimately expendable agent in Jorge's scheme to protect the library's secrets.

Circumstances of the Death

During the office of matins on the sixth day, the monks chanted the gradual 'Sederunt principes.' The abbot had chosen this gradual, a cry to God of the persecuted, perhaps deliberately for that night. The waker, moving among the stalls with a lamp to rouse any drowsy singers, first noticed Malachi swaying in a curious fashion, as if he had suddenly plunged into a deep sleep. When the waker touched him, Malachi slumped forward heavily. William and Adso rushed to the spot, where Pacificus of Tivoli and the waker were laying Malachi on the ground, unconscious. In the light of the lamp, his face was the very image of death: the sharp nose, hollow eyes, sunken temples, white wrinkled ears, and skin that was rigid, taut, and dry. His cheeks were yellowish and suffused with a dark shadow. His eyes were still open, and a labored breathing escaped his parched lips. When he opened his mouth, Adso saw a now blackish tongue stir within the cloister of his teeth.

Malachi's Final Words and the Poison

William raised Malachi, wiping away a film of sweat from his brow. Malachi, not seeing or recognizing who was before him, raised a trembling hand and grasped William by the chest, drawing his face down until they almost touched. Faintly and hoarsely, he uttered the words: 'He told me ... truly. ... It had the power of a thousand scorpions.' When William asked who had told him, Malachi tried again to speak but was seized by a great trembling, and his head fell backward. His face lost all color and all semblance of life. He was dead. William bent over the corpse and grasped the wrists, turning the palms of the hands toward the light. The pads of the first three fingers of the right hand were darkened, the same sign that had been found on Venantius and Berengar. The poison, which had been smeared on the pages of the forbidden book, had entered Malachi's system through his fingers and then his mouth as he handled the volume.

The Revelation of the Plot

Later that night, in the finis Africae, Jorge of Burgos confirmed to William that he had told Malachi the book had the power of a thousand scorpions. Jorge had not wanted Malachi to die; he had been a faithful agent. But for the first time, the madman had chosen to act on his own initiative. Jorge had instructed Malachi to find the book again, by whatever means, and bring it back without opening it. Malachi, however, had disobeyed and touched the poisoned pages, sealing his own fate. The death of Malachi, like those before him, was a direct consequence of the forbidden knowledge Jorge sought to protect, and his dying words served as the final clue that led William to the truth.

Narrative Role and Significance

Malachi's death is the pivotal event that forces the investigation to its climax. It is the first murder that William witnesses directly, and the victim's final words provide the explicit link to Jorge, the mastermind behind the poisonings. The death also eliminates the last of Jorge's direct agents in the library, leaving the blind old man alone to face William in the finis Africae. Thematically, Malachi's death underscores the novel's central conflict between the preservation of knowledge and the destructive power of dogma. As a man who served the library's secrets without understanding them, Malachi becomes a victim of the very system he was meant to protect, a pawn in a centuries-old war over the nature of truth and laughter.