Ubertino's escape

Ubertino of Casale, the aged and fiery champion of the Spiritual Franciscans, had been living in hiding at the abbey under the protection of Abbot Abo. His presence was a secret weapon for the imperial legation, but also a grave liability. After the trial of Remigio of Varagine, Bernard Gui, the papal inquisitor, had made his intentions unmistakable. In a speech to the assembled legates, he listed the signs by which supporters of heretics could be identified, and as he spoke, he looked directly at Ubertino. The message was clear: Ubertino was a marked man, and the abbey was no longer a sanctuary but a trap.

The Decision to Flee

Immediately after the trial, as the monks and envoys slowly emerged from the chapter house, Michael of Cesena, William of Baskerville, and Ubertino gathered in the fog-shrouded cloister to confer. William was blunt: Bernard had defeated them, and the meeting had failed. He warned that Ubertino was now in mortal danger. "John wants Michael at court and Ubertino in hell," William said. He predicted that before the next day was over, with the complicity of the fog, Ubertino would be killed, and the murder would be blamed on devils summoned by Remigio or on some surviving Dolcinian. The only course was immediate flight.

The Arrangements

William instructed Ubertino to go to the abbot and ask for a mount, provisions, and a letter to a distant abbey beyond the Alps. He was to take advantage of the darkness and the fog to leave at once. The abbey had other exits besides the main gate, and the abbot knew them. A servant was to be waiting for him at one of the lower curves of the mountain path with a horse. Ubertino would have to slip through some passage in the walls and then traverse a stretch of woods. William urged him to act immediately, before Bernard could recover from the ecstasy of his triumph.

The Farewell

Moved, Ubertino held William in a close embrace. "Farewell, William," he said. "You are a mad and arrogant Englishman, but you have a great heart. Will we meet again?" William assured him they would, saying God would wish it. Ubertino then smiled sweetly at Adso and embraced him, not with the intense grip he had sometimes used in the preceding days, but as a grandfather embraces his grandson. Adso returned the embrace in the same spirit. Ubertino then went off with Michael to seek the abbot. By the time the monks were heading for supper, Michael of Cesena sat down beside William and Adso and told them Ubertino had left. William heaved a sigh of relief.

Aftermath

God, however, did not wish for a reunion. As Adso later records, Ubertino died, mysteriously killed, two years later. His was a hard and adventurous life, and he was perhaps not a saint, but he had great faith in the blood and agony of Christ crucified. The escape itself was a success, a small victory snatched from the wreckage of the failed diplomatic meeting. It demonstrated William's quick thinking and his willingness to act decisively to protect a friend and ally, even when his larger mission had collapsed.