Jump to Pt. IV
For this penultimate entry in the series, I want to take a look at the film’s primary antagonist/villain, Sir Raymond de Merville. It’s difficult in some ways to discuss this character, as he both explicitly and implicitly is rather devoid of personal faith. Nevertheless, due to his proximity to the monastic characters and the themes he represents, I think he warrants discussion.
We are first introduced to Raymond and the Normans when the monks are traveling discreetly through the forest. Raymond intercepts the party and insists that they accept his protection and hospitality. The monks, caught in an imbalance of power and prodded by the encouragements of Geraldus, are in no position to dispute.
If Raymond’s father the Baron desires to use the trappings of faith to bless empire, Raymond himself is even less scrupulous. It is implied that he fought in the Crusades, but he almost never invokes the name of God or any principles of faith as motivating him to do so. Instead, he speaks frequently of the glory of conquest, the riches of the far off realms they plundered, etc.
When the Normans are granted a viewing of the relic, Raymond makes a possessive remark about the power of the relic, to which the Baron asks the monks’ forgiveness.
Later in the film, it is revealed that Raymond has made an alliance with the brigands to take the relic for himself and use it as a bargaining tool to legitimize his conquest of the Irish lands and other places. He orders the captured Brother Ciaran to tell him of the relic’s location. Ciaran refuses. Raymond brings out an instrument of torture. He rather gleefully tells Ciaran that this instrument was used in Constantinople by the Crusaders to extract information from the Greek Orthodox clergy about where their hidden wealth lay. Raymond has no qualms about murdering his fellow Christians for the sake of wealth and power. Through this anecdote, it is implied that he either participated in or was at least present for the Sack of Constantinople, when the Crusaders decided to pillage, loot and murder their way through the primarily Christian capital of the Byzantine Empire*.
In all this, Raymond positions himself as an enemy of God, by making himself an enemy of God’s people. Clergy are, of course, imperfect representations of God’s will on earth, as are all humans. We are sinful and flawed. However, the majority of the spiritual guides Raymond encounters over the course of the film have good intentions, and are trying to bring about peace and the safety of their communities. By strong-arming, torturing, and killing, Raymond opposes the people of God (both clergy and devout laity) and thus becomes an “anti-Christ.”
A brief tangent on this term: “Anti-Christ” (αντιχριστος) first appears in the Catholic Epistles of St. John (1 and 2 John), and generally refers to any essence or person opposed to the teaching and will of Christ. This idea was later wrapped up into the personage of certain apocalyptic figures in the Book of Revelation. On the whole, however, it seems that in St. John’s writings, “antichrist” is not necessarily one figure but anyone who stands against God and God’s people. This is illustrated well in 1 John 2:18: “Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.” In his own time and place, Raymond opposes Christ and the workings of all around him who desire the peace and love of Christ to flourish. Mysteriously, he meets his death at the hands of the Mute, an implied former Crusader who has spent the remainder of his life seeking penance for his deeds. The Mute serves as a unique foil for Raymond de Merville, and he will be the final character we discuss in this series.
*To say nothing of the many Muslims killed in the Middle East, as well as the Oriental Orthodox Christians who died alongside the Muslims.
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