Titled "The Last Judgment," the fourth chapter takes place in Summer, 1408. Rublev, Danil, and others are at Vladimir, where the Grand Prince has ordered them to decorate a cathedral. They are expected to create a Last Judgment fresco, but Rublev is no longer able to paint such subjects, and he tells Danil, "I can’t paint all that; it disgusts me. I don’t want to terrify people." Rublev flashes back to a time when he was working at the Grand Prince’s house and some artisans who displeased the ruler had their eyes put out. The flashback ends, and Rublev and Danil mull over what to paint on the cathedral walls. A feeble-minded young woman named Durochka wanders into the church, and her innocence somehow leads Rublev to the idea that they should paint a feast. Rublev smiles as he looks at Durochka and says, "She is not a sinner."
The fifth chapter is titled "The Raid" and takes place in Autumn, 1408. The Grand Prince’s brother has arranged for his followers and a band of Tatars to raid Vladimir while the Grand Prince is away in Lithuania. The raid turns out to be shockingly violent, involving killing, rape, torture, and scenes of apparent animal cruelty. During the raid, the Grand Prince’s brother flashes back to when Orthodox Church officials forced him to participate in a ceremony where he swore that he would live in harmony with the Grand Prince. Meanwhile, Tatars enter the cathedral and burn some of Rublev’s work. When a Russian tries to rape Durochka, Rublev kills him. After the raid ends, a dispirited Rublev converses in his mind with the dead Theophanes and tells him, "I’ll never paint again. Because it’s of no use to anyone... I shall offer the Lord a vow of silence."
More than three years pass, and the sixth chapter, titled "The Charity," takes place in Winter, 1412, during a terrible famine. Rublev is once again at Andronikov Monastery, and he neither paints nor speaks. He keeps Durochka with him as a reminder of his sin. Kirill suddenly shows up at Andronikov after a seven-year absence and begs to be taken in. The Father Superior agrees to let him come back, but he must copy out the Scriptures fifteen times. One day some Tatars pause at Andronikov while traveling through, and they feed Durochka some horse meat. One of the Tatars gives her a lot of attention, and she winds up riding off with him. Durochka will be the Tatar’s eighth wife.
More than a decade passes, and the seventh and final chapter, titled "The Bell," takes place in 1423 - 1424. The Grand Prince orders a large bell to be cast, and men are sent to fetch a bell-maker, but he has died. The bell-maker’s teenage son Boriska lies to the men that he knows the secret of bell-making, and they decide to let him try. For a year Boriska supervises tasks such as digging a pit, selecting clay, building a mold, firing the furnaces, and hoisting the bell. Knowing that he would have been beheaded if the bell had failed to ring, Boriska collapses in tears when the bell works perfectly at its inauguration ceremony before a large crowd. Seeing all this restores Rublev’s spirit, and he breaks his silence for the first time in fifteen years, telling the boy, "Let’s go together, you and I. You’ll cast bells. I’ll paint icons."
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