Remember that name; for the present he is burning Albigensians, but he has higher ambitions.
(Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose).
Gui was born at Royères, in the Limousin, in 1261. He was also known as Bernardo Gui and in Latin as Bernardus Guidonis, He entered the Dominican Convent at Limoges, and became a friar in 1280. Ten Years later he became Prior of Albi, and subsequently Prior at Carcassonne, Castres, and Limoges.
He lived after the Crusades against the people of the Languedoc, but played an active part in the mopping up operations that followed identifying and punishing Cathar believers and their sympathisers.
He
is remembered for his tenure as Inquisitor
of Toulouse
which he took up at the behest of Pope Clement V between
1307 and 1323. He is known to have passed sentence on at
least 900 people over fifteen years. His victims included
Cathars,
Waldenses, so-called False Apostles, Beguines, Jews, and
alleged sorcerers and necromancers. Dozens were executed.
Documentation survives for 42 who lost their lives for the
crime of believing something other than Catholic teachings.
For his services to the Roman Church Gui was made Bishop of Tui in Galicia by Pope John XXII, and a year later became Bishop of Lodève.
His
fame, or infamy, rests mainly on his most important work,
Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis or "Conduct
of the Inquisition into Heretical Wickedness", It gives
a list of supposed heresies in the early 14th century, and
advises inquisitors how to deal with the questioning of
members of each "heretical" group. It is useful
as a source of information on the prerogatives and duties
of Inquisitors and for forms of condemnation and instructions
for examinations. It also reveals how difficult Inquisitors
found it to argue against Cathars in open debate.
This work was lost for a time, but was rediscovered and published by the abbé Douais at Toulouse in 1886.
Click on the following link to read an extract of Gui's work.
Bernard Gui died at the castle of Lauroux in what is now the Hérault département on 30th December, 1331.
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