EYMERICH, NICOLÁS. – Dominican inquisitor and writer, born at Gerona (Spain) circa 1320, died there on 4 January 1399. He entered religious life in his native city on 4 August 1334 and succeeded Niccolò Rossell in 1357 as inquisitor general of Aragon. Because of his zeal he suffered greatly, until he was exiled. He accompanied Gregorio IX to Rome, where he remained for two years (1376–78).
When the schism began, because of the difficulty of discerning the true pontiff, he sided with Clemente VII and then with Benedetto XIII. In 1378 he returned to Aragon but, having been warned by the Lullists, was forced to take refuge with the Pontiff at Avignon. There he devoted himself to writing until, in 1397, now an old man, he was able to return to his homeland.
A fearless inquisitor and intransigent defender of the truth, he devoted his energies especially to combating the errors of R. Lullo, whose doctrine he collected into articles and condemned as suspect of heresy. He wrote various works of a hagiographical, dogmatic, exegetical, philosophical, and polemical character, all of which are still preserved in manuscript. Only the Vita de B. Dalmazio Moveri, his novice master (in F. Diago, Historia provinciae Aragoniae, I, Barcellona 1399, pp. 259–65; 2nd ed. in Anal. Ball., 31 (1912), pp. 49–81), and his most important work, Directorium inquisitorum, Barcellona 1393, were published. This is a manual for inquisitors that E. wrote, or at least completed writing, at Avignon in 1376. The work circulated widely and subsequently went through various editions. Fr.
Peña prepared a second edition in Rome in 1578, adding an extensive commentary; in another edition, in 1587, he also prefaced it with an account of the author’s life. It was subsequently published again in Venezia in 1591, Roma in 1597, and Venezia in 1607.