Gui, Bernard (Bernardus Guidonis)

GUI, BERNARD (Bernardus Guidonis). - French Dominican inquisitor, historian and bishop, b. at (Hérault) on 30 Dec. 1331. He taught theology in various convents; from 16 Jan. 1307, and probably until 24 July 1324, he exercised the office of inquisitor in the Toulousain. In the meantime (1317-18) he carried out pacification missions in Lombardy and Tuscany, as well as in Flanders, and was furthermore procurator general of the Order. On 26 Aug. 1323 he was promoted to the episcopal see of Túy (Galicia-Spain) and on 20 July 1324 transferred to that of Lodève (Hérault).

For his vast output, especially historical, his rich and minute information and his concern for accuracy, G. is considered one of the most remarkable historians of the early fourteenth century, as well as the best Dominican historian of the Middle Ages. He wrote on religious and civil history, on hagiography, on law, liturgy and theology: more than 30 works, a good part of which are still unpublished, or partially or defectively published. For a fairly complete general view one should consult the studies of Delisle and Thomas (v. bibl.). It will suffice here to recall the Flores chronicorum or Catalogus pontificum Romanorum (of which a complete critical edition is still lacking); the precious manual for inquisitors: Practica inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis (ed. C. Douais, Paris 1886; partial ed. G. Mollat, Paris 1926-27); the Legenda s. Thomae de Aq. (ed. D. Prümmer, in Fontes vitae s. Thomae Aq., III, Toulouse 1928) and the De quatuor in quibus Deus Praedicatorum Ordinem insignivit, begun by St. of Salagnac (ed. T. Kaeppeli, Rome 1949 [Mon. Ord. Praed. hist., 22]).

Abele Redigonda