GUI, BERNARD (Bernardus Guidonis). — French Dominican inquisitor, historian, and bishop, born in (Hérault) on 30 December 1331. He taught theology in various convents; from 16 January 1307, and probably until 24 July 1324, he held the office of inquisitor in the Toulouse region. Meanwhile (1317–18), he carried out pacifying missions in Lombardy and Tuscany, as well as in Flanders, and was also procurator general of the Order. On 26 August 1323 he was promoted to the episcopal see of Túy (Galicia-Spain), and on 20 July 1324 transferred to that of Lodève (Hérault).
Because of his extensive output, especially in the field of history, his rich and detailed information, and his concern for accuracy, G. is considered one of the most notable historians of the early fourteenth century, as well as the finest Dominican historian of the Middle Ages. He wrote on religious and civil history, hagiography, law, liturgy, and theology: more than 30 works, a considerable portion of which remain unpublished, or have been published only partially or defectively. For a fairly complete general overview, consult the studies by Delisle and Thomas (v. BIBLICA). It will suffice here to recall the Flores chronicorum or Catalogus pontificum Romanorum (for which a complete critical edition is still lacking); the valuable 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. di Salagnac (ed. T. Kaeppeli, Rome 1949 [Mon. Ord. Praed. hist., 22]).