Bernard GUI - Works and Legacy

Works and Legacy

In spite of his manifold occupations, he wrote numerous works of importance such as the Flores chronicorum or "Anthology of the chronicles", which is a universal history to 1331; "Chronique abrégée des empereurs", "Chronique des rois de France", "Catalogue des Évêques de Limoges", "Traité sur les saints du Limousin", "Traité sur l'histoire de l'abbaye de St. Augustin de Limoges", "Chronique des Prieurs de Grandmont" (as far as 1318), "Chronique des Prieurs d'Artize" (as far as 1313), "Chronique des évêques de Toulouse" (as far as 1327), "Sanctoral ou Miroir des saints", "Vie des saints", "Traité sur les soixante-douze disciples et sur les apôtres", "Traité sur l'époque de la célébration des conciles" and "Compilation historique sur l'ordre des Dominicains".

His most important and famous work, Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis or "Conduct of the Inquisition into Heretical Wickedness", gives a list of serious heresies in the early 14th century, and advises inquisitors how to deal with the questioning of members of particular groups. It is an exposé of the prerogatives and duties of the inquisitor: its citations, its forms of condemnation, its instructions for examinations, constitute a unique document for the study of the Inquisition during the first period of its existence. This work, lost for a time, was finally published in full by the abbé Douais at Toulouse in 1886.

Bernard is also the author of a number of theological treatises; "Abrégé de la doctrine chrétienne", "Traité de la messe", "Traité sur la conception de la Vierge" and also of various sermons.