How to Read Parts 1 to 3 of Gui’s Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis

Part 5 of Bernard Gui’s inquisitors’ manual Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis is rightly well known for its descriptions of heretics and their beliefs, and of the inquisition’s interrogation techniques. The rest of the Practica has been less well studied. This article argues that Parts 1-3 were a valuable and well-organized resource for the manual’s inquisitorial audience; but that, while continuing to adhere to the inquisition’s norms, they were in part written in such a way as to convey indirectly messages about how to tackle the more difficult and delicate parts of the inquisition’s tasks where the norms of inquisitorial behaviour could not be maintained. Parts 1-3 therefore have more to offer the modern historian both about inquisitorial techniques and the political and social context in which Gui operated than has sometimes been realized.