Between Judaism and Christianity: the semicircumcision of Christians according to Bernard Gui, his sources and R. Eliezer of Metz

The Dominican friar Bernard Gui (or Bernardus Guidonis, ca. 1261–1331) was papal inquisitor in Toulouse from 1307 to 1323. At the close of his inquisitorial career he wrote Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, “A Handbook for the Inquisition of Heretical Depravity.”I cite Bernard's Practica from the edition by C. Douais (Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1886) and from the edition of part 5 by G. Mollat with the assistance of G. Drioux, Bernard Gui, Manuel de l'inquisiteur (2 vols.; Paris: Honore Champion, 1927). The following works, which are cited frequently, are cited by author's name and brief title: Antoine Dondaine, “Le manuel de l'inquisiteur (1230–1330),” Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 17 (1947) 85–194; Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century, Vol. 2: 1254–1314 (ed. Kenneth Stow; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1988); Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews: Documents 492–1404 (Studies and Texts 94; Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1988) and The Apostolic See and the Jews: History (Studies and Texts 109; Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1991); Walter Wakefield and Austin Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969; repr., 1991); Yosef H. Yerushalmi, “The Inquisition and the Jews of France in the Time of Bernard Gui,” HTR 63 (1970) 317–76. On Bernard Gui, see Wakefield and Evans, Heresies 373–75; Yerushalmi, “Inquisition”; A. Vernet, “Guidonis, Bernardo,” Lexikon des Mittelalters 1 (1980) 1976–78; Bernard Gui et son monde (Cahiers de Fanjeaux 16; Toulouse: Edouard Privat, 1981); Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982) 89–96. In this work Bernard sets out in great detail everything one needs to know in order to be an effective inquisitor: the proper legal forms for drawing up accusations, summoning witnesses, and remanding suspects into custody; the proper questions to use in cross-examining suspects; the assessment of evidence for guilt versus innocence; the hallmarks of true confession, contrition, and repentance; the appropriate punishments for the condemned; the legal authority for the Inquisition; and, in part 5, the concluding and perhaps most interesting part of the entire work, a detailed description of the errors and sects that threaten the church and require the vigilance of the Inquisition: the Manichees (Cathari), Waldensians (Poor of Lyon), Pseudo-Apostles (Apostles of Christ), Beguins (Poor Brethren), Jews, and sorcerers. The four chapters on the Jews focus on two themes: first, Jews draw Christians away from Christianity; second, Jews in their prayers and in their books blaspheme Christ and the Church. The first theme is introduced in the first chapter and developed in the second, which describes the rite by which the Jews “rejudaize” Jews who had become Christians. The second theme is the subject of the fourth and concluding chapter, which is entitled “On the Intolerable Blasphemy of the Jews against Christ, Christianity, and Christians,” and describes in some detail how the Jews curse Christ in their prayers and pray for the downfall of the Catholic Church. Both themes appear in the third chapter, which contains an interrogation script entitled “A List of Questions Specifically for Jews and Those Who Have Been Rejudaized.”De perfidia Judeorum, Practica 5.5.1–4 (Douais 288–92; Mollat-Drioux 2.6–19). For a translation of part 5, see Wakefield and Evans, Heresies, 375–445. All translations in this essay are mine except as noted.

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