Before looking directly at the historical sources (principally the inquisitorial manuals) which are at the heart of this book and what they can tell us about change, it may help to sketch out the wider context in which they were produced. This includes a short history of the inquisition in Languedoc and Aragon as well as the wider history of the time and an account of the lives of Gui and Eymerich; little is known about Ugolini. Those who want to know more can of course find a number of useful and much fuller accounts, some of which are listed in the bibliography.

History of Inquisition in Languedoc and France

This book starts formally from the time when Gui became an inquisitor, in 1307. Like all such starting points it is arbitrary, but it does represent a time of significant change for the inquisition. A number of events which took place around that time marked the change. Marguerite Porete was executed in 1310; the affair of the Templars reached its climax with the execution of Jacques de Molay in 1314; 1316 was the year in which John XXII acceded to the papal throne; and 1317 was the year of the promulgation of Multorum querela and Nolentes, the last papal Bulls legislating on the medieval inquisition. Those Bulls were in fact a delayed response to difficulties in the early 1300s in Carcassonne and Albi (described later), but they also marked the first limited reining in of the inquisition, rather than an increase in its power. They can be seen as the end of a first phase in which the inquisition was created and reached a mature form. But there were also new developments at the same time. The Bull Ad nostrum, which accompanied Multorum querela and Nolentes, opened up new ground by creating new heretics in the shape of the Beguines in Germany, the alleged heresy of whom was that they believed in their own perfectibility. The year 1318 also saw the burning of four Spiritual Franciscans for heresy. The Spirituals' beliefs had been rendered heretical by papal decision; other heresies, like Catharism and Waldensianism, had involved beliefs which put their adherents squarely outside the Catholic Church. This illuminated the fact that heresy was, in part at least, defined by choices made by the Church.