Bernard de Caux

Bernard de Caux, or in Latin Bernardo or Bernardus de Caucio, birth date not known, died in Agen on 26 November 1252, was a Dominican friar and medieval inquisitor. His activities mainly took place in the region of the County of Toulouse between 1243 and 1249. He originated the investigation processes and his witness interrogations are recorded in a 13th century transcribed manuscript preserved in the library of Toulouse.  

Life and work

Bernard Giu described de Caux thus: Frater Bernardus de Caucio, inquisitor ac persequtor ac malleus hereticorum (le marteau des hérétiques), vir sanctus et Deo plenus. (Brother Bernard de Caucoi, inquisitor and persecutor and the hammer of heretics, a holy man filled with God.) He is known as the inquisitor of the dioceses of Agen and Cahors, of Carcassonne, and finally Toulouse. His inquisitions were made in association with another Dominican friar, Jean de Saint-Pierre.

The Medieval Inquisition in the diocese of Agen was under the control of tribunal of Toulouse. In 1242 the search and prosecution of the Cathar heretics was given to them by their provincial prior according to the papal bull Ad extirpanda authorised by Pope Gregory IX who entrusted the Dominicans with the negotium fidei contra haereticos (the business of faith against heretics), in 1233.

The count of Toulouse Raymond VII, with the support of the bishop of Agen opposed this appointment, appealing to the pope, on the pretext that the pursuit of heretics was to be done under the direction of the bishop, according to the normal procedure. However, Bernard de Caux and Jean de Saint-Pierre wrote their first acts at Agen in 1243, where they remained until March 1244. They are in Cahors until February 1245, then in Montauban, in Toulouse from 1245 to 1248, and finally in Carcassonne until 1249.

A Toulousien house, opposite the abbey of Saint-Sernin, was bought by the bishop of Agen in 1249, given to de Caux to use as a prison in which heretics were imprisoned, awaiting their condemnation and is now the Musée Saint-Raymond. Also in 1249, de Caux returned to Agen because he was in charge of the foundation of the convent of the Jacobins, as Bernard Gui writes: fuit fundator precipuus et promotor conventus Agennesis (as the distingushed founder and promoter of the Agen convent). The first Dominican monks settled in Agen in November 1249 and the new Count of Toulouse Alphonse de Poitiers took the Agen convent under his protection on 12 June 1251.

De Caux died on November 26 or 27, 1252. His body was later exhumed and buried in the church of the Jacobins of Agen on 26 April 1281 with two other founders of the convent, brother Bertrand de Belcastel and master Arnaud Bélanger. His body was found to be well preserved; it was placed on display so the people Agen could see what was considered a miracle.

Interrogations

First page of Bernard de Caux witness interrogations - Interrogatoires subis par des hérétiques albigeois par-devant frère

The witness interrogations and sentences meted out by Bernard de Caux were recorded and are preserved, in a 13th century transcribed manuscript, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the library of Toulouse.

Bernard de Caux originated an interrogation procedure described in his Manual of the Inquisitors of Carcassonne or processes inquisitionis (investigation processes), used for half a century before being replaced by the Manual of the Inquisitor of Bernard Gui.

It lists the facts: 

• The papal bull "Ad extirpanda" placed the following constraints on the use of torture: 
• *that it did not cause loss of life or limb (''citra membri diminutionem et mortis periculum'') 
• *that it was used only once 
• *that the Inquisitor deemed the evidence against the accused to be virtually certain.

De Caux and de Saint-Pierre interviewed several thousand people of which 5,065 transcripts of their interrogations were made. Yves Dossat's studies show that life sentences were seldom made.

References

Sources

• Philippe Lauzun, Les Couvents de la Ville d'Agen avant 1789. - III. Les Dominicains ou Frères Prêcheurs, p. 218-220, Revue de l'Agenais, 1886, tome 13 (lire en ligne)
• Yves Dossat, II. L'inquisiteur Bernard de Caux et l'Agenais, p. 75-79, Annales du Midi, revue archéologique, historique et philologique de la France méridionale, 1951, volume 63, No. 63-13 (lire en ligne)
• Yves Dossat, Les crises de l'Inquisition toulousaine au XIIIe siècle (1233-1273), Imprimerie Bière, Bordeaux, 1959 ; p 401 (notice de Georges Tessier, Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, 1962)
• Documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'Inquisition dans le Languedoc page 150</nowiki> also see part II texts from this page (ref 2)

• Yves Dossat LE PLUS ANCIEN MANUEL DE L'INQUISITION MÉRIDIONALE
• Sherwood, Jessie. "The Inquisitor as Archivist, or Surprise, Fear, and Ruthless Efficiency in the Archives." The American Archivist 75, no. 1 (2012): 56-80.
• #4 Interrogatoires subis par des hérétiques albigeois par-devant frère by Bernard de Caux, inquisiteur de 1245 à 1253
• Les sentences de Bernard de Caux et de Jean de Saint-Pierre (1246-1248)
• monks go to Agen 1249 & hospital Saint-Raymond poor students
• more hospital conversion and moves to Carcassone and then to Agen