READINGS for HS 4476 MEDIEVAL HERETICS AND INQUISITORS

BERNARD GUI ON FRA DOLCINO
CONCERNING THE SECT OF THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES
THE ORDER OF APOSTLES
When the aforesaid Heresiarch Gerard had been captured and burnt, Dolcino of the diocese
of Novara, the illegitimate son of a priest and a disciple of the aforesaid Gerard, succeeded him as
teacher of error and depraved doctrine, becoming head and standard bearer of the whole sect and
congregation that they falsely say is apostolic, but which is really an apostasy. And he elaborated
their errors and added more errors to them, as will become evident below, where their errors have
been gathered together for examination, so that it be easier for the faithful to avoid them once they
have been identified. And the said Dolcino, travelling far and wide, particularly in regions of
[Northern] Italy and Tuscany, added to his sect many thousands of both sexes, to whom he imparted
his pestiferous teaching. And he predicted many future events through a spirit that was not so much
prophetic as it was deluded and mad, and he asserted and pretended that he had revelations from God
and prophetic understanding. In all this, he was found false, lying and a deceiver, deceiving both
himself and the Margarite who was a sorceress and his heretical consort in sin and error, as the
following will more fully reveal.
Now the aforesaid Dolcino wrote three letters that he addressed to all Christ's faithful in
general and his followers in particular. In these letters of his, he went on madly about the Sacred
Scriptures, feigning at the opening of each letter to hold the True Faith of the Roman Church. The
deceit of this is evident from their very contents. I have laid out, for examination, the sense of these
two letters. I have excerpted what follows, omitting for brevity's sake other things because they
seemed to have very little to do with this matter. Of these letters, one was sent and composed in the
month of August of the year of Our Lord 1300. In it, the same Dolcino asserted at the beginning that
his congregation was spiritual and its very mode of living in poverty, and without the tie of exterior
obedience but only interior obedience, was in fact and name truly that of the Apostles. He asserted
that in the last days God had sent and selected this congregation for the salvation of souls, and that
God had sent and chosen the one who was head of this congregation, that is to say himself (whom
they called Fra Dolcino), who had received revelations about present and future events that would
soon befall good and evil people so that he could explain the prophecies and understand the passages
of the Old and New Testaments about the last days.
Also, he asserted that the secular clergy and many rulers and tyrants were his enemies and
the ministers of the Devil, as were all religious, in particular the Preachers, Minorites, and others
who were persecuting Dolcino and his followers in as much as these claimed to belong to the said
sect that called itself a spiritual and apostolic congregation. For this reason, he said that he, Dolcino,
and his followers were fleeing and hiding from the face of their persecutors, just as their predecessors
in the said congregation had done, until the time arrived when, so he and his followers said, they
would appear in public and preach publicly, once all their adversaries had been wiped out. Also, he
said that all the persecutors of the aforesaid, along with all the Church's prelates, were shortly to be
killed and destroyed, and that those of them who remained would convert to his sect and become
members of it. Then, he and his followers would prevail in everything.
Also, he distinguished four states of the saints, according to their mode of living. First, there
were the fathers of the Old Testament, the Patriarchs, Prophets, and other just men before the coming
of Christ. In that state, he said, marriage was good on account of the multiplication of human race.