The Inquisitor’s Guide Bernard Gui, trans Janet Shirley Ravenhall, 208pp, £15.99

By the early 1300s, papal authorities had stamped out the "worst excesses" of heresy in western Europe, but south-west France remained a stronghold of apostasy. Accordingly, the zealous and uncompromising Bernard Gui was despatched to the region. For over 20 years, the Toulouse-based inquisitor rooted out, tried and punished renegade Christians, lapsed converts, Jews and other transgressors. His methods were "methodical and exact", and this is the handbook he wrote for those in the same line of work.

The first few chapters concern the largest renegade Christian sects: the Cathars, Beguines, Waldensians and false apostles. More colourful detail comes later, when Gui instructs on the "error and pestilence of sorcery, fortune-telling and the summoning of demons". He warns of female spirits who go about by night using "songs, fruit, plants, straps and other things" to lure their victims. He also devotes a chapter on the "intolerable blasphemies" of Jews, with a rather grim outline of the "special interrogatory" methods to be used with them.

For all its kitsch value – Gui's instructions are enlivened with drawings of scenes such as "The Torments of Hell" – this book is important. It is a timeless portrait of fear and ideological dogma, and an apt reminder of how ridiculous they are.

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