Orléans heresy

The nature of the Orléans heresy is plagued by conflict among sources. Paul of Saint-Père de Chartres writing nearly 50 years after the trial was personally acquainted with some of the principals. He writes of secret conventicles at night, a litany of demons, the appearance of Satan in the form of a beast, followed by the extinguishing of lamps and a carnal orgy. Adhémar of Chabannes, writing shortly after the events in 1028, mentions sex orgies, spitting on the cross of Christ, adoration of the Devil who gave money to the heretics, and sacred food made of the ashes of dead children. Less reliable sources describe their chief belief that lust was not a sin, that they merely secretly worshiped pagan gods, or do not mention forms of witchcraft at all.

References

Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1972). Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Ithica and London: Cornell University Press. pp. 313. ISBN 0801492890.