Editing Robert II of France (section)

===The heretics of Orléans (1022)===
{{main|Orléans heresy|Council of Orléans (1022)}}
The year 1000 constituted the "awakening of heresy". Before the [[High Middle Ages]], there was no such persecution. The 11th century inaugurated a series of bonfire heretics in the West: [[Orléans]] (1022), [[Milan]] (1027), and [[Cambrai]] (1078). As for Robert II, the case of the heretics of Orléans was a fundamental part of his reign and, at the time, of an unprecedented impact.<ref name="Barthélemy">Dominique Barthélemy, ''An mil: le grand réveil de l'hérésie'' (in French). Les collections de l'Histoire, n° 26, January 2005.</ref> The nature of the events is told to us by exclusively ecclesiastical sources: [[Rodulfus Glaber]], [[Adémar de Chabannes]], [[Andrew of Fleury]], Jean de Ripoll and Paul de Chartres. The year 1000 extended the idea of a corrupt century where the wealth of the clergy contrasted terribly with the humility advocated by Jesus Christ. Some clerics questioned this system and wished to purify Christian society. This debate was not new: already in the 9th century, there was controversy among scholars about the Eucharist and the cult of saints, but in 1022, it was of a different nature.

Rodulfus Glaber told the story of the peasant [[Leutard of Vertus]] from [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]] who, around 994, decided to dismiss his wife, to destroy the crucifix of his local church and to preach to the villagers the refusal to pay [[tithes]] with the pretext of reading the [[Holy Scriptures]]. The Bishop of his diocese, Gibuin I of Châlons, then summoned him, and debated with him before the people and convinced them of the peasant's heretical madness. Abandoned by all, Leutard committed suicide. This situation was repeated throughout the eleventh century with various people who disagreed with Catholic orthodoxy: they were put to debate with highly educated clergymen in public, so that they and their message were ridiculed and discredited in the eyes of the common people.<ref name="Barthélemy"/> As for Adémar de Chabannes, he reported, around 1015–1020, the appearance of [[Manichaeism|Manicheans]] in Aquitaine, especially in the cities of [[Toulouse]] and [[Limoges]].

The common themes of heretics were the renunciation of carnal copulation, the destruction of images, the uselessness of the Church and the repudiation of the sacraments (especially baptism and marriage). Astonished by this wave of disputes, Rodulfus Glaber evoked in his writings that [[Satan]] was freed "after a thousand years" according to the Apocalypse and that he must have inspired all these heretics from Leutard to the Orleanais. Another contemporary of the time is expressed:

{{blockquote|author=Andrew of Fleury, ca. 1025.<ref name="Barthélemy"/>|"They [the heretics] claimed that they had faith in the Trinity, in divine unity and in the Incarnation of the Son of God, but that was a lie because they were saying that the baptized cannot receive the Holy Spirit in the baptism and that after mortal sin no one can be forgiven in any way."}}

For the chroniclers, the Orléans heresy came sometimes from a Périgord peasant (Adémar de Chabannes) and sometimes from a woman from Ravennes (Rodulfus Glaber). But above all, the most inadmissible was that the evil affected Orléans, the royal city and seat of the [[Orléans Cathedral|Sainte-Croix Cathedral]] where Robert II was baptized, which was sacred only a few decades earlier. Some canons of the cathedral, close to the court, were supporters of those doctrines considered heretical: Théodat, Herbert (master of the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-le-Puellier), Foucher and, especially, Étienne (confessor of Queen Constance) and Lisoie (cantor of Sainte-Croix), among others. The King was warned by [[Richard II, Duke of Normandy|Richard II of Normandy]], and on Christmas Day 1022, the heretics were arrested and interrogated for long hours. Rodulfus Glaber reported that they recognized belonging to the "sect" for a long time and that their purpose was to convince the royal court of their beliefs (refusal of the sacraments, food prohibitions, on the virginity of the Virgin Mary and on the Trinity). These details are surely true; on the other hand, it is abusively obvious that Rodulfus Glaber and the other chroniclers demonized at will the meetings of the "circle of Orléans": they suspected them of practicing [[Group sex|sexual orgies]] and of worshiping the [[Devil]], among others ritual crimes. These reproaches were those made to the first Christians during [[Late antiquity]].<ref name="Barthélemy"/>{{sfn|Theis|1999|pp=211–212}}

{{blockquote|author=Adémar de Chabannes, ca. 1025.<ref name="Duby">[[Georges Duby]], ''L'an mil'' (in French). Julliard, Paris, 1967. {{BNF|329870712}}</ref>|"At that time, ten of the canons of Sainte-Croix of Orléans, who seemed more pious than the others, were convinced to be [[Manichaeism|Manicheans]]. King Robert, faced with their refusal to return to the faith, had them first stripped of their priestly dignity, then expelled from the Church, and finally delivered to the flames."}}

According to legend, Étienne, Constance's confessor, received a blow from her cane which perforated his eye. Robert II had an immense pyre erected outside the city on 28 December 1022, hoping to frighten them, but he was surprised by their reaction:

{{blockquote|author=Adémar de Chabannes, ca. 1025.<ref name="Duby"/>|"Sure of themselves, they feared nothing from the fire; they announced that they would emerge unscathed from the flames, and laughing they let themselves be tied in the middle of the pyre. Soon they were completely reduced to ashes and no debris of their bones was even found."}}

This relentlessness surprised contemporaries and even modern historians. The various chroniclers, although they are horrified by the practices of the heretics, did not comment at any time about this event, and Helgaud of Fleury even ignored the episode. It was believed that the history of the heretics of Orleans would tarnish Robert II's saintly reputation and for this, the event was barely mentioned in the contemporary sources. In any case, the event was causing so much noise in the Kingdom that it would have been perceived as far away as [[Catalonia]], according to a letter from the monk John to his [[Abbot Oliba]] of [[Ripoll]]: "If you have heard of it, it was quite true", he said. For historians, this episode would refer to a settling of scores. In 1016, Robert II had imposed on the episcopal seat of Orléans one of his subordinates, Thierry II, at the expense of Oudry de Broyes, the candidate of [[Odo II, Count of Blois|Odo II of Blois]]. However, the whole affair of the Orléans heresy, in which he was perhaps involved, broke out under his episcopate. To rid himself of all responsibility, the King would have liked to violently liquidate the impostors.{{sfn|Theis|1999|pp=213–214}}<ref>Robert Henri Bautier, ''L'hérésie d'Orléans et le mouvement intellectuel au début du XIe siècle'' (in French). ''Bulletin philologique et historique du CTHS'', Paris, 1975, pp. 63–88. [[SUDOC]] [https://www.sudoc.fr/101317123 101317123]</ref>