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and ladies, as many as twenty in all, and even a priest named Stephen who had once served as confessor to the queen of France.
    The cult at Orléans, as we learn from an obscure medieval text, had been uncovered in the course of a covert investigation by a Norman aristocrat called Arëfast. When word of their heretical beliefs and hateful practices reached the self-appointed spy, Arëfast posed as a potential convert in order to infiltrate and expose the heretics. Arëfast listened attentively to their whispered teachings, “all the time availing himself of the protection afforded by Christ and the Church,” as he insisted on pointing out, “praying, making the sign of the cross, and receiving the holy communion every day.” Thus shielded from the taint of heresy, he discovered for himself their dark secrets and then hastened to tell what he knew to the church authorities. 1
    The cultists, as we might call them today, embraced an eccentric set of beliefs and practices that were wholly at odds with the dogma of the Roman Catholic church. They claimed to possess a body of secret knowledge—or gnosis—that was miraculously conveyed from one to the other by the laying on of hands. Once initiated into the cult, they were able to discern that the teachings of the Church were based on an erroneous reading of the Bible: “Christ was not born of the Virgin Mary. He did not suffer for men. He was not really buried in the sepulcher and was not raised from the dead.” Thus filled with the “Holy Spirit,” they rejected all the sacraments of the Church, including baptism, ordination of priests, confession and penance, and the Eucharist. And they convinced themselves that they were cleansed of sin and thus privileged to dine not on the body and blood of Christ like ordinary Christian believers but on a diet of “heavenly food.” 2
    Exactly what was the “heavenly food” that took the place of the wafer and the wine for the cultists of Orléans? We do not and cannot know what metaphorical meanings were attached to the phrase as it was used by the initiates, but according to a monk named Paul, who composed an account some fifty years after the events he described, what passed their lips was a “devilish viaticum made of the ashes of a murdered baby.” Nor did the monk stop there. Paul insisted that the ritual slaughter of a baby and the cannibalistic communion were followed by a sexual free-for-all in which each of the male participants in the orgy “grabbed whatever woman came to hand” and freely satisfied his own sexual appetites, no matter how cruel or bizarre. 3
    Such was the report that eventually reached the king of France, Robert the Pious, and his consort, Queen Constance, and they were sufficiently alarmed by these wild rumors to convene a council of bishops at Orléans to confront and condemn the heretics. The accused men and women were brought in irons to the Church of the Holy Cross, where the king, queen, and bishops were waiting to hear the evidence and pass judgment. Arëfast was among the defendants, and it was only during the trial that he revealed himself to be an undercover agent and a friendly witness for the prosecution. Confronted with Arëfast’s damning testimony, the accused are said to have admitted the charges against them, but they refused to renounce their own cherished beliefs. Indeed, they continued to insist that they alone possessed the divine truth as revealed to them in angelic visions, whereas the Church relied only on “the fictions of carnal men, scribbled on animal skins.” 4 “Do with us what you will,” they affirmed. “Now we see our king reigning in heaven—He will raise us to His right hand in triumph.” 5
    The self-appointed inquisitors were happy to oblige. A bishop stripped the vestments from those of the defendants who held clerical rank, and all the accused were condemned to death. Only a single clerk and a single nun, who recanted at the last moment, were spared. So