Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''Eudo de Stella'', was a
Breton
Breton most often refers to:
*anything associated with Brittany, and generally
**Breton people
**Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany
** Breton (horse), a breed
**Gale ...
religious leader and "
messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
". He opposed the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
to the point of pillaging
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
s and
monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...
and accumulating a large treasure during a period of eight years (1140–48). He was considered little more than an "illiterate idiot" by the Church authorities.
Life
Born near Loudéac to a noble family, Eudon, as he was originally called, was briefly an Augustinian friar taking up a
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...
's life in the
Brocéliande
Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly t ...
(Brécheliant). Around 1140, during the reign of Conan III of Brittany, Éon took up residence in the abandoned priory of Moinet, but he did not remain there long. According to his own story, one day while attending the mass, he heard the priest say ''Per eum qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos'' ("by him whose it is to judge the living and the dead") and interpreted this as applying to himself, hearing his name in the ''eum'' of the liturgy.William of Newbury says that ''sermone Gallico Eun diceretur'' ("in Gallic parlance he was called Eun"), cf. XXXX 328. It appears that Eun, or Yun, was the
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th
Gnostic
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...
tradition or neo-Manichaeanism as Norman Cohn believed, cf. Zacour, 329 n10. He thereafter went by the name ''Éon''. Considering himself a prophet and messiah, he soon gathered about himself a body of faithful who met at his priory.
He became renowned for his magic, the glow which supposedly surrounded him, his ability to be in many places at once, and the sumptuous feasts to which he treated his guests. He secured the loyalty of the poor by granting them great riches, stolen from
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
s and monasteries. As an article of faith, the established Church was worldly, its wealth, its sacraments, and its offices worthless and ineffectual. Éon's band of followers attacked the rich and redistributed their wealth amongst themselves, eventually dressing themselves in the highest finery and eating lavishly. Members were ranked as "angels", "apostles", etc. Their principal message was of the
Parousia
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christian and Islamic belief that Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his ascension to Heaven (which is said to have occurred about two thousand years ago). The ...
. Éon and his followers spread their message throughout northern Brittany and as far as
Gascony
Gascony (; ) was a province of the southwestern Kingdom of France that succeeded the Duchy of Gascony (602–1453). From the 17th century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), it was part of the combined Province of Guyenne and Gascon ...
.
Éon's epithet, ''de l’Étoile'' ("of the star"), derives from a
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
which appeared in 1148. Generally considered bad omens in the Middle Ages, a comet often signified the downfall of an illustrious person. Under
Pope Eugene III
Pope Eugene III (; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He was the first Cist ...
, the Council of Reims in 1148 condemned Éon's movement as heresy (''hérésie éoniste''). The prelates ordered him arrested and brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal, though the first men sent to arrest him were themselves converted by his extravagant lifestyle.Zacour, 328. When Éon was first brought before the council he carried with him a forked branch, which he said would point heavenward if God were to have two thirds of the world and he a third and earthwards if their shares were to be reversed. The council is said to have burst into laughter upon hearing this. He was tortured into confessing his messiahship and condemned to life imprisonment. He was handed over to the custody of Archbishop Samson of Reims and sent to the
Abbey of Saint-Denis
The Basilica of Saint-Denis (, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and archite ...
, where he died in 1150. His followers (with names like Wisdom, Knowledge, and Judgement) were hunted down, with difficulty, and
burnt at the stake
Death by burning is an execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment for and warning agai ...
, for none would disavow their master.
Sources
*Avril, Jean-Loup. ''Mille Bretons, dictionnaire biographique''. Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande: Les Portes du Large, 2002. .
* Cohn, Norman. '' The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarism and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages''. Secker & Warburg 1957.
*Salmon-Legagneur, Emmanuel. ''Les noms qui ont fait l'Histoire de Bretagne''. Coop Breizh/Institut Culturel de Bretagne, 1997. .
*Zacour, Norman P. "The Children's Crusade." ''The Later Crusades, 1189–1311'', ed. H. W. Hazard and R. L. Wolff, volume II of ''A History of the Crusades'', series ed. K. M. Setton. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.