for sanctity while living a hermit's life. One day, struck
by the words of the liturgy, _Per Eum qui venturus est judicare vivos
et mortuos_, he conceived the idea that he was the Son of God. He
made some converts among the lowest classes, who, not content with
denying the faith, soon began to pillage the churches. Eon was
arrested for causing these disturbances, and was brought before Pope
Eugenius III, then presiding over the Council of Rheims. He was
judged insane, and in all kindness was placed under the charge of
Suger, the Abbot of St. Denis. He was confined to a monastery, where
he died soon after.

Strangely enough, some of his disciples persisted in believing in
him; "they preferred to die rather than renounce their belief," says
an historian of the time. They were handed over to the secular arm
and perished at the stake. In decreeing this penalty, the civil power
was undoubtedly influenced by the example of Robert the Pious.

It is easy to determine the responsibility of the Church, i.e., her
bishops and priests, in this series of executions (1020 to 1150). At
Orleans, the populace and the king put the heretics to death; the
historians of the time tell us plainly that the clergy merely
declared the orthodox doctrine. It was the same at Goslar. At Asti,
the Bishop's name appears with the names of the other nobles who had
the Cathari executed, but it seems certain that he exercised no
special authority in the case. At Milan, the civil magistrates
themselves, against the Archbishop's protest, gave the heretics the
choice between reverencing the cross, and the stake.

At Soissons, the populace, feeling certain that the clergy would not
resort to extreme measures, profited by the Bishop's absence to burn
the heretics they detested. At Liege, the Bishop managed to save a
few heretics from the violence of the angry mob. At Cologne, the
Archbishop was not so successful; the people rose in their anger and
burned the heretics before they could be tried. Peter of Bruys and
the Manichean at Cambrai were both put to death by the people. Arnold
of Brescia, deserted by fortune, fell a victim to his political
adversaries; the prefect of Rome was responsible for his
execution.[1]

[1] The case of Arnold, however, is not so clear. The _Annales
Augustani minores_ (_Mon. Germ. SS_., vol. x, p. 8) declare that the
Pope hanged the rebel. Another anonymous writer (cf. Tanon, _Hist.
des tribunaux de l'Inq. en France_, p. 456, n