THE SCENE: Louis VI of France ascribed to the philosophy that it is sometimes necessary to burn the church in order to save the church.
THE TEXT: He brought a force of knights to help the church of Orleans against Leo, a nobleman of the castle of Meung and vassal of the bishop of Orleans, who had taken away from that church the greater part of the same castle and lordship over another. The lord Louis curbed him with his mighty hand and Leo took refuge in a church next to his own residence. Siege engines were set up, and he strove to defend himself. But, as the strong is always subdued by the stronger, he could not withstand the pressure of arms and fire directed against him. And he was not alone in paying the penalty of a long-standing excommunication when he and many others, about sixty, were engulfed by the flames. They tumbled down from the tower and became stuck on the points of the standing lances. With arrows flying into them, they breathed their last and carried off their miserable souls in sorrow to hell.
– The Deeds of Louis the Fat, Suger, 12th Century AD
