In early 1893, Joseph-Antoine Boullan died. A defrocked priest, he was the head of a schismatic branch called the Church of the Carmel. He was also known as the Black Canon of Lyons.
Born in 1824, Boulan was ordained in 1848. He became a follower of Eugene Vintras, once a foreman in a cardboard box factory who claimed to be the reincarnation of Elijah.
Vintras founded two sects, the Work of Mercy and the Eliate Church of Carmel. He was dogged by rumors of demonic rituals and sexual excesses. In an 1846 pamphlet he was accused of homosexuality, conducting black masses in the nude and masturbating on the altar. He was condemned by the Pope, which would have made him a very unsuitable person for a Catholic priest to fraternize with.
