Stephen of Bourbon

Stephen of Bourbon (c. 1180 – 1261) was a preacher of the Dominican Order, author of the largest collection of exempla for the preaching of his century, the Tractatus de diversis materiis predicabilibus, a historian of medieval heresies, and one of the first inquisitors. He was born in Belleville (Archdiocese of Lyons) towards the end of the twelfth century.

Having received his education from the cathedral clergy in Macon, he made his higher studies in Paris, about 1220, and there shortly afterwards, as it seems, he entered the Order of Preachers. From 1230 he was very active for many years as a preacher and inquisitor in the districts of Lyonnais, Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Savoy, Champagne, Lorraine, Auvergne, Languedoc, and Roussillon. In his work for preachers entitled De septem donis Spiritus Sancti, or Tractatus de diversis Materiis Praedicabilibus, Stephen included material drawn from his many years of practical experience, as well as a number of stories from the First Crusade chanson de geste tradition. Written some time between 1250 and his death in 1261 as a "manual for his brethren presenting authorities, arguments and exempla from which to construct sermons... [and to] promote a Christian life [and 'edification of souls'] among the simple by means of arguments reinforced by authority and illuminated by story..." Exempla are at the heart of the work and are given promenence. Parts of his work were published in Paris in 1877 by A. Lecoy de La Marche under the title Anecdotes historiques, légendes et apologues, tirés du recueil inédit d'Étienne de Bourbon dominicain du 13e siècle. A free use of his writings was made by a later compiler to form a "Speculum Morale", which for a long time was falsely attributed to Vincent of Beauvais.

Stephen was the protagonist of a 1987 French film Le Moine et la Sorcière, by Suzanne Schiffman, where he was played by Tchéky Karyo.