CANTOR (LE CHANTRE), GILLES (GIL). - The name of an illiterate layman who is considered the founder of a seventh religious sect, which, between the late 14th and the first half of the 15th century, was active in Brussels and Flanders.
The followers called themselves *Hommes intelligents*, and in terms of beliefs, they appear to have been akin to the Brethren of the Free Spirit. Among the most prominent adherents whom C. attracted to his group was the Carmelite William of Hindernissen, near Bergen-op-Zoom, who had previously served as prior in Mechelen and Brussels. The members of the group rejected prayer, Purgatory, the eternity of punishments, and the veneration of images. Instead, they admitted lust as a necessity of the flesh and the eternal salvation of all, including Satan himself. Against the extravagant activity of C., Pierre d'Ailly, Bishop of Cambrai, intervened in 1410; however, the means and outcome of this intervention remain unknown.