Here a passage from a chapter of background explanation in the book:
That's a doozy of a conversion experience, but still, better him than me....At the turn of the first milennium, A peasant called Leutard in the village of [place in Northern France] had a dream. In it, a swarm of bees attacked his private parts, and then entered his body - presumably throught his urethra. The dream, rather than making Leutard wake half the village with his screaming, inspired him to go into his local church, break the cross above the alter and descecrate an image of Christ.
But he didn't stop there: he sent his wife away and began to preach openly in the village, urging whoever would listen that they should withold payment of tithes. The Bishop of Châlons got wind of the peasant's activities, but Leutard threw himself down a well before he could be apprehended.
*This is the same crusade in which Innocent's (papal) legate, Arnold Amaury, finding a town in Languedoc where 220 or so accused heretics were sheltering amongst 15,000 or so innocent townsfolk, resolved the ensuing impasse with the immortal words, "Kill them all. God will recognise his own." It was the feast of St Mary Magdalene (July 22) in the year 1209. The crusading army with Amaury then sacked the town, killing between 9 and 15 thousand townsfolk (including women and child sheltering in the cathedral, which was burned), and looted the remains.