His dead body was only laid out in a parody of a Christian burial.

“On the eve of All Saint’s Day 1897 Abbé Gélis, a reclusive priest in the nearby village of Coustaussa, was found brutally murdered in the kitchen of his presbytery. Beaten with a pair of fire tongs and an ax, the priest had been reverently positioned on the floor with his hands neatly placed on his chest.”

None of his money was stolen.

Is there anything more obvious than this?

The altercation was evidently over an argument.