CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
*URBAIN GRANDIER--1634*
CHAPTER I
On Sunday, the 26th of November, 1631, there was great excitement in the
little town of Loudun, especially in the narrow streets which led to the
church of Saint-Pierre in the marketplace, from the gate of which the
town was entered by anyone coming from the direction of the abbey of
Saint-Jouin-les-Marmes. This excitement was caused by the expected
arrival of a personage who had been much in people's mouths latterly in
Loudun, and about whom there was such difference of opinion that
discussion on the subject between those who were on his side and those
who were against him was carried on with true provincial acrimony. It
was easy to see, by the varied expressions on the faces of those who
turned the doorsteps into improvised debating clubs, how varied were the
feelings with which the man would be welcomed who had himself formally
announced to friends and enemies alike the exact date of his return.
About nine o'clock a kind of sympathetic vibration ran through the
crowd, and with the rapidity of a flash of lightning the words, "There
he is! there he is!" passed from group to group. At this cry some
withdrew into their houses and shut their doors and darkened their
windows, as if it were a day of public mourning, while others opened
them wide, as if to let joy enter. In a few moments the uproar and
confusion evoked by the news was succeeded by the deep silence of
breathless curiosity.
Then, through the silence, a figure advanced, carrying a branch of
laurel in one hand as a token of triumph. It was that of a young man of
from thirty-two to thirty-four years of age, with a graceful and
well-knit frame, an aristocratic air and faultlessly beautiful features
of a somewhat haughty expression. Although he had walked three leagues
to reach the town, the ecclesiastical garb which he wore was not only
elegant but of dainty freshness. His eyes turned to heaven, and singing
in a sweet voice praise to the Lord, he passed through the streets
leading to the church in the market-place with a slow and solemn gait,
without vouchsafing a look, a word, or a gesture to anyone. The entire
crowd, falling into step, marched behind him as he advanced, singing
like him, the singers being the prettiest girls in Loudun, for we have
forgotten to say that the crowd consisted almost entirely of women.
Meanwhile the object of all this commotion arrived at length at the
porch of the church of Saint-Pierre. Ascending the steps, he knelt at
the top and prayed in a low voice, then rising he touched the church
doors with his laurel branch, and they opened wide as if by magic,
revealing the choir decorated and illuminated as if for one of the four
great feasts of the year, and with all its scholars, choir boys,
singers, beadles, and vergers in their places. Glancing around, he for
whom they were waiting came up the nave, passed through the choir, knelt
for a second time at the foot of the altar, upon which he laid the
branch of laurel, then putting on a robe as white as snow and passing
the stole around his neck, he began the celebration of the mass before a
congregation composed of all those who had followed him. At the end of
the mass a Te Deum was sung.
He who had just rendered thanks to God for his own victory with all the
solemn ceremonial usually reserved for the triumphs of kings was the
priest Urbain Grandier. Two days before, he had been acquitted, in
virtue of a decision pronounced by M. d'Escoubleau de Sourdis,
Archbishop of Bordeaux, of an accusation brought against him of which he
had been declared guilty by a magistrate, and in punishment of which he
had been condemned to fast on bread and water every Friday for three
months, and forbidden to exercise his priestly functions in the diocese
of Poitiers for five years and in the town of Loudun for ever.
These are the circumstances under which the sentence had been passed and
the judgment reversed.
Urbain Grandier was born at Rovere, a village near Sable, a little town
of Bas-Maine. Having studied the sciences with his father Pierre and his
uncle Claude Grandier, who were learned astrologers and alchemists, he
entered, at the age of twelve, the Jesuit college at Bordeaux, having
already received the ordinary education of a young man. The professors
soon found that besides his considerable attainments he had great
natural gifts for languages and oratory; they therefore made of him a
thorough classical scholar, and in order to develop his oratorical
talent encouraged him to practise preaching. They soon grew very fond of
a pupil who was likely to bring them so much credit, and as soon as he
was old enough to take holy orders they gave him the cure of souls in
the parish of Saint-Pierre in Loudun, which was in the gift of the
college. When he had been some months installed there as a
priest-in-charge, he received a prebendal stall, thanks to the same
patrons, in the collegiate church of Sainte-Croix.
It is easy to understand that the bestowal of these two positions on so
young a man, who did not even belong to the province, made him seem in
some sort a usurper of rights and privileges belonging to the people of
the country, and drew upon him the envy of his brother-ecclesiastics.
There were, in fact, many other reasons why Urbain should be an object
of jealousy to these: first, as we have already said, he was very
handsome, then the instruction which he had received from his father had
opened the world of science to him and given him the key to a thousand
things which were mysteries to the ignorant, but which he fathomed with
the greatest ease. Furthermore, the comprehensive course of study which
he had followed at the Jesuit college had raised him above a crowd of
prejudices, which are sacred to the vulgar, but for which he made no
secret of his contempt; and lastly, the eloquence of his sermons had
drawn to his church the greater part of the regular congregations of the
other religious communities, especially of the mendicant orders, who had
till then, in what concerned preaching, borne away the palm at Loudun.
As we have said, all this was more than enough to excite, first
jealousy, and then hatred. And both were excited in no ordinary degree.
We all know how easily the ill-natured gossip of a small town can rouse
the angry contempt of the masses for everything which is beyond or above
them. In a wider sphere Urbain would have shone by his many gifts, but,
cooped up as he was within the walls of a little town and deprived of
air and space, all that might have conduced to his success in Paris led
to his destruction at Loudun.
It was also unfortunate for Urbain that his character, far from winning
pardon for his genius, augmented the hatred which the latter inspired.
Urbain, who in his intercourse with his friends was cordial and
agreeable, was sarcastic, cold, and haughty to his enemies. When he had
once resolved on a course, he pursued it unflinchingly; he jealously
exacted all the honour due to the rank at which he had arrived,
defending it as though it were a conquest; he also insisted on enforcing
all his legal rights, and he resented the opposition and angry words of
casual opponents with a harshness which made them his lifelong enemies.
The first example which Urbain gave of this inflexibility was in 1620,
when he gained a lawsuit against a priest named Meunier. He caused the
sentence to be carried out with such rigour that he awoke an
inextinguishable hatred in Meunier's mind, which ever after burst forth
on the slightest provocation.
A second lawsuit, which he likewise gained; was one which he undertook
against the chapter of Sainte-Croix with regard to a house, his claim to
which the chapter, disputed. Here again he displayed the same
determination to exact his strict legal rights to the last iota, and
unfortunately Mignon, the attorney of the unsuccessful chapter, was a
revengeful, vindictive, and ambitious man; too commonplace ever to
arrive at a high position, and yet too much above his surroundings to be
content with the secondary position which he occupied. This man, who was
a canon of the collegiate church of Sainte-Croix and director of the
Ursuline convent, will have an important part to play in the following
narrative. Being as hypocritical as Urbain was straightforward, his
ambition was to gain wherever his name was known a reputation for
exalted piety; he therefore affected in his life the asceticism of an
anchorite and the self-denial of a saint. As he had much experience in
ecclesiastical lawsuits, he looked on the chapter's loss of this one, of
which he had in some sort guaranteed the success, as a personal
humiliation, so that when Urbain gave himself airs of triumph and
exacted the last letter of his bond, as in the case of Meunier, he
turned Mignon into an enemy who was not only more relentless but more
dangerous than the former.
In the meantime, and in consequence of this lawsuit, a certain Barot, an
uncle of Mignon and his partner as well, got up a dispute with Urbain,
but as he was a man below mediocrity, Urbain required in order to crush
him only to let fall from the height of his superiority a few of those
disdainful words which brand as deeply as a red-hot iron. This man,
though totally wanting in parts, was very rich, and having no children
was always surrounded by a horde of relatives, every one of whom was
absorbed in the attempt to make himself so agreeable that his name would
appear in Barot's will. This being so, the mocking words which were
rained down on Barot spattered not only himself but also all those who
had sided with him in the quarrel, and thus added considerably to the
tale of Urbain's enemies.
About this epoch a still graver event took place. Amongst the most
assiduous frequenters of the confessional in his church was a young and
pretty girl, Julie by name, the daughter of the king's attorney,
Trinquant--Trinquant being, as well as Barot, an uncle of Mignon. Now it
happened that this young girl fell into such a state of debility that
she was obliged to keep her room. One of her friends, named Marthe
Pelletier, giving up society, of which she was very fond, undertook to
nurse the patient, and carried her devotion so far as to shut herself up
in the same room with her. When Julie Trinquant had recovered and was
able again to take her place in the world, it came out that Marthe
Pelletier, during her weeks of retirement, had given birth to a child,
which had been baptized and then put out to nurse. Now, by one of those
odd whims which so often take possession of the public mind, everyone in
Loudun persisted in asserting that the real mother of the infant was not
she who had acknowledged herself as such--that, in short, Marthe
Pelletier had sold her good name to her friend Julie for a sum of money;
and of course it followed as a matter about which there could be no
possible doubt, that Urbain was the father.
Trinquant hearing of the reports about his daughter, took upon himself
as king's attorney to have Marthe Pelletier arrested and imprisoned.
Being questioned about the child, she insisted that she was its mother,
and would take its maintenance upon herself. To have brought a child
into the world under such circumstances was a sin, but not a crime;
Trinquant was therefore obliged to set Marthe at liberty, and the abuse
of justice of which he was guilty served only to spread the scandal
farther and to strengthen the public in the belief it had taken up.
Hitherto, whether through the intervention of the heavenly powers, or by
means of his own cleverness, Urbain Grandier had come out victor in
every struggle in which he had engaged, but each victor had added to the
number of his enemies, and these were now so numerous that any other
than he would have been alarmed, and have tried either to conciliate
them or to take precautions against their malice; but Urbain, wrapped in
his pride, and perhaps conscious of his innocence, paid no attention to
the counsels of his most faithful followers, but went on his way
unheeding.
All the opponents whom till now Urbain had encountered had been entirely
unconnected with each other, and had each struggled for his own
individual ends. Urbain's enemies, believing that the cause of his
success was to be found in the want of cooperation among themselves, now
determined to unite in order to crush him. In consequence, a conference
was held at Barot's, at which, besides Barot himself, Meunier,
Trinquant, and Mignon took part, and the latter had also brought with
him one Menuau, a king's counsel and his own most intimate friend, who
was, however, influenced by other motives than friendship in joining the
conspiracy. The fact was, that Menuau was in love with a woman who had
steadfastly refused to show him any favour, and he had got firmly fixed
in his head that the reason for her else inexplicable indifference and
disdain was that Urbain had been beforehand with him in finding an
entrance to her heart. The object of the meeting was to agree as to the
best means of driving the common enemy out of Loudon and its
neighbourhood.
Urbain's life was so well ordered that it presented little which his
enemies could use as a handle for their purpose. His only foible seemed
to be a predilection for female society; while in return all the wives
and daughters of the place, with the unerring instinct of their sex,
seeing, that the new priest was young, handsome, and eloquent, chose
him, whenever it was possible, as their spiritual director. As this
preference had already offended many husbands and fathers, the decision
the conspirators arrived at was that on this side alone was Grandier
vulnerable, and that their only chance of success was to attack him
where he was weakest. Almost at once, therefore, the vague reports which
had been floating about began to attain a certain definiteness: there
were allusions made, though no name was mentioned, to a young girl in
Loudun; who in spite of Grandier's frequent unfaithfulness yet remained
his mistress-in-chief; then it began to be whispered that the young
girl, having had conscientious scruples about her love for Urbain, he
had allayed them by an act of sacrilege--that is to say, he had, as
priest, in the middle of the night, performed the service of marriage
between himself and his mistress. The more absurd the reports, the more
credence did they gain, and it was not long till everyone in Loudun
believed them true, although no one was able to name the mysterious
heroine of the tale who had had the courage to contract a marriage with
a priest; and considering how small Loudun was, this was most
extraordinary.
Resolute and full of courage as was Grandier, at length he could not
conceal from himself that his path lay over quicksands: he felt that
slander was secretly closing him round, and that as soon as he was well
entangled in her shiny folds, she would reveal herself by raising her
abhorred head, and that then a mortal combat between them would begin.
But it was one of his convictions that to draw back was to acknowledge
one's guilt; besides, as far as he was concerned, it was probably too
late for him to retrace his steps. He therefore went on his way, as
unyielding, as scornful, and as haughty as ever.
Among those who were supposed to be most active in spreading the
slanders relative to Urbain was a man called Duthibaut, a person of
importance in the province, who was supposed by the townspeople to hold
very advanced views, and who was a "Sir Oracle" to whom the commonplace
and vulgar turned for enlightenment. Some of this man's strictures on
Grandier were reported to the latter, especially some calumnies to which
Duthibaut had given vent at the Marquis de Bellay's; and one day,
Grandier, arrayed in priestly garments, was about to enter the church of
Sainte-Croix to assist in the service, he encountered Duthibaut at the
entrance, and with his usual haughty disdain accused him of slander.
Duthibaut, who had got into the habit of saying and doing whatever came
into his head without fear of being called to account, partly because of
his wealth and partly because of the influence he had gained over the
narrow-minded, who are so numerous in a small provincial town, and who
regarded him as being much above them, was so furious at this public
reprimand, that he raised his cane and struck Urbain.
The opportunity which this affront afforded Grandier of being revenged
on all his enemies was too precious to be neglected, but, convinced,
with too much reason, that he would never obtain justice from the local
authorities, although the respect due to the Church had been infringed,
in his person he decided to appeal to King Louis XIII, who deigned to
receive him, and deciding that the insult offered to a priest robed in
the sacred vestments should be expiated, sent the cause to the high
court of Parliament, with instructions that the case against Duthibaut
should be tried and decided there.
Hereupon Urbain's enemies saw they had no time to lose, and took
advantage of his absence to make counter accusations against him. Two
worthies beings, named Cherbonneau and Bugrau, agreed to become
informers, and were brought before the ecclesiastical magistrate at
Poitiers. They accused Grandier of having corrupted women and girls, of
indulging in blasphemy and profanity, of neglecting to read his breviary
daily, and of turning God's sanctuary into a place of debauchery and
prostitution. The information was taken down, and Louis Chauvet, the
civil lieutenant, and the archpriest of Saint-Marcel and the Loudenois,
were appointed to investigate the matter, so that, while Urbain was
instituting proceedings against Duthibaut in Paris, information was laid
against himself in Loudun. This matter thus set going was pushed forward
with all the acrimony so common in religious prosecutions; Trinquant
appeared as a witness, and drew many others after him, and whatever
omissions were found in the depositions were interpolated according to
the needs of the prosecution. The result was that the case when fully
got up appeared to be so serious that it was sent to the Bishop of
Poitiers for trial. Now the bishop was not only surrounded by the
friends of those who were bringing the accusations against Grandier, but
had himself a grudge against him. It had happened some time before that
Urbain, the case being urgent, had dispensed with the usual notice of a
marriage, and the bishop, knowing this, found in the papers laid before
him, superficial as they were, sufficient evidence against Urbain to
justify him in issuing a warrant for his apprehension, which was drawn
up in the following words:
"Henri-Louis, Chataignier de la Rochepezai, by divine mercy Bishop of
Poitiers, in view of the charges and informations conveyed to us by the
archpriest of Loudun against Urbain Grandier, priest-in-charge of the
Church of Saint-Pierre in the Market-Place at Loudun, in virtue of a
commission appointed by us directed to the said archpriest, or in his
absence to the Prior of Chassaignes, in view also of the opinion given
by our attorney upon the said charges, have ordered and do hereby order
that Urbain Grandier, the accused, be quietly taken to the prison in our
palace in Poitiers, if it so be that he be taken and apprehended, and if
not, that he be summoned to appear at his domicile within three days, by
the first apparitor-priest, or tonsured clerk, and also by the first
royal sergeant, upon this warrant, and we request the aid of the secular
authorities, and to them, or to any one of them, we hereby give power
and authority to carry out this decree notwithstanding any opposition or
appeal, and the said Grandier having been heard, such a decision will be
given by our attorney as the facts may seem to warrant.
"Given at Dissay the 22nd day of October 1629, and signed in the
original as follows:
"HENRI-LOUIS, Bishop of Poitiers."
Grandier was, as we have said, at Paris when these proceedings were
taken against him, conducting before the Parliament his case against
Duthibaut. The latter received a copy of the decision arrived at by the
bishop, before Grandier knew of the charges that had been formulated
against him, and having in the course of his defence drawn a terrible
picture of the immorality of Grandier's life, he produced as a proof of
the truth of his assertions the damning document which had been put into
his hands. The court, not knowing what to think of the turn affairs had
taken, decided that before considering the accusations brought by
Grandier, he must appear before his bishop to clear himself of the
charges, brought against himself. Consequently he left Paris at once,
and arrived at Loudun, where he only stayed long enough to learn what
had happened in his absence, and then went on to Poitiers in order to
draw up his defence. He had, however, no sooner set foot in the place
than he was arrested by a sheriff's officer named Chatry, and confined
in the prison of the episcopal palace.
It was the middle of November, and the prison was at all times cold and
damp, yet no attention was paid to Grandier's request that he should be
transferred to some other place of confinement. Convinced by this that
his enemies had more influence than he had supposed, he resolved to
possess his soul in patience, and remained a prisoner for two months,
during which even his warmest friends believed him lost, while Duthibaut
openly laughed at the proceedings instituted against himself, which he
now believed would never go any farther, and Barot had already selected
one of his heirs, a certain Ismael Boulieau, as successor to Urbain as
priest and prebendary.
It was arranged that the costs of the lawsuit should be defrayed out of
a fund raised by the prosecutors, the rich paying for the poor; for as
all the witnesses lived at Loudun and the trial was to take place at
Poitiers, considerable expense would be incurred by the necessity of
bringing so many people such a distance; but the lust of vengeance
proved stronger than the lust of gold; the subscription expected from
each being estimated according to his fortune, each paid without a
murmur, and at the end of two months the case was concluded.
In spite of the evident pains taken by the prosecution to strain the
evidence against the defendant, the principal charge could not be
sustained, which was that he had led astray many wives and daughters in
Loudun. No one woman came forward to complain of her ruin by Grandier;
the name of no single victim of his alleged immorality was given. The
conduct of the case was the most extraordinary ever seen; it was evident
that the accusations were founded on hearsay and not on fact, and yet a
decision and sentence against Grandier were pronounced on January 3rd,
1630. The sentence was as follows: For three months to fast each Friday
on bread and water by way of penance; to be inhibited from the
performance of clerical functions in the diocese of Poitiers for five
years, and in the town of Loudun for ever.
Both parties appealed from this decision: Grandier to the Archbishop of
Bordeaux, and his adversaries, on the advice of the attorney to the
diocese, pleading a miscarriage of justice, to the Parliament of Paris;
this last appeal being made in order to overwhelm Grandier and break his
spirit. But Grandier's resolution enabled him to face this attack
boldly: he engaged counsel to defend his case before the Parliament,
while he himself conducted his appeal to the Archbishop of Bordeaux. But
as there were many necessary witnesses, and it was almost impossible to
bring them all such a great distance, the archiepiscopal court sent the
appeal to the presidial court of Poitiers. The public prosecutor of
Poitiers began a fresh investigation, which being conducted with
impartiality was not encouraging to Grandier's accusers. There had been
many conflicting statements made by the witnesses, and these were now
repeated: other witnesses had declared quite openly that they had been
bribed; others again stated that their depositions had been tampered
with; and amongst these latter was a certain priest named Mechin, and
also that Ishmael Boulieau whom Barot had been in such a hurry to select
as candidate for the reversion of Grandier's preferments. Boulieau's
deposition has been lost, but we can lay Mechin's before the reader, for
the original has been preserved, just as it issued from his pen:
"I, Gervais Mechin, curate-in-charge of the Church of Saint-Pierre in
the Market Place at Loudun, certify by these presents, signed by my
hand, to relieve my conscience as to a certain report which is being
spread abroad, that I had said in support of an accusation brought by
Gilles Robert, archpriest, against Urbain Grandier, priest-in-charge of
Saint-Pierre, that I had found the said Grandier lying with women and
girls in the church of Saint Pierre, the doors being closed.
"ITEM. that on several different occasions, at unsuitable hours both day
and night, I had seen women and girls disturb the said Grandier by going
into his bedroom, and that some of the said women remained with him from
one o'clock in the after noon till three o'clock the next morning, their
maids bringing them their suppers and going away again at once.
"ITEM. that I had seen the said Grandier in the church, the doors being
open, but that as soon as some women entered he closed them.
"As I earnestly desire that such reports should cease, I declare by
these presents that I have never seen the said Grandier with women or
girls in the church, the doors being closed; that I have never found him
there alone with women or girls; that when he spoke to either someone
else was always present, and the doors were open; and as to their
posture, I think I made it sufficiently clear when in the witness-box
that Grandier was seated and the women scattered over the church;
furthermore, I have never seen either women or girls enter Grandier's
bedroom either by day or night, although it is true that I have heard
people in the corridor coming and going late in the evening, who they
were I cannot say, but a brother of the said Grandier sleeps close by;
neither have I any knowledge that either women or girls, had their
suppers brought to the said room. I have also never said that he
neglected the reading of his breviary, because that would be contrary to
the truth, seeing that on several occasions he borrowed mine and read
his hours in it. I also declare that I have never seen him close the
doors of the church, and that whenever I have seen him speaking to women
I have never noticed any impropriety; I have not ever seen him touch
them in any way, they have only spoken together; and if anything is
found in my deposition contrary to the above, it is without my
knowledge, and was never read to me, for I would not have signed it, and
I say and affirm all this in homage to the truth.
"Done the last day of October 1630, "(Signed) G. MECHIN."
In the face of such proofs of innocence none of the accusations could be
considered as established and so, according to the decision of the
presidial court of Poitiers, dated the 25th of May 1634, the decision of
the bishop's court was reversed, and Grandier was acquitted of the
charges brought against him. However, he had still to appear before the
Archbishop of Bordeaux, that his acquittal might be ratified. Grandier
took advantage of a visit which the archbishop paid to his abbey at
Saint-Jouin-les-Marmes, which was only three leagues from Loudun, to
make this appearance; his adversaries, who were discouraged by the
result of the proceedings at Poitiers, scarcely made any defence, and
the archbishop, after an examination which brought clearly to light the
innocence of the accused, acquitted and absolved him.
The rehabilitation of Grandier before his bishop had two important
results: the first was that it clearly established his innocence, and
the second that it brought into prominence his high attainments and
eminent qualities. The archbishop seeing the persecutions to which he
was subjected, felt a kindly interest in him, and advised him to
exchange into some other diocese, leaving a town the principal
inhabitants of which appeared to have vowed him a relentless hate. But
such an abandonment of his rights was foreign to the character of
Urbain, and he declared to his superior that, strong in His Grace's
approbation and the testimony of his own conscience, he would remain in
the place to which God had called him. Monseigneur de Sourdis did not
feel it his duty to urge Urbain any further, but he had enough insight
into his character to perceive that if Urbain should one day fall, it
would be, like Satan, through pride; for he added another sentence to
his decision, recommending him to fulfil the duties of his office with
discretion and modesty, according to the decrees of the Fathers and the
canonical constitutions. The triumphal entry of Urbain into Loudun with
which we began our narrative shows the spirit in which he took his
recommendation.