=Source.=--Waurin's _Chronicles_, 1422-1431, pp. 239-244. (Rolls
Series.)
... "It is a sufficiently common report already spread abroad, as it
were everywhere, how this woman who caused herself to be called Joan
the maid, a false soothsayer, for two years or more, against the divine
law and the condition of her female sex, has clothed and conducted
herself in the dress and manner of man, a thing displeasing and
abominable to God, and in such condition was carried before our capital
enemy and yours, to whom and to those of his party she often gave it
out, and even to churchmen, nobles, and people, that she was sent by
God, presumptuously boasting herself that she often had personal and
visible communication with Saint Michael and a great multitude of other
angels and saints of Paradise, with Saint Katherine and Saint Margaret;
by which false givings-out, and by the hope of future victories which
she promised, she turned away the hearts of many men and women from
the truth, and turned them towards fables and lies: she also clothed
herself with armour suitable for knights and esquires, raised a
standard, and with too great excess, pride, and presumption demanded to
have the very excellent arms of France, which in part she obtained, and
bore them in many expeditions and assaults, that is to say, a shield
with two fleurs-de-lis of gold on a field azure, and a sword with the
point fixed upwards in a crown; and in this condition she has taken
the field, with the leadership of men at arms and archers, in armies
and great companies, to do and perpetrate inhuman cruelties, wickedly
shedding human blood, and causing also commotions and seditions of
the people, inciting them to perjuries, rebellions, superstitions,
and false beliefs, perturbing all good peace and renewing mortal
war, suffering herself to be revered and adored by many persons as a
sanctified soul, and otherwise acting damnably in many other matters
too long to express, which nevertheless have been well enough known
in many places, whereby nearly all Christendom has been greatly
scandalized. But the Divine Power having pity on His loyal people,
whom He has not long left in peril, nor suffered them to remain in the
vain, perilous, and novel cruelties into which they had thoughtlessly
thrown themselves, has been pleased to permit it in His great mercy and
clemency that the said shameful woman has been taken in your army and
siege which you were then maintaining on our behalf before Compiègne,
and put by your good help into our obedience and governance. And
because we were afterwards requested by the bishop in whose diocese
she had been taken that this Joan, branded and charged with crimes of
high treason against God, we would cause to be delivered to him as to
her ordinary ecclesiastical judge, as well for reverence of our mother
holy church, whose sacred ordinances we desire to prefer to our own
deeds and wishes as is right, as also for the honour and exaltation of
our true faith, we caused the said Joan to be given up in order that
he might try her, without wishing that any vengeance or punishment
should be inflicted upon her by our secular officers of justice, as
it was reasonably lawful for us to do, considering the great damages
and inconveniences, the horrible homicides and detestable cruelties
and evils, as it were innumerable, that she had committed against our
seignory and our loyal and obedient people. This bishop, the inquisitor
of errors and heresies being associated with him, and a great and
notable number of famous masters and doctors of theology and canon
law being summoned with them, commenced with great solemnity and due
gravity the trial of this Joan, and after he and the said inquisitor,
judges in this behalf, had on many different days questioned the
said Joan, they caused her confessions and assertions to be maturely
examined by the masters and doctors, and generally by all the faculties
of learning of our very dear and much loved daughter the University
of Paris, before which the said assertions and confessions were sent,
according to whose opinion and deliberation the said judges found this
Joan superstitious, a soothsayer by means of devils, a blasphemer of
God and of the saints, a schismatic, and erring many times from the law
of Jesus Christ. And to bring her back into the union and communion
of our holy mother the church, to cleanse her from such horrible and
pernicious crimes and sins, and to keep and preserve her soul from
perpetual torment and damnation, she was often, during a long time,
very lovingly and gently admonished that all her errors being rejected
by her should be put away, and that she should humbly return into the
way and straight path of truth, or otherwise she would put herself in
great peril of soul and body; but the very perilous and mad spirit
of pride and outrageous presumption, which is always exerting itself
to try to impede and disturb the path and way of loyal Christians,
so seized upon and detained in its bonds this Joan and her heart,
that for no holy doctrine, good counsels or exhortation that could be
administered to her, would her hardened and obstinate heart humble or
soften itself, but she often again boasted that all things that she
had done were well done, and she had done them at the commandment of
God through the angels and the said holy virgins who visibly appeared
to her: and what is worse, she recognized not, nor would recognize,
any upon earth save God only and the saints of Paradise, rejecting the
authority of our holy father the pope, the general council and the
universal church militant. And then the ecclesiastical judges, seeing
her said disposition pertinaciously, and for so long a space, remain
hardened and obstinate, caused her to be brought before the clergy
and people there assembled in very great multitude, in whose presence
her case, crimes, and errors were preached, made known, and declared
by a notable master and doctor of theology, for the exaltation of our
faith, the extirpation of errors, the edification and amendment of
Christian people. And there, again, she was lovingly admonished to
return to the union of holy church, correcting her faults and errors,
in which she still remained pertinacious and obstinate. This the judges
aforesaid seeing and considering, they proceeded further and pronounced
against her the sentence in such case by law prescribed and ordained;
but before the said sentence was read through she began seemingly to
change her disposition, saying that she wished to return to holy
church, which willingly and joyfully heard the aforesaid judges and
clergy, who thereto received her affectionately, hoping that her soul
and body were redeemed from perdition and torment. Then she submitted
herself entirely to the ordinance of the Church, and orally revoked
and publicly abjured her errors and detestable crimes, signing with
her own hand the schedule of the said revocation and abjuration; and
so our pitiful mother holy church rejoicing over the sinner showing
penitence, desiring to bring back to the shepherd, with the others,
the returned and recovered sheep which had wandered and gone astray
in the desert, condemned this Joan to prison to do salutary penance;
but she was hardly there any time before the fire of her pride, which
seemed to be extinguished, rekindled in her with pestilential flames
by the breathings of the enemy, and the said unhappy woman immediately
fell back into the errors and false extravagances which she had before
uttered and afterwards revoked and abjured, as has been said. For which
causes, according to what the judgements and institutions of holy
church ordain, in order that henceforward she might not contaminate the
poor members of Jesus Christ, she was again publicly preached to, and
as she had fallen back into the crimes and faults she was accustomed,
left to secular justice, which immediately condemned her to be burned.
And then she, seeing her end drawing near, recognized clearly that the
spirits which she had said had appeared to her many times before were
wicked and lying spirits, and that the promises which these spirits had
formerly made to her of delivering her were false, and so she confessed
it to have been a mockery and deceit; and she was taken by the said lay
justice to the old market-place in the town of Rouen, and was there
publicly burnt in the sight of all the people."
THE EDUCATION OF HENRY VI. (November 9, 1432).
=Source.=--_Paston Letters_, vol. i., No. 18.
For the good rule, demising and surety of the King's person, and
draught of him to virtue and cunning, and eschewing of anything that
might give hindrance or let thereto, or cause any charge, default,
or blame to be laid upon the Earl of Warwick at any time without his
desert, he, considering that peril and business of his charge about the
King's person groweth so that that authority and power given to him
before sufficeth him not without more thereto, desireth therefore these
things that follow.
First, that considering that the charge of the rule, demising and
governance, and also of nurture of the King's person resteth upon the
said Earl while it shall like the King, and the peril, danger, and
blame if any lack or default were in any of these, the which lack or
default might be caused by ungodly or unvirtuous men, if any such were
about his person; he desireth therefore, for the good of the King, and
for his own surety, to have power and authority to name, ordain, and
assign, and for that cause that shall be thought to him reasonable, to
remove those that shall be about the King's person, of what estate or
condition that they be, not intending to comprehend in this desire the
Steward, Chamberlain, Treasurer, Controller, nor Serjeant of offices,
save such as serve the King's person and for his mouth.
_Responsio._--As toward the naming, ordinance, and assignation
beforesaid, it is agreed, so that he take in none of the four knights
nor squires for the body without the advice of my Lord of Bedford, him
being in England, and him being out, of my Lord of Gloucester, and of
the remnant of the King's Council.
Item, the said Earl desireth that where he shall have any person in his
discretion suspect of misgovernance, and not behoveful nor expedient
to be about the King, except the estates of the house, that he may
put them from exercise and occupation of the King's service, till that
he shall more have speech with my Lords of Bedford or of Gloucester,
and with the other Lords of the King's Council, to that end that, the
default of any such person known unto him, [they] shall more ordain
thereupon as them shall think expedient and behoveful.
_Responsio._--It is agreed as it is desired....
Item, that considering how, blessed be God, the King is growing in
years, in stature of his person, and also in conceit and knowledge of
his high and royal authority and estate, the which naturally causing
him, and from day to day as he groweth shall cause him, more and more
to grudge with chastising, and to loath it, so that it may reasonably
be doubted lest he would conceive against the said Earl, or any other
that would take upon him to chastise him for his defaults, displeasure,
or indignation therefore, the which, without due assistance, is not
easy to be borne. It like, therefore, to my Lord of Gloucester, and to
all the Lords of the King's Council, to promise to the said Earl, and
assure him, that they shall firmly and truly assist him in the exercise
of the charge and occupation that he hath about the King's person,
namely in chastising of him for his defaults, and support the said Earl
therein; and if the King at any time would conceive indignation against
the said Earl, my said Lord of Gloucester, and Lords, shall do all
their true diligence and power to remove the King therefrom.
_Responsio._--It is agreed as it is desired.
Item, the said Earl desireth that forasmuch as it shall be necessary
to remove the King's person at divers times into sundry places, as the
cases may require, that he may have power and authority to remove the
King, by his discretion, into what place he thinketh necessary for the
health of his body and surety of his person.
_Responsio._--It is agreed as it is desired....
Item, forasmuch as the said Earl hath knowledge that in speech that
hath been had unto the King at part and in privy, not in the hearing
of the said Earl nor any of the knights set about his person, nor
assigned by the said Earl, he hath been stirred by some from his
learning, and spoken to of divers matters not behoveful, the said Earl
doubting the harm that might fall to the King, and the inconvenience
that might ensue of such speech at part as if it were suffered;
desireth that in all speech to be had with the King, he or one of
the four knights, or some person to be assigned by the said Earl, be
present and privy to it.
_Responsio._--This article is agreed, excepting such persons as for
nighness of blood, and for their estate, owe of reason to be suffered
to speak with the King.
Item, to the intent that it may be known to the King that it proceedeth
of the assent, advice and agreement of my Lord of Gloucester, and all
my Lords of the King's Council, that the King be chastised for his
defaults or trespasses, and that for awe thereof he forbear the more
to do amiss, and intend the more busily to virtue and to learning, the
said Earl desireth that my Lord of Gloucester, and my said other Lords
of the Council, or great part of them, that is to say, the Chancellor
and Treasurer, and of every estate in the Council, spiritual and
temporal, some come to the King's presence, and there to make to be
declared to him their agreement in that behalf.
_Responsio._--When the King cometh next to London, all his Council
shall come to his presence, and there this shall be declared to him.
Item, the said Earl, that all his days hath, above all other earthy
things, desired, and ever shall to keep his truth and worship
unblemished and unhurt, and may not for all that let [prevent]
malicious and untrue men to make informations of his person, such as
they may not, nor dare not, stand by, nor be not true, beseecheth
therefore my Lord of Gloucester and all my said Lords of the Council,
that if they, or any of them, have been informed of anything that may
be laid to his charge or default, and namely in his occupation and rule
about the King's person, that the said Earl may have knowledge thereof,
to the intent that he may answer thereto, and not dwell in heavy or
sinister conceit or opinion, without his desert and without answer.
_Responsio._--It is agreed.
+Cromwell.+
+J. Ebor.+
+W. Lincoln+
+Suffolk.+
+J. Huntington.+
+H. Gloucester.+
+P. Elien.+
+J. Bathon. Canc.+
+J. Roffen.+
+H. Stafford.+