THE TRIAL BEFORE THE CIVIL COURT
_Trial before the Civil Court--Depositions--Conviction and Sentence_
Upon the arrest of Gilles and his henchmen, and during their trial
before the ecclesiastical court, the army of retainers which had been
employed by him, including his chapel and all his familiars, fled as
would a flock of young chickens on the approach of a hawk. François
Prelati, Eustache Blanchet, Henriet Griard, and Poitou seem to have
been all who were arrested with Gilles. Gilles de Sillé and Roger
de Briqueville had fled to the south before the blow fell. The rest
got under cover as quickly as possible; instead of standing by their
master, they got as far away from him as they could. Gilles was the
only one tried by the ecclesiastical tribunal. No particular reason
has been given why François and Blanchet were not tried with him, for
they were undoubtedly guilty, equally with Gilles, of the charges of
sorcery and invocation of demons; but they were priests, one of them an
Italian priest, and whether they were promised freedom in consideration
of their testimony against Gilles, is now unknown.
When, on the 19th of October, it had been decided by the ecclesiastical
court to apply the torture to Gilles, it was done on the confessions of
his accomplices. Why François Prelati and Eustache Blanchet had been
excused or overlooked is, as has been said, unknown; but Henriet Griard
and Poitou were then delivered to the civil court for trial. This civil
court was presided over by Pierre de l’Hospital, who, as has been
seen, had assisted in the ecclesiastical court, and was necessarily
officially cognisant of the developments. Pierre de l’Hospital was the
chief justice of the duchy of Brittany, and the civil courts were under
his authority; so immediately after the confessions of Henriet and
Poitou, they were transferred to the civil authorities, and Pierre de
l’Hospital, as supreme judge, brought them before the court on the 20th
or 21st of October. The civil court held its session at the Bouffay,
then, and until 1848, the _Palais de Justice_. The Bouffay had been a
castle, but had been reconstructed and used as the _Palais de Justice_
during many centuries. It was in proximity to the Château de Nantes. It
was enclosed in a high wall, possibly to make a jail-yard, and occupied
the present Place, or Market, Bouffay.
It was within this palace yard that the celebrated trial by duel took
place, by direction or authority of the Duke of Brittany, between Count
Robert Beaumanoir and Sieur Pierre Tournemine, on a charge of murder
made by the former against the latter.
The castle, or palace, has been destroyed, as well as the wall, and it
now stands all open. One side of the Place abuts on the river Loire,
adjoining the Bridge de la Poissonerie, over which the prisoners were
taken to the Prairie Madeleine, the place of execution.
The proceedings of the civil court need not be followed in their
details. Preparing for the trial, as is the custom of criminal courts
in France, the prosecutor called the witnesses before him, and took
down their depositions, and it is worth our while to pause and
examine the record as it appears in the archives of the department of
Loire-Inférieure.
The records of the two trials, the ecclesiastical and the civil, on
file in the Departmental Archives, are unequal in the extent and detail
with which they have been respectively reported. It is to be explained
that it is a considerable work, and scarcely possible to have been
completed in all its parts as the trial progressed, without immense
labour on the part of the clerks and notaries. The proceedings of the
ecclesiastical court, reported in Latin, comprise three hundred and
eight pages, of which the photograph on page 137 of this memoir is
a sample. The proceedings of the civil court, in French, comprise a
hundred and nine pages, the two together making four hundred and twenty
pages in parchment, without including the sentence, which was in Latin,
much mixed with French. The sentence is about the size of the original
Declaration of Independence of the United States. It is said to have
been written in its entirety in a single night, and an inspection of it
corroborates the story, for it bears evidence, by way of erasures and
interlineations, of haste and rapid work.
The report of the evidence in the ecclesiastical trial is not nearly
so satisfactory, nor has it been recorded so clearly, or with so much
detail, as was that in the civil court. It is also much more convenient
to render that of the civil trial, and the author has, therefore, used
it in making a transcript. (Appendix D.)
It must not be forgotten that the evidence was taken by deposition, out
of court; that it was rendered, not in the language of the witness,
but of the scribe. The depositions were not signed by the witnesses,
but were reported to the court under the signature of the notary or
commissioner. Eighty-six witnesses were examined, and their testimony
appears to have been reduced to writing by Jean Colin, and certified
to by Jean de Touscheronde. The dates of the various sessions are
not given, but each witness, or each batch of witnesses, appears to
have been examined independently and certified to separately. This
examination of witnesses in the civil court seems to have begun about
as early as did that in the ecclesiastical trial, for the first record
is under date of September 18, 1440. For the purpose of showing the
style of the French language in use at that time, that it may be
compared with modern French, and the changes noted, the heading of
these depositions is here reproduced textually:
“September 18, 1440.
“Informacion et enqueste a trouver, se estre peut, que le sire
de Rais, ses gens et complices, out prins et fait prandre
pluseurs petiz enffans et autres gens, et les murtriz et occiis
pour en avoir le sang, le cueur, le faye et autres parties
d’elx, pour en faire sacrifice au deable, et autres malefices,
de quoy il est grant clamour. Celle enqueste faite par Jehan de
Touscheronde, commissaire de duc, nostre souverain seigneur, en
ceste matere, appellé Jehan Colin, pour le prouchain tesmoign
que eust en sa compaignie, le xviii^e jour de septembre, l’an
mil IIII C quarante.”
Before reporting the testimony in the depositions against Gilles de
Retz, and that it may be better understood, it should be explained that
there were two methods pursued by Gilles in the abduction of children:
one, the secret and forcible abduction, and the other the hiring of the
child for service as a page, or his being taken with the consent of
the parents on a pretended duty, by which he should be attached to the
retinue of the Baron. Both systems were pursued, and, it is believed,
always by the followers and “familiars” of the Baron, for it does not
appear that he was ever personally engaged in either. The demand
of the parent for the presence of the child was always put off by
indefinite statements: the boy was at another château, or he had gone
with the masters, or men-at-arms, and would be absent for an indefinite
time; sometimes, that he had gone to a distant province; other times,
that he had fled and was a fugitive, and they knew not his whereabouts.
These were all equivocal responses, and far from satisfactory to the
demanders; but out of them there grew the reports circulated through
the country, as set forth in the first pages of Chapter IV.
On the trial, Henriet Griart and Poitou made no defence, but pleaded
guilty. They confessed openly their crime, and being pushed to detail,
they admitted that they had been concerned in the abduction of more
than fifty children, and Henriet added that during his last trip to
Jocelyn with Gilles de Retz, he had captured three of them with his own
hands.
The confession of Henriet and of Corrillaud called Poitou, appears in
the records, and following it, on October 23d, is the condemnation by
the civil court under Pierre de l’Hospital, as follows:
“After the confession of the aforesaid Henriet and Poitou, and
on the advice of the assistants, advocates and others, heard
in the case, and considering all the facts, it was adjudged
and declared by the aforesaid seignior the President, that the
aforesaid Henriet and Poitou should, and ought to be, hung and
burned” (_penduz et ars_).
But the execution of the sentence was postponed to await the conclusion
of the trial of Gilles before the ecclesiastical court.
On the 25th of October, Gilles’s sentence was passed upon him by
the ecclesiastical court, and he was turned over to the civil court
(_bras séculeir_). He was delivered to the prison at the Bouffay on
the same evening, and the next morning was brought before the civil
court with Pierre de l’Hospital as supreme judge. All hope of escape
was lost to Gilles, and, like his accomplices, he seemed to be more
interested for the salvation of his soul than care for his body. He
made no defence,--indeed defence was useless, for the trial was only a
formality. Being charged with the crime of murder and interrogated as
to the facts, he repeated his confession of guilt.
In the consultation of the court as to the sentence, there were some
differences of opinion among the judges. That he merited death, there
was no question, and that appears to have been accepted by all. But as
to the manner of death and the degree of odium to be attached thereto,
there was some debate. However, as he had been excommunicated by the
Church, as his accomplices had already been sentenced _penduz et ars_,
and as the crime shocked all the world who knew of it, the argument
prevailed that, as Gilles had been the chief promoter, and as he and
his two accomplices had been together in their crimes they should not
be separated in their punishments, and therefore first, a fine should
be upon him of fifty thousand pounds; and second, that he should be
hung and burned alive on the gibbet of Piesse.
Piesse was a little open prairie on the island of La Madeleine in the
river opposite, forming part of the city of Nantes. It was reached by
two bridges communicating with the Place Bouffay.
Pierre de l’Hospital in pronouncing the sentence upon Gilles, concluded:
“You have naught to rely upon now but the mercy of God; I ask
you so to dispose yourself as to die in good state, and to seek
repentance for having committed such great crimes. To-morrow,
at one o’clock, the sentence against you will be carried into
effect.”
Gilles preferred three petitions, through the judge, to the Bishop.
One, that the execution of the three, himself and his two servants,
should be at one and the same time, to the end that he might comfort
and aid them by his presence upon that dread occasion; that they should
see that his execution actually took place, and should not be tormented
with the thought that either his wealth or power could procure the
postponement of the execution, and finally, or possibly, a pardon.
The second was, that his ashes might be buried in consecrated ground;
and when this prayer was granted, he chose the Carmelite church at
Nantes. The third was, that on the day of the execution, a procession
of litany, such as was common in that country, should be organised to
make prayers to God for him and his two servants, that they might be
sustained and supported in their repentance, and that their salvation
might be assured. Accordingly, on the morrow, at nine o’clock, this
procession was organised and marched through the streets of the city in
the most solemn manner, headed by the clergy of all ranks, reciting the
prayers for the dead.
[Illustration]