la Normandie_, pp. 323, 324.]
[Footnote 2224: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p.
420.]
[Footnote 2225: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 48-50.]
Jeanne was brought in by the Usher, Messire Jean Massieu. Again she
endeavoured to avoid taking the oath to tell everything; but she had
to swear on the Gospel.[2226]
[Footnote 2226: _Ibid._, p. 50.]
She was examined by Maitre Jean Beaupere, doctor in theology. In his
University of Paris he was regarded as a scholar of light and leading;
it had twice appointed him rector. It had charged him with the
functions of chancellor in the absence of Gerson, and, in 1419, had
sent him with Messire Pierre Cauchon to the town of Troyes, to give
aid and counsel to King Charles VI. Three years later it had
despatched him to the Queen of England and the Duke of Gloucester to
enlist their support in its endeavour to obtain the confirmation of
its privileges. King Henry VI had just appointed him canon of
Rouen.[2227]
[Footnote 2227: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Paris._, vol. v, p.
919. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 27-30.]
Maitre Jean's first question to Jeanne was what was her age when she
left her father's house. She was unable to say, although on the
previous day she had stated her present age to be about nineteen.[2228]
[Footnote 2228: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 51.]
Interrogated as to the occupations of her childhood, she replied that
she was busy with household duties and seldom went into the fields
with the cattle.
"For spinning and sewing," she said, "I am as good as any woman in
Rouen."[2229]
[Footnote 2229: _Ibid._]
Thus even in things domestic she displayed her ardour and her
chivalrous zeal; at the spinning-wheel and with the needle she
challenged all the women in a town, without knowing one of them.
Questioned as to her confessions and her communions, she answered that
she confessed to her parish priest or to another priest when the
former was not able to hear her. But she refused to say whether she
had received the communion on other feast-days than Easter.[2230]
[Footnote 2230: _Ibid._, pp. 51, 52.]
In order to take her unawares, Maitre Jean Beaupere proceeded without
method, passing abruptly from one subject to another. Suddenly he
spoke of her Voices. She gave him the following reply:
"Being thirteen years of age, I heard the Voice of God, bidding me
lead a good life. And the first time I was sore afeard. And the Voice
came almost at the hour of noon, in summer, in my father's garden...."
She heard the Voice on the right towards the church. Rarely did she
hear it without seeing a light. This light was in the direction whence
the Voice came.[2231]
[Footnote 2231: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52.]
When Jeanne said that her Voice spoke to her from the right, a doctor
more learned and more kindly disposed than Maitre Jean would have
interpreted this circumstance favourably; for do we not read in
Ezekiel that the angels were upon the right hand of the dwelling; do
we not find in the last chapter of Saint Mark, that the women beheld
the Angel seated on the right, and finally does not Saint Luke
expressly state that the Angel appeared unto Zacharias on the right of
the altar burning with incense; whereupon the Venerable Bede observes:
"he appeared on the right as a sign that he was the bringer of divine
mercy."[2232] But such things never occurred to the examiner. Thinking
to embarrass Jeanne, he asked how she came to see the light if it
appeared at her side.[2233] Jeanne made no reply, and as if distraught,
she said:
"If I were in a wood I should easily hear the Voices coming towards
me.... It seems to me to be a Voice right worthy. I believe that this
Voice was sent to me by God. After having heard it three times I knew
it to be the voice of an angel."
[Footnote 2232: Brehal, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne
d'Arc_, ed. Lanery d'Arc, p. 409.]
[Footnote 2233: See Appendix I, Letter from Doctor G. Dumas.]
"What instruction did this Voice give you for the salvation of your
soul?"
"It taught me to live well, to go to church, and it told me to fare
forth into France."[2234]
[Footnote 2234: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52.]
Then Jeanne related how, by the command of her Voice, she had gone to
Vaucouleurs, to Sire Robert de Baudricourt, whom she had recognised
without ever having seen him before, how the Duke of Lorraine had
summoned her to cure him, and how she had come into France.[2235]
[Footnote 2235: _Ibid._, pp. 53, 54.]
Thereafter she was brought to say that she knew well that God loved
the Duke of Orleans and that concerning him she had had more
revelations than concerning any man living, save the King; that she
had been obliged to change her woman's dress for man's attire and that
her _Council_ had advised her well.[2236]
[Footnote 2236: _Ibid._, p. 54.]
The letter to the English was read before her. She admitted having
dictated it in those terms, with the exception of three passages. She
had not said _body for body_ nor _chieftain of war_; and she had said
_surrender to the King_ in the place _of surrender to the Maid_. That
the judges had not tampered with the text of the letter we may assure
ourselves by comparing it with other texts, which did not pass through
their hands, and which contain the expressions challenged by
Jeanne.[2237]
[Footnote 2237: _Ibid._, pp. 55, 56; vol. v, p. 95.]
In the beginning of her career, she believed that Our Lord, the true
King of France, had ordained her to deliver the government of the
realm to Charles of Valois, as His deputy. The words in which she gave
utterance to this idea are reported by too many persons strangers one
to another for us to doubt her having spoken them. "The King shall
hold the kingdom as a fief (_en commande_); the King of France is the
lieutenant of the King of Heaven." These are her own words and she did
actually say to the Dauphin: "Make a gift of your realm to the King of
Heaven."[2238] But we are bound to admit that at Rouen not one of these
mystic ideas persists, indeed there they seem altogether beyond her.
In all her replies to her examiners, she seems incapable of any
abstract reasoning whatsoever and of any speculation however simple,
so that it is hard to understand how she should ever have conceived
the idea of the temporal rule of Jesus Christ over the Land of the
Lilies. There is nothing in her speech or in her thoughts to suggest
such meditations, wherefore we are led to believe that this
politico-theology had been taught her in her tender, teachable years
by ecclesiastics desiring to remove the woes of Church and kingdom,
but that she had failed to seize its spirit or grasp its inner
meaning. Now, in the midst of a hard life lived with men-at-arms,
whose simple souls accorded better with her own than the more
cultivated minds of the early directors of her meditations, she had
forgotten even the phraseology in which those suggested meditations
were expressed. Interrogated concerning her coming to Chinon, she
replied:
"Without let or hindrance I went to my King. When I reached the town
of Sainte-Catherine de Fierbois, I sent first to the town of
Chateau-Chinon, where my King was. I arrived there about the hour of
noon and lodged in an inn, and, after dinner, I went to my King who
was in his castle."
[Footnote 2238: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 456; vol. iii, pp. 91, 92.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 104. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 152, 153. J.
Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 131-133. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie
Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iv, p. 440, ch. i, _La royaute de Jesus Christ_.]
If we may believe the registrars, they never ceased wondering at her
memory. They were amazed that she should recollect exactly what she
had said a week before.[2239] Nevertheless her memory was sometimes
curiously uncertain, and we have reason for thinking with the Bastard
that she waited two days at the inn before being received by the
King.[2240]
[Footnote 2239: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 89, 142, 161, 176, 178, 201.]
[Footnote 2240: _Ibid._, p. 4.]
With regard to this audience in the castle of Chinon, she told her
judges she had recognised the King as she had recognised the Sire de
Baudricourt, by revelation.[2241]
[Footnote 2241: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 56.]
The interrogator asked her: "When the Voice revealed your King to you,
was there any light?"[2242]
[Footnote 2242: _Ibid._, p. 56.]
This question bore upon matters which were of great moment to her
judges; for they suspected the Maid of having committed a sacrilegious
fraud, or rather witchcraft, with the complicity of the King of
France. Indeed, they had learnt from their informers that Jeanne
boasted of having given the King a sign in the form of a precious
crown.[2243] The following is the actual truth of the matter:
[Footnote 2243: We find it impossible to agree with Quicherat (_Apercus
nouveaux_) and admit that Jeanne gradually invented the fable of the
crown during her examination and while her judges were questioning her
as to "the sign." The manner in which the judges conducted this part
of their examination proves that they were acquainted with the whole
of the extraordinary story.]
The legend of Saint Catherine relates that on a day she received from
the hand of an angel a resplendent crown and placed it on the head of
the Empress of the Romans. This crown was the symbol of eternal
blessedness.[2244] Jeanne, who had been brought up on this legend,
said that the same thing had happened to her. In France she had told
sundry marvellous stories of crowns, and in one of these stories she
imagined herself to be in the great hall of the castle at Chinon, in
the midst of the barons, receiving a crown from the hand of an angel
to give it to her King.[2245] This was true in a spiritual sense, for
she had taken Charles to his anointing and to his coronation. Jeanne
was not quick to grasp the distinction between two kinds of truth. She
may, nevertheless, have doubted the material reality of this vision.
She may even have held it to be true in a spiritual sense only. In any
case, she had of her own accord promised Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret not to speak of it to her judges.[2246]
[Footnote 2244: _Legenda Aurea_, ed. 1846, pp. 789 _et seq._]
[Footnote 2245: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 120-122.]
[Footnote 2246: _Ibid._, p. 90.]
"Saw you any angel above the King?"
She refused to reply.[2247]
[Footnote 2247: _Ibid._, p. 56.]
This time nothing more was said of the crown. Maitre Jean Beaupere
asked Jeanne if she often heard the Voice.
"Not a day passes without my hearing it. And it is my stay in great
need."[2248]
[Footnote 2248: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 57.]
She never spoke of her Voices without describing them as her refuge
and relief, her consolation and her joy. Now all theologians agreed in
believing that good spirits when they depart leave the soul filled
with joy, with peace, and with comfort, and as proof they cited the
angel's words to Zacharias and Mary: "Be not afraid."[2249] This
reason, however, was not strong enough to persuade clerks of the
English party that Voices hostile to the English were of God.
[Footnote 2249: Jean Brehal, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, ed. Lanery d'Arc, p. 409.]
And the Maid added: "Never have I required of them any other final
reward than the salvation of my soul."[2250]
[Footnote 2250: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 57.]
The examination ended with a capital charge: the attack on Paris on a
feast day. It was in this connection possibly that Brother Jacques of
Touraine, a friar of the Franciscan order, who from time to time put a
question, asked Jeanne whether she had ever been in a place where
Englishmen were being slain.
"In God's name, was I ever in such a place?" Jeanne responded
vehemently. "How glibly you speak. Why did they not depart from France
and go into their own country?"
A nobleman of England, who was in the chamber, on hearing these words,
said to his neighbours: "By my troth she is a good woman. Why is she
not English?"[2251]
[Footnote 2251: _Ibid._, p. 48.]
The third public sitting was appointed for two days thence, Saturday,
the 24th of February.[2252]
[Footnote 2252: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 57.]
It was Lent. Jeanne observed the fast very strictly.[2253]
[Footnote 2253: _Ibid._, pp. 61, 70.]
On Friday, the 23rd, in the morning, she was awakened by her Voices
themselves. She arose from her bed and remained seated, her hands
clasped, giving thanks. Then she asked what she should reply to her
judges, beseeching the Voices thereupon to take counsel of Our Lord.
First the Voices uttered words she could not understand. That happened
sometimes, in difficult circumstances especially. Then they
said:[2254] "Reply boldly, God will aid thee."
[Footnote 2254: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 62.]
That day she heard them a second time at the hour of vespers and a
third time when the bells were ringing the _Ave Maria_ in the evening.
In the night of Friday and Saturday they came and revealed to her many
secrets for the weal of the King of France. Thereupon she received
great consolation.[2255] Very probably they repeated the assurance that
she would be delivered from the hands of her enemies, and that on the
other hand her judges stood in great danger.
[Footnote 2255: _Ibid._, pp. 61-64.]
She depended absolutely on her Voices for direction. When she was in
difficulty as to what to say to her judges, she prayed to Our Lord;
she addressed him devoutly, saying: "Good God, for the sake of thy
holy Passion, I beseech thee if thou lovest me to reveal unto me what
I should reply to these churchmen. Touching my dress I know well how I
was commanded to put it on; but as to leaving it I know nothing. In
this may it please thee to teach me."
Then straightway the Voices came.[2256]
[Footnote 2256: _Ibid._, p. 279.]
At the third sitting, held in the Robing Chamber, there were present
sixty-two assessors, of whom twenty were new.[2257]
[Footnote 2257: _Ibid._, pp. 58-60.]
Jeanne showed a greater repugnance than before to swearing on the holy
Gospels to reply to all that should be asked her. In charity the
Bishop warned her that this obstinate refusal caused her to be
suspected, and he required her to swear, under pain of being convicted
upon all the charges.[2258] Such was indeed the rule in a trial by the
Inquisition. In 1310 a _beguine_, one La Porete, refused to take the
oath as required by the Holy Inquisitor of the Faith, Brother
Guillaume of Paris. She was excommunicated forthwith, and without
being further examined, after lengthy proceedings, she was handed over
to the Provost of Paris, who caused her to be burned alive. Her piety
at the stake drew tears from all the bystanders.[2259]
[Footnote 2258: _Ibid._, pp. 60, 61.]
[Footnote 2259: _Grandes chroniques_, ed. P. Paris, vol. v, p. 188.]
Still the Bishop failed to force an unconditional oath from the Maid;
she swore to tell the truth on all she knew concerning the trial,
reserving to herself the right to be silent on everything which in her
opinion did not concern it. She spoke freely of the Voices she had
heard the previous day, but not of the revelations touching the King.
When, however, Maitre Jean Beaupere appeared desirous to know them,
she asked for a fortnight's delay before replying, sure that before
then she would be delivered; and straightway she fell to boasting of
the secrets her Voices had confided to her for the King's weal.
"I would wish him to know them at this moment," she said; "even if as
the result I were to drink no wine from now till Easter."[2260]
[Footnote 2260: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 64.]
"Drink no wine from now till Easter!" Did she thus casually use an
expression common in that land of the rose-tinted wine (_vin gris_), a
drop or two of which with a slice of bread sufficed the Domremy women
for a meal?[2261] Or had she caught this manner of speech with the
habit of dealing hard clouts and good blows from the men-at-arms of
her company? Alas! what hypocras was she to drink during the five
weeks before Easter! She was merely making use of a current phrase, as
was frequently her custom, and attributing no precise meaning to it,
unless it were that wine vaguely suggested to her mind the idea of
cordiality and the hope that after her deliverance she would see the
Lords of France filling a cup in her honour.
[Footnote 2261: E. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 37, 177.]
Maitre Jean Beaupere asked her whether she saw anything when she heard
her Voices.
She replied: "I cannot tell you everything. I am not permitted. The
Voice is good and worthy.... To this question I am not bound to
reply."
And she asked them to give her in writing the points concerning which
she had not given an immediate reply.[2262]
[Footnote 2262: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 64, 65.]
What use did she intend to make of this writing? She did not know how
to read; she had no counsel. Did she want to show the document to some
false friend, like Loiseleur, who was deceiving her? Or was it her
intent to present it to her saints?
Maitre Beaupere asked whether her Voice had a face and eyes.
She refused to answer and quoted a saying frequently on the lips of
children: "One is often hanged for having spoken the truth."[2263]
[Footnote 2263: _Ibid._, p. 65. "_Souvent on est blame de trop
parler_," a proverb common in the 15th century. Cf. Le Roux de Lincy,
_Les proverbes francais_, vol. ii, p. 417.]
Maitre Beaupere asked: "Do you know whether you stand in God's grace?"
This was an extremely insidious question; it placed Jeanne in the
dilemma of having to avow herself sinful or of appearing unpardonably
bold. One of the assessors, Maitre Jean Lefevre of the Order of the
Hermit Friars, observed that she was not bound to reply. There was
murmuring throughout the chamber.
But Jeanne said: "If I be not, then may God bring me into it; if I be,
then may God keep me in it."[2264]
[Footnote 2264: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 65.]
The assessors were astonished at so ready an answer. And yet no
improvement ensued in their disposition towards her. They admitted
that touching her King she spoke well, but for the rest she was too
subtle, and with a subtlety peculiar to women.[2265]
[Footnote 2265: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 21, 358.]
Thereafter, Maitre Jean Beaupere examined Jeanne concerning her
childhood in her village. He essayed to show that she had been cruel,
had displayed a homicidal tendency from her earliest years, and had
been addicted to those idolatrous practices which had given the folk
of Domremy a bad name.[2266]
[Footnote 2266: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 65-68.]
Then he touched on a point of prime importance in elucidating the
obscure origin of Jeanne's mission:
"Were you not regarded as the one who was sent from the Oak Wood?"
In this direction he might have succeeded in obtaining important
revelations. False prophecies had indeed established Jeanne's
reputation in France; but these clerks were incapable of
discriminating amongst all these pseudo-Bedes and pseudo-Merlins.[2267]
[Footnote 2267: _Ibid._, p. 68.]
Jeanne replied: "When I came to the King, certain asked me whether
there were in my country a wood called the Oak Wood; because of
prophecies saying that from the neighbourhood of this wood should
come a damsel who would work wonders. But to such things I paid no
heed."
This statement we must needs believe; but if she denied credence to
the prophecy of Merlin touching the Virgin of the Oak Wood, she paid
good heed to the prophecy foretelling the appearance of a Deliverer in
the person of a Maid coming from the Lorraine Marches, since she
repeated that prophecy to the two Leroyers and to her Uncle Lassois,
with an emphasis which filled them with astonishment. Now we must
admit that the two prophecies are as alike as two peas.[2268]
[Footnote 2268: The French expression runs, "_se resemblent comme deux
soeurs_."]
Passing abruptly from Merlin the Magician, Maitre Jean Beaupere asked:
"Jeanne, will you have a woman's dress?"
She answered: "Give me one; and I will accept it and depart. Otherwise
I will not have it. I will be content with this one, since God is
pleased for me to wear it."
On this reply, which contained two errors tending to heresy, the Lord
Bishop adjourned the court.[2269]
[Footnote 2269: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 68.]
The morrow, the 25th of February, was the first Sunday in Lent. On
that day or another, but probably on that day, my Lord Bishop sent
Jeanne a shad. Having partaken of this fish she had fever and was
seized with vomiting.[2270] Two masters of arts of the Paris
University, both doctors of medicine, Jean Tiphaine and Guillaume
Delachambre, assessors in the trial, were summoned by the Earl of
Warwick, who said to them:
"According to what has been told me, Jeanne is sick. I have summoned
you to devise measures for her recovery. The King would not for the
world have her die a natural death. She is dear to him, for he has
bought her dearly; his intent is that she die not, save by the hand of
justice, and that she should be burned. Do all that may be necessary,
therefore, visit her attentively, and endeavour to restore her."[2271]
[Footnote 2270: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 48, 49.]
[Footnote 2271: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 51.]
Conducted to Jeanne by Maitre Jean d'Estivet, the doctors inquired of
her the cause of her suffering.
She answered that she had eaten a carp sent her by the Lord Bishop of
Beauvais, and that she believed it to be the cause of her sickness.
Did Jeanne suspect the Bishop of designing to poison her? That is what
Maitre Jean d'Estivet thought, for he flew into a violent rage:
"Whore!" he cried, "it is thine own doing; thou hast eaten herrings
and other things which have made thee ill."
"I have not," she answered.
They exchanged insults, and Jeanne's sickness thereupon grew
worse.[2272]
[Footnote 2272: _Ibid._, p. 49.]
The doctors examined her and found that she had fever. Wherefore they
decided to bleed her.
They informed the Earl of Warwick, who became anxious:
"A bleeding!" he cried; "take heed! She is artful and might kill
herself."
Nevertheless Jeanne was bled and recovered.[2273]
[Footnote 2273: _Ibid._, pp. 51, 52.]
On Monday, the 26th, there was no examination.[2274] On the opening of
the fourth sitting, Tuesday, the 27th, Maitre Jean Beaupere asked her
how she had been, which inquiry touched her but little. She replied
drily:
"You can see for yourself. I am as well as it is possible for me to
be."[2275]
[Footnote 2274: What induces me to fix this illness on the 25th of
February is Jean Beaupere's question at the sitting of the 27th, "How
have you been?" and Jeanne's ironical reply. This indisposition must
not be confused, as it generally has been, with Jeanne's serious
illness, which occurred after Easter. The shad and the herrings belong
naturally to Lent; and Maitre Delachambre says explicitly that Jeanne
recovered after the bleeding.]
[Footnote 2275: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 70.]
This sitting was held in the Robing Chamber in the presence of
fifty-four assessors.[2276] Five of them had not been present before,
and among them was Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur, canon of Rouen, whose
share in the proceedings had been to act the Lorraine shoemaker and
Saint Catherine of Alexandria.[2277]
[Footnote 2276: _Ibid._, pp. 68, 69.]
[Footnote 2277: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 332, 362; vol. iii, pp. 60, 133,
141, 156, 162, 173, 181.]
Maitre Jean Beaupere, as on the previous Saturday, was curious to know
whether Jeanne had heard her Voices. She heard them every day.[2278]
[Footnote 2278: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 70.]
He asked her: "Is it an angel's voice that speaketh unto you, or the
voice of a woman saint or of a man saint? Or is it God speaking
without an interpreter?"
Said Jeanne: "This voice is the voice of Saint Catherine and of Saint
Margaret; and on their heads are beautiful crowns, right rich and
right precious. I am permitted to tell you so by Messire. If you doubt
it send to Poitiers, where I was examined."[2279]
[Footnote 2279: _Ibid._, p. 71.]
She was right in appealing to the clerks of France. The Armagnac
doctors had no less authority in matters of faith than the English
and Burgundian doctors. Were they not all to meet at the Council?
The examiner asked: "How know ye that they are these two saints? Know
ye them one from another?"
Said Jeanne: "Well do I know who they are; and I do know one from the
other."
"How?"
"By the greeting they give me."[2280]
[Footnote 2280: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 72.]
Let not Jeanne be hastily taxed with error or untruth. Did not the
Angel salute Gideon (Judges vi), and Raphael salute Tobias (Tobit
xii)?[2281]
[Footnote 2281: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 406.]
Thereafter Jeanne gave another reason: "I know them because they call
themselves by name."[2282]
[Footnote 2282: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 72.]
When she was asked whether her saints were both clothed alike, whether
they were of the same age, whether they spoke at once, whether one of
them appeared before the other, she refused to reply, saying she had
not permission to do so.[2283]
[Footnote 2283: _Ibid._, pp. 72, 73.]
Maitre Jean Beaupere inquired which of the apparitions came to her the
first when she was about thirteen.
Jeanne said: "It was Saint Michael. I beheld him with my eyes. And he
was not alone, but with him were angels from heaven. It was by
Messire's command alone that I came into France."
"Did you actually behold Saint Michael and these angels in the body?"
"I saw them with the eyes of my head as plainly as I see you; and when
they went away I wept and should have liked them to take me with
them."
"In what semblance was Saint Michael?"[2284]
[Footnote 2284: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 73.]
She was not permitted to say.
She was asked whether she had received permission from God to go into
France and whether God had commanded her to put on man's dress.
By keeping silence on this point she became liable to be suspected of
heresy, and however she replied she laid herself open to serious
charges,--she either took upon herself homicide and abomination, or
she attributed it to God, which manifestly was to blaspheme.
Concerning her coming into France, she said: "I would rather have been
dragged by the hair of my head than have come into France without
permission from Messire." Concerning her dress she added: "Dress is
but a little thing, less than nothing. It was not according to the
counsel of any man of this world that I put on man's clothing. I
neither wore this attire nor did anything save by the command of
Messire and his angels."[2285]
[Footnote 2285: _Ibid._, pp. 74, 75.]
Maitre Jean Beaupere asked: "When you behold this Voice coming towards
you, is there any light?"
Then she replied with a jest, as at Poitiers: "Every light cometh not
to you, my fair lord."[2286]
[Footnote 2286: _Ibid._, p. 75. I have re-inserted "my fine lord"
according to _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 80.]
After all it was virtually against the King of France that these
doctors of Rouen were proceeding with craft and with cunning.
Maitre Jean Beaupere threw out the question: "How did your King come
to have faith in your sayings?"
"Because they were proved good to him by signs and also because of his
clerks."
"What revelations were made unto your King?"
"That you will not hear from me this year."
As he listened to the damsel's words, must not my Lord of Beauvais,
who was in the counsels of King Henry, have reflected on that verse in
the Book of Tobias (xii, 7): "It is good to keep close the secret of a
king"?
Thereafter Jeanne was called upon to reply at length concerning the
sword of Saint Catherine. The clerks suspected her of having found it
by the art of divination, and by invoking the aid of demons, and of
having cast a spell over it. All that she was able to say did not
remove their suspicions.[2287]
[Footnote 2287: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 75-77.]
Then they passed on to the sword she had captured from a Burgundian.
"I wore it at Compiegne," she said, "because it was good for dealing
sound clouts and good buffets."[2288] The buffet was a flat blow, the
clout was a side stroke. Some moments later, on the subject of her
banner, she said that, in order to avoid killing any one, she bore it
herself when they charged the enemy. And she added: "I have never
slain any one."[2289]
[Footnote 2288: _Ibid._, pp. 77, 78.]
[Footnote 2289: _Ibid._, p. 78.]
The doctors found that her replies varied.[2290] Of course they varied.
But if like her every hour of the day and night the doctors had been
seeing the heavens descending, if all their thoughts, all their
instincts, good and bad, all their desires barely formulated, had
been undergoing instant transformation into divine commands, their
replies would likewise have varied, and they would have doubtless been
in such a state of illusion that in their words and in their actions
they would have displayed less good sense, less gentleness and less
courage.
[Footnote 2290: _Ibid._, p. 34; vol. ii, p. 318.]
The examinations were long; they lasted between three and four
hours.[2291] Before closing this one, Maitre Jean Beaupere wished to
know whether Jeanne had been wounded at Orleans. This was an
interesting point. It was generally admitted that witches lost their
power when they shed blood. Finally, the doctors quibbled over the
capitulation of Jargeau, and the court adjourned.[2292]
[Footnote 2291: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 350, 365.]
[Footnote 2292: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 79, 80.]
A famous Norman clerk, Maitre Jean Lohier, having come to Rouen, the Count
Bishop of Beauvais commanded that he should be informed concerning the
trial. On the first Saturday in Lent, the 24th of February, the Bishop
summoned him to his house near Saint-Nicolas-le-Painteur, and invited
him to give his opinion of the proceedings. The views of Maitre Jean
Lohier greatly disturbed the Bishop. Off he rushed to the doctors and
masters, Jean Beaupere, Jacques de Touraine, Nicolas Midi, Pierre
Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles, Nicolas Loiseleur, and said to them:
"Here's Lohier, who holds fine views concerning our trial! He wants to
object to everything, and says that our proceedings are invalid. If we
were to take his advice we should begin everything over again, and all
we have done would be worthless! It is easy to see what he is aiming
at. By Saint John, we will do nothing of the kind; we will go on with
our trial now it is begun."
The next day, in the Church of Notre Dame, Guillaume Manchon met
Maitre Jean Lohier and asked him:
"Have you seen anything of the records of the trial?"
"I have," replied Maitre Jean. "This trial is void. It is impossible
to support it on many grounds: firstly, it is not in regular
form."[2293]
[Footnote 2293: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 11, 341.]
By that he meant that proceedings should not have been taken against
Jeanne without preliminary inquiries concerning the probability of her
guilt; either he did not know of the inquiries instituted by my Lord
of Beauvais, or he deemed them insufficient.[2294]
[Footnote 2294: See the evidence of Thomas de Courcelles in _Trial_,
vol. iii, p. 38.]
"Secondly," continued Maitre Jean Lohier, "the judges and assessors
when they are trying this case are shut up in the castle, where they
are not free to utter their opinions frankly. Thirdly, the trial
involves divers persons who are not called, notably it touches the
reputation of the King of France, to whose party Jeanne belonged, yet
neither he nor his representative is cited. Fourthly, neither
documents nor definite written charges have been produced, wherefore
this woman, this simple girl, is left to reply without guidance to so
many masters, to such great doctors and on such grave matters,
especially those concerning her revelations. For all these reasons the
trial appears to me to be invalid." Then he added: "You see how they
proceed. They will catch her if they can in her words. They take
advantage of the statements in which she says, 'I know for certain,'
concerning her apparitions. But if she were to say, 'It seems to me,'
instead of 'I know for certain,' it is my opinion that no man could
convict her. I perceive that the dominant sentiment which actuates
them is one of hatred. Their intention is to bring her to her death.
Wherefore I shall stay here no longer. I cannot witness it. What I say
gives offence."[2295]
[Footnote 2295: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 12, 300, 341; vol. iii, p. 138.]
That same day Maitre Jean left Rouen.[2296]
[Footnote 2296: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 12, 203, 252, 300; vol. iii, pp.
50, 138.]
A somewhat similar incident occurred with regard to Maitre Nicolas de
Houppeville, a famous cleric. In conference with certain churchmen, he
expressed the opinion that to appoint as Jeanne's judges members of
the party hostile to her was not a correct method of procedure; and he
added that Jeanne had already been examined by the clerks of Poitiers
and by the Archbishop of Reims, the metropolitan of this very Bishop
of Beauvais. Hearing of this expression of opinion, my Lord of
Beauvais flew into a violent rage, and summoned Maitre Nicolas to
appear before him. The latter replied that the Official of Rouen was
his superior, and that the Bishop of Beauvais was not his judge. If it
be true, as is related, that Maitre Nicolas was thereafter cast into
the King's prison, it was doubtless for a reason more strictly
judicial than that of having offended the Lord Bishop of Beauvais. It
is more probable, however, that this famous cleric did not wish to act
as assessor, and that he left Rouen in order to avoid being summoned
to take part in the trial.[2297]
[Footnote 2297: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 252, 326, 354, 356; vol. iii, pp.
171, 172.]
Certain ecclesiastics, among others Maitre Jean Pigache, Maitre Pierre
Minier, and Maitre Richard de Grouchet, discovered long afterwards
that being threatened they had given their opinions under the
influence of fear. "We were present at that trial," they said, "but
throughout the proceedings we were always contemplating flight."[2298]
As a matter of fact, no violence was done to any man's opinions, and
such as refused to attend the trial were in no way molested. Threats!
But why should there be any? Was it difficult to convict a witch in
those days? Jeanne was no witch. But, then, neither were the others.
Still, between Jeanne and the other alleged witches there was this
difference, that Jeanne had cast her spells in favour of the
Armagnacs, and to convict her was to render a service to the English,
who were the masters. This was a point to be taken into consideration;
but there was something else which ought also to be borne in mind by
thoughtful folk: such a conviction would at the same time offend the
French, who were in a fair way to become the masters once more in the
place of the English. These matters were very perplexing to the
doctors; but the second consideration had less weight with them than
the first; they had no idea that the French were so near reconquering
Normandy.
[Footnote 2298: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 356, 359.]
The fifth session of the court took place in the usual chamber on the
1st of March, in the presence of fifty-eight assessors, of whom nine
had not sat previously.[2299]
[Footnote 2299: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 80, 81.]
The first question the examiner put Jeanne was:
"What say you of our Lord the Pope, and whom think you to be the true
pope?"
She adroitly made answer by asking another question: "Are there
two?"[2300]
[Footnote 2300: _Ibid._, p. 82.]
No, there were not two; Clement VIII's abdication had put an end to
the schism; the great rift in the Church had been closed for thirteen
years and all Christian nations recognized the Pope of Rome; even
France who had become resigned to the disappearance of her Avignon
popes. There was something, however, which neither the accused nor her
judges knew; on that 1st of March, 1431, far from there being two
popes, there was not even one; the Holy See had fallen vacant by the
death of Martin V on the 20th of February, and the vacancy was only to
be filled on the 3rd of March, by the election of Eugenius IV.[2301]
[Footnote 2301: _Analecta juris Pontif._, vol. xiv, p. 117.]
The examiner in questioning Jeanne concerning the Holy See was not
without a motive. That motive became obvious when he asked her whether
she had not received a letter from the Count of Armagnac. She admitted
having received the letter and having replied to it.
Copies of these two letters were included in the evidence to be used
at the trial. They were read to Jeanne.
It appeared that the Count of Armagnac had asked the Maid by letter
which of the three popes was the true one, and that Jeanne had replied
to him, likewise by letter, that for the moment she had not time to
answer, but that she would do so at her leisure when she should come
to Paris.
Having heard these two letters read, Jeanne declared that the one
attributed to her was only partially hers. And since she always
dictated and could never read what had been taken down, it is
conceivable that hasty words, uttered with her foot in the stirrup,
may not have been accurately transcribed; but in a series of involved
and contradictory replies she was unable to demonstrate how that which
she had dictated differed from the written text;[2302] and in itself
the letter appears much more likely to have proceeded from an ignorant
visionary than from a clerk who would have some knowledge, however
little, of church affairs.
[Footnote 2302: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 82, 84.]
It contains certain words and turns of expression which are to be
found in Jeanne's other letters. There can hardly be any doubt that
this letter is by her; she had forgotten it. There is nothing
surprising in that; her memory, as we have seen, was curiously liable
to fail her.[2303]
[Footnote 2303: The expression, "_A Dieu vous recommande, Dieu soit
garde de vous_," occurs in the letters to the people of Tournai, to
those of Troyes and of Reims, and in the letter to the Duke of
Burgundy. And what is still more significant, in two of these letters,
one to the people of Troyes, the other to the Duke of Burgundy, are
the words: "_Le Roi du ciel, mon droiturier et souverain seigneur_."
_Trial_, vol. i, p. 246.]
On this document the judges based the most serious of charges; they
regarded it as furnishing proof of a most blamable temerity. What
arrogance on the part of this woman, so it seemed to them, to claim to
have been told by God himself that which the Church alone is entitled
to teach! And to undertake by means of an inner illumination to point
out the true pope, was that not to commit grave sin against the Bride
of Christ, and with sacrilegious hand to rend the seamless robe of our
Lord?
For once Jeanne saw clearly how her judges were endeavouring to entrap
her, wherefore she twice declared her belief in the Sovereign Pontiff
of Rome.[2304] How bitterly she would have smiled had she known that
the lights of the University of Paris, these famous doctors who held
it mortal sin to believe in the wrong pope, themselves believed in his
Holiness about as much as they disbelieved in him; that at that very
time certain of their number, Maitre Thomas de Courcelles, so great a
doctor, Maitre Jean Beaupere, the examiner, Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur,
who acted the part of Saint Catherine, were hastening to despatch her,
in order that they might bestride their mules and amble away to Bale,
there in the Synagogue of Satan to hurl thunderbolts against the Holy
Apostolic See, and diabolically to decree the subjection of the Pope
to the Council, the confiscation of his annates, dearer to him than
the apple of his eye, and finally his own deposition.[2305] Now would
have been the time for her to have cried, with the voice of a simple
soul, to the priests so keen to avenge upon her the Church's honour:
"I am more of a Catholic than you!" And the words in her mouth would
have been even more appropriate than on the lips of the Limousin clerk
of old. Yet we must not reproach these clerics for having been good
Gallicans at Bale, but rather for having been cruel and hypocritical
at Rouen.
[Footnote 2304: _Ibid._, pp. 82, 83.]
[Footnote 2305: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 27, 32, 75,
82.]
In her prison the Maid prophesied before her guard, John Grey.
Informed of these prophecies, the judges wished to hear them from
Jeanne's own mouth.
"Before seven years have passed," she said to them, "the English shall
lose a greater wager than any they lost at Orleans. They shall lose
everything in France. They shall suffer greater loss than ever they
have suffered in France, and that shall come to pass because God shall
vouchsafe unto the French great victory."
"How do you know this?"
"I know it by revelation made unto me and that this shall befall
within seven years. And greatly should I sorrow were it further
delayed. I know it by revelation as surely as I know that you are
before my eyes at this moment."
"When shall this come to pass?"
"I know neither the day nor the hour."
"But the year?"
"That ye shall not know for the present. But I should wish it to be
before Saint John's Day."
"Did you not say that it should come to pass before Saint Martin in
the winter?"
"I said that before Saint Martin in the winter many things should
befall and it might be that the English would be discomfited."
Whereupon the examiner asked Jeanne whether when Saint Michael came to
her he was accompanied by Saint Gabriel.
Jeanne replied: "I do not remember."[2306]
[Footnote 2306: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 84, 85.]
She did not remember whether, in the multitude of angels who visited
her, was the Angel Gabriel who had saluted Our Lady and announced unto
her the salvation of mankind. So many angels and archangels had she
seen that this one had not particularly impressed her.
After an answer of such perfect simplicity how could these priests
proceed to question her on her visions? Were they not sufficiently
edified? But no! These innocent answers whetted the examiner's zeal.
With intense ardour and copious amplification, passing from angels to
saints, he multiplied petty and insidious questions. Did you see the
hair on their heads? Had they rings in their ears? Was there anything
between their crowns and their hair? Was their hair long and hanging?
Had they arms? How did they speak? What kind of voices had they?[2307]
[Footnote 2307: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]
This last question touched on an important theological point. Demons,
whose voices are as rasping as a cart wheel or a winepress screw,
cannot imitate the sweet tones of saints.[2308]
[Footnote 2308: Le Loyer, iv, _Livres des Spectres_, Angers, 1605, in
4to.]
Jeanne replied that the Voice was beautiful, sweet, and soft, and
spoke in French.
Whereupon she was asked craftily wherefore Saint Margaret did not
speak English.
She replied: "How should she speak English, since she is not on the
side of the English?"[2309]
[Footnote 2309: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]
Two hundred years before, a poet of Champagne had said that the French
language, which Our Lord created beautiful and graceful, was the
language of Paradise.
She was afterwards asked concerning her rings. This was a hard matter;
in those days there were many magic rings or rings bearing amulets.
They were fashioned by magicians under the influence of planets; and,
by means of wonder-working herbs and stones, these rings had spells
cast upon them and received miraculous virtues. Constellation rings
worked miracles. Jeanne, alas! had possessed but two poor rings, one
of brass, inscribed with the names Jesus and Marie, which she received
from her father and mother, the other her brother had given her. The
Bishop kept the latter; the other had been taken from her by the
Burgundians.[2310]
[Footnote 2310: _Ibid._, pp. 86, 87. Vallet de Viriville, _Les anneaux
de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de
France_, vol. xxx, 1868, pp. 82, 97.]
An attempt was made to incriminate her in a pact made with the Devil
near the Fairy Tree. She was not to be caught thus, but retorted by
prophesying her deliverance and the destruction of her enemies. "Those
who wish to banish me from this world may very likely leave it before
me.... I know that my King will win the realm of France."
She was asked what she had done with her mandrake. She said she had
never had one.[2311]
[Footnote 2311: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]
Then the examiner appeared to be seized with curiosity concerning
Saint Michael. "Was he clothed?"
She replied: "Doubt ye that Messire lacks wherewithal to clothe
himself?"
"Had he hair?"
"Wherefore should he have cut it off?"
"Did he hold scales?"
"I don't know."[2312]
[Footnote 2312: _Ibid._, p. 89.]
Their object was to ascertain whether she saw Saint Michael as he was
represented in the churches, with scales for weighing souls.[2313]
[Footnote 2313: A. Maury, _Croyances et legendes du moyen age_, pp. 171
_et seq._]
When she said that at the sight of the Archangel it seemed to her she
was not in a state of mortal sin, the examiner fell to arguing on the
subject of her conscience. She replied like a true Christian.[2314]
Then he returned to the miracle of the sign, which had not been
referred to since the first sitting, to the mystery of Chinon, to that
wondrous crown, which Jeanne, following Saint Catherine of Alexandria,
believed she had received from the hand of an angel. But she had
promised Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret to say nothing about it.
[Footnote 2314: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 90.]
"When you showed the King the sign was there any one with him?"
"I think there was no other person, albeit there were many folk not
far off."
"Did you see a crown on the King's head when you gave him this sign?"
"I cannot say without committing perjury."
"Had your King a crown at Reims?"
"My King, methinketh, took with pleasure the crown he found at Reims.
But afterwards a very rich crown was brought him. He did not wait for
it, because he wished to hurry on the ceremony according to the
request of the inhabitants of Reims who desired to rid their town of
the burden of men-at-arms. If he had waited he would have had a crown
a thousand times more rich."
"Have you seen that richer crown?"
"I cannot tell you without committing perjury. If I have not seen it I
have heard tell how rich and how magnificent it is."[2315]
[Footnote 2315: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 90, 91.]
Jeanne suffered intensely from being deprived of the sacraments. One
day when Messire Jean Massieu, performing the office of ecclesiastical
usher, was taking her before her judges, she asked him whether there
were not on the way some church or chapel in which was the body of Our
Lord Jesus Christ.[2316]
[Footnote 2316: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 16.]
Messire Jean Massieu, dean of Rouen, was a cleric of manners
dissolute; his inveterate lewdness had involved him in difficulties
with the Chapter and with the Official.[2317] He may have been neither
as brave nor as frank as he wished to make out, but he was not hard
or pitiless.
[Footnote 2317: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le proces de
condamnation_, p. 115.]
He told his prisoner that there was a chapel on the way. And he
pointed out to her the chapel of the castle.
Then she besought him urgently to take her into the chapel in order
that she might worship Messire and pray.
Readily did Messire Jean Massieu consent; and he permitted her to
kneel before the sanctuary. Devoutly bending, Jeanne offered her
prayer.
The Lord Bishop, being informed of this incident, was highly
displeased. He instructed the Usher that in the future such devotions
must not be tolerated.
And the Promoter, Maitre Jean d'Estivet, on his part, addressed many a
reprimand to Messire Jean Massieu.
"Rascal," he said, "what possesses thee to allow an excommunicated
whore to approach a church without permission? If ever thou doest the
like again I will imprison thee in that tower, where for a month thou
wilt see neither sun nor moon."
Messire Jean Massieu heeded not this threat. And the Promoter,
perceiving this, himself took up his post at the chapel door when
Jeanne went that way. Thus he prevented the hapless damsel from
engaging in her devotions.[2318]
[Footnote 2318: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 16.]
The sixth sitting was held in the same court as before, in the
presence of forty-one assessors, of whom six or seven were new, and
among them was Maitre Guillaume Erart, doctor in theology.[2319]
[Footnote 2319: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 91, 92.]
In the beginning, the examiner asked Jeanne whether she had seen Saint
Michael and the saints, and whether she had seen anything but their
faces. He insisted: "You must say what you know."
"Rather than say all that I know, I would have my head cut off."[2320]
[Footnote 2320: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 93.]
They puzzled her with questions touching the nature of angelic bodies.
She was simple; with her own eyes she had seen Saint Michael; she said
so and could not say otherwise.
The examiner, now as always, informed of the words she had let fall in
prison, asked her whether she had heard her Voices.
"Yes, in good sooth. They told me that I should be delivered. But I
know neither the day nor the hour. And they told me to have good
courage, and to be of good cheer."[2321]
[Footnote 2321: _Ibid._, p. 94.]
Of all this the judges believed nothing, because demonologists teach
that witches lose their power when an officer of Holy Church lays
hands upon them.
The examiner recurred to her man's dress. Then he endeavoured to find
out whether she had cast spells over the banners of her companions in
arms.
He sought out by what secret power she led the soldiers.
This power she was willing to reveal: "I said to them: 'Go on boldly
against the English;' and at the same time I went myself."[2322]
[Footnote 2322: _Ibid._, pp. 95-97.]
In this examination, which was the most diffuse and the most captious
of all, the following curious question was put to the accused: "When
you were before Jargeau, what was it you were wearing behind your
helmet? Was there not something round?"[2323]
[Footnote 2323: _Ibid._, p. 99.]
At the siege of Jargeau she had been struck on the head by a huge
stone which had not hurt her; and this her own party deemed
miraculous.[2324] Did the judges of Rouen imagine that she wore a
golden halo, like the saints, and that this halo had protected her?
[Footnote 2324: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 301. _Journal du siege_,
pp. 98, 99.]
Later she was examined on a more ordinary subject, concerning a
picture in the house of her host at Orleans, representing three women:
Justice, Peace, Union.
Jeanne knew nothing about it;[2325] she was no connoisseur in tapestry
and in paintings, like the Duke of Bar and the Duke of Orleans;
neither were her judges, not on this occasion at any rate. And if they
were concerned about a picture in the house of Maitre Boucher, it was
not so much on account of the painting as of the doctrine. These three
women that the wealthy Maitre Boucher kept in his house were doubtless
nude. The painters of those days depicted on small panels allegories
and bathing scenes, and they painted nude women. Full foreheads, round
heads, golden hair, short figures of small build but with embonpoint,
their nudity minutely represented and but thinly veiled; many such
were produced in Flanders and in Italy. The illustrious masters, to
whom those pictures appeared corrupt and indecent, doubtless wished to
reproach Jeanne with having looked at them in the house of the
treasurer of the Duke of Orleans. It is not difficult to divine what
were the doctors' suspicions when they are found asking Jeanne whether
Saint Michael wore clothes, in what manner she greeted her saints, and
how she gave them her rings to touch.[2326]
[Footnote 2325: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 101.]
[Footnote 2326: _Ibid._, p. 89.]
They also wanted to make her admit that she had caused herself to be
honoured as a saint. She disconcerted them by the following reply:
"The poor folk came to me readily, because I did them no hurt, but
aided them to the best of my power."[2327]
[Footnote 2327: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 102.]
Then the examination ranged over many and various subjects: Friar
Richard; the children Jeanne had held over the baptismal fonts; the
good wives of the town of Reims who touched rings with her; the
butterflies caught in a standard at Chateau Thierry.[2328]
[Footnote 2328: _Ibid._, p. 103.]
In this town, certain of the Maid's followers were said to have caught
butterflies in her standard. Now doctors in theology knew for a
certainty that necromancers sacrificed butterflies to the devil. A
century before, at Pamiers, the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition had
condemned the Carmelite Pierre Recordi, who was accused of having
celebrated such a sacrifice. He had killed a butterfly and the devil
had revealed his presence by a breath of wind.[2329] Jeanne's judges
may have wished to involve her in similar fashion, or their design may
have been quite different. In war a butterfly in the cap was a sign
either of unconditional surrender or of the possession of a safe
conduct.[2330] Were the judges accusing her or her followers of having
feigned to surrender in order treacherously to attack the enemy? They
were quite capable of making such a charge. However that may be, the
examiner passed on to inquire concerning a lost glove found by Jeanne
in the town of Reims.[2331] It was important to know whether it had
been discovered by magic art. Then the magistrate returned to several
of the capital charges of the trial: communion received in man's
dress; the hackney of the Bishop of Senlis, which Jeanne had taken,
thus committing a kind of sacrilege; the discoloured child she had
brought back to life at Lagny; Catherine de La Rochelle, who had
recently borne witness against her before the Official at Paris; the
siege of La Charite which she had been obliged to raise; the leap
which she had made in her despair from the keep of Beaurevoir, and,
finally, certain blasphemy she was falsely accused of having uttered
at Soissons concerning Captain Bournel.[2332]
[Footnote 2329: Lea (1906), vol. iii, p. 456.]
[Footnote 2330: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 237.]
[Footnote 2331: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 104.]
[Footnote 2332: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 111.]
Then the Lord Bishop declared the examination concluded. He added,
however, that should it appear expedient to interrogate Jeanne more
fully, certain doctors and masters would be appointed for that
purpose.[2333]
[Footnote 2333: _Ibid._, pp. 111, 112.]
Accordingly, on Saturday, March the 10th, Maitre Jean de la Fontaine,
the Bishop's commissioner, went to the prison. He was accompanied by
Nicolas Midi, Gerard Feuillet, Jean Fecard, and Jean Massieu.[2334] The
first point touched upon at this inquiry was the sortie from
Compiegne. The priests took great pains to prove to Jeanne that her
Voices must be bad or that she must have failed to understand them
since her obedience to them had brought about her destruction. Jacques
Gelu[2335] and Jean Gerson had foreseen this dilemma and had met it in
anticipation with elaborate theological arguments.[2336] She was
examined concerning the paintings on her standard, and she replied:
"Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret bade me take the standard and bear
it boldly, and have painted upon it the King of Heaven. And this, much
against my will, I told to my King. Touching its meaning I know nought
else."[2337]
[Footnote 2334: _Ibid._, p. 113.]
[Footnote 2335: Gelu, _Questio quinta_, in _Memoires et consultations
en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, ed. Lanery d'Arc, pp. 593 _et seq._]
[Footnote 2336: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 299 _et seq._]
[Footnote 2337: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 117.]
They tried to make her out avaricious, proud, and ostentatious because
she possessed a shield and arms, a stable, chargers, demi-chargers,
and hackneys, and because she had money with which to pay her
household, some ten to twelve thousand livres.[2338] But the point on
which they questioned her most closely was the sign which had already
been twice discussed in the public examinations. On this subject the
doctors displayed an insatiable curiosity. For the sign was the exact
reverse of the coronation at Reims; it was an anointing, not with
divine unction but with magic charm, the crowning of the King of
France by a witch. Maitre Jean de la Fontaine had this advantage over
Jeanne, he knew what she was going to say and what she wished to
conceal. "What is the sign that was given to your King?"
[Footnote 2338: _Ibid._, pp. 117, 119.]
"It is beautiful and honourable and very credible; it is the best and
the richest in the world...."
"Does it still last?"
"It is well to know that it lasts and will last for a thousand years.
My sign is in the King's treasury."
"Is it of gold or silver, or of precious stones, or is it a crown?"
"Nothing more will I tell unto you and no man can devise anything so
rich as is this sign. Nevertheless, the sign that you need is that God
should deliver me out of your hands and no surer sign can he send
you...."
"When the sign came to your King what reverence did you make to it?"
"I thanked Our Lord for having delivered me from the troubles caused
me by the clerks of our party, who were arguing against me. And I
knelt down several times. An angel from God and from none other gave
the sign to my King. And many times did I give thanks to Our Lord. The
clerks ceased to attack me when they had seen the said sign."[2339]
[Footnote 2339: On the contrary it was then that they began to argue
against her or that they began to argue most effectively. She seems to
forget that the interview at Chinon preceded the examination at
Poitiers. It is interesting to notice that Brother Pasquerel, who was
informed of these matters by her, makes the same error in his
evidence.]
"Did the churchmen of your party behold the sign?"
"When my King and such as were with him had seen the sign and also the
angel who gave it, I asked my King whether he were pleased, and he
replied that he was. Then I departed and went into a little chapel
near by. I have since heard that after my departure more than three
hundred persons saw the sign. For love of me and in order that I
should be questioned no further, God was pleased to permit this sign
to be seen by all those of my party who did see it."
"Did your King and you make any reverence to the angel when he brought
the sign?"
"Yes, for my part, I did. I knelt and took off my hood."[2340]
[Footnote 2340: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 120, 122.]
CHAPTER XII
THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (_continued_)
On Monday, the 12th of March, Brother Jean Lemaistre received from
Brother Jean Graverent, Inquisitor of France, an order to proceed
against and to pronounce the final sentence on a certain woman, named
Jeanne, commonly called the Maid.[2341] On that same day, in the
morning, Maitre Jean de la Fontaine, in presence of the Bishop, for
the second time examined Jeanne in her prison.[2342]
[Footnote 2341: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 122-124.]
[Footnote 2342: _Ibid._, p. 125.]
He first returned to the sign. "Did not the angel who brought the sign
speak?"
"Yes, he told my King that he must set me to work in order that the
country might soon be relieved."
"Was the angel, who brought the sign, the angel who first appeared
unto you or another?"
"It was always the same and never did he fail me."
"But inasmuch as you have been taken hath not the angel failed you
with regard to the good things of this life?"
"Since it is Our Lord's good pleasure, I believe it was best for me to
be taken."
"In the good things of grace hath not your angel failed you?"
"How can he have failed me when he comforteth me every day?"[2343]
[Footnote 2343: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 126.]
Maitre Jean de la Fontaine then put her a subtle question and one as
nearly approaching humour as was permissible in an ecclesiastical
trial.
"Did Saint Denys ever appear to you?"[2344]
[Footnote 2344: _Ibid._]
Saint Denys, patron of the most Christian kings, Saint Denys, the war
cry of France, had allowed the English to take his abbey, that rich
church, to which queens came to receive their crowns, and wherein
kings had their burying. He had turned English and Burgundian, and it
was not likely he would come to hold converse with the Maid of the
Armagnacs.
To the question: "Were you addressing God himself when you promised to
remain a virgin?" she replied:
"It sufficed to give the promise to the messengers of God, to wit,
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret."[2345]
[Footnote 2345: _Ibid._]
They had sought to entrap her, for a vow must be made directly to God.
However, it might be argued, that it is lawful to promise a good thing
to an angel or to a man; and that this good thing, thus promised, may
form the substance of a vow. One vows to God what one has promised to
the saints. Pierre of Tarentaise (iv, dist: xxviii, a. 1) teaches that
all vows should be made to God: either to himself directly or through
the mediation of his saints.[2346]
[Footnote 2346: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations_, pp. 224,
434, 435. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, pp. 351 _et
seq._, 481 _et seq._]
According to a statement made during the inquiry, Jeanne had given a
promise of marriage to a young peasant. Now the examiner endeavoured
to prove that she had been at liberty to break her vow of virginity
made in an irregular form; but Jeanne maintained that she had not
promised marriage, and she added:
"The first time I heard my Voices, I vowed to remain a virgin as long
as it should please God."
But this time it was Saint Michael and not the saints who had appeared
to her.[2347] She herself found it difficult to unravel the tangled web
of her dreams and her ecstasies. And from these vague visions of a
child the doctors were laboriously essaying to elaborate a capital
charge.
[Footnote 2347: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128.]
Then a very grave and serious question was asked her by the examiner:
"Did you speak to your priest or to any other churchman of those
visions which you say were vouchsafed to you?"
"No, I spoke of them only to Robert de Baudricourt and to my
King."[2348]
[Footnote 2348: _Ibid._]
The vavasour of Champagne, a man of mature years and sound sense, when
in the days of King John, he, like the Maid, had heard a Voice in the
fields bidding him go to his King, went straightway and told his
priest. The latter commanded him to fast for three days, to do
penance, and then to return to the field where the Voice had spoken to
him.
The vavasour obeyed. Again the Voice was heard repeating the command
it had previously given. The peasant again told his priest, who said
to him: "My brother, thou and I will abstain and fast for three days,
and I will pray for thee to Our Lord Jesus Christ." This they did, and
on the fourth day the good man returned to the field. After the Voice
had spoken for the third time, the priest enjoined his parishioner to
go forthwith and fulfil his mission, since such was the will of
God.[2349]
[Footnote 2349: _Chronique des quatre premiers Valois_, p. 47.]
There is no doubt that, according to all appearances, this vavasour
had acted with greater wisdom than La Romee's daughter. By concealing
her visions from the priest the latter had slighted the authority of
the Church Militant. Still there might be urged in her defence the
words of the Apostle Paul, that where the spirit of God is there is
liberty.[2350] If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the
law.[2351] Was she a heretic or was she a saint? Therein lay the whole
trial.
[Footnote 2350: II Corinthians, iv.]
[Footnote 2351: Galatians v, 18. Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et
consultations_, p. 275.]
Then came this remarkable question: "Have you received letters from
Saint Michael or from your Voices?"
She replied: "I have not permission to tell you; but in a week I will
willingly say all I know."[2352]
[Footnote 2352: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130.]
Such was her manner of speaking when there was something she wanted to
conceal but not to deny. The question must have been embarrassing
therefore. Moreover, these interrogatories were based on a good store
of facts either true or false; and in the questions addressed to the
Maid we may generally discern a certain anticipation of her replies.
What were those letters from Saint Michael and her other saints, the
existence of which she did not deny, but which were never produced by
her judges? Did certain of her party send them in the hope that she
would carry out their intentions, while under the impression that she
was obeying divine commands?
Without insisting further for the present, the examiner passed on to
another grievance:
"Have not your Voices called you _daughter of God_, _daughter of the
Church_, _great-hearted damsel_?"
"Before the siege of Orleans and since, every day when they speak to
me, many times have they called me _Jeanne the Maid, daughter of
God_."[2353]
[Footnote 2353: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 130, 131.]
The examination was suspended and resumed in the afternoon.
Maitre Jean de la Fontaine questioned Jeanne concerning a dream of her
father, of which the judges had been informed in the preliminary
inquiry.[2354]
[Footnote 2354: _Ibid._, pp. 131, 132.]
Sad it is to reflect that when Jeanne was accused of the sin of having
broken God's commandment, "Thou shalt honour thy father and thy
mother," neither her mother nor any of her kin asked to be heard as
witnesses. And yet there were churchmen in her family;[2355] but a
trial on a question of faith struck terror into all hearts.
[Footnote 2355: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de
Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 14,
15. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. xlvi _et seq._]
Again her man's dress was reverted to, and not for the last time.[2356]
We marvel at the profound meditations into which the Maid's doublet
and hose plunged these clerics. They contemplated them with gloomy
terror and in the light of the precepts of Deuteronomy.
[Footnote 2356: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 133.]
Thereafter they questioned her touching the Duke of Orleans. Their
object was to show from her own replies that her Voices had deceived
her when they promised the prisoner's deliverance. Here they easily
succeeded. Then she pleaded that she had not had sufficient time.
"Had I continued for three years without let or hindrance I should
have delivered him."
In her revelations there had been mentioned a term shorter than three
years and longer than one.[2357]
[Footnote 2357: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 134.]
Questioned again touching the sign vouchsafed to her King, she replied
that she would take counsel with Saint Catherine.
On the morrow, Tuesday, the 13th of March, the Bishop and the
Vice-Inquisitor went to her prison. For the first time the
Vice-Inquisitor opened his mouth:[2358] "Have you promised and sworn to
Saint Catherine that you will not tell this sign?"
[Footnote 2358: _Ibid._, pp. 134, 138.]
He spoke of the sign given to the King. Jeanne replied:
"I have sworn and I have promised that I will not myself reveal this
sign, because I was too urgently pressed to tell it. I vow that never
again will I speak of it to living man."[2359]
[Footnote 2359: _Ibid._, p. 139.]
Then she continued forthwith: "The sign was that the Angel assured my
King, when bringing him the crown, that he should have the whole realm
of France, with God's help and my labours, and that he should set me
to work. That is to say, he should grant me men-at-arms. Otherwise he
would not be so soon crowned and anointed."
"In what manner did the Angel bring the crown? Did he place it on your
King's head?"
"It was given to an archbishop, to the Archbishop of Reims, meseemeth
in the King's presence. The said Archbishop received it and gave it
to the King; and I myself was present; and it is put in the King's
treasury."
"To what place was the crown brought?"
"To the King's chamber in the castle of Chinon."
"On what day and at what hour?"
"The day I know not, the hour was full day. No further recollection
have I of the hour or of the month. But meseemeth it was the month of
April or March; it will be two years this month or next April. It was
after Easter."[2360]
[Footnote 2360: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 140, 141.]
"On the first day that you saw the sign did your King see it?"
"Yes. He had it the same day."
"Of what was the crown made?"
"It is well to know that it was of fine gold, and so rich that I
cannot count its riches; and the crown meant that he would hold the
realm of France."
"Were there jewels in it?"
"I have told you that I do not know."
"Did you touch it or kiss it?"
"No."
"Did the Angel who bore it come from above, or did he come from the
earth?"
"He came from above. I understand that he came by Our Lord's command,
and he came in by the door of the chamber."
"Did the Angel come along the ground, walking from the door of the
room?"
"When he was come before the King he did him reverence, bowing low
before him and uttering the words concerning the sign which I have
already repeated; and thereupon the Angel recalled to the King's mind
the great patience he had had in the midst of the long tribulation
that had befallen him; and as he came towards the King the Angel
walked and touched the ground."
"How far was it from the door to the King?"
"Methinketh it was a full lance's length;[2361] and as he had come so
he returned. When the Angel came, I accompanied him and went with him
up the steps into the King's chamber; and the Angel went in first. And
I said to the King: 'Sire, behold your sign; take it.'"[2362]
[Footnote 2361: About ten feet (W.S.).]
[Footnote 2362: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 141-142.]
In a spiritual sense we may say that this fable is true. This crown,
which "flowers sweetly and will flower sweetly if it be well
guarded,"[2363] is the crown of victory. When the Maid beholds the
Angel who brought it, it is her own image that appears before her. Had
not a theologian of her own party said that she might be called an
angel? Not that she had the nature of an angel, but she did the work
of one.[2364]
[Footnote 2363: "_Fleure bon et fleurera bon, pourvu qu'elle soit bien
gardee._"]
[Footnote 2364: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations_, p. 212. Le
P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 346.]
She began to describe the angels who had come with her to the King:
"So far as I saw, certain among them were very like, the others
different. Some had wings. Some wore crowns, others did not. And they
were with Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, and they accompanied the
Angel of whom I have spoken and the other angels also into the chamber
of the King."[2365]
[Footnote 2365: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 144.]
And thus for a long time, as she was pressed by her interrogator, she
continued to tell these marvellous stories one after another.
When she was asked for the second time whether the Angel had written
her letters, she denied it.[2366] But now it was the Angel who bore the
crown and not Saint Michael who was in question. And despite her
having said they were one and the same, she may have distinguished
between them. Therefore we shall never know whether she did receive
letters from Saint Michael the Archangel, or from Saint Catherine and
from Saint Margaret.
[Footnote 2366: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 145.]
Thereafter the examiner inquired touching a cup lost at Reims and
found by Jeanne as well as the gloves.[2367] Saints sometimes
condescended to find things that had been lost, as is proved by the
example of Saint Antony of Padua. It was always with the help of God.
Necromancers imitated their powers by invoking the aid of demons and
by profaning sacred things.
[Footnote 2367: _Ibid._, p. 146.]
She was also questioned concerning the priest who had a concubine.
Here again she was reproached with being possessed of a magic gift of
clairvoyance. It was by magic she had known that this priest had a
concubine. Many other such things were reported of her. For example,
it was said that at the sight of a certain loose woman she knew that
this woman had killed her child.[2368]
[Footnote 2368: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 184, 186.]
Then recurred the same old questions: "When you went to the attack on
Paris did you receive a revelation from your Voices? Was it revealed
to you that you should go against La Charite? Was it a revelation that
caused you to go to Pont-l'Eveque?"
She denied that she had then received any revelation from her Voices.
The last question was: "Did you not say before Paris, 'Surrender the
town in the name of Jesus'?"
She answered that she had not spoken those words, but had said,
"Surrender the town to the King of France."[2369]
[Footnote 2369: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 147, 148.]
The Parisians who were engaged in repelling the attack had heard her
saying, "Surrender to us speedily in the name of Jesus." These words
are consistent with all we know of Jeanne in the early years of her
career. She believed it to be the will of Messire that the towns of
the realm should surrender to her, whom he had sent to reconquer them.
We have noticed already that at the time of her trial Jeanne had
completely lost touch with her early illuminations and that she spoke
in quite another language.
On the morrow, Wednesday, the 14th of March, there were two more
examinations in the prison. The morning interrogatory turned on the
leap from Beaurevoir. She confessed to having leapt without permission
from her Voices, preferring to die rather than to fall into the hands
of the English.[2370]
[Footnote 2370: _Ibid._, pp. 150, 152.]
She was accused of blasphemy against God; but that was false.[2371]
[Footnote 2371: _Ibid._, p. 157.]
The Bishop intervened: "You have said that we, the Lord Bishop, run
great danger by bringing you to trial. Of what danger were you
speaking? In what peril do we stand, we, your judges, and others?"
"I said to my Lord of Beauvais: 'You declare that you are my judge, I
know not if you be. But take heed that ye judge not wrongly, for thus
would ye run great danger; and I warn you, so that if Our Lord
chastise you for it, I have done my duty by warning you.'"
"What is this peril or this danger?"
"Saint Catherine has told me that I shall have succour. I know not
whether it will be my deliverance from prison, or whether, during the
trial, some tumult shall arise whereby I shall be delivered. I think
it will be either one or the other. My Voices most often tell me I
shall be delivered by a great victory. And afterwards they say to me:
'Be thou resigned, grieve not at thy martyrdom; thou shalt come in the
end to the kingdom of Paradise.' This do my Voices say unto me simply
and absolutely. I mean to say without fail. And I call my martyrdom
the trouble and anguish I suffer in prison. I know not whether still
greater sufferings are before me, but I wait on the Lord."[2372]
[Footnote 2372: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 154, 156.]
It would seem that thus her Voices promised the Maid at once a
spiritual and a material deliverance, but the two could hardly occur
together. This reply, expressive alike of fear and of illusion, was
one to call forth pity from the hardest; and yet her judges regarded
it merely as a means whereby they might entrap her. Feigning to
understand that from her revelations she derived a heretical
confidence in her eternal salvation, the examiner put to her an old
question in a new form. She had already given it a saintly answer. He
inquired whether her Voices had told her that she would finally come
to the kingdom of Paradise if she continued in the assurance that she
would be saved and not condemned in Hell. To this she replied with
that perfect faith with which her Voices inspired her: "I believe what
my Voices have told me touching my salvation as strongly as if I were
already in Paradise."
Such a reply was heretical. The examiner, albeit he was not accustomed
to discuss the Maid's replies, could not forbear remarking that this
one was of great importance.[2373]
[Footnote 2373: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 156.]
Accordingly in the afternoon of that same day, she was shown a
consequence of her error; to wit, that if she received from her Voices
the assurance of eternal salvation she needed not to confess.[2374]
[Footnote 2374: _Ibid._, p. 157.]
On this occasion Jeanne was questioned touching the affair of Franquet
d'Arras. The Bailie of Senlis had done wrong in asking the Maid for
her prisoner,[2375] the Lord Franquet,[2376] in order to put him to
death, and Jeanne's judges now incriminated her.
[Footnote 2375: See _ante_, pp. 124 _et seq._ (W.S.).]
[Footnote 2376: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 158, 159.]
The examiner pointed out the mortal sins with which the accused might
be charged: first, having attacked Paris on a feast-day; second,
having stolen the hackney of the Lord Bishop of Senlis; third, having
leapt from Beaurevoir; fourth, having worn man's dress; fifth, having
consented to the death of a prisoner of war. Touching all these
matters, Jeanne did not believe that she had committed mortal sin; but
with regard to the leap from Beaurevoir she acknowledged that she was
wrong, and that she had asked God to forgive her.[2377]
[Footnote 2377: _Ibid._, pp. 159, 161.]
It was sufficiently established that the accused had fallen into
religious error. The tribunal of the Inquisition, out of its abounding
mercy, desired the salvation of the sinner. Wherefore on the morning
of the very next day, Thursday, the 15th of March, my Lord of Beauvais
exhorted Jeanne to submit to the Church, and essayed to make her
understand that she ought to obey the Church Militant, for the Church
Militant was one thing and the Church Triumphant another. Jeanne
listened to him dubiously.[2378] On that day she was again questioned
touching her flight from the chateau of Beaulieu and her intention to
leave the tower without the permission of my Lord of Beauvais. As to
the latter she was firmly resolute.
[Footnote 2378: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 162.]
"Were I to see the door open, I would go, and it would be with the
permission of Our Lord. I firmly believe that if I were to see the
door open and if my guards and the other English were beyond power of
resistance, I should regard it as my permission and as succour sent
unto me by Our Lord. But without permission I would not go, save that
I might essay to go, in order to know whether it were Our Lord's will.
The proverb says: 'Help thyself and God will help thee.'[2379] This I
say so that, if I were to go, it should not be said I went without
permission."[2380]
[Footnote 2379: _Ayde-toy, Dieu te aidera._ _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p.
33.]
[Footnote 2380: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 163, 164.]
Then they reverted to the question of her wearing man's dress.
"Which would you prefer, to wear a woman's dress and hear mass, or to
continue in man's dress and not to hear mass?"
"Promise me that I shall hear mass if I am in woman's dress, and then
I will answer you."
"I promise you that you shall hear mass when you are in woman's
dress."
"And what do you say if I have promised and sworn to our King not to
put off these clothes? Nevertheless, I say unto you: 'Have me a robe
made, long enough to touch the ground, but without a train. I will go
to mass in it; then, when I come back, I will return to my present
clothes.'"
"You must wear woman's dress altogether and without conditions."
"Send me a dress like that worn by your burgess's daughters, to wit, a
long _houppelande_; and I will take it and even a woman's hood to go
and hear mass. But with all my heart I entreat you to leave me these
clothes I am now wearing, and let me hear mass without changing
anything."[2381]
[Footnote 2381: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 165, 166.]
Her aversion to putting off man's dress is not to be explained solely
by the fact that this dress preserved her best against the violence of
the men-at-arms; it is possible that no such objection existed. She
was averse to wearing woman's dress because she had not received
permission from her Voices; and we may easily divine why not. Was she
not a chieftain of war? How humiliating for such an one to wear
petticoats like a townsman's wife! And above all things just now, when
at any moment the French might come and deliver her by some great feat
of arms. Ought they not to find their Maid in man's attire, ready to
put on her armour and fight with them?
Thereafter the examiner asked her whether she would submit to the
Church, whether she made a reverence to her Voices, whether she
believed the saints, whether she offered them lighted candles, whether
she obeyed them, whether in war she had ever done anything without
their permission or contrary to their command.[2382]
[Footnote 2382: _Ibid._, pp. 166-169.]
Then they came to the question which they held to be the most
difficult of all:
"If the devil were to take upon himself the form of an angel, how
would you know whether he were a good angel or a bad?"
She replied with a simplicity which appeared presumptuous: "I should
easily discern whether it were Saint Michael or an imitation of
him."[2383]
[Footnote 2383: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 170, 171.]
Two days later, on Saturday, the 17th of March, Jeanne was examined in
her prison both morning and evening.[2384]
[Footnote 2384: _Ibid._, p. 173.]
Hitherto she had been very loath to describe the countenance and the
dress of the angel and the saints who had visited her in the village.
Maitre Jean de la Fontaine endeavoured to obtain some light on this
subject.
"In what form and semblance did Saint Michael come to you? Was he tall
and how was he clothed?"
"He came in the form of a true _prud'homme_."[2385]
[Footnote 2385: _Ibid._]
Jeanne was not one to believe she saw the Archangel in a long doctor's
robe or wearing a cope of gold. Moreover it was not thus that he
figured in the churches. There he was represented in painting and in
sculpture, clothed in glittering armour, with a golden crown on his
helmet.[2386] In such guise did he appear to her "in the form of a
right true _prud'homme_," to take a word from the _Chanson de Roland_,
where a great sword thrust is called the thrust of a _prud'homme_. He
came to her in the garb of a great knight, like Arthur and
Charlemagne, wearing full armour.
[Footnote 2386: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_. Proofs and
illustrations, pp. 74, 75.]
Once again the examiner put to Jeanne that question on which her life
or death depended:
"Will you submit all your deeds and sayings, good or bad, to the
judgment of our mother, Holy Church?"
"As for the Church, I love her and would maintain her with all my
power, for religion's sake," the Maid replied; "and I am not one to be
kept from church and from hearing mass. But as for the good works
which I have wrought, and touching my coming, for them I must give an
account to the King of Heaven, who has sent me to Charles, son of
Charles, King of France. And you will see that the French will shortly
accomplish a great work, to which God will appoint them, in which they
will shake nearly all France. I say it in order that when it shall
come to pass, it may be remembered that I have said it."[2387]
[Footnote 2387: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 174.]
But she was unable to name the time when this great work should be
accomplished; and Maitre Jean de la Fontaine returned to the point on
which Jeanne's fate depended.
"Will you submit to the judgment of the Church?"
"I appeal to Our Lord, who hath sent me, to Our Lady and to all the
blessed saints in Paradise. To my mind Our Lord and his Church are
one, and no distinction should be made. Wherefore do you essay to make
out that they are not one?"
In justice to Maitre Jean de la Fontaine we are bound to admit the
lucidity of his reply. "There is the Church Triumphant, in which are
God, his saints, the angels and the souls that are saved," he said.
"There is also the Church Militant, which is our Holy Father, the
Pope, the Vicar of God on earth; the cardinals, the prelates of the
Church and the clergy, with all good Christians and Catholics; and
this Church in its assembly cannot err, for it is moved by the Holy
Ghost. Will you appeal to the Church Militant?"
"I am come to the King of France from God, from the Virgin Mary and
all the blessed saints in Paradise and from the Church Victorious
above and by their command. To this Church I submit all the good deeds
I have done and shall do. As to replying whether I will submit to the
Church Militant, for the present, I will make no further answer."[2388]
[Footnote 2388: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 174, 176.]
Again she was offered a woman's dress in which to hear mass; she
refused it.
"As for a woman's dress, I will not take it yet, not until it be Our
Lord's will. And if it should come to pass that I be taken to judgment
and there divested of my clothes, I beg my lords of the Church the
favour of a woman's smock and covering for my head. I would rather die
than deny what Our Lord hath caused me to do. I believe firmly that
Our Lord will not let it come to pass that I should be cast so low,
and that soon I shall have help from God, and that by a miracle."
Thereafter the following questions were put to her: "Do you not
believe to-day that fairies are evil spirits?"
"I do not know."
"Do you know whether Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret hate the
English?"
"They love what Our Lord loves and hate what God hates."
"Does God hate the English?"
"Touching the love or hatred of God for the English and what he will
do for their souls I know nothing. But I do know that they will all
be driven out of France, save those who die there, and that God will
send victory to the French and defeat to the English."
"Was God on the side of the English when they prospered in France?"
"I know not whether God hated the French. But I believe that he
permitted them to be beaten for their sins, if they were in sin."[2389]
[Footnote 2389: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 178.]
Jeanne was asked certain questions touching the banner on which she
had caused angels to be painted.
She replied that she had had angels painted as she had seen them
represented in churches.[2390]
[Footnote 2390: _Ibid._, p. 180.]
At this point the examination was adjourned. The last interrogation in
the prison[2391] took place after dinner. She had now endured fifteen
in twenty-five days, but her courage never flagged. This last time the
subjects were more than usually diverse and confused. First, the
examiner essayed to discover by what charms and evil practices good
fortune and victory had attended the standard painted with angelic
figures. Then he wanted to know wherefore the clerks put on Jeanne's
letters the sacred names of Jesus and Marie.[2392]
[Footnote 2391: _Ibid._, p. 181.]
[Footnote 2392: _Ibid._, pp. 182-183.]
Then came the following subtle question: "Do you believe that if you
were married your Voices would come to you?"
It was well known that she dearly cherished her virginity. Certain of
her words might be interpreted to mean that she considered this
virginity to be the cause of her good fortune; wherefore her examiners
were curious to know whether if she were adroitly approached she
might not be brought to cast scorn on the married state and to condemn
intercourse between husbands and wives. Such a condemnation would have
been a grievous error, savouring of the heresy of the Cathari.[2393]
[Footnote 2393: Martene and Durand, _Thesaurus novus anecdotorum_, vol.
v, col. 1760 _et seq._]
She replied: "I know not and I appeal to Our Lord."[2394] Then there
followed another question much more dangerous for one who like Jeanne
loved her King with all her heart.
[Footnote 2394: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 183.]
"Do you think and firmly believe that your King did right to kill or
cause to be killed my Lord of Burgundy?"
"It was sore pity for the realm of France."[2395]
[Footnote 2395: _Ibid._, p. 184.]
Then did the examiner put to her this grave question: "Do you hold
yourself bound to answer the whole truth to the Pope, God's Vicar, on
all that may be asked you touching religion and your conscience?"
"I demand to be taken before him. Then will I make unto him such
answer as behoveth."[2396]
[Footnote 2396: _Ibid._, pp. 184, 185.]
These words involved an appeal to the Pope, and such an appeal was
lawful. "In doubtful matters touching on religion," said St. Thomas,
"there ought always to be an appeal to the Pope or to the General
Council." If Jeanne's appeal were not in regular judicial form, it was
not her fault. She was ignorant of legal matters and neither guide nor
counsel had been granted to her. To the best of her knowledge, and
according to wont and justice, she appealed to the common father of
the faithful.
The doctors and masters were silent. And thus was closed against the
accused the one way of deliverance remaining to her. She was now
hopelessly lost. It is not surprising that Jeanne's judges, who were
partisans of England, ignored her right of appeal; but it is
surprising that the doctors and masters of the French party, the
clerks of the provinces loyal to King Charles, did not all and with
one voice sign an appeal and demand that the Maid, who had been judged
worthy by her examiners at Poitiers, should be taken before the Pope
and the Council.
Instead of replying to Jeanne's request, the examiners inquired
further concerning those much discussed magic rings and apparitions of
demons.[2397]
[Footnote 2397: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 185.]
"Did you ever kiss and embrace the Saints, Catherine and Margaret?"
"I embraced them both."
"Were they of a sweet savour?"
"It is well to know. Yea, their savour was sweet."
"When embracing them did you feel heat or anything else?"
"I could not have embraced them without feeling and touching them."
"What part did you kiss, face or feet?"
"It is more fitting to kiss their feet than their faces."
"Did you not give them chaplets of flowers?"
"I have often done them honour by crowning with flowers their images
in churches. But to those who appeared to me never have I given
flowers as far as I can remember."
"Know you aught of those who consort with fairies?"
"I have never done so nor have I known anything about them. Yet I have
heard of them and that they were seen on Thursdays; but I do not
believe it, and to me it seems sorcery."[2398]
[Footnote 2398: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 187.]
Then came a question touching her standard, deemed enchanted by her
judges. It elicited one of those epigrammatic replies she loved.
"Wherefore was your standard rather than those of the other captains
carried into the church of Reims?"
"It had been in the contest, wherefore should it not share the
prize?"[2399]
[Footnote 2399: _Ibid._]
Now that the inquiries and examinations were concluded, it was
announced that the preliminary trial was at an end. The so-called
trial in ordinary opened on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday, the 27th of
March, in a room near the great hall of the castle.[2400]
[Footnote 2400: _Ibid._, p. 194.]
Before ordering the deed of accusation to be read, my Lord of Beauvais
offered Jeanne the aid of an advocate.[2401] If this offer had been
postponed till then, it was doubtless because in his opinion Jeanne
had not previously needed such aid. It is well known that a heretic's
advocate, if he would himself escape falling into heresy, must
strictly limit his methods of defence. During the preliminary inquiry
he must confine himself to discovering the names of the witnesses for
the prosecution and to making them known to the accused. If the
heretic pleaded guilty then it was useless to grant him an
advocate.[2402] Now my Lord maintained that the accusation was founded
not on the evidence of witnesses but on the avowals of the accused.
And this was doubtless his reason for not offering Jeanne an advocate
before the opening of the trial in ordinary, which bore upon matters
of doctrine.
[Footnote 2401: _Ibid._, p. 195.]
[Footnote 2402: J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 130, 131. E.
Meru, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, Romae, 1578, p. 295.]
The Lord Bishop thus addressed the Maid: "Jeanne," said he, "all
persons here present are churchmen of consummate knowledge, whose will
and intention it is to proceed against you in all piety and kindness,
seeking neither vengeance nor corporal chastisement, but your
instruction and your return into the way of truth and salvation. As
you are neither learned nor sufficiently instructed in letters or in
the difficult matters which are to be discussed, to take counsel of
yourself, touching what you should do or reply, we offer you to choose
as your advocate one or more of those present, as you will. If you
will not choose, then one shall be appointed for you by us, in order
that he may advise you touching what you may do or say...."[2403]
[Footnote 2403: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 200, 201. J. Quicherat, _Apercus
nouveaux_, pp. 129, 130.]
Considering what the method of procedure was, this was a gracious
offer. And even though my Lord of Beauvais obliged the accused to
choose from among the counsellors and assessors, whom he had himself
summoned to the trial, he did more than he was bound to do. The choice
of a counsel did not belong to the accused; it belonged to the judge,
whose duty it was to appoint an honest, upright person. Moreover, it
was permissible for an ecclesiastical judge to refuse to the end to
grant the accused any counsel whatsoever. Nicolas Eymeric, in his
_Directorium_, decides that the Bishop and the Inquisitor, acting
conjointly, may constitute authority sufficient for the interpretation
of the law and may proceed informally, _de plano_, dispensing with the
ceremony of appointing counsel and all the paraphernalia of a
trial.[2404]
[Footnote 2404: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_,
pp. 400 _et seq._ U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p.
34.]
We may notice that my Lord of Beauvais offered the accused an advocate
on the ground of her ignorance of things divine and human, but without
taking her youthfulness into account. In other courts of law
proceedings against a minor--that is, a person under twenty-five--who
was not assisted by an advocate, were legally void.[2405] If this rule
had been binding in Inquisitorial procedure the Bishop, by his offer
of legal aid, would have avoided any breach of this rule; and as the
choice of an advocate lay with him, he might well have done so without
running any risk. "Our justice is not like theirs," Bernard Gui
rightly said, when he was comparing inquisitorial procedure with that
of the other ecclesiastical courts which conformed to the Roman law.
[Footnote 2405: Meru, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, p. 147.]
Jeanne did not accept the judge's offer: "First," she said, "touching
what you admonish me for my good and in matters of religion, I thank
you and the company here assembled. As for the advocate you offer me,
I also thank you, but it is not my intent to depart from the counsel
of Our Lord. As for the oath you wish me to take, I am ready to swear
to speak the truth in all that concerns your suit."[2406]
[Footnote 2406: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 201.]
Thereupon Maitre Thomas de Courcelles began to read in French the
indictment which the Promoter had drawn up in seventy articles.[2407]
This text set forth in order the deeds with which Jeanne had already
been reproached and which were groundlessly held to have been
confessed by her and duly proved. There were no less than seventy
distinct charges of horrible crimes committed against religion and
Holy Mother Church. Questioned on each article, Jeanne with heroic
candour repeated her previous replies. The tedious reading of this
long accusation was continued and completed on the 28th of March, the
Wednesday after Palm Sunday.[2408] As was her wont, she asked for delay
in order to reply on certain points. On Easter Eve, the 31st of March,
the time granted having expired, my Lord of Beauvais went to the
prison, and, in the presence of the doctors and masters of the
University, demanded the promised replies. They nearly all touched on
the one accusation which included all the rest, the heresy in which
all heresies were comprehended,--the refusal to obey the Church
Militant. Jeanne finally declared her resolve to appeal to Our Lord
rather than to any man; this was to set at naught the authority of the
Pope and the Council.[2409]
[Footnote 2407: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 202-323.]
[Footnote 2408: _Ibid._, p. 202.]
[Footnote 2409: _Ibid._, pp. 324, 325.]
The doctors and masters of the University of Paris advised that an
epitome should be made of the Promoter's voluminous indictment, its
chief points selected, and the seventy charges considerably
reduced.[2410] Maitre Nicolas Midi, doctor in theology, performed this
task and submitted it when done to the judges and assessors.[2411] One
of them proposed emendations. Brother Jacques of Touraine, a friar of
the Franciscan order, who was charged to draw up the document in its
final stage, admitted most of the corrections requested.[2412] In this
wise the incriminating propositions,[2413] which the judges claimed,
but claimed falsely, to have derived from the replies of the accused,
were resolved into twelve articles.[2414]
[Footnote 2410: _Ibid._, p. 327; vol. iii, p. 143.]
[Footnote 2411: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 60. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration
de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 38.]
[Footnote 2412: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 232. J. Quicherat, _Apercus
nouveaux_, pp. 124, 129.]
[Footnote 2413: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 22, 212; vol. iii, p. 306; vol.
v, p. 461.]
[Footnote 2414: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 328, 336.]
These twelve articles were not communicated to Jeanne. On Thursday,
the 12th of April, twenty-one masters and doctors met in the chapel of
the Bishop's Palace, and, after having examined the articles, engaged
in a conference, the result of which was unfavourable to the
accused.[2415]
[Footnote 2415: _Ibid._, p. 337.]
According to them, the apparitions and revelations of which she
boasted came not from God. They were human inventions, or the work of
an evil spirit. She had not received signs sufficient to warrant her
believing in them. In the case of this woman these doctors and masters
discovered lies; a lack of verisimilitude; faith lightly given;
superstitious divinings; deeds scandalous and irreligious; sayings
rash, presumptuous, full of boasting; blasphemies against God and his
saints. They found her to have lacked piety in her behaviour towards
father and mother; to have come short in love towards her neighbour;
to have been addicted to idolatry, or at any rate to the invention of
lying tales and to schismatic conversation destructive of the unity,
the authority and the power of the Church; and, finally, to have been
skilled in the black art and to have strongly inclined to heresy.[2416]
[Footnote 2416: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 337, 374.]
Had she not been sustained and comforted by her heavenly Voices, the
Voices of her own heart, Jeanne would never have endured to the end of
this terrible trial. Not only was she being tortured at once by the
princes of the Church and the rascals of the army, but her sufferings
of body and mind were such as could never have been borne by any
ordinary human being. Yet she suffered them without her constancy, her
faith, her divine hope, one might almost say her cheerfulness, ever
being diminished. Finally she gave way; her physical strength, but not
her courage, was exhausted; she fell a victim to an illness which was
expected to be fatal. She seemed near her end, or rather, alas! near
her release.[2417]
[Footnote 2417: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 51.]
On Wednesday, the 18th of April, my Lord of Beauvais and the
Vice-Inquisitor of the Faith went to her with divers doctors and
masters to exhort her in all charity; she was still very seriously
sick.[2418] My Lord of Beauvais represented to her that when on certain
difficult matters she had been examined before persons of great
wisdom, many things she had said had been noted as contrary to
religion. Wherefore, considering that she was but an unlettered woman,
he offered to provide her with men learned and upright who would
instruct her. He requested the doctors present to give her salutary
counsel, and he invited her herself, if any other such persons were
known to her, to indicate them, promising to summon them without fail.
[Footnote 2418: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 374-375.]
"The Church," he added, "never closes her heart against those who will
return to her."
Jeanne answered that she thanked him for what he had said for her
salvation, and she added: "Meseemeth, that seeing the sickness in
which I lie, I am in great danger of death. If it be thus, then may
God do with me according to his good pleasure. I demand that ye permit
me to confess, that ye also give me the body of my Saviour and bury me
in holy ground."
My Lord of Beauvais represented to her that if she would receive the
sacraments she must submit to the Church.
"If my body die in prison," she replied, "I depend on you to have it
put in holy ground; if you do not, then I appeal to Our Lord."[2419]
[Footnote 2419: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 376, 378.]
Then she vehemently maintained the truth of the revelations she had
received from God, Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret.
And when she was asked yet again whether she would submit herself and
her acts to Holy Mother Church, she replied: "Whatever happens to me,
I will never do or say aught save what I have already said at the
trial."[2420]
[Footnote 2420: _Ibid._, p. 379.]
The doctors and masters one after the other exhorted her to submit to
Holy Mother Church. They quoted numerous passages from Holy Writ. They
promised her the body of Our Lord if she would obey; but she remained
resolute.
"Touching this submission," she said, "I will reply naught save what I
have said already. I love God, I serve him, I am a good Christian, and
I wish with all my power to aid and support Holy Church."[2421]
[Footnote 2421: _Ibid._, pp. 380, 381.]
In times of great need recourse was had to processions. "Do you not
wish," she was asked, "that a fine and famous procession be ordained
to restore you to a good estate if you be not therein?"
She replied, "I desire the Church and all Catholics to pray for
me."[2422]
[Footnote 2422: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 381.]
Among the doctors consulted there were many who recommended that she
should be again instructed and charitably admonished. On Wednesday,
the 2nd of May, sixty-three reverend doctors and masters met in the
Robing Room of the castle.[2423] She was brought in, and Maitre Jean de
Castillon, doctor in theology, Archdeacon of Evreux,[2424] read a
document in French, in which the deeds and sayings with which Jeanne
was reproached were summed up in six articles. Then many doctors and
masters addressed to her in turn admonitions and charitable counsels.
They exhorted her to submit to the Church Militant Universal, to the
Holy Father the Pope and to the General Council. They warned her that
if the Church abandoned her, her soul would stand in great peril of
the penalty of eternal fire, whilst her body might be burned in an
earthly fire, and that by the sentence of other judges.
[Footnote 2423: _Ibid._, pp. 381, 382.]
[Footnote 2424: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 114, 117.]
Jeanne replied as before.[2425] On the morrow, Thursday, the 3rd of
May, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, the Archangel Gabriel
appeared to her. She was not sure whether she had seen him before. But
this time she had no doubt. Her Voices told her that it was he, and
she was greatly comforted.
[Footnote 2425: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 383, 399.]
That same day she asked her Voices whether she should submit to the
Church and obey the exhortation of the clerics.
Her Voices replied: "If thou desirest help from Our Lord, then submit
to him all thy doings."
Jeanne wanted to know from her Voices whether she would be burned.
Her Voices told her to wait upon the Lord and he would help her.[2426]
This mystic aid strengthened Jeanne's heart.
[Footnote 2426: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 400, 401.]
Among heretics and those possessed, such obstinacy as hers was not
unparalleled. Ecclesiastical judges were well acquainted with the
stiff-neckedness of women who had been deceived by the Devil. In order
to force them to tell the truth, when admonitions and exhortations
failed, recourse was had to torture. And even such a measure did not
always succeed. Many of these wicked females (_mulierculae_) endured
the cruellest suffering with a constancy passing the ordinary strength
of human nature. The doctors would not believe such constancy to be
natural; they attributed it to the machinations of the Evil One. The
devil was capable of protecting his servants even when they had fallen
into the hands of judges of the Church; he granted them strength to
bear the torture in silence. This strength was called the gift of
taciturnity.[2427]
[Footnote 2427: Nicolas Eymeric, _Directorium inquisitorium...._ Rome,
1586, in fol. p. 24, col. 1. Ludovicus a Paramo, _De origine et
progressu officii sanctae inquisitionis_, MDXCIIX, in fol., lib. III,
questio 5, p. 709.]
On Wednesday, the 9th of May, Jeanne was taken to the great tower of
the castle, into the torture-chamber. There my Lord of Beauvais, in
the presence of the Vice Inquisitor and nine doctors and masters,
read her the articles, to which she had hitherto refused to reply; and
he threatened her that if she did not confess the whole truth she
would be put to the torture.[2428]
[Footnote 2428: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 399.]
The instruments were prepared; the two executioners, Mauger
Leparmentier, a married clerk, and his companion, were in readiness
close by her, awaiting the Bishop's orders.
Six days before Jeanne had received great comfort from her Voices. Now
she replied resolutely: "Verily, if you were to tear my limbs asunder
and drive my soul out of my body, naught else would I tell you, and if
I did say anything unto you, I would always maintain afterwards that
you had dragged it from me by force."[2429]
[Footnote 2429: _Ibid._, pp. 399, 400.]
My Lord of Beauvais decided to defer the torture, fearing that it
would do no good to so hardened a subject.[2430] On the following
Saturday, he deliberated in his house, with the Vice-Inquisitor and
thirteen doctors and masters; opinion was divided. Maitre Raoul
Roussel advised that Jeanne should not be tortured lest ground for
complaint should be given against a trial so carefully conducted. It
would seem that he anticipated the Devil's granting Jeanne the gift of
taciturnity, whereby in diabolical silence she would be able to brave
the tortures of the Holy Inquisition. On the other hand Maitre Aubert
Morel, licentiate in canon law, counsellor to the Official of Rouen,
Canon of the Cathedral, and Maitre Thomas de Courcelles, deemed it
expedient to apply torture. Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur, master of arts,
Canon of Rouen, whose share in the proceedings had been to act Saint
Catherine and the Lorraine shoemaker, had no very decided opinion on
the subject, still it seemed to him by no means unprofitable that
Jeanne for her soul's welfare should be tortured. The majority of
doctors and masters agreed that for the present there was no need to
subject her to this trial. Some gave no reasons, others alleged that
it behoved them yet once again to warn her charitably. Maitre
Guillaume Erard, doctor in theology, held that sufficient material for
the pronouncing of a sentence existed already.[2431] Thus among those,
who spared Jeanne the torture, were to be found the least merciful;
for the spirit of ecclesiastical tribunals was such that to refuse to
torture an accused was in certain cases to refuse him mercy.
[Footnote 2430: _Ibid._, pp. 401, 402.]
[Footnote 2431: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 402, 404.]
To the trial of Marguerite la Porete, the judges summoned no
experts.[2432] Touching the charges held as proven, they submitted a
written report to the University of Paris. The University gave its
opinion on everything but the truth of the charges. This reservation
was merely formal, and the decision of the University had the force of
a sentence. In Jeanne's trial this precedent was cited. On the 21st of
April, Maitre Jean Beaupere, Maitre Jacques de Touraine and Maitre
Nicolas Midi left Rouen, and, at the risk of being attacked on the
road by men-at-arms, journeyed to Paris in order to present the twelve
articles to their colleagues of the University.
[Footnote 2432: _Recueil des historiens de la France_, vol. xx, p. 601;
vol. xxi, p. 34. _Histoire litteraire de la France_, vol. xxvii, p.
70.]
On the 28th of April, the University, meeting in its general assembly
at Saint-Bernard, charged the Holy Faculty of Theology and the
Venerable Faculty of Decrees with the examination of the twelve
articles.[2433]
[Footnote 2433: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 407, 413, 420. M. Fournier, _La
faculte de decret de l'Universite de Paris_, p. 353. Le P. Denifle and
Chatelain, _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, pp. 510
_et seq._]
On the 14th of May, the deliberations of the two Faculties were
submitted to all the Faculties in solemn assembly, who ratified them
and made them their own. The University then sent them to King Henry,
beseeching his Royal Majesty to execute justice promptly, in order
that the people, so greatly scandalised by this woman, be brought back
to good doctrine and holy faith.[2434] It is worthy of notice that in a
trial, in which the Pope, represented by the Vice-Inquisitor, was one
judge, and the King, represented by the Bishop, another, the Eldest
Daughter of Kings[2435] should have communicated directly with the King
of France, the guardian of her privileges.
[Footnote 2434: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 407, 408. U. Chevalier,
_L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 42.]
[Footnote 2435: The University of Paris (W.S.).]
According to the Sacred Faculty of Theology, Jeanne's apparitions were
fictitious, lying, deceptive, inspired by devils. The sign given to
the King was a presumptuous and pernicious lie, derogatory to the
dignity of angels. Jeanne's belief in the visitations of Saint
Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret was an error rash and
injurious because Jeanne placed it on the same plane as the truths of
religion. Jeanne's predictions were but superstitions, idle
divinations and vain boasting. Her statement that she wore man's dress
by the command of God was blasphemy, a violation of divine law and
ecclesiastical sanction, a contemning of the sacraments and tainted
with idolatry. In the letters she had dictated, Jeanne appeared
treacherous, perfidious, cruel, sanguinary, seditious, blasphemous and
in favour of tyranny. In setting out for France she had broken the
commandment to honour father and mother, she had given an occasion for
scandal, she had committed blasphemy and had fallen from the faith. In
the leap from Beaurevoir, she had displayed a pusillanimity bordering
on despair and homicide; and, moreover, it had caused her to utter
rash statements touching the remission of her sin and erroneous
pronouncements concerning free will. By proclaiming her confidence in
her salvation, she uttered presumptuous and pernicious lies; by saying
that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret did not speak English, she
blasphemed these saints and violated the precept: "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour." The honours she rendered these saints were nought but
idolatry and the worship of devils. Her refusal to submit her doings
to the Church tended to schism, to the denial of the unity and
authority of the Church and to apostasy.[2436]
[Footnote 2436: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 414, 419.]
The doctors of the Faculty of Theology were very learned. They knew
who the three evil spirits were whom Jeanne in her delusion took for
Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. They were Belial,
Satan, and Behemoth. Belial, worshipped by the people of Sidon, was
sometimes represented as an angel of great beauty; he is the demon of
disobedience. Satan is the Lord of Hell; and Behemoth is a dull, heavy
creature, who feeds on hay like an ox.[2437]
[Footnote 2437: _Ibid._, p. 414. Migne, _Dictionnaire des sciences
occultes_.]
The venerable Faculty of Decrees decided that this schismatic, this
erring woman, this apostate, this liar, this soothsayer, be charitably
exhorted and duly warned by competent judges, and that if
notwithstanding she persisted in refusing to abjure her error, she
must be given up to the secular arm to receive due chastisement.[2438]
Such were the deliberations and decisions which the Venerable
University of Paris submitted to the examination and to the verdict of
the Holy Apostolic See and of the sacrosanct General Council.
[Footnote 2438: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 417, 420.]
Meanwhile, where were the clerks of France? Had they nothing to say in
this matter? Had they no decision to submit to the Pope and to the
Council? Why did they not urge their opinions in opposition to those
of the Faculties of Paris? Why did they keep silence? Jeanne demanded
the record of the Poitiers trial. Wherefore did those Poitiers
doctors, who had recommended the King to employ the Maid lest, by
rejecting her, he should refuse the gift of the Holy Spirit, fail to
send the record to Rouen?[2439] Before the Maid espoused their waning
cause, these Poitiers doctors, these magistrates, these University
professors banished from Paris, advocates and counsellors of an exiled
Parlement, had not a robe to their backs nor shoes for their children.
Now, thanks to the Maid, they were every day regaining new hope and
vigour. And yet they left her, who had so nobly served their King, to
be treated as a heretic and a reprobate. Where were Brother Pasquerel,
Friar Richard, and all those churchmen who but lately surrounded her
in France and who looked to go with her to the Crusade against the
Bohemians and the Turks? Why did they not demand a safe-conduct and
come and give evidence at the trial? Or at least why did they not send
their evidence? Why did not the Archbishop of Embrun, who but recently
gave such noble counsels to the King, send some written statement in
favour of the Maid to the judges at Rouen? My Lord of Reims,
Chancellor of the Kingdom, had said that she was proud but not
heretical. Wherefore now, acting contrary to his own interests and
honour, did he refrain from testifying in favour of her through whom
he had recovered his episcopal city? Wherefore did he not assert his
right and do his duty as metropolitan and censure and suspend his
suffragan, the Bishop of Beauvais, who was guilty of prevarication in
the administration of justice? Why did not the illustrious clerics,
whom King Charles had appointed deputies at the Council of Bale,
undertake to bring the cause of the Maid before the Council? And
finally, why did not the priests, the ecclesiastics of the realm, with
one voice demand an appeal to the Holy Father?
[Footnote 2439: From a theological point of view the record of the
Poitiers trial may have been insignificant; but at any rate it
contained the arguments presented to the King and the memoranda of
Gelu and of Gerson.]
They all with one accord, as if struck dumb with astonishment,
remained passive and silent. Can they have feared that too searching a
light would be cast on Jeanne's cause by that illustrious University,
that Sun of the Church, which was consulted on religious matters by
all Christian states? Can they have suspected that this woman, who in
France had been considered a saint, might after all have been inspired
by the devil? But if what they had once believed they still held to be
true, if they believed that the Maid had come from God to lead their
King to his glorious coronation, then what are we to think of those
clerks, those ecclesiastics who denied the Daughter of God, on the eve
of her passion?
CHAPTER XIII
THE ABJURATION--THE FIRST SENTENCE
On Saturday, the 19th of May, the doctors and masters, to the number
of fifty, assembled in the archiepiscopal chapel of Rouen. There they
unanimously declared their agreement with the decision of the
University of Paris; and my Lord of Beauvais ordained that a new
charitable admonition be addressed to Jeanne.[2440] Accordingly, on
Wednesday the 23rd, the Bishop, the Vice-Inquisitor, and the Promoter
went to a room in the castle, near Jeanne's cell. They were
accompanied by seven doctors and masters, by the Lord Bishop of Noyon
and by the Lord Bishop of Therouanne.[2441] The latter, brother to
Messire Jean de Luxembourg who had sold the Maid, was held one of the
most notable personages of the Great Council of England; he was
Chancellor of France for King Henry, as Messire Regnault de Chartres
was for King Charles.[2442]
[Footnote 2440: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 404, 429.]
[Footnote 2441: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 429, 430.]
[Footnote 2442: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 126-127.]
The accused was brought in, and Maitre Pierre Maurice, doctor in
theology, read to her the twelve articles as they had been abridged
and commented upon, in conformity with the deliberations of the
University; the whole was drawn up as a discourse addressed to Jeanne
directly:[2443]
[Footnote 2443: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 430.]
ARTICLE I
First, Jeanne, thou saidst that at about the age of
thirteen, thou didst receive revelations and behold
apparitions of angels and of the Saints, Catherine and
Margaret, that thou didst behold them frequently with thy
bodily eyes, that they spoke unto thee and do still
oftentimes speak unto thee, and that they have said unto
thee many things that thou hast fully declared in thy trial.
The clerks of the University of Paris and others have
considered the manner of these revelations and apparitions,
their object, the substance of the things revealed, the
person to whom they were revealed; all points touching them
have they considered. And now they pronounce these
revelations and apparitions to be either lying fictions,
deceptive and dangerous, or superstitions, proceeding from
spirits evil and devilish.
ARTICLE II
Item, thou hast said that thy King received a sign, by which
he knew that thou wast sent of God: to wit that Saint
Michael, accompanied by a multitude of angels, certain of
whom had wings, others crowns, and with whom were Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret, came to thee in the town of
Chateau-Chinon; and that they all entered with thee and went
up the staircase of the castle, into the chamber of thy
King, before whom the angel who wore the crown made
obeisance. And once didst thou say that this crown which
thou callest a sign, was delivered to the Archbishop of
Reims who gave it to thy King, in the presence of a
multitude of princes and lords whom thou didst call by name.
Now concerning this sign, the aforesaid clerks declare it to
lack verisimilitude, to be a presumptuous lie, deceptive,
pernicious, a thing counterfeited and attacking the dignity
of angels.
ARTICLE III
Item, thou hast said that thou knewest the angels and the
saints by the good counsel, the comfort and the instruction
they gave thee, because they told thee their names and
because the saints saluted thee. Thou didst believe also
that it was Saint Michael who appeared unto thee; and that
the deeds and sayings of this angel and these saints are
good thou didst believe as firmly as thou believest in
Christ.
Now the clerks declare such signs to be insufficient for the
recognition of the said saints and angels. The clerks
maintain that thou hast lightly believed and rashly
affirmed, and further that when thou sayst thou dost believe
as firmly etc., thou dost err from the faith.
ARTICLE IV
Item, thou hast said thou art assured of certain things
which are to come, that thou hast known hidden things, that
thou hast also recognized men whom thou hadst never seen
before, and this by the Voices of Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret.
Thereupon the clerks declare that in these sayings are
superstition, divination, presumptuous assertion and vain
boasting.
ARTICLE V
Item, thou hast said that by God's command and according to
his will, thou hast worn and dost still wear man's apparel.
Because thou hast God's commandment to wear this dress thou
hast donned a short tunic, jerkin, and hose with many
points. Thou dost even wear thy hair cut short above the
ears, without keeping about thee anything to denote the
feminine sex, save what nature hath given thee. And
oftentimes hast thou in this garb received the Sacrament of
the Eucharist. And albeit thou hast been many times
admonished to leave it, thou wouldest not, saying that thou
wouldst liefer die than quit this apparel, unless it were by
God's command; and that if thou wert still in this dress and
with those of thine own party it would be for the great weal
of France. Thou sayest also that for nothing wouldst thou
take an oath not to wear this dress and bear these arms; and
for all this that thou doest thou dost plead divine command.
In such matters the clerks declare that thou blasphemest
against God, despising him and his Sacraments, that thou
dost transgress divine law, Holy Scripture and the canons of
the Church, that thou thinkest evil and dost err from the
faith, that thou art full of vain boasting, that thou art
addicted to idolatry and worship of thyself and thy clothes,
according to the customs of the heathen.
ARTICLE VI
Item, thou hast often said, that in thy letters thou hast
put these names, _Jhesus Maria_, and the sign of the cross,
to warn those to whom thou didst write not to do what was
indicated in the letter. In other letters thou hast boasted
that thou wouldst slay all those who did not obey thee, and
that by thy blows thou wouldst prove who had God on his
side. Also hast thou oftentimes said that all thy deeds were
by revelation and according to divine command.
Touching such affirmations the clerks declare thee to be a
traitor, perfidious, cruel, desiring human bloodshed,
seditious, an instigator of tyranny, a blasphemer of God's
commandments and revelations.
ARTICLE VII
Item, thou sayest that according to revelations vouchsafed
unto thee at the age of seventeen, thou didst leave thy
parents' house against their will, driving them almost mad.
Thou didst go to Robert de Baudricourt, who, at thy
request, gave thee man's apparel and a sword, also
men-at-arms to take thee to thy King. And being come to the
King, thou didst say unto him that his enemies should be
driven away, thou didst promise to bring him into a great
kingdom, to make him victorious over his foes, and that for
this God had sent thee. These things thou sayest thou didst
accomplish in obedience to God and according to revelation.
In such things the clerks declare thee to have been
irreverent to thy father and mother, thus disobeying God's
command; to have given occasion for scandal, to have
blasphemed, to have erred from the faith and to have made a
rash and presumptuous promise.
ARTICLE VIII
Item, thou hast said, that voluntarily thou didst leap from
the Tower of Beaurevoir, preferring rather to die than to be
delivered into the hands of the English and to live after
the destruction of Compiegne. And albeit Saint Catherine and
Saint Margaret forbade thee to leap, thou couldst not
restrain thyself. And despite the great sin thou hast
committed in offending these saints, thou didst know by thy
Voices, that after thy confession, thy sin was forgiven
thee.