_IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL._
The news of Joan's capture soon reached Paris, and within a few hours
of that event becoming known, the Vicar-General of the Order of the
Inquisition sent a letter to the Duke of Burgundy, accompanied by
another from the University of Paris, praying that Joan of Arc might
be delivered up to the keeping of Mother Church as a sorceress and
idolatress. That terrible engine, the Inquisition, had, like some
mighty reptile scenting its prey near, slowly unfolded its coils.
Whether Bedford had or had not caused these letters to be sent the
Duke is not known, but the Regent had both in the Church and the
University of Paris the men he wanted--instruments by whom his
vengeance could be worked on Joan of Arc; and he had the astuteness to
see that in calling in the aid of the Church, and treating Joan of Arc
as a heretic and witch, the rules of war could be laid aside. What no
civilised body of men could do, namely, kill a prisoner of war, that
thing could be done in the name and by the authority of the Church and
its holy office; and in the Bishop of Beauvais, the inexorable
Cauchon, Bedford had the tool necessary to his hand whereby this
dastardly plot could be carried out.
The first move that Bedford now was obliged to take was to secure the
victim; and in order to do so the Bishop of Beauvais was applied to.
The name of Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, will go down to the
latest posterity with the execration of humanity, for the part he
played in the tragedy of the worst of judicial murders of which any
record exists. Let us give even the devil his due. According to
Michelet the Bishop was 'not a man without merit,' although the
historian does not say in what Cauchon's merit consisted. Born at
Rheims, he had been considered a learned priest when at the University
of Paris; but he had the reputation of being a harsh and vindictive
opponent to all who disagreed with his views, within or without the
Church. He was forced to leave Paris, in 1413, for some misconduct. It
was then that Cauchon became a strong partisan of the Duke of
Burgundy. It was through the Duke that he obtained the See of
Beauvais. The English also favoured Cauchon, and obtained for him a
high post in the University of Paris. When the tide of French success
reached Beauvais, in 1429, Cauchon was obliged to escape, and found
shelter in England. There Winchester received him with cordiality.
While in England, Cauchon became a thorough partisan of the English,
and the humble servant of the proud Prince-Cardinal. Winchester
promised Cauchon preferment, and, when the See of Rouen fell vacant,
recommended the Pope to place Cauchon on its throne. The Pope,
however, refused his consent, and the Rouen Chapters would hear naught
of the Anglicised Bishop. At that time the Church at Rouen was at war
with the University of Paris, and did not wish one of the members of
that University placed over it.
Joan of Arc's place of capture happened to be in the diocese of
Beauvais, and although Cauchon was now only nominally Bishop of
Beauvais, he still retained that title. Cauchon now placed himself,
body and soul, at the disposal of the English, hoping thereby sooner
to obtain the long-coveted Archbishopric of Rouen in exchange for
helping his friends to the utmost in his power by furthering their
schemes and in ridding them of their prisoner once and for ever. The
bait held out by Winchester and Bedford was the Archbishopric of
Rouen, and eagerly did Cauchon seize his prey. What added to his zeal
was his wish to gratify base feelings of revenge on those who had
thrust him out of his Bishopric of Beauvais, and on her without whose
deeds he might have still been living in security in his palatial home
there.
After a consultation with the leaders of the University of Paris,
Cauchon arrived at the Burgundian camp before Compiègne on the 14th
of July, and claimed Joan of Arc as prisoner from the keeping of the
Duke of Burgundy. Cauchon justified his demand by letters which he had
obtained from the doctors of the University, and he made the offer in
the name of the child-king of England. The sum handed over for the
purchase of the prisoner was 10,000 livres tournois, equivalent to
61,125 francs of French money of to-day--about £2400 sterling. This
was the ordinary price in that day for the ransom of any prisoner of
high rank. Luxembourg, to his shame and that of his order, consented
to the sale on those terms, and Cauchon soon returned with the news of
his bargain to his English employers.
The whole transaction sounds more like what one might expect to have
occurred amongst an uncivilised nation rather than among a people who
prided themselves on their chivalry and their usages of fair-play in
matters relating to warfare. That a high dignitary of the Church, and
a countryman of Joan of Arc, should have bought her from a prince, the
descendant of emperors and kings, also a countryman of the heroic
Maid's, for English gold, is bad enough; and that the so-called 'good'
Duke of Burgundy should have been a silent spectator of the infamous
transaction, brands all the actors as among the most sordid and
meanest of individuals. But what is infinitely worse is the fact that
no steps appear to have been taken by Charles to rescue the Maid, or
to attempt an exchange of her for any other prisoner or prisoners.
Thus Joan of Arc, bound literally hand and foot, was led like a lamb
to the shambles, not a hand being raised by those for whom she had
done such great and noble deeds.
The University of Paris, whose decisions carried so great a weight in
the issue of the trial of the Maid of Orleans, consisted at this
period of an ecclesiastical body of doctors; but as far as its
attributes consisted it was a body secular, and holding an independent
position owing to its many privileges. The University was a political
as well as an ecclesiastical body, supreme under the Pope above the
whole of the Gallican Church. Although divided into two parties
through the war then raging between England and France, its judicature
was greatly influenced by the Church. It was a matter of certainty
that the Doctors of Theology who sat in the University of Paris, and
who were all, or nearly all, French by birth, would favour the
English, and give an adverse decision to that of those French
ecclesiastics who had examined into Joan's life and character when
assembled at Poitiers, and who then considered her to be acting under
the influence and with the protection of the Almighty.
As a prisoner, Joan of Arc's behaviour was as modest and courageous as
it had been in her days of success and liberty. In the first times of
her durance, d'Aulon, who, as we mentioned, had been captured at the
same time, appears to have been allowed to remain with her. On his
telling her that he feared Compiègne would now probably be taken by
the enemy, Joan of Arc said such a thing could not occur, 'For all the
places,' she added, 'which the King of Heaven has placed in the
keeping of King Charles by my means will never again be retaken by his
enemies, at any rate as long as he cares to keep them.'
Although willing to endure for the sake of her beloved country all the
cruelty her enemies could inflict upon her, Joan was most anxious to
return in order to continue her mission. While in the castle of
Beaulieu she made a desperate attempt to escape. She managed to
squeeze herself between two beams of wood placed across an opening in
her prison, and was on the point of leaving her dungeon tower when one
of the jailers caught sight of her, and she was retaken. Probably in
consequence of this attempt, Joan of Arc, after an imprisonment of
four months at Beaulieu, was transferred thence by Ligny to his castle
of Beaurevoir, near the town of Cambrai, a place far removed from the
neighbourhood of the war, and consequently more secure than Beaulieu.
At Beaurevoir lived the wife and the aunt of Ligny; they showed some
attention and compassion to the prisoner. They offered her some of
their dresses, and tried to persuade her to quit her male attire.
Joan, however, refused: she gave as her reason for not complying with
their request that the time had not yet arrived for her to cease
wearing the clothes she had worn during the time of her mission. That
she had good reason not to don woman's attire even when at Beaurevoir,
and keep to her male attire as a protection, is probable, as she was
not safe from wanton insult at the hands of the rough soldiery placed
about her person. This clinging to her male dress, we shall see, under
similar circumstances at Rouen, was the principal indictment made
against her by her executioners.
At Beaurevoir Joan of Arc was placed in a chamber at the top of a high
tower, whence Ligny thought that no attempt at escape would be made,
but Joan of Arc tried once again to recover her liberty. In the course
of her trial she told her judges how her voices counselled her not
again to make this venture, and of her perplexity whether she should
obey them, or, at the risk of her life, escape from the clutches of
the English, for at this time she knew that she had been sold to her
bitterest foes.
What appears to have determined her decision was hearing that
Compiègne was in imminent peril of falling into the hands of the
English, and that the inhabitants would be massacred. In her
desperation, feeling, like young Arthur, that
'The wall is high; and yet will I leap down:--
Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not!...
As good to die, and go, as die, and stay'
she knotted some thongs together and let herself out of a window; but
the thongs broke, and she fell from a great height--the tower is
supposed to have been no less than sixty feet high. She was found
unconscious at its foot, and for several days she was not expected to
recover from the injuries she had received. But she was doomed for a
far more terrible death.
For several days Joan of Arc took no nourishment. Gradually she
revived, and she told her jailers that her beloved Saint Catherine had
visited and comforted her; and she also told them that she knew
Compiègne would not be taken, and would be free from its enemies
before the Feast of Saint Martin.
Beaurevoir is now a ruin: although above the lintel can still be seen
the coat-of-arms of the jailer of the Maid, the tower in which she was
imprisoned, and from which she so nearly met her death, has been
destroyed.
In the month of November of that year (1430), in spite of the
entreaties of his wife and aunt, Ligny delivered up his prisoner into
the custody of the Duke of Burgundy, from whose keeping she was soon
transferred into that of the English.
On the 20th of November the University of Paris sent a message to
Cauchon, advising him to bring Joan of Arc before a tribunal. Cauchon,
however, waited the arrival of Winchester, bringing with him his
great-nephew, Henry VI. Winchester arrived with the boy-king on the
2nd of December. The Cardinal intended the function of the crowning of
his great-nephew to be as imposing a ceremony as possible; and he
also meant, by defaming the source of the French King's successes, to
show the French people that Charles' coronation at Rheims had been
brought about by what the Regent Bedford called a 'limb of the evil
one.' It was, therefore, Bedford's plan that it should be declared
before the world that Joan of Arc was inspired by Satanic agencies,
and that consequently the French King's coronation was also due to
these agencies. By similar means it would be made clear that all the
French victories were owing to the same influence; for were it not,
argued the English, they would be proved to have been themselves
fighting against and defeated by--not the spirit of evil but--the
spirit of righteousness.
Nothing, indeed, could be clearer than Winchester's argument. It was
now only necessary that Joan of Arc should be at once placed on her
trial as a sorceress and a witch--one who was in league with the evil
one; and, when that had been satisfactorily proved, that she should
publicly meet with the fate which a merciful Church had, in its
infinite wisdom, ordained for such as she. Thus would the English army
and people be avenged, and the French King's crown and prerogative
suffer an irreparable damage.
From Beaurevoir, Joan of Arc was first taken to the town of Arras,
thence to Crotoy, where, about the 21st of November, she was handed
over to the English.
A chronicler of that day writes that the English rejoiced as greatly
on that occasion as if they had received all the wealth of Lombardy.
The Duke of Burgundy had never merited the title of 'Good,' which,
somehow or other, has been linked with his name. Had he been the most
virtuous of princes of any time, he yet deserves to have his memory
branded for the part he then took in the sale of Joan of Arc--a
transaction whereof the poor excuse of not losing the benefits of his
alliance with the English avails nothing. For this, if nothing else,
we reverse the good fame which lying history has accorded him.
In the underground portion of a tower at Crotoy, still to be seen,
although the upper part has disappeared, facing the sea, is a
door-way, which local tradition points out as that of the dungeon of
Joan of Arc. Crotoy, or Le Crotoy, is on the coast of Picardy, a
little to the north of Abbeville. In the fifteenth century it was a
place of some warlike importance, especially to the English. Its
situation near the coast, and the strength of its fortress, made Le
Crotoy one of the principal places on the sea line, whence stores and
war provender could be carried into France. Le Crotoy had fallen into
possession of the English through the marriage of Henry III. with
Eleanor of Castille, Countess of Ponthieu, of which Crotoy formed a
part. During the hundred years' war, the port could receive vessels of
considerable tonnage; and from this point the booty taken by the
English could be shipped and sent across the Channel. Now but a few
vestiges can be traced of its once strong and ably fortified castle. A
few years ago, a statue, representing the Maid of Orleans in the garb
of a prisoner, was placed near the ruins of the castle in which she
passed most of the month of December, 1430.
At Crotoy, Joan of Arc was permitted to assist at the celebration of
the Mass in the chapel of the castle; and while here she received a
visit from some of her admirers from Abbeville--a few noble hearts who
still remained loyal to the once all-powerful deliveress of their
country, now a poor and abandoned prisoner on her road to a long
imprisonment and a cruel death! Touched by this mark of sympathy from
these Abbeville folk, Joan gave them, on parting from them, her
blessing, and asked them to remember her in their prayers. The
enlightened clergy and doctors, lay and spiritual, who formed the body
known as the University of Paris, preferred that Joan of Arc should be
sent to the capital, there to undergo her trial, and wrote to this
effect to Bedford, through the name of the boy-king. They also
despatched a letter to Cauchon (probably inspired by Bedford), in
which they rated him for not bringing the Maid at once to her trial.
They told him he was showing a lamentable laxness in not immediately
punishing the scandals which had been committed under his jurisdiction
against the Christian religion.
Paris was not considered enough of a safe place to take Joan of Arc
into; the French lay too near its walls, and the loyalty of its
citizens to the English was a doubtful quantity. Besides, it was not
convenient that the University of Paris should be allowed the entire
direction of the trial. It was well that the University should be made
use of; but Cauchon relied on the Inquisition to carry out his and
Bedford's plan. Cauchon must be the principal agent and judge, and he
felt, with Bedford, that they had a freer hand if the trial were to be
at Rouen; therefore Rouen was decided on as the place of trial and
punishment. Rouen, also, being in the midst of the English
possessions, was perfectly safe from attack, should it occur to any of
Joan of Arc's countrymen to attempt a rescue.
At the close of December Joan of Arc was taken across the river Somme,
in a boat, to Saint Valery, and thence, strongly guarded, and placed
on horseback, she was led along the Normandy coast by Eure and Dieppe
to the place of her martyrdom. On arriving at Rouen it was seriously
debated by some of her captors whether or not she should be at once
put to death. They suggested her being sewn into a sack and thrown
into the river! The reason these people gave for summarily disposing
of Joan of Arc without form or trial was that, as long as she lived,
there was no security for the English in France. As has already been
noticed, those who commanded and sided with the English were desirous
that Joan of Arc should be first branded as a witch and a sorceress,
both by the doctors of the Church and by the State, before being put
to death.
Arrived at Rouen, Joan of Arc was immured in the old fortress built by
Philip Augustus. One tower alone remains of the seven massive round
towers which surrounded the circular castle. Her jailers had the
barbarity to place their prisoner in an iron cage, in which she was
fastened with iron rings and chains, one at the neck, another at the
hands, and a third confining the feet. Joan was thus caged as if she
were a wild animal until her trial commenced. After that, she was
chained to a miserable truckle bed.
A chronicler of that time, named Macy, tells the following story of an
incident which, for the sake of English manhood, one trusts is untrue.
Among others who went to see Joan of Arc in her prison came one day
the Earl of Warwick, with Lord Stafford and Ligny--Joan's former
jailer. The latter told her in a jeering way that he had come to buy
her back from the English, provided she promised never again to make
war against them.
'You are mocking me,' said Joan of Arc. 'For I know that you have not
the power to do that, neither the will.' And she added, 'I know well
that these English will kill me, thinking that by doing so they will
reconquer the kingdom of France; but even if there were one hundred
thousand Godons more in France than there are now, they will never
again conquer the kingdom!'
On hearing these words Stafford drew his dagger, and would have struck
her had not Warwick prevented the cowardly act.
Cauchon formed his tribunal of the following:--
1. John Graverent, a Dominican priest, D.D., Grand Inquisitor of
France. It was he who appointed John Lemaître as judge in the trial of
the Maid. The following July this Graverent preached a sermon in
Paris, in which he glorified the death of Joan of Arc.
2. John Lemaître, who represented the Inquisition on the trial. He was
a Dominican prior. He appears to have been a feeble-minded creature,
and a mere tool of Cauchon and Graverent.
3. Martin Bellarme, D.D., another Dominican, and also a member of the
Inquisition.
4. John d'Estivet, surnamed 'Bénédicité,' canon of Beauvais and
Bayeux, was another of Cauchon's creatures. He acted the part of
_Procureur-Général_ during the trial. D'Estivet was a gross and cruel
ecclesiastic, and it is somewhat satisfactory to know his end. He was
found dead in a muddy ditch soon after Joan of Arc's death. As M.
Fabre justly says, 'He perished in his native element.'
5. John de la Fontaine, M.A. He was _Conseille d'Instruction_ during
the trial. In the course of it he was threatened by Cauchon for having
given some friendly advice to the prisoner, and escaped from Rouen
before the conclusion of the trial.
6, 7, 8. William Manchon, William Colles, and Nicolas Taquel, all
three recorders. They belonged to the Church. It is to Manchon that we
are indebted for a summary of the most interesting account of the
trial. We shall find that at the time of Joan's execution this man was
horrified at the part he had taken in it. He confesses his horror at
having received money for his infamy, but instead of casting his
blood-money at the feet of Cauchon, and hanging himself like another
Judas, he somewhat naïvely informs us that he laid it out in the
purchase of a breviary in order to pray for the soul of the martyr.
9. Massieu, another priest, who acted as the sheriffs officer. He
appears to have had feelings of humanity, and attended Joan to the
end.
10. Louis de Luxembourg, Bishop of Thérouenne and the Chancellor of
France to King Henry VI. This bishop was the go-between of Cauchon and
Winchester throughout the trial; but he only appears to have taken
part in these occasions during the examinations. It was he who was
made Archbishop of Rouen, which post Cauchon had hoped to gain; and it
was for this archbishopric that Cauchon had taken the presiding post
during the trial.
11. John de Mailly, Bishop of Noyon; he was another staunch auxiliary
of Cauchon. In the year 1456, at the trial for the rehabilitation of
Joan of Arc's memory, Mailly signed his name among those who condemned
the deed he had helped to carry out.
12. Zanon de Castiglione, Bishop of Lisieux. One of the reasons that
this man gave for condemning Joan of Arc to the stake was that she was
born in too low a rank of life to have been inspired by God. This
decision makes one wonder so aristocratic a prelate could demean
himself by belonging to a religion which owed its origin to One who
had followed the trade of a carpenter.
13. Philibert de Montjeu, Bishop of Coutances.
14. John de Saint Avét, Bishop of Avranches. The latter was the only
one of the above Bishops, Dominicans, and members of the French Church
who gave his vote against the condemnation of Joan of Arc, although
the trial minutes have not recorded the fact.
Besides the above French prelates, were:--
15. John Beaupère, M.A. and D.D., formerly a rector of the University
of Paris, also a canon of Besançon. It was he who, with the following
five representatives of the University of Paris, took the most
prominent part in the cross-questioning of the prisoner.
16. Thomas de Courcelles, a canon of Amiens, of Thérouenne, and of
Laon. This person was employed to read the articles of accusation to
the prisoner, and was in favour of employing torture to make Joan
confess what was required of her by her prosecutors. He was considered
one of the shining lights of the University of Paris. He died in 1469,
and until the Revolution an engraved slab, on which his virtues and
learning were recorded, covered his remains.
17. Gerard Feuillet. He was sent to Paris during the trial in order to
lay the twelve articles of accusation before the University, and did
not take part in the latter portion of the trial.
18. Nicolas Midi, D.D., a celebrated preacher. He is supposed to have
been the author of the twelve articles; and he it was who preached a
sermon at the time of the execution of Joan of Arc. Attacked soon
after by leprosy, he sufficiently recovered to see Charles VII. enter
Paris; and he had the audacity to send the King an address of
felicitation in the name of the faculties of the University by whose
instrumentality Joan of Arc had been executed.
19. Peter Morice, a doctor of the University and a canon of Rouen. He
was one of the most eager to bring Joan to the stake.
20. James de Touraine, also a doctor of the University, was violently
hostile to Joan of Arc.
The above six doctors, with Cauchon, were those who had most to do
with the proceedings of the trial, and those whose duty it was
principally to question the prisoner.
21. Nicolas Loiseleur, M.A., a canon of Rouen; he was the most abject
of all the gang of priests and doctors who formed part of this
infamous tribunal. It was Loiseleur who, in the disguise of a layman,
attempted to worm secrets from Joan, pretending to be her friend and
sympathiser. When he found he gained nothing by the subterfuge, he
resumed his clerical garb, and succeeded in getting, under the
promise of secrecy from his order, a confession from the prisoner. He
also introduced spies into the prison who took notes of Joan's words.
When the idea was mooted of putting Joan of Arc to the torture,
Loiseleur was one of the most urgent for it to be applied. However, on
the day of the execution this man, who, strange as it may seem,
appears to have had some kind of conscience, or at least to have been
able to feel remorse for the base part he had played in the trial of
the Maid, implored Joan of Arc's forgiveness. He, however, after the
execution, helped Cauchon to spread calumnies regarding their victim.
This infamous scoundrel died suddenly at Basle.
22. Raoul Roussel de Vernon, D.C.L., and the canon treasurer of the
Cathedral of Rouen. He acted throughout the trial as reporter. In 1443
Roussel became Archbishop of Rouen.
23. Robert Barbier, also a D.C.L., and canon of Rouen Cathedral.
24. Nicolas Coppequesne, also a canon of Rouen Cathedral.
25. Nicolas de Venderès, a canon of Rouen, and Cauchon's chaplain.
26. John Alessée, also a canon of Rouen. This Alessée was greatly
moved at the heroine's death, and exclaimed, 'I pray to God my soul
may one day be where hers is now.'
27. Raoul Auguy, another canon.
28. William de Baubribosc, also a canon of Rouen.
29. John Brullot, another canon and precentor of Rouen.
30. John Basset, another canon and a M.A.
31. John Brullot, another canon. Besides these were seventeen others,
named Caval, Columbel, Cormeilles, Crotoy, Duchemin, Dubesert, Garin,
Gastinel, Ledoux, Leroy, Maguerie, Manzier, Morel, Morellet, Pinchon,
Saulx, and Pasquier de Vaux, who became Bishop of Meaux, Evreux, and
Lisieux. In all, nine-and-twenty canons of Rouen.
After these came a list of mitred abbots, priors, and heads of
religious houses: Peter de Crique, Prior of Sigy; William Lebourg,
Prior of the College of Saint Lô of Rouen; Peter Migiet, Prior of
Longueville.
After these priors came eleven abbots: Durement, Abbot of Fécamp,
later Bishop of Coutances; Benel, Abbot of Courcelles; De Conti, Abbot
of Sainte Catherine; Dacier, Abbot of Saint Corneille of Compiègne;
Frique, Abbot of Bee; Jolivet, Abbot of Saint Michael's Mount in
Normandy; Labbé, Abbot of Saint George de Bocherville; Leroux, Abbot
of Jumièges; Du Masle, Abbot of Saint Ouen; Moret, Abbot of Préaux;
and Theroude, Abbot of Mortemer.
Besides these there were many doctors and assessors from the
University of Paris; among the latter lot appears the name of an
English priest, William Haiton, a secretary of Henry VI. He and
William Alnwick, Bishop of Norwich, Privy Seal to the English King,
are the only two names belonging to the English clergy who took part
in the trial. The Cardinal of Winchester never once appeared during
the proceedings, although he was, together with Cauchon, the prime
mover in the business. To complete the list of the other French
clergy--French only by birth and nationality indeed--must be added the
names of Chatillon, Archdeacon of Evreux; Erard, Canon of Langres,
Laon, and Beauvais; Martin Ladvenu, a Dominican priest, one of the few
who showed some humanity to the prisoner. It was Ladvenu who heard her
confession on the day of her execution, and who after her death
testified to her saintliness. Isambard de la Pierre, also a Dominican.
Although he voted for her death, de la Pierre showed signs of pity and
compassion for his victim, and assisted her at her last moments.
Testimony to her pure character was given by him in the time of her
rehabilitation. Besides these were Emenyart, Fiexvet, Guerdon, Le
Fèvre, Delachambre, and Tiphanie, all of whom, with the exception of
the last two, who were doctors of medicine, were members of the
University. As we have already stated, out of this vast crowd of
ecclesiastics and a few laymen, only two Englishmen took part in the
trial. But the immediate guard of the prisoner was composed of English
soldiers--namely, of the following: John Gris, an English knight, one
of Henry's bodyguard, who was in personal attendance on Joan of Arc;
also John Berwoit (?) and William Talbot, subordinator to Gris. These
men commanded a set of soldiers called _houspilleurs_, placed in the
cell of the prisoner day and night. According to J. Bellow's pocket
dictionary, the term _houspilleur_ is derived from the old French term
_houspiller_--Ang. 'to worry.' And these fellows certainly carried out
that meaning of the word.
If anything is needed to prove what an important case the English and
those allied to them in France considered that of Joan of Arc, the
great number of prelates and doctors assembled to judge her is
sufficient to show. The doctors who had been summoned to attend the
trial, and who had come to Rouen from Paris, were well paid by
Winchester. Some of the receipts are still in existence. The
Inquisition and Cauchon also received pay from the English Government.
Besides money, as we have said, Cauchon expected also to receive the
Archbishopric of Rouen for his zeal in bringing Joan of Arc to the
stake. Cupidity, lust of place and power, and fear of the enemies of
the French were the principal motives which influenced these men,
whose names should for ever be execrated. In truth, a vulgar greed
induced them to destroy one of the noblest creatures that had ever
honoured humanity.
The _procès-verbal_ and the minutes of the trial were written in
Latin, and translated by Thomas de Courcelles; only a portion of the
original translation has been preserved. There were three reporters
who took notes during the trial--Manchon, Colles, and Taquel. The
notes in Latin, written as the trial proceeded, were collected in the
evenings, and translated into French by Manchon.
One difficult question arises--namely, are these notes to be relied
on? Manchon appears to have been honest in his writing, but Cauchon
was not to be trifled with in what he wished noted, as the following
instance will show. A sheriff's officer, named Massieu, was overheard
to say that Joan of Arc had done nothing worthy of the death sentence.
It was repeated to Cauchon, who threatened to have Massieu drowned.
When Isambert de la Pierre advised Joan to submit herself to the
Council then holding meetings at Bâle, to which she assented, Cauchon
shouted out, 'In the devil's name hold your peace!' On being asked by
Manchon whether the prisoner's wish to submit her case to the Council
at Bâle should be placed on the minutes of the trial, Cauchon roughly
refused. Joan of Arc overhearing this, said, 'You write down what is
against my interest, but not what is in my favour.' But we think the
truth comes out, on the whole, pretty clearly; and we have in the
answers of Joan to her judges, however much these answers may have
been altered to suit Cauchon's views and ultimate object, a splendid
proof of her presence of mind and courage. This she maintained day
after day in the face of that crowd of enemies who left no stone
unturned, no subtlety of law or superstition disused, to bring a
charge of guilt against her.
No victory of arms that Joan of Arc might have accomplished, had her
career continued one bright and unclouded success, could have shown in
a grander way the greatness of her character than her answers and her
bearing during the entire course of her examinations before her
implacable enemies, her judicial murderers.
After holding some preliminary and private meetings, in which Cauchon,
with some of the prelates, drew up a series of articles of indictment
against the prisoner, the first public sitting of the tribunal took
place in the chapel of the castle, in the same building in which Joan
was imprisoned.
This was on the 21st of February, 1431. As we have said, from the day
of her arrival in Rouen, at the end of December of the previous year,
till this 21st day of February, Joan had been kept in an iron cage--a
martyrdom of fifty days' daily and nightly torture. During the trial
her confinement was less barbarous, but she was kept chained to a
wooden bed, and the only wonder is that she did not succumb to this
barbarous imprisonment. We shall see that she fell seriously ill, and
the English at one time feared she would die a natural death, and
defeat their object of having her exposed and destroyed as a witch and
a heretic.
On the day before the meeting of the tribunal, Cauchon sent summonses
for all the judges to attend. Joan of Arc had meanwhile made two
demands, both of which were refused. One was, that an equal number of
clergy belonging to the French party should form an equal number in
the tribunal to those of the English faction. The other demand was
that she should be allowed to hear Mass before appearing before the
tribunal.
At eight in the morning of Wednesday, the 21st of February, Cauchon
took his seat as presiding judge for the trial about to commence.
Beneath him were ranged forty-three assessors--there were ninety-five
assessors in all who took part in the trial. On the public days their
numbers varied from between forty to sixty.
The prisoner was led into the chapel by the priest Massieu. Cauchon
opened the proceedings with the following harangue:--
'This woman,' he said, pointing to Joan of Arc, 'this woman has been
seized and apprehended some time back, in the territory of our diocese
of Beauvais. Numerous acts injurious to the orthodox faith have been
committed by her, not merely in our diocese, but in many other
regions. The public voice which accuses her of such crimes has become
known throughout Christendom, and quite recently the high and very
Christian Prince, our lord the King, has delivered her up and given
her in our custody in order that a trial in the cause of religion
shall be made, as it seemeth right and proper. For as much in the eyes
of public opinion, and owing to certain matters which have come to our
knowledge'--(Cauchon here refers to the information that he sought to
obtain from Domremy: as nothing could be learnt there but what
redounded to Joan of Arc's credit, no further use was made of the
information by the Bishop)--'we have, with the assistance of learned
doctors in religious and civil law, called you together in order to
examine the said Joan, in order that she be examined on matters
relating to faith. Therefore,' he continued, 'we desire in this trial
that you fill the duty of your office for the preservation and
exaltation of the Catholic faith; and, with the Divine assistance of
our Lord, we call upon you to expedite these proceedings for the
welfare of your consciences, that you speak the plain and honest
truth, without subterfuge or concealment, on all questions that will
be made you touching the faith. And in the first place we call upon
you to take the oath in the form prescribed. Swear, the hands placed
on the Gospels, that you will answer the truth in the questions that
will be asked you.'
The latter words the Bishop had addressed to Joan; who answered that
she knew not on what Cauchon would question her. 'Perhaps,' she said,
'you will ask me things about which I cannot answer you.'
'Will you swear,' said Cauchon, 'to tell the truth respecting the
things which will be asked you concerning the faith, and of which you
are cognisant?'
'Of all things regarding my family, and what things I have done since
coming into France, I will gladly answer; but, as regards the
revelation which I have received from God, I have never revealed to
any one, except to Charles my King, and I will never reveal these
things, even if my head were to be cut off, because my voices have
ordered me not to confide these things to any one save the King. But,'
she continued, 'in eight days' time I shall know whether or not I may
be allowed to tell you about them.'
Cauchon then repeated his question to the prisoner, namely, whether
she would answer any questions put to her regarding matters of faith,
and the Gospels were placed before her. The prisoner, kneeling, laid
her hands upon them, and swore to speak the truth in what was asked
her as regarded matters of faith.
'What is your name?' asked Cauchon.
J.--'In my home I was called Jeannette. Since I came to France I was
called Joan. I have no surname.'
C.--'Where were you born?'
J.--'At Domremy, near Greux. The principal church is at Greux.'
C.--'What are your parents' names?'
J.--'My father's name is James d'Arc; my mother's, Isabella.'
C.--'Where were you baptized?'
J.--'At Domremy.'
Cauchon then asked her the names of her god-parents, who baptized her,
her age (she was about nineteen), and what her education amounted to.
'I have learnt,' Joan said, in answer to the last question, 'from my
mother the Paternoster, the Ave Maria, and the Belief. All that I know
has been taught me by my mother.'
Cauchon then called upon her to repeat the Lord's Prayer.
In trials for heresy the prisoners had to repeat this prayer before
the judges. At the commencement of Joan of Arc's trial the crime of
magic was brought against her, but as Cauchon completely failed to
find any evidence for such a charge against his prisoner, he altered
the charge of magic into one of heresy. It was probably supposed that
a heretic would be unable to repeat the prayer and the creed, being
under diabolic influence.
Joan of Arc then asked whether she might make her confession before
the tribunal. Cauchon refused this request, but told her that he would
send some one to whom she might confess. He then warned her that if
she were to leave her prison she would be condemned as a heretic.
Considering the way she was chained to her cell, it sounds strange
that Cauchon should fear her flight.
'I have never,' the Maid said, 'given my promise not to attempt to
escape if I can.'
'Have you anything to complain about?' asked the Bishop; and Joan then
said how cruelly she was fastened by chains round her body and her
feet. Probably, had she then promised not to escape from prison, this
severity would have been relaxed, but Joan of Arc had not the spirit
to stoop to her persecutors; she would not give her word not to get
free if she could. 'The hope of escape is allowed to every prisoner,'
she bravely said.
At the close of the sitting, John Gris, the English knight who had the
chief charge over the prisoner, with the two soldiers Berwoit and
Talbot, were called, and took an oath not to allow the prisoner to see
any one without Cauchon's permission, and to strictly guard the
prisoner. And with that the first day's trial ended.
Manchon, in his minutes on the day's proceedings, says that shouts and
interruptions interfered with the reporters and their notes, and that
Joan of Arc was repeatedly interrupted. Cauchon had placed some of his
clerks behind the tapestry in the depth of a window of the chapel,
whose duty it was to make a garbled copy of Joan of Arc's answers to
suit the Bishop.
Possibly finding the chapel of the castle too small for the number of
people present at the trial, the next meeting of the judges was held
in a different place, more suitable--namely, in the great hall of the
castle. That second day's trial took place on the 22nd of February.
The tribunal consisted of Cauchon and forty-seven assessors.
Cauchon commenced the proceedings by introducing John Lemaître, vicar
of the Inquisition, to the judges, after which Joan was brought into
the hall--a splendid chamber used on happier occasions for festivities
and Court pageants.
Cauchon again commanded the prisoner to take the oath, as on the first
day's trial. She said that she had already once sworn to speak nothing
but the truth, and that that should suffice. Cauchon still insisted,
and again Joan replied that as far as any question was put to her
regarding faith and religion she had promised to answer, but that she
could not promise more, and Cauchon failed to get anything more from
her.
The Bishop then applied to one of the doctors of theology to examine
and cross-question the prisoner. This man's name was Beaupère.
B.--'In the first place, Joan, I will exhort you to tell the truth, as
you have sworn to do, on all that I may have to ask you.'
J.--'You may ask me questions on which I shall be able to answer you,
and on others about which I cannot. If you were well informed about me
you should wish me out of your power. All that I have done has been
the work of revelation.'
B.--'How old were you when you left your home?'
J.--'I do not exactly know.'
B.--'Did you learn any trade at home?'
J.--'Yes, to sew and to spin, and for that I am not afraid to be
matched by any woman in Rouen?'
B.--'Did you not once leave your father's house before you left it
altogether?'
J.--'We left for fear of the Burgundians, and I once left my father's
house and went to Neufchâteau in Lorraine, to visit a woman named La
Rousse, where I remained for fifteen days.'
B.--'What was your occupation when at home?'
J.--'When I was with my father I looked after the household affairs,
and I went but seldom with the sheep and cattle to the fields.'
B.--'Did you make your confession every year?'
J.--'Yes, to my curate, and when he was prevented hearing it, to
another priest, with my curate's permission. I think on two or three
occasions I have confessed to mendicant friars. That happened at
Neufchâteau. I took the Communion at Easter.'
B.--'Have you received the Eucharist at other festivals besides that
of Easter?'
Joan of Arc said that what she had already told regarding this
question was sufficient.
'_Passez outre_' is the term she used, not an easy one to translate.
Perhaps 'that will suffice' is like it.
Beaupère now began questioning Joan of Arc regarding 'her voices,' and
one can imagine how eagerly this portion of the prisoner's examination
must have been listened to by all present.
'When did you first hear the voices?' asked Beaupère.
'I was thirteen,' answered Joan, 'when I first heard a voice coming
from God to help me to live well. That first time I was much alarmed.
The voice came to me about mid-day; it was in the summer, and I was in
my father's garden.'
'Had you been fasting?' asked Beaupère.
J.--'Yes, I had been fasting.'
B.--'Had you fasted on the day before?'
J.--'No, I had not.'
B.--'From what direction did the voices come?'
J.--'I heard the voice coming from my right--from towards the church.'
B.--'Was the voice accompanied with a bright light?'
J.--'Seldom did I hear it without seeing a bright light. The light
came from the same side as did the voice, and it was generally very
brilliant. When I came into France I often heard the voices very
loud.'
B.--'How could you see the light when you say it was at the side?'
To this question Joan gave no direct answer, but she said that when
she was in a wood she would hear the voices coming towards her.
'What,' next asked Beaupère, 'what did you think this voice which
manifested itself to you sounded like?'
J.--'It seemed to me a very noble voice, and I think it was sent to me
by God. When I heard it for the third time I recognised it as being
the voice of an angel.'
B.--'Could you understand it?'
J.--'It was always quite clear, and I could easily understand it.'
B.--'What advice did it give you regarding the salvation of your
soul?'
J.--'It told me to conduct myself well, and to attend the services of
the Church regularly; and it told me that it was necessary that I
should go to France.'
B.--'In what manner of form did the voice appear?'
J.--'As to that I will give you no answer.'
B.--'Did that voice solicit you often?'
J.--'It said to me two or three times a week, "Leave your village and
go to France."'
B.--'Did your father know of your departure?'
J.--'He knew nothing about it. The voice said, "Go to France," so I
could not remain at home any longer.'
B.--'What else did it say to you?'
J.--'It told me that I should raise the siege of Orleans.'
B.--'Was that all?'
J.--'The same voice told me to go to Vaucouleurs, to Robert de
Baudricourt, captain of that place, and that he would give me soldiers
to accompany me on my journey; and I answered it, that I was a poor
girl who did not know how to ride, neither how to fight.'
B.--'What did you do then?'
J.--'I went to my uncle, and told him that I wished to remain with him
for some time, and I lived with him eight days. I then told him that I
must go to Vaucouleurs, and he took me there. When I arrived there I
recognised Robert de Baudricourt, although it was the first time that
I saw him.'
B.--'How, then, did you recognise him?'
J.--'I knew him through my voices. They said to me, "This is the man,"
and I said to him, "I must go to France." Twice he refused to listen
to me. The third time he received me. The voices had told me this
would happen.'
B.--'Had you not some business with the Duke of Lorraine?'
J.--'The Duke ordered that I should be brought to him. I went and said
to him, "I must go to France." The Duke asked me how he should recover
his health. I told him I knew nothing about that.'
B.--'Did you speak much to him about your journey?'
J.--'I told him very little about it. But I asked him to allow his
son, with some soldiers, to go to France with me, and that I should
pray God to cure him. I had gone to him with a safe conduct. After
leaving him I returned to Vaucouleurs.'
B.--'How were you dressed when you left Vaucouleurs?'
J.--'When I left Vaucouleurs I wore a man's dress. I had on a sword
which Robert de Baudricourt had given me, without any other arms. I
was accompanied by a knight, a squire, and four servants. We went to
the town of Saint Urban, and I passed that night in the abbey. On the
way, we passed through the town of Auxerre, where I attended mass in
the principal church. At that time I heard my voices often, with that
one of which I have already spoken.'
B.--'Tell me, now, by whose advice did you come to wear the dress of a
man?'
Joan of Arc refused to answer, in spite of being repeatedly told to do
so.
B.--'What did Baudricourt say to you when you left?'
J.--'He made them who went with me promise to take charge of me, and
as I left he said, "Go, and let come what may!"' (_Advienne que
pourra!_)
B.--'What do you know regarding the Duke of Orleans, now a prisoner in
England?'
J.--'I know that God protects the Duke of Orleans, and I have had more
revelations about the Duke than about any other person in the world,
with the exception of the King.'
She was now again asked as to who it was who had advised her to wear
male attire. She said it was necessary that she should dress in that
manner.
'Did your voice tell you so?' was asked her.
'I believe my voice gave me good advice,' she answered.
B.--'What did you do on arriving at Orleans?'
J.--'I sent a letter to the English before Orleans. In it I told them
to depart; a copy of this letter has been read to me here in Rouen.
There are two or three sentences in that copy which were not in my
letter. For instance, "Give back to the Maiden" should read, "Give
back to the King." Also these words, "Troop for troop" and
"Commander-in-chief," which were not in my letters.'
In this Joan of Arc was mistaken, M. Fabre points out in his _Life of
the Maid of Orleans_, the text being the same both in the original and
in the copy of the letter.
B.--'When at Chinon, could you see as often as you wished him you call
your King?'
J.--'I used to go whenever I wished to see my King. When I arrived at
the village of Sainte Catherine de Fierbois, I sent a messenger to
Chinon to the King. We arrived about mid-day at Chinon, and lodged at
an inn. After dinner I went to see the King at the castle.'
Either here Joan of Arc, or the reporter, which is more likely, makes
a slip, as she did not see Charles till two days after her arrival at
Chinon.
B.--'Who pointed out the King to you?'
J.--'When I entered the chamber I recognised the King from among all
the others, my voices having revealed him to me. I told the King that
I wished to go and make war on the English.'
B.--'When your voices revealed your King to you, were they accompanied
by any light?'
Joan made no answer.
B.--'Did you see any angel above the figure of the King?'
'Spare me such questions,' pleaded Joan; but the Inquisitor was not to
be so easily put off, and repeated the question again and again, until
Joan said that the King had also seen visions and heard revelations.
'What were these revelations?' asked the priest.
This Joan refused to answer, and told Beaupère that he might, if he
liked, send to Charles and ask him.
'Did you expect the King to see you?' then asked the priest.
Her answer was that the voice had promised her that the King would
soon see her after her arrival.
'And why,' asked Beaupère, 'did he receive you?'
'Those on my side,' said Joan, 'knew well that I was sent by God; they
have known and acknowledged that voice.'
'Who?' asked Beaupère.
'The King and others,' answered Joan, 'have heard the voices coming to
me. Charles of Bourbon also, and two or three others.'
(The Charles of Bourbon was the Count of Clermont.)
'Did you often hear that voice?' asked the priest.
'Not a day passes that I do not hear it,' Joan replied.
'What do you ask of it?' inquired Beaupère.
'I have never,' answered Joan, 'asked for any recompense, except the
salvation of my soul.'
'Did the voice always encourage you to follow the army?'
'The voice told me to remain at Saint Denis. I wished to remain, but
against my will the knights obliged me to leave. I would have remained
had I had my free-will.'
'When were you wounded?' asked Beaupère.
'I was wounded,' Joan answered, 'in the moat before Paris, having gone
there from Saint Denis. At the end of five days I recovered.'
'What did you attempt to do against Paris?'
Joan answered that she had made one skirmish (_escarmouche_) in front
of Paris.
'Was it on a feast day?' asked the priest.
'It was,' replied Joan. And on being asked if she considered it right
to make an attack on such a day, she refused to answer.
It is plain that the gist of those questions made by Beaupère was to
try and make Joan of Arc avow that her voices had given her evil
counsel. On the following day the same tactics were pursued.
The third meeting of the tribunal was held on the 24th of February, in
the same chamber. Sixty-two assessors were present. Again Cauchon
commenced by admonishing Joan to tell the truth on all subjects asked
her, and again she protested that as far as her revelations were
concerned she could give no answers. On Cauchon insisting, she said,
'Take care what you, who are my judge, undertake, for you take a
terrible responsibility on yourself, and you presume too far. It is
enough,' she added, 'that I have already twice taken the oath.'
Upon her saying this, Cauchon lost all control, and he stormed and
threatened her with instant condemnation if she refused to take the
oath.
'All the clergy in Paris and Rouen could not condemn me,' was the
proud answer, 'if they had not the right to do so.' But, as on the
previous occasions, she said she would willingly answer all questions
relating to her deeds since leaving her home, but that it would take
many days for her to tell them all. Wearied with the persistence and
threats of her arch-tormentor, Cauchon, Joan said that she had been
sent by God and wished to return to God. 'I have nothing more to do
here,' she added.
Beaupère was again ordered to cross-examine the prisoner.
He began by asking her when she had last eaten.
'Not since yesterday at mid-day,' she said. (It was then Lent.)
Beaupère then began again to question her regarding the voice. When
had she last heard it?
'On the previous day,' Joan said, 'and also on that day too.'
'At what o'clock of the day before?'
Thrice she had heard the voice in the morning, and once at the hour
of Vespers, and again when the _Ave Maria_ was being sung.
'What were you doing,' asked Beaupère, 'when the voices called you?'
'I was sleeping,' answered Joan, 'and the voice awoke me.'
'Did it awake you by touching your arm?'
'The voice awoke me without its touching me.'
'Was it in your room?'
'Not that I know, but it was in the castle.'
'Did you acknowledge it by kneeling?'
'I acknowledged its presence by sitting up and clasping my hands. I
had begged for its help.'
'And what did it say to you?'
'It told me to answer boldly.'
'Tell us more clearly what it said to you.'
'I asked its advice in what I should answer, and bade it ask the
Saviour for counsel. And the voice said, "Answer boldly; God will help
you."'
'Had it said anything to you before you interrupted it?'
'Some words it had said which I did not clearly comprehend; but when
fully awake I understood it to tell me to answer boldly.' Then,
emboldened as it seemed by the recollection of that voice, she turned
to Cauchon and exclaimed, 'You, Bishop, you tell me that you are my
judge--have a care how you act, for in truth I am sent by God, and
your position is one of great peril.'
Then Beaupère broke in again, and asked Joan of Arc if the voice had
ever altered its advice, and whether it had told Joan not to answer
all the questions that would be put to her.
'I cannot answer you about that,' said Joan. 'I have revelations of
matters concerning the King which I shall not reveal.'
The Maid then asked whether she might wait for fifteen days, in order
that, by that time, she might know whether she might, or might not,
answer questions relating to this point.
The priest then asked whether she knew that the voice came from God.
'Yes,' she answered, 'and by this order--that,' she continued, 'I
believe as firmly as I believe the Christian religion, and that God
has saved us from the pains of hell.'
She was then asked if the voice was that of a male or of a female.
'It is a voice sent by God,' she only deigned to say to this.
Joan again asked for an interval of fifteen days, in order that she
might better be able in that time to know how much she might reveal to
her judges relating to her voices.
On being asked whether she believed the Almighty would be displeased
at her telling the whole truth, she said that she had been ordered by
the voices to reveal certain things to the King, and not to her
judges; that her voices had told her that very night many things for
the good of the King which he alone was to know.
But, asked Beaupère, could she not prevail on the voices to visit the
King?
'I know not if the voices would consent,' she answered.
'But why,' then asked Beaupère, 'does the voice not speak to the King
now, as it did formerly, when you were with him?'
'I know not if it be the wish of God,' Joan answered: 'without the
grace of God I should be able to do nothing.'
This remark, most innocent to our comprehension, was afterwards made
use of as a weapon to accuse the prisoner of the charge of heresy.
Later on in the day Beaupère asked Joan if the voice had form and
features. This the prisoner refused to answer.
'There is a saying among children,' she said, 'that one is sometimes
hanged for speaking the truth.'
On being asked by Beaupère if she was sure of being in a state of
grace--a question to which he had carefully led up, and whereby
Cauchon hoped to entrap her into a statement which might be used in
the accusation of heresy he was now framing against Joan of Arc--her
answer even disarmed the Bishop.
'If I am not, may God place me in it; if I am already, may He keep me
in it.'
When that test question had been put to the prisoner, one of the
judges, guessing the object of its being made, expostulated, to
Cauchon's rage--who roughly bade him hold his peace.
To that triumphant reply Joan of Arc added these words: 'If I am not
in God's grace I should be the most unhappy being in the world, and I
do not think, were I living in sin, that my voices would come to me.
Would,' she cried, 'that every one could hear them as well as I do
myself!'
Beaupère then asked her about her childhood, and when she had first
heard the voices. Asked if there were many people at Domremy in favour
of the Burgundians, she said she only knew of one individual. Then
came a string of questions about the fairy-well, the haunted oak-tree.
All these questions Joan fully answered. She had never, she said, seen
a fairy, nor had she heard the prophecy about the oak wood from which
a maid was to come and deliver France. When asked if she would leave
off wearing man's clothes, she said she would not, as it was the will
of Heaven for her to wear them.
The fourth day of the trial was the 27th of February. Fifty-three
judges were present. The usual attempt to make Joan take the oath was
made to the prisoner by Cauchon, and she was again cross-examined by
Beaupère. Again questioned as to her voices, she said that without
their permission she could not say what they said to her relating to
the King.
Asked if the voices came to her direct from God, or through some
intermediary channel, she answered, 'The voices are those of Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret; they wear beautiful crowns--of this I
may speak, for they allow me to do so.' If, she added, her words were
doubted, they might send to Poitiers, where she had already been
questioned on the same subject.
'How do you distinguish one from the other?' asked Beaupère.
'By the manner in which they salute me,' Joan answered.
'How long have they been in communication with you?'
'I have been under their protection seven years,' was the answer.
Joan had referred to the succour which she had received from Saint
Michel. On being asked which of these saints was the first to appear
to her, she said it was the last named. She had seen him, she said, as
clearly as she saw Beaupère, and that he was not by himself, but in a
company of angels. When he left her she felt miserable, and longed to
have been taken with the flight of angels.
When Beaupère asked her if it was her own idea to come into France,
Joan replied in the affirmative, and also that she would sooner have
been torn to pieces by horses than have come without the will of God.
'Does He,' asked the priest, 'tell you not to wear the man's dress?
and had not Baudricourt,' he added, 'wished she should dress as a
man?'
She said it was not by man's but by God's orders that she wore the
dress of a man.
The questions again turned upon the vision and the voice.
Had an angel appeared above the head of the King at Chinon?
She answered that when she entered the King's presence, three hundred
soldiers stood in the hall, and fifty torches burnt in the great hall
of the castle, and that without counting the spiritual light within.
She was then asked respecting her examination before the clergy at
Poitiers.
'They believed,' Joan answered, 'that there was nothing in me against
matters of religion.'
Then Beaupère asked the prisoner if she had visited Sainte Catherine
de Fierbois.
'Yes,' she answered; 'I heard mass there twice in one day, on my way
to Chinon.'
'How did you communicate your message to the King?'
'I sent a letter asking him if I might be allowed to see him. That I
had come one hundred and fifty miles to bring him assistance, and that
I had much to do for him. I think,' she added, 'that I also said I
should know him amongst all those who might be present.'
'Did you then wear a sword?' asked Beaupère.
'I had one that I had taken at Vaucouleurs.'
'Had you not another one as well?'
'Yes; I had sent to the church of Fierbois, either from Troyes or
Chinon, for a sword from the back of the altar of Sainte Catherine. It
was found, much rusted.'
'How did you know there was a sword there?'
'Through my voices. I asked in a letter that the sword should be given
me, and the clergy sent me it. It lay underground--I am not certain
whether at the front or at the back of the altar. It was cleaned by
the people belonging to the church. They had a scabbard made for me;
also one was made at Tours--one of velvet, the other of black cloth. I
had also a third one for the Fierbois sword made of very strong
leather.'
'Were you wearing that sword,' asked Beaupère, 'when you were
captured?'
'No, I had not one then; I used to wear it constantly up to the time
that I left Saint Denis, after the assault on Paris.'
'What benediction did you bestow on that sword?'
'None,' said Joan; and she added, on being questioned as to her
feeling about the sword, that she had a particular liking for it, from
its having been found in the Church of Sainte Catherine, her favourite
saint.
Then Beaupère inquired whether Joan was not in the habit of placing
this sword on the altar, in order to bring it good luck.
Joan answered in the negative.
'But then,' the priest asked, 'had she not prayed that it might bring
her good fortune?'
'It is enough to know,' answered Joan, 'that I wished my armour might
bring me good fortune.'
'What had become of the Fierbois sword?' asked the priest.
'I offered up at Saint Denis,' answered Joan, 'a sword and some
armour, but not the Fierbois sword.'
'Had you it when at Lagny?' asked Beaupère.
'Yes,' answered the prisoner.
But between the time passed at Lagny and Compiègne she wore another
sword, taken from a Burgundian soldier, which she said was a good
weapon, able to deal shrewd blows. But she would not satisfy
Beaupère's curiosity as to what had become of the sword of Fierbois:
'That,' she said, 'has nothing to do with the trial.'
Beaupère next inquired as to what had become of Joan of Arc's goods.
She said her brother had her horses and her goods; she said she
believed the latter amounted to some twelve thousand _écus_.
'Had you not,' asked the priest, 'when you went to Orleans, a banner
or pennon? Of what colour was that?'
'My banner had a field all covered with _fleurs-de-lis_. In it was
represented the world, with angels on either side. It was white, made
of white cloth, of a kind called _coucassin_. On it was written _Jesu
Maria_. It was bordered with silk.'
'Which were you fondest of?' asked Beaupère,--'your banner or your
sword?'
'I loved my banner,' was the answer, 'forty times as much as I did my
sword.'
'Who painted your banner?'
This Joan would not say.
'Who bore your flag?' asked the priest.
Joan of Arc said she carried it herself when charging the enemy, 'in
order,' she added, 'to avoid killing any one. I never killed any one,'
she said.
'How many soldiers did the King give you,' asked the priest, 'when he
gave you a command?'
'Between ten and twelve thousand men,' answered Joan.
Then Beaupère questioned her regarding the relief of Orleans, and he
was told by the Maid that she first went to the redoubt of Saint Loup
by the bridge.
'Did you expect,' was the next question, 'that you would be able to
raise the siege?'
'Yes,' she was certain, Joan answered, from a revelation which she had
received, and of which she had told the King before making the
expedition.
'At the time of the assault,' asked Beaupère, 'did you not tell your
soldiers that you alone would receive all the arrows, bolts, and
stones discharged by the cannon and culverins?'
'No,' she answered, 'there were over a hundred wounded; but,' she
added, 'I said to my people, "Be assured that you will raise the
siege."'
'Were you wounded?' asked the priest.
'I was wounded,' Joan answered, 'at the assault of the fortress on the
bridge. I was struck and wounded by an arrow or a dart; but I
received much comfort from Saint Catherine, and I recovered in less
than fifteen days. I recovered, and in spite of the wound I did not
give up riding or working.'
'Did you know beforehand that you would be wounded?' asked Beaupère.
'Yes,' was the answer; 'and I had told my King I should be wounded. My
saints had told me of it.'
'In what manner were you wounded?' he asked.
'I was,' she answered, 'the first to raise a ladder against the
fortress at the bridge. While raising the ladder I was struck by the
bolt.'
'Why,' now asked the priest, 'did you not come to terms with the
English captains at Jargeau?'
'The knights about me,' she answered, 'told the English that they
could not have a truce of fifteen days, which they wanted; but that
they and their horses must leave the place at once.'
'And what did you say?'
'I told them that if they left the place with their side arms
(_petites cottes_) their lives would be spared. If not, that Jargeau
would be stormed.'
'Had you then consulted your voices to know whether you should accord
them that delay or not?'
Joan did not remember.
Here closed the fourth day's trial.
The fifth day of the trial took place on the 1st of March. Fifty-eight
judges were present.
The opening proceedings were the same as on the former occasions, and
Joan of Arc again professed her willingness to answer all questions
put to her regarding her deeds as readily as if she were in the
presence of the Pope of Rome himself; but, as formerly, she gave no
promise of revealing what her voices had told her.
Beaupère caught immediately at the opportunity of her having spoken of
the Pope to lay a pitfall in her path: Which Pope did she believe the
authentic one--he at Avignon or the one in Rome?
'Are there two?' she asked. This was an awkward question to those
bishops and doctors of the faith who had for so long a time encouraged
the schism in the Church.
Beaupère evaded the question, and asked her if it were true that she
had received a letter from the Count of Armagnac asking her which of
the two Popes he was bound to obey.
A copy of this letter was produced, as well as the one sent by Joan of
Arc in reply.
When she sent her answer, the Maid said, she was about to mount her
horse, and had told him she would be able better to answer his
question when at rest in Paris or elsewhere. The copy of her letter
which was now read, Joan said, did not quite agree with that she had
sent to Armagnac.
'She had not,' Joan added, 'said in her letter that what she knew was
by the inspiration of Heaven.'
Again pressed as to which of the two Popes she believed the true one,
she said that the one then in Rome was to her that one.
Questioned regarding her letter to the English before Orleans, she
acknowledged the accurateness of the copy produced, with the exception
of a slight mistake. She retracted nothing regarding this letter, and
declared that the English would, ere seven years were passed from that
time, give a more striking proof of their loss of power in France than
that which they had shown before Orleans. This prediction was
literally carried out when, in 1436, Paris opened its gates to Charles
VII., the loss of the capital being shortly after followed by the loss
of all the other English conquests, with the exception of the town of
Calais--the gains of a century of war being snatched from them in a
score of years.
'They will meet,' said Joan of Arc, 'with greater reverses than have
yet befallen them.'
When she was asked what made her speak thus, she answered that these
things had been revealed to her. The examination again turned upon her
voices and apparitions.
'Do they always appear to you in the same dress? Always in the same
form, and richly crowned?'
Similar foolish questions were then put to her. Had the saints long
hair? She did not know. And what language did they converse in with
her?
'Their language,' she replied, 'is good and beautiful.'
'What sort of voices were theirs?'
'They speak to me in soft and beautiful French voices,' she said.
'Does not Saint Margaret speak in English?'
'How should she,' was the answer, 'when she is not on the side of the
English?'
'Do they wear ear-rings?'
This Joan could not say; but the idiotic question reminded the
prisoner that Cauchon had taken a ring from her. She had worn two--one
had been taken by the Burgundians when she was captured, the other by
the Bishop. The former had been given her by her parents, the latter
by one of her brothers. This ring she asked Cauchon to give the
Church.
'Had she not,' she was asked, 'made use of these rings to heal the
sick?'
She had never done so.
It is very easy throughout all these questionings to see how eager
Cauchon and the other judges were to find some acknowledgment from the
lips of Joan of Arc, upon which they could found a charge of heresy
against her. Her visions were distorted by them into a proof of
infernal agency; even the harmless superstitions of her village home
did not escape being turned into idolatrous and infernal matters of
belief.
Had not her saints, questioned the Bishop, appeared to her beneath
the haunted oak of Domremy?--and what had they promised her besides
the re-establishment of Charles upon the throne?
'They promised,' she answered, 'to take me with them to Paradise,
which I had prayed them to do.'
'Nothing more?' queried Cauchon.
'If they made me another promise,' Joan replied, 'I am not at liberty
to say what that promise is till three months are past.'
'Did they say that you would be free in three months' time?'
That question remained unanswered, but before those three months had
passed, the heroine had been delivered by death from all earthly
sufferings.
She was again minutely questioned regarding the superstitions of her
country. Was there not growing there a certain fabulous plant, called
Mandragora? Joan of Arc knew nothing regarding such a plant--had never
seen it, and did not know the use of it. Again the apparitions were
brought forward.
'What was Saint Michel like? Was he clothed?'
'Do you think,' was the answer to this question, which could only have
occurred to a foul-minded priest, 'do you think that God cannot clothe
him?'
Other absurd questions followed--as to his hair; long or short? Had he
a pair of scales with him? As before, Joan of Arc answered these
futile, and sometimes indecent, questions with her wonderful patience.
At one moment she could not help exclaiming how supremely happy the
sight of her saints made her; it seemed as if a sudden vision of her
beloved saints had been vouchsafed her in the midst of that crowd of
persecuting priests.
She was again told to tell what the sign or secret was which she had
revealed to the King on first seeing him at Chinon; but about this she
was firm as adamant, and refused to give any information. To reveal
that sign or secret would, she felt, be not only a breach of
confidence and disloyalty between her and her King, but a crime to
divulge a sacred secret, which Charles kept sealed in his breast, and
which she was determined to utter to no one, and least of all to his
enemies.
'I have already said,' she told her judges, 'that you will have
nothing from me about that. Go and ask the King!'
Then followed questions as to the fashion of the crown that the King
had worn at Rheims: which brought the fifth day of the trial to a
close.
The sixth and last day's public examination took place on the 3rd of
March, forty-two judges present. The long series of questions were
nearly all relating to the appearance of the saints. Both questions
and answers were nearly the same as on the previous occasions, and
little more information was got from the prisoner.
After these, the subject of her dress--what she then wore, and what
she had worn--was entered upon.
'When you came to the King,' she was asked, 'did he not inquire if
your change in dress was owing to a revelation or not?'
'I have already answered,' said Joan, 'that I do not remember if he
asked me. This evidence was made known when I was at Poitiers.'
'And the doctors who examined you,' asked Beaupère, 'at Poitiers, did
they not want to know regarding your being dressed in man's clothes?'
'I don't remember,' she answered; 'but they asked me when I had first
begun to wear man's dress, and I told them that it was when I was at
Vaucouleurs.'