LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Reputed Portrait of Jeanne d’Arc | [Frontispiece.] | |
| Jeanne d’Arc’s House at Domremy | To face page | [6] |
| Rheims Cathedral | ” ” | [50] |
| Church of Saint Remy | ” ” | [50] |
| The Battle of “Herrings.” From a French Manuscript of the XVth Century | ” ” | [58] |
| The Maid taken Prisoner. From a XVth Century MS. | ” ” | [58] |
| Gate to the Palace of Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais | ” ” | [76] |
| South Door of St. Ouen at Rouen | ” ” | [128] |
| Court of Justice. From a Miniature by Jean Fouquet | ” ” | [142] |
| Saint Lucien Tower, Beauvais. Jeanne is said to have passed a night in this tower on August 20, 1429 | ” ” | [178] |
| Facsimile of a Page of the Process of Jeanne d’Arc | ” ” | [210] |
| Château de Vaucouleurs, called the “Porte de France” | ” ” | [222] |
| Count de Dunois, Bastard of Orleans | ” ” | [232] |
| Rheims Cathedral | ” ” | [240] |
| Chinon | ” ” | [260] |
| Orleans Cathedral | ” ” | [268] |
| The Count de Richemont, Constable of France | ” ” | [280] |
| Charles VII. (Gallery of the Louvre.) | ” ” | [282] |
| View of Blois. | Between pages | [284]–285 |
| The Bridge of Orleans | To face page | [288] |
| 1. On the last day of the English Siege, Sunday, May 8, 1429. | ||
| 2. Shortly before its demolition in 1760. | ||
| Tomb of Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais | ” ” | [300] |
| Jeanne d’Arc. From a Miniature of the XVth Century | ” ” | [306] |
| The Battle of Patay | ” ” | [308] |
| La Hire and Xantrailles. From a XVth Century MS. | ” ” | [308] |
| IN THE TEXT. | ||
| The Old Castle of Rouen | [3] | |
| Battle outside Orleans | [135] | |
| Porte St. Honoré | [157] | |
| The Hôtel de Ville: Compiègne | [328] | |
| MAP. | ||
| France: 1429–1431 | [At end of volume.] | |
Part I
THE TRIAL
Information as to the Original Documents of the Trial will be found in the Appendix, p. [331].
An Introductory Note on the Maid’s Capture at Compiègne and on the Procedure of her Trial is given in the Appendix on p. [332].
THE OLD CASTLE OF ROUEN.
I
FIRST PROCESS: THE LAPSE
TRIAL EX OFFICIO
Six Public Examinations
On Wednesday, February 21st, at 8 o’clock in the morning, in the Chapel Royal of the Castle of Rouen. The Bishop and 42 Assessors present.
We did first of all command to be read the Royal letters conveying surrender and deliverance of the said woman into Our hands; afterwards the letters of the Chapter of Rouen, making concession of territory for Our benefit. This reading ended, Mtre. Jean d’Estivet, nominated by Us as Promoter of the Case, did, in Our presence, shew that the aforesaid woman of the name of Jeanne hath been, by the Executor of Our Mandate, cited to appear in this place at this hour and day, here to answer, according to law, to the questions to be put to her.
The said Promoter did then produce Our Mandate, to which is attached the document confirming its execution, and did read them all. Our said Promoter did then require that the said woman should be placed before us, and, in terms of the citation, questioned by Us on divers Articles concerning the Faith, to the which We did agree. But as a preliminary, because the said woman had asked to hear Mass beforehand, We did shew to the Assessors that, by the advice of well-known Doctors and Masters consulted by Us, it hath been decided, considering the crimes of which she is accused, and the impropriety of the dress which she is wearing, that it is right to postpone permission to hear Mass and to assist in Divine Service.
In the meantime, the said woman was brought by the Executor of Our Mandate, and set before Us.
We did then shew that the said Jeanne hath been lately taken[[5]] in the territory of Beauvais; that many acts contrary to the Orthodox Faith have been committed by her, not only in Our Diocese, but in many others; that the public report, which imputes these misdeeds to her, hath spread in all estates of Christendom; that, in the last place, the most Serene and most Christian our lord the King hath sent and given her up to Us in order that, according to law and right, an action may be brought against her in the matter of the Faith; that, acting upon this common report, upon public rumour, and also on certain information obtained by Us, of which mention hath already been often enough made, by the advice of men versed in sacred and secular Law, We have officially given commandment to cite the said Jeanne to appear before Us, in order through her to obtain truthful answers to the questions to be put to her in matters of the Faith, and in order to act towards her according to law and right; which doth so appear in the letters that the Promoter hath shewn.
Then, desiring in this particular the blessed succour of Jesus Christ, Who is concerned in this, and wishing only to fulfil the duties of Our office for the exaltation and preservation of the Catholic Faith, We did first charitably warn and require the said Jeanne, seated in Our presence, for the more prompt resolution of the Action and the relief of her own conscience, to speak the whole truth upon all questions which should be addressed to her touching the Faith; and We did exhort her to avoid all subterfuges and shufflings of such a nature as should turn her aside from a sincere and true avowal.
And in the first instance we did require her, in the appointed form, her hand on the Holy Gospels, to swear to speak truth on the questions to be addressed to her.
To which she did reply:
“I know not upon what you wish to question me: perhaps you may ask me of things which I ought not to tell you.”
“Swear,” We did then say to her, “to speak truth on the things which shall be asked you concerning the Faith, and of which you know.”
“Of my father and my mother and of what I did after taking the road to France, willingly will I swear; but of the revelations which have come to me from God, to no one will I speak or reveal them, save only to Charles my King; and to you I will not reveal them, even if it cost me my head; because I have received them in visions and by secret counsel, and am forbidden to reveal them. Before eight days are gone, I shall know if I may reveal them to you.”
Again did We several times warn and require her to be willing, on whatsoever should touch on the Faith, to swear to speak truly. And the said Jeanne, on her knees, her two hands resting on the Missal, did swear to speak truth on that which should be asked her and which she knew in the matter of the Faith, keeping silence under the condition above stated, that is to say, neither to tell nor to reveal to any one the revelations made to her.
After this oath, Jeanne was interrogated by Us as to her name, and surname, her place of birth, the names of her father and mother, the place of her baptism, her godfathers and godmothers, the Priest who baptized her, etc., etc.
“In my own country they call me Jeannette; since I came into France I have been called Jeanne. Of my surname I know nothing. I was born[[6]] in the village of Domremy, which is really one with the village of Greux. The principal Church is at Greux. My father is called Jacques d’Arc; my mother, Ysabelle. I was baptized in the village of Domremy.[[7]] One of my godmothers[[8]] is called Agnes, another Jeanne, a third Sibylle. One of my godfathers is called Jean Lingué, another Jean Barrey. I had many other godmothers, or so I have heard from my mother. I was, I believe, baptized by Messire Jean Minet; he still lives, so far as I know. I am, I should say, about nineteen years of age. From my mother I learned my Pater, my Ave Maria, and my Credo. I believe I learned all this from my mother.”
JEANNE D’ARC’S HOUSE AT DOMREMY.
“Say your Pater.”
“Hear me in confession, and I will say it willingly.”
To this same question, which was many times put to her, she always answered: “No, I will not say my Pater to you, unless you will hear me in confession.”
“Willingly,” We said to her, “We will give you two well-known men, of the French language, and before them you shall say your Pater.”
“I will not say it to them, unless it be in confession.”
And then did We forbid Jeanne to go out of the prison which hath been assigned to her in the Castle without Our permission, under pain of the crime of heresy.
“I do not accept such a prohibition,” she answered; “if ever I do escape, no one shall reproach me with having broken or violated my faith, not having given my word to any one, whosoever it may be.”
And as she complained that she had been fastened with chains and fetters of iron, We said to her:
“You have before, and many times, sought, We are told, to get out of the prison, where you are detained; and it is to keep you more surely that it has been ordered to put you in irons.”
“It is true I wished to escape; and so I wish still: is not this lawful for all prisoners?”
We then commissioned as her guard the noble man John Gris,[[9]] Squire, one of the Body Guard of our Lord the King, and, with him, John Berwoist and William Talbot, whom We enjoined well and faithfully to guard the said Jeanne, and to permit no person to have dealings with her without Our order. Which the aforenamed, with their hands on the Gospels, did solemnly swear.
Finally, having accomplished all the preceding, We appointed the said Jeanne to appear the next day, at 8 o’clock in the morning, before Us in the Ornament Room, at the end of the Great Hall of the Castle of Rouen.
Thursday, February 22nd, in the Ornament Room at the end of the Great Hall of the Castle of Rouen. The Bishop and 48 Assessors present.
In their presence, We shewed that Jean Lemaître, Deputy of the Chief Inquisitor, had been summoned and required by Us to join himself to the present Action, with Our offer of communicating to him all that hath been done hitherto or shall be done in the future; but that the said Deputy had replied, that, having been commissioned by the Chief Inquisitor for the City and Diocese of Rouen only, and the actual Process being deduced by Us in a territory which hath been ceded to Us by the Metropolitan Chapter, by reason of Our Ordinary Jurisdiction, as Bishop of Beauvais, he had thought it right to avoid all nullity and also for the peace of his own conscience, to refuse to join himself with Us, in the quality of Judge, until he should receive from the Chief Inquisitor a Commission and more extended powers: that, nevertheless, he would have no objection to see the trial continue without interruption.
After having heard Us make this narration, the said Deputy, being present, declared, addressing himself to Us, “That which you have just said is true. It has been, as much as in me lies, and still is, agreeable to me that you should continue the Trial.”
Then the said Jeanne was brought before Us.
We warned and required her, on pain of law, to make oath as she had done the day before and to swear simply and absolutely to speak truth on all things in respect of which she should be asked; to which she answered:
“I swore yesterday: that should be enough.”
Again We required her to swear: we said to her, not even a prince, required to swear in a matter of faith, can refuse.
“I made oath to you yesterday,” she answered, “that should be quite enough for you: you burden me over-much!”
Finally she made oath to speak truth on that which touches the Faith.
Then Maître Jean Beaupère, a well-known Professor of Theology, did, by Our order, question the said Jeanne. This he did as follows:
“First of all, I exhort you, as you have so sworn, to tell the truth on that which I am about to ask you.”
“You may well ask me some things on which I shall tell you the truth and some on which I shall not tell it you. If you were well informed about me, you would wish to have me out of your hands. I have done nothing except by revelation.”
“How old were you when you left your father’s house?”
“On the subject of my age I cannot vouch.”
“In your youth, did you learn any trade?”
“Yes, I learnt to spin and to sew; in sewing and spinning I fear no woman in Rouen. For dread of the Burgundians, I left my father’s house and went to the town of Neufchâteau,[[10]] in Lorraine, to the house of a woman named La Rousse, where I sojourned about fifteen days. When I was at home with my father, I employed myself with the ordinary cares of the house. I did not go to the fields with the sheep and the other animals. Every year I confessed myself to my own Curé, and, when he was prevented, to another Priest with his permission. Sometimes, also, two or three times, I confessed to the Mendicant Friars; this was at Neufchâteau. At Easter I received the Sacrament of the Eucharist.”
“Have you received the Sacrament of the Eucharist at any other Feast but Easter?”
“Pass that by [Passez outre]. I was thirteen when I had a Voice from God for my help and guidance. The first time that I heard this Voice, I was very much frightened; it was mid-day, in the summer, in my father’s garden. I had not fasted the day before. I heard this Voice to my right, towards the Church; rarely do I hear it without its being accompanied also by a light. This light comes from the same side as the Voice. Generally it is a great light. Since I came into France I have often heard this Voice.”
“But how could you see this light that you speak of, when the light was at the side?”
To this question she answered nothing, but went on to something else. “If I were in a wood, I could easily hear the Voice which came to me. It seemed to me to come from lips I should reverence. I believe it was sent me from God. When I heard it for the third time, I recognized that it was the Voice of an Angel. This Voice has always guarded me well, and I have always understood it; it instructed me to be good and to go often to Church; it told me it was necessary for me to come into France. You ask me under what form this Voice appeared to me? You will hear no more of it from me this time. It said to me two or three times a week: ‘You must go into France.’ My father knew nothing of my going. The Voice said to me: ‘Go into France!’ I could stay no longer. It said to me: ‘Go, raise the siege which is being made before the City of Orleans. ‘Go!’ it added, ‘to Robert de Baudricourt,[[11]] Captain of Vaucouleurs: he will furnish you with an escort to accompany you.’ And I replied that I was but a poor girl, who knew nothing of riding or fighting. I went to my uncle and said that I wished to stay near him for a time. I remained there eight days. I said to him, ‘I must go to Vaucouleurs.’[[12]] He took me there. When I arrived, I recognized Robert de Baudricourt, although I had never seen him. I knew him, thanks to my Voice, which made me recognize him. I said to Robert, ‘I must go into France!’ Twice Robert refused to hear me, and repulsed me. The third time, he received me, and furnished me with men;[[13]] the Voice had told me it would be thus. The Duke of Lorraine[[14]] gave orders that I should be taken to him. I went there. I told him that I wished to go into France. The Duke asked me questions about his health; but I said of that I knew nothing. I spoke to him little of my journey. I told him he was to send his son with me, together with some people to conduct me to France, and that I would pray to God for his health. I had gone to him with a safe-conduct: from thence I returned to Vaucouleurs. From Vaucouleurs I departed, dressed as a man, armed with a sword given me by Robert de Baudricourt, but without other arms. I had with me a Knight,[[15]] a Squire, and four servants, with whom I reached the town of Saint Urbain, where I slept in an Abbey. On the way, I passed through Auxerre, where I heard Mass in the principal Church. Thenceforward I often heard my Voices.”
“Who counselled you to take a man’s dress?”
To this question she several times refused to answer. In the end, she said: “With that I charge no one.” Many times she varied in her answers to this question. Then she said:
“Robert de Baudricourt made those who went with me swear to conduct me well and safely. ‘Go,’ said Robert de Baudricourt to me, ‘Go! and let come what may!’ I know well that God loves the Duke of Orleans; I have had more revelations about the Duke of Orleans than about any man alive, except my King. It was necessary for me to change my woman’s garments for a man’s dress. My counsel thereon said well. I sent a letter to the English before Orleans,[[16]] to make them leave, as may be seen in a copy of my letter which has been read to me in this City of Rouen; there are, nevertheless, two or three words in this copy which were not in my letter. Thus, ‘Surrender to the Maid,’ should be replaced by ‘Surrender to the King.’ The words, ‘body for body’ and ‘chieftain in war’ were not in my letter at all.[[17]]
“I went without hindrance to the King. Having arrived at the village of Saint Catherine de Fierbois, I sent for the first time to the Castle of Chinon,[[18]] where the King was. I got there towards mid-day, and lodged first at an inn. After dinner, I went to the King, who was at the Castle. When I entered the room where he was I recognized him among many others by the counsel of my Voice, which revealed him to me. I told him that I wished to go and make war on the English.”
“When the Voice shewed you the King, was there any light?”
“Pass on.”
“Did you see an Angel over the King?”
“Spare me. Pass on. Before the King set me to work, he had many apparitions and beautiful revelations.”
“What revelations and apparitions had the King?”
“I will not tell you; it is not yet time to answer you about them; but send to the King, and he will tell you. The Voice had promised me that, as soon I came to the King, he would receive me. Those of my party knew well that the Voice had been sent me from God; they have seen and known this Voice, I am sure of it. My King and many others have also heard and seen the Voices which came to me: there were there Charles de Bourbon[[19]] and two or three others. There is not a day when I do not hear this Voice; and I have much need of it. But never have I asked of it any recompense but the salvation of my soul. The Voice told me to remain at Saint-Denis, in France; I wished to do so, but, against my will, the Lords made me leave. If I had not been wounded, I should never have left. After having quitted Saint-Denis, I was wounded in the trenches before Paris;[[20]] but I was cured in five days. It is true that I caused an assault to be made before Paris.”
“Was it a Festival that day?”
“I think it was certainly a Festival.”
“Is it a good thing to make an assault on a Festival?”
“Pass on.”
And as it appeared that enough had been done for to-day, We have postponed the affair to Saturday next, at 8 o’clock in the morning.
Saturday, 24th February, in the same place. The Bishop and 62 Assessors present.
In their presence We did require the aforenamed Jeanne to swear to speak the truth simply and absolutely on the questions to be addressed to her, without adding any restriction to her oath. We did three times thus admonish her. She answered:
“Give me leave to speak. By my faith! you may well ask me such things as I will not tell you. Perhaps on many of the things you may ask me I shall not tell you truly, especially on those that touch on my revelations; for you may constrain me to say things that I have sworn not to say; then I should be perjured, which you ought not to wish.” [Addressing the Bishop:] “I tell you, take good heed of what you say, you, who are my Judge;[[21]] you take a great responsibility in thus charging me. I should say that it is enough to have sworn twice.”
“Will you swear, simply and absolutely?”
“You may surely do without this. I have sworn enough already twice. All the clergy of Rouen and Paris cannot condemn me if it be not law. Of my coming into France I will speak the truth willingly; but I will not say all: the space of eight days would not suffice.”
“Take the advice of the Assessors, whether you should swear or not.”
“Of my coming I will willingly speak truth, but not of the rest; speak no more of it to me.”
“You render yourself liable to suspicion in not being willing to swear to speak the truth absolutely.”
“Speak to me no more of it. Pass on.”
“We again require you to swear, precisely and absolutely.”
“I will say willingly what I know, and yet not all. I am come in God’s name; I have nothing to do here; let me be sent back to God, whence I came.”
“Again we summon and require you to swear, under pain of going forth charged with that which is imputed to you.”
“Pass on.”
“A last time we require you to swear, and urgently admonish you to speak the truth on all that concerns your trial; you expose yourself to a great peril by such a refusal.”
“I am ready to speak truth on what I know touching the trial.”
And in this manner was she sworn.
Then, by Our order, she was questioned by Maître Jean Beaupère, a well-known Doctor, as follows:
“How long is it since you have had food and drink?”[[22]]
“Since yesterday afternoon.”
“How long is it since you heard your Voices?”
“I heard them yesterday and to-day.”
“At what hour yesterday did you hear them?”
“Yesterday I heard them three times,—once in the morning, once at Vespers, and again when the Ave Maria rang in the evening. I have even heard them oftener than that.”
“What were you doing yesterday morning when the Voice came to you?”
“I was asleep: the Voice awoke me.”
“Was it by touching you on the arm?”
“It awoke me without touching me.”
“Was it in your room?”
“Not so far as I know, but in the Castle.”
“Did you thank it? and did you go on your knees?”
“I did thank it. I was sitting on the bed; I joined my hands; I implored its help. The Voice said to me: ‘Answer boldly.’ I asked advice as to how I should answer, begging it to entreat for this the counsel of the Lord. The Voice said to me: ‘Answer boldly; God will help thee.’ Before I had prayed it to give me counsel, it said to me several words I could not readily understand. After I was awake, it said to me: ‘Answer boldly.’” [Addressing herself to Us, the said Bishop:] “You say you are my judge. Take care what you are doing; for in truth I am sent by God, and you place yourself in great danger.”
Maître Beaupère, continuing, said:
“Has this Voice sometimes varied in its counsel?”
“I have never found it give two contrary opinions.... This night again I heard it say: ‘Answer boldly.’”
“Has your Voice forbidden you to say everything on what you are asked?”
“I will not answer you about that. I have revelations touching the King that I will not tell you.”
“Has it forbidden you to tell those revelations?”
“I have not been advised about these things. Give me a delay of fifteen days,[[23]] and I will answer you. If my Voice has forbidden me, what would you say about it? Believe me, it is not men who have forbidden me. To-day I will not answer: I do not know if I ought, or not; it has not been revealed to me. But as firmly as I believe in the Christian Faith and that God hath redeemed us from the pains of Hell, that Voice hath come to me from God and by His Command.”
“The Voice that you say appears to you, does it come directly from an Angel, or directly from God; or does it come from one of the Saints?”
“The Voice comes to me from God; and I do not tell you all I know about it: I have far greater fear of doing wrong in saying to you things that would displease it, than I have of answering you. As to this question, I beg you to grant me delay.”
“Is it displeasing to God to speak the truth?”
“My Voices have entrusted to me certain things to tell to the King, not to you. This very night they told me many things for the welfare of my King, which I would he might know at once, even if I should drink no wine until Easter, ... the King would be the more joyful at his dinner!”
“Can you not so deal with your Voices that they will convey this news to your King?”
“I know not if the Voice would obey, and if it be God’s Will. If it please God, He will know how to reveal it to the King, and I shall be well content.”
“Why does not this Voice speak any more to your King, as it did when you were in his presence?”
“I do not know if it be the Will of God. Without the grace of God I should not know how to do anything.”
“Has your counsel revealed to you that you will escape from prison?”
“I have nothing to tell you about that.”
“This night, did your Voice give you counsel and advice as to what you should answer?”
“If it did give me advice and counsel thereon, I did not understand.”
“The last two occasions on which you have heard this Voice, did a brightness come?”
“The brightness comes at the same time as the Voice.”
“Besides the Voice, do you see anything?”
“I will not tell you all; I have not leave; my oath does not touch on that. My Voice is good and to be honoured. I am not bound to answer you about it. I request that the points on which I do not now answer may be given me in writing.”
“The Voice from whom you ask counsel, has it a face and eyes?”
“You shall not know yet. There is a saying among children, that ‘Sometimes one is hanged for speaking the truth.’”
“Do you know if you are in the grace of God?”
“If I am not, may God place me there; if I am, may God so keep me. I should be the saddest in all the world if I knew that I were not in the grace of God. But if I were in a state of sin, do you think the Voice would come to me? I would that every one could hear the Voice as I hear it. I think I was about thirteen when it came to me for the first time.”
“In your youth, did you play in the fields with the other children?”
“I certainly went sometimes, I do not know at what age.”
“Do the Domremy people side with the Burgundians or with the opposite party?”
“I knew only one Burgundian[[24]] at Domremy: I should have been quite willing for them to cut off his head—always had it pleased God.”
“The Maxey people, were they Burgundians, or opposed to the Burgundians?”
“They were Burgundians. As soon as I knew that my Voices were for the King of France, I loved the Burgundians no more. The Burgundians will have war unless they do what they ought; I know it by my Voice. The English were already in France when my Voices began to come to me. I do not remember being with the children of Domremy when they went to fight against those of Maxey for the French side: but I certainly saw the Domremy children who had fought with those of Maxey coming back many times, wounded and bleeding.”
“Had you in your youth any intention of fighting the Burgundians?”
“I had a great will and desire that my King should have his own Kingdom.”
“When you had to come into France, did you wish to be a man?”
“I have answered this elsewhere.”
“Did you not take the animals to the fields?”
“I have already answered this also. When I was bigger and had come to years of discretion, I did not look after them generally; but I helped to take them to the meadows and to a Castle called the Island,[[25]] for fear of the soldiers. I do not remember if I led them in my childhood or no.”
“What have you to say about a certain tree which is near to your village?”
“Not far from Domremy there is a tree[[26]] that they call ‘The Ladies’ Tree’—others call it ‘The Fairies’ Tree’; near by, there is a spring where people sick of the fever come to drink, as I have heard, and to seek water to restore their health. I have seen them myself come thus; but I do not know if they were healed. I have heard that the sick, once cured, come to this tree[[27]] to walk about. It is a beautiful tree, a beech, from which comes the ‘beau may’—it belongs to the Seigneur Pierre de Bourlement,[[28]] Knight. I have sometimes been to play with the young girls, to make garlands for Our Lady of Domremy. Often I have heard the old folk—they are not of my lineage—say that the fairies haunt this tree. I have also heard one of my Godmothers, named Jeanne, wife of the Maire Aubery of Domremy, say that she has seen fairies there; whether it be true, I do not know. As for me, I never saw them that I know of. If I saw them anywhere else, I do not know. I have seen the young girls putting garlands on the branches of this tree, and I myself have sometimes put them there with my companions; sometimes we took these garlands away, sometimes we left them. Ever since I knew that it was necessary for me to come into France, I have given myself up as little as possible to these games and distractions. Since I was grown up, I do not remember to have danced there. I may have danced there formerly, with the other children. I have sung there more than danced. There is also a wood called the Oak-wood, which can be seen from my father’s door; it is not more than half-a-league away. I do not know, and have never heard if the fairies appear there; but my brother told me that it is said in the neighbourhood: ‘Jeannette received her mission at the Fairies’ Tree.’ It is not the case; and I told him the contrary. When I came before the King, several people asked me if there were not in my country a wood, called the Oak-wood, because there were prophecies[[29]] which said that from the neighbourhood of this wood would come a maid who should do marvellous things. I put no faith in that.”
“Would you like to have a woman’s dress?”
“Give me one, and I will take it and begone; otherwise, no. I am content with what I have, since it pleases God that I wear it.”
This done, We stayed the interrogation, and put off the remainder to Tuesday next, on which day We have convoked all the Assessors, at the same place and hour.
Tuesday, February 27th, in the same place. The Bishop and 54 Assessors present.
In their presence, We required the said Jeanne to swear to tell the truth on everything touching her Trial.
“Willingly will I swear,” she answered, “to tell the truth on everything touching the trial, but not upon all that I know.”
We required her again to speak the truth on all which should be asked of her.
“You ought to be satisfied,” she answered. “I have sworn enough.”
Then, by Our order, Maître Beaupère began to question her. And first he inquired of her, how she had been since the Saturday before?
“You can see for yourself how I am. I am as well as can be.”
“Do you fast every day this Lent?”
“Is that in the Case? Well, yes! I have fasted every day during this Lent.”
“Have you heard your Voices since Saturday?”
“Yes, truly, many times.”
“Did you hear them on Saturday in this hall, where you were being examined?”
“That is not in your Case. Very well, then—yes! I did hear them.”
“What did your Voice say to you last Saturday?”
“I did not quite understand it; and up to the moment when I returned to my room, I heard nothing that I may repeat to you.”
“What did it say to you in your room, on your return?”
“It said to me, ‘Answer them boldly.’ I take counsel with my Voice about what you ask me. I will tell willingly whatever I shall have permission from God to reveal; as to the revelations concerning the King of France, I will not tell them without the permission of my Voice.”
“Has your Voice forbidden you to tell everything?”
“I did not quite understand it.”
“What did your Voice last say to you?”
“I asked counsel about certain things that you had asked me.”
“Did it give you counsel?”
“On some points, yes; on others you may ask me for an answer that I shall not give, not having had leave. For, if I answered without leave, I should no longer have my Voices as warrant. When I have permission from Our Saviour, I shall not fear to speak, because I shall have warrant.”
“This Voice that speaks to you, is it that of an Angel, or of a Saint, or from God direct?”
“It is the Voice of Saint Catherine and of Saint Margaret.[[30]] Their faces are adorned with beautiful crowns, very rich and precious. To tell you this I have leave from Our Lord. If you doubt this, send to Poitiers, where I was examined before.”
“How do you know if these were the two Saints? How do you distinguish one from the other?”
“I know quite well it is they; and I can easily distinguish one from the other.”
“How do you distinguish them?”
“By the greeting they give me. It is seven years now since they have undertaken to guide me. I know them well because they were named to me.”
“Are these two Saints dressed in the same stuff?”
“I will tell you no more just now; I have not permission to reveal it. If you do not believe me, go to Poitiers. There are some revelations which come to the King of France, and not to you, who are questioning me.”
“Are they of the same age?”
“I have not leave to say.”
“Do they speak at the same time, or one after the other?”
“I have not leave to say; nevertheless, I have always had counsel from them both.”
“Which of them appeared to you first?”
“I did not distinguish them at first. I knew well enough once, but I have forgotten. If I had leave, I would tell you willingly: it is written in the Register at Poitiers.[[31]] I have also received comfort from Saint Michael.”
“Which of these two appearances came to you first?”
“Saint Michael.”
“Is it a long time since you first heard the voice of Saint Michael?”
“I did not say anything to you about the voice of Saint Michael; I say I have had great comfort from him.”
“What was the first Voice that came to you when you were about thirteen?”
“It was Saint Michael: I saw him before my eyes; he was not alone, but quite surrounded by the Angels of Heaven. I came into France only by the order of God.”
“Did you see Saint Michael and these Angels bodily and in reality?”
“I saw them with my bodily eyes as well as I see you; when they went from me, I wept. I should have liked to be taken away with them.”
“And what was Saint Michael like?”
“You will have no more answer from me; and I am not yet free to tell you.”
“What did Saint Michael say to you this first time?”
“You will have no more answer about it from me to-day. My Voices said to me, ‘Reply boldly.’ Once I told the King all that had been revealed to me, because it concerned him; but I am no longer free to reveal to you all that Saint Michael said to me.” [To Maître Beaupère:] “I wish you could get a copy of this book at Poitiers, if it please God.”
“Have your Voices forbidden you to make known your revelations without leave from them?”
“I will answer you no more about it. On all that I have leave, I will answer willingly. I have not quite understood if my Voices have forbidden me to answer.”
“What sign do you give that you have this revelation from God, and that it is Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret that talk with you?”
“I have told you that it is they; believe me if you will.”
“Are you forbidden to say?”
“I have not quite understood if this is forbidden or not.”
“How can you make sure of distinguishing such things as you are free to tell, from those which are forbidden?”
“On some points I have asked leave, and on others I have obtained it. I would rather have been torn asunder by four horses than have come into France without God’s leave.”
“Was it God who prescribed to you the dress of a man?”
“What concerns this dress is a small thing—less than nothing. I did not take it by the advice of any man in the world. I did not take this dress or do anything but by the command of Our Lord and of the Angels.”
“Did it appear to you that this command to take man’s dress was lawful?”
“All I have done is by Our Lord’s command. If I had been told to take some other, I should have done it; because it would have been His command.”
“Did you not take this garment by order of Robert de Baudricourt?”
“No.”
“Do you think it was well to take a man’s dress?”
“All that I have done by the order of Our Lord I think has been well done; I look for good surety and good help in it.”
“In this particular case, this taking of man’s dress, do you think you did well?”
“I have done nothing in the world but by the order of God.”
“When you saw this Voice coming to you, was there a light?”
“There was plenty of light everywhere, as was seemly.” [Addressing herself to Maître Beaupère:] “It does not all come to you!”
“Was there an angel over the head of your King when you saw him for the first time?”
“By Our Lady! if there were, I know nothing of it; I did not see it.”
“Was there a light?”
“There were more than three hundred Knights and more than fifty torches, without counting the spiritual light.”
“Why was your King able to put faith in your words?”
“He had good signs, and the clergy bore me witness.”
“What revelations has your King had?”
“You will not have them from me this year. During three weeks I was questioned by the clergy at Chinon and at Poitiers. Before he was willing to believe me, the King had a sign of my mission; and the clergy of my party were of opinion that there was nothing but good in my mission.”
“Have you been to Saint Catherine de Fierbois?”[[32]]
“Yes, and I heard there three Masses in one day. Afterwards, I went to the Castle of Chinon, whence I sent letters to the King, to know if I should be allowed to see him; saying, that I had travelled a hundred and fifty leagues to come to his help, and that I knew many things good for him. I think I remember there was in my letter the remark that I should recognize him among all others. I had a sword I had taken at Vaucouleurs. Whilst I was at Tours, or at Chinon, I sent to seek for a sword which was in the Church of Saint Catherine de Fierbois, behind the altar; it was found there at once; the sword was in the ground, and rusty; upon it were five crosses; I knew by my Voice where it was. I had never seen the man who went to seek for it. I wrote to the Priests of the place, that it might please them to let me have this sword, and they sent it to me. It was under the earth, not very deeply buried, behind the altar, so it seemed to me: I do not know exactly if it were before or behind the altar, but I believe I wrote saying that it was at the back. As soon as it was found, the Priests of the Church rubbed it, and the rust fell off at once without effort. It was an armourer of Tours who went to look for it. The Priests of Fierbois made me a present of a scabbard; those of Tours, of another; one was of crimson velvet, the other of cloth-of-gold. I had a third made of leather, very strong. When I was taken prisoner I had not got this sword. I always bore the sword of Fierbois from the time I had it up to my departure from Saint-Denis,[[33]] after the attack on Paris.”
“What blessing did you invoke, or have invoked, on this sword?”
“I neither blessed it, nor had it blessed: I should not have known how to set about it. I cared very much for this sword, because it had been found in the Church of Saint Catherine, whom I love so much.”
“Have you been at Coulange-les-Vineuses?”[[34]]
“I do not know.”
“Have you sometimes placed your sword upon an altar; and, in so placing it, was it that your sword might be more fortunate?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Have you sometimes prayed that it might be more fortunate?”
“It is good to know that I wished my armour might have good fortune!”
“Had you your sword when you were taken prisoner?”
“No, I had one which had been taken on a Burgundian.”
“Where was the sword of Fierbois left?”
“I offered at Saint-Denis a sword and armour;[[35]] but it was not this sword. I had that at Lagny; from Lagny to Compiègne, I bore the sword of this Burgundian; it was a good sword for fighting—very good for giving stout buffets and hard clouts. To tell what became of the other sword does not concern this Case, and I will not answer about it now. My brothers have all my goods—my horses,[[36]] my sword, so far as I know, and the rest, which are worth more than twelve thousand crowns.”
“When you were at Orleans, had you a standard, or banner;[[37]] and of what colour was it?”
“I had a banner of which the field was sprinkled with lilies; the world was painted there, with an angel at each side; it was white, of the white cloth called ‘boccassin’; there was written above, I believe, ‘Jhesus Maria’; it was fringed with silk.”
“The words ‘Jhesus Maria’ were they written above, below, or on the side?”
“At the side, I believe.”
“Which did you care for most, your banner or your sword?”
“Better, forty times better, my banner than my sword!”
“Who made you get this painting done upon your banner?”
“I have told you often enough, that I had nothing done but by the command of God. It was I, myself, who bore this banner, when I attacked the enemy, to save killing any one, for I have never killed any one.”
“What force did your King give you when he set you to work?”
“He gave me ten or twelve thousand men. First, I went to Orleans, to the fortress of Saint Loup, and afterwards to that of the Bridge.”
“Which fortress was being attacked when you made your men retire?”
“I do not remember. I was quite certain of raising the siege of Orleans; I had revelation of it. I told this to the King before going there.”
“Before the assault, did you not tell your followers that you alone would receive the arrows, cross-bolts, and stones, thrown by the machines and cannons?”
“No; a hundred and even more of my people were wounded. I had said to them: ‘Be fearless, and you will raise the siege.’ Then, in the attack on the Bridge fortress, I was wounded in the neck by an arrow or cross-bolt;[[38]] but I had great comfort from Saint Catherine, and was cured in less than a fortnight. I did not interrupt for this either my riding or work. I knew quite well that I should be wounded; I had told the King so, but that, notwithstanding, I should go on with my work. This had been revealed to me by the Voices of my two Saints,[[39]] the blessed Catherine and the blessed Margaret. It was I who first planted a ladder against the fortress of the Bridge, and it was in raising this ladder that I was wounded in the neck by this cross-bolt.”
“Why did you not accept the treaty with the Captain of Jargeau?”[[40]]
“It was the Lords of my party who answered the English that they should not have the fortnight’s delay which they asked, telling them that they were to retire at once, they and their horses. As for me, I told them of Jargeau to retire if they wished, with their doublets,[[41]] and their lives safe; if not, they would be taken by assault.”
“Had you any revelation from your counsel, that is to say from your Voices, to know whether it was right or not to give this fortnight’s respite?”
“I do not remember.”
At this point, the rest of the enquiry hath been postponed to another day. We have fixed for Thursday the next Meeting, at the same place.
Thursday, March 1st, in the same place, the Bishop and 58 Assessors present.
In their presence, We summoned and required Jeanne simply and absolutely to take her oath to speak the truth on that which should be asked her.
“I am ready,” she replied, “as I have already declared to you, to speak the truth on all I know touching this Case; but I know many things which do not touch on this Case, and of which there is no need to speak to you. I will speak willingly and in all truth on all which touches this Case.”
We again summoned and required her; and she replied:
“What I know in truth touching the Case, I will tell willingly.”
And in this wise did she swear, her hands on the Holy Gospels. Then she said:
“On what I know touching the Case, I will speak the truth willingly; I will tell you as much as I would to the Pope of Rome, if I were before him.”
Then she was examined as follows:
“What do you say of our Lord the Pope? and whom do you believe to be the true Pope?”
“Are there two of them?”
“Did you not receive a letter from the Count d’Armagnac, asking you which of the three Pontiffs[[42]] he ought to obey?”
“The Count did in fact write to me on this subject. I replied, among other things, that when I should be at rest, in Paris or elsewhere, I would give him an answer. I was just at that moment mounting my horse when I sent this reply.”
At this juncture, We ordered to be read the copy of the Count’s letter and of Jeanne’s reply, which are thus expressed:
“My very dear Lady—I humbly commend myself to you, and pray, for God’s sake, that, considering the divisions which are at this present time in the Holy Church Universal on the question of the Popes, for there are now three contending for the Papacy—one residing at Rome, calling himself Martin V., whom all Christian Kings obey; another, living at Paniscole, in the Kingdom of Valence, who calls himself Clement VII.; the third, no one knows where he lives, unless it be the Cardinal Saint Etienne and some few people with him, but he calls himself Pope Benedict XIV. The first, who styles himself Pope Martin, was elected at Constance with the consent of all Christian nations; he who is called Clement was elected at Paniscole, after the death of Pope Benedict XIII., by three of his Cardinals; the third, who dubs himself Benedict XIV., was elected secretly at Paniscole, even by the Cardinal Saint Etienne. You will have the goodness to pray Our Saviour Jesus Christ that by His infinite Mercy He may by you declare to us which of the three named is Pope in truth, and whom it pleases Him that we should obey, now and henceforward, whether he who is called Martin, he who is called Clement, or he who is called Benedict; and in whom we are to believe, if secretly, or by any dissembling, or publicly; for we are all ready to do the will and pleasure of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Yours in all things,
“Count d’Armagnac.”
Jeanne’s Reply.
“Jhesus Maria.
“Count d’Armagnac, my very good and dear friend, I, Jeanne, the Maid, acquaint you that your message has come before me, which tells me that you have sent at once to know from me which of the three Popes, mentioned in your memorial, you should believe. This thing I cannot tell you truly at present, until I am at rest in Paris or elsewhere; for I am now too much hindered by affairs of war; but when you hear that I am in Paris, send a message to me and I will inform you in truth whom you should believe, and what I shall know by the counsel of my Righteous and Sovereign Lord, the King of all the World, and of what you should do to the extent of my power. I commend you to God. May God have you in His keeping! Written at Compiègne, August 22nd.”
Then the Enquiry proceeded thus:
“Is this really the reply that you made?”
“I deem that I might have made this answer in part, but not all.”
“Did you say that you might know, by the counsel of the King of Kings, what the Count should hold on this subject?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Had you any doubt about whom the Count should obey?”
“I did not know how to inform him on this question, as to whom he should obey, because the Count himself asked to know whom God wished him to obey. But for myself, I hold and believe that we should obey our Lord the Pope who is in Rome. I told the messenger of the Count some things which are not in this copy; and, if the messenger had not gone off immediately, he would have been thrown into the water—not by me, however. As to the Count’s enquiry, desiring to know whom God wished him to obey, I answered that I did not know; but I sent him messages on several things which have not been put in writing. As for me, I believe in our Lord the Pope who is at Rome.”
“Why did you write that you would give an answer elsewhere if you believed in the Pope who is at Rome?”
“That answer had reference to other things than the matter of the sovereign Pontiffs.”
“Did you say that on the matter of the three sovereign Pontiffs you would have counsel?”
“I never wrote nor gave command to write on the matter of the three sovereign Pontiffs.” And this answer she supported by oath.
“Are you in the habit of putting the Names ‘Jhesus Maria,’ with a cross, at the top of your letters?”
“On some I put it, on others not; sometimes I put a cross as a sign for those of my party to whom I wrote so that they should not do as the letters said.”
Here a letter was read from Jeanne to our Lord the King, to the Duke of Bedford, and others, of the following tenour:—
“Jhesus Maria.
“King of England; and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself Regent of the Kingdom of France; you, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk; John, Lord Talbot; and you, Thomas, Lord Scales, who call yourselves Lieutenants to the said Duke of Bedford: give satisfaction to the King of Heaven: give up to the Maid, who is sent hither by God, the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good towns in France which you have taken and broken into. She is come here by the order of God to reclaim the Blood Royal. She is quite ready to make peace, if you are willing to give her satisfaction, by giving and paying back to France what you have taken. And as for you, archers, companions-in-arms, gentlemen and others who are before the town of Orleans, return to your own countries, by God’s order; and if this be not done, then hear the message of the Maid, who will shortly come upon you, to your very great hurt. King of England, I am a Chieftain of war and, if this be not done, wheresoever I find your followers in France, I will make them leave, willingly or unwillingly; if they will not obey, I will have them put to death. I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven, body for body, to drive them all out of the whole of France. And if they will obey, I will have mercy on them. And do not think in yourselves that you will get possession of the realm of France from God the King of Heaven, Son of the Blessed Mary; for King Charles will gain it, the true heir: for God, the King of Heaven, so wills it, and it is revealed to him [the King] by the Maid, and he will enter Paris with a good company. If you will not believe the message of God and of the Maid and act aright, in whatsoever place we find you we will enter therein and make so great a disturbance that for a thousand years none in France will be so great. And believe surely that the King of Heaven will send greater power to the Maid, to her and her good men-at-arms, than you can bring to the attack; and, when it comes to blows, we shall see who has the better right from the God of Heaven. You, Duke of Bedford, the Maid prays and enjoins you, that you do not come to grievous hurt. If you will give her satisfactory pledges, you may yet join with her, so that the French may do the fairest deed that has ever yet been done for Christendom. And answer, if you wish to make peace in the City of Orleans; if this be not done, you may be shortly reminded of it, to your very great hurt. Written this Tuesday in Holy Week, March 22nd, 1428.”
“Do you know this letter?”
“Yes, excepting three words. In place of ‘give up to the Maid,’ it should be ‘give up to the King.’ The words ‘Chieftain of war’ and ‘body for body’ were not in the letter I sent. None of the Lords ever dictated these letters to me; it was I myself alone who dictated them before sending them. Nevertheless, I always shewed them to some of my party. Before seven years are passed, the English will lose a greater wager than they have already done at Orleans; they will lose everything in France.[[43]] The English will have in France a greater loss than they have ever had, and that by a great victory which God will send to the French.”
“How do you know this?”
“I know it well by revelation, which has been made to me, and that this will happen within seven years; and I am sore vexed that it is deferred so long. I know it by revelation, as clearly as I know that you are before me at this moment.”
“When will this happen?”
“I know neither the day nor the hour.”
“In what year will it happen?”
“You will not have any more. Nevertheless, I heartily wish it might be before Saint John’s Day.”
“Did you not say that this would happen before Martinmas, in winter?”
“I said that before Martinmas many things would be seen, and that the English might perhaps be overthrown.”[[44]]
“What did you say to John Gris, your keeper, on the subject of the Feast of Saint Martin?”
“I have told you.”
“Through whom did you know that this would happen?”
“Through Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.”
“Was Saint Gabriel with Saint Michael when he came to you?”
“I do not remember.”
“Since last Tuesday, have you had any converse with Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret?”
“Yes, but I do not know at what time.”
“What day?”
“Yesterday and to-day; there is never a day that I do not hear them.”
“Do you always see them in the same dress?”
“I see them always under the same form, and their heads are richly crowned. I do not speak of the rest of their clothing: I know nothing of their dresses.”
“How do you know whether the object that appears to you is male or female?”
“I know well enough. I recognize them by their voices, as they revealed themselves to me; I know nothing but by the revelation and order of God.”
“What part of their heads do you see?”
“The face.”
“These saints who shew themselves to you, have they any hair?”
“It is well to know they have.”
“Is there anything between their crowns and their hair?”
“No.”
“Is their hair long and hanging down?”
“I know nothing about it. I do not know if they have arms or other members. They speak very well and in very good language; I hear them very well.”
“How do they speak if they have no members?”
“I refer me to God. The voice is beautiful, sweet, and low; it speaks in the French tongue.”
“Does not Saint Margaret speak English?”
“Why should she speak English, when she is not on the English side?”
“On these crowned heads, were there rings?—in the ears or elsewhere?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Have you any rings yourself?”
[Addressing herself to Us, the Bishop:] “You have one of mine; give it back to me. The Burgundians have another of them. I pray you, if you have my ring, shew it to me.”
“Who gave you the ring which the Burgundians [now] have?”
“My father or my mother. I think the Names ‘Jhesus Maria’ are engraved on it. I do not know who had them written there; there is not, I should say, any stone in the ring; it was given to me at Domremy. It was my brother who gave me the other—the one you have.” [Continuing to address herself to Us, the Bishop:] “I charge you to give it to the Church. I never cured any one with any of my rings.”
“Did Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret speak to you under the tree of which mention has been made?”
“I know nothing of it.”
“Did they speak to you at the spring, which is near the tree?”
“Yes, I have heard them there; but what they said then, I do not know.”
“What did they promise you, there or elsewhere?”
“They have never promised me anything, except by God’s leave.”
“But still, what promises have they made to you?”
“That is not in your Case: not at all. Upon other subjects, they told me that my King would be reestablished in his Kingdom, whether his enemies willed it or no; they told me also that they would lead me to Paradise: I begged it of them, indeed.”
“Did you have any other promise from them?”
“There was another, but I will not tell it; that does not touch on the Case. In three months I will tell you the other promise.”
“Have your Voices said that before three months you will be delivered from prison?”
“That is not in your Case. Nevertheless I do not know when I shall be delivered. But those who wish to send me out of the world may well go before me.”
“Has not your counsel told you that you will be delivered from your actual prison?”
“Speak to me in three months, and I will answer. Moreover, ask of those present, upon oath, if this touches on the Trial.”
We, the said Bishop, did then take the opinion of those present: and all considered that this did touch on the Trial.
“I have already told you, you shall not know all. One day I must be delivered. But I wish to have leave to tell you the day: it is for this I ask delay.”
“Have your Voices forbidden you to speak the truth?”
“Do you want me to tell you what concerns the King of France? There are a number of things that do not touch on the Case. I know well that my King will regain the Kingdom of France. I know it as well as I know that you are before me, seated in judgment. I should die if this revelation did not comfort me every day.”
“What have you done with your mandrake?”[[45]]
“I never have had one. But I have heard that there is one near our home, though I have never seen it. I have heard it is a dangerous and evil thing to keep. I do not know for what it is [used].”
“Where is this mandrake of which you have heard?”
“I have heard that it is in the earth, near the tree of which I spoke before; but I do not know the place. Above this mandrake, there was, it is said, a hazel tree.”
“What have you heard said was the use of this mandrake?”
“To make money come; but I do not believe it. My Voice never spoke to me of that.”
“In what likeness did Saint Michael appear to you?”
“I did not see a crown: I know nothing of his dress.”
“Was he naked?”
“Do you think God has not wherewithal to clothe him?”
“Had he hair?”
“Why should it have been cut off? I have not seen Saint Michael since I left the Castle of Crotoy. I do not see him often. I do not know if he has hair.”
“Has he a balance?”[[46]]
“I know nothing about it. It was a great joy to see him; it seemed to me, when I saw him, that I was not in mortal sin. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret were pleased from time to time to receive my confession, each in turn. If I am in mortal sin, it is without my knowing it.”
“When you confessed, did you think you were in mortal sin?”
“I do not know if I am in mortal sin, and I do not believe I have done its works; and, if it please God, I will never so be; nor, please God, have I ever done or ever will do deeds which charge my soul!”
“What sign did you give your King that you came from God?”
“I have always answered that you will not drag this from my lips. Go and ask it of him.”
“Have you sworn not to reveal what shall be asked of you touching the Trial?”
“I have already told you that I will tell you nothing of what concerns my King. Thereon I will not speak.”
“Do you not know the sign that you gave to the King?”
“You will not know it from me.”
“But this touches on the Trial.”
“Of what I have promised to keep secret, I will tell you nothing. I have already said, even here, that I could not tell you without perjury.”
“To whom have you promised this?”
“To Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; and this hath been shewn to the King. I promised them, without their asking it of me, of my own free-will, of myself, because too many people might have questioned me had I not promised it to my Saints.”
“When you shewed your sign to the King, were you alone with him?”
“I do not take account of any one else, although there were many people near.”
“When you shewed this sign to the King, did you see a crown on his head?”
“I cannot tell you without perjury.”
“Had your King a crown at Rheims?”
“I think my King took with joy the crown that he had at Rheims; but another, much richer, would have been given him later. He acted thus to hurry on his work, at the request of the people of the town of Rheims, to avoid too long a charge upon them of the soldiers. If he had waited, he would have had a crown a thousand times more rich.”
“Have you seen this richer crown?”
“I cannot tell you without incurring perjury; and, though I have not seen it, I have heard that it is rich and valuable to a degree.”
This done, we put an end to the interrogation and postponed the remainder to Saturday next, 8 o’clock in the morning, in the same place, summoning all the Assessors to be present.
Saturday, March 3rd, in the same place, the Bishop and 41 Assessors present.
In their presence, We required the said Jeanne simply and absolutely to swear to speak the truth on what should be asked of her. She replied:
“I am ready to swear as I have already done.”
And thus did she swear, her hands on the Holy Gospels.
Afterwards, because she had said, in previous Enquiries, that Saint Michael had wings, but had said nothing of the body and members of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, We asked her what she wished to say thereon.
“I have told you what I know; I will answer you nothing more. I saw Saint Michael and these two Saints so well that I know they are Saints of Paradise.”
“Did you see anything else of them but the face?”
“I have told you what I know; but to tell you all I know, I would rather that you made me cut my throat. All that I know touching the Trial I will tell you willingly.”
“Do you think that Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel have human heads?”
“I saw them with my eyes; and I believe it was they as firmly as I believe there is a God.”
“Do you think that God made them in the form and fashion that you saw?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think that God did from the first create them in this form and fashion?”
“You will have no more at present than what I have answered.”
“Do you know by revelation if you will escape?”
“That does not touch on your Case. Do you wish me to speak against myself?”
“Have your Voices told you anything?”
“That is not in your Case. I refer me to the Case. If all concerned you, I would tell you all. By my faith, I know neither the day nor the hour that I shall escape!”
“Have your Voices told you anything in a general way?”
“Yes, truly, they have told me that I shall be delivered, but I know neither the day nor the hour. They said to me: ‘Be of good courage and keep a cheerful countenance.’”
“When you first came to the King, did he ask you if you had any revelation about your change of dress?”
“I have answered you about that. I do not remember if I was asked. It is written at Poitiers.”
“Do you not remember if the Masters who questioned you in the other Consistory, some during a month, others during three weeks, questioned you about your change of dress?”
“I do not remember. But they asked me where I had assumed this man’s dress; and I told them it was at Vaucouleurs.”
“Did the aforesaid Masters ask you if it were by order of your Voice that you took this dress?”
“I do not remember.”
“Did not your Queen[[47]] ask you, the first time you went to visit her?”
“I do not remember.”
“Did not your King, your Queen, or some of your party, tell you to take off this man’s dress?”
“That is not in your Case.”
“Were you not so told at the Castle of Beaurevoir?”[[48]]
[Here commences the French Version, or Minute, which is collated with the Latin Text.]
“Yes, truly; and I answered that I would not take it off without leave from God. The Demoiselle de Luxembourg[[49]] and the Lady de Beaurevoir[[50]] offered me a woman’s dress, or cloth to make one, telling me to wear it. I answered them that I had not leave from Our Lord, and that it was not yet time.”
“Did Messire Jean de Pressy[[51]] and others at Arras never offer you a woman’s dress?”
“He and many others have oftentimes offered it to me.”
“Do you think that you would have done wrong or committed mortal sin by taking a woman’s dress?”
“I did better to obey and serve my Sovereign Lord, who is God. Had I dared to do it, I would sooner have done it at the request of these ladies than of any other ladies in France, excepting my Queen.”
“When God revealed it to you that you should change your dress, was it by the voice of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, or Saint Margaret?”
“You shall not have anything more at present.”
“When your King first set you to work, and when you had your banner made, did not the men-at-arms and others have their pennons made in the style of yours?”
“It is well to know that the Lords retained their own arms. Some of my companions-in-arms had them made at their pleasure; others not.”
“Of what material did they have them made? Of linen or of cloth?”
“It was of white satin; and on some there were fleur-de-lys. In my company I had only two or three lances. But my companions-in-arms now and then had them made like mine. They only did this to know their men from others.”
“Did they often renew these pennons?”
“I do not know. When the lances were broken, they had new ones made.”
“Have you sometimes said that the pennons which were like yours would be fortunate?”
“I sometimes said to my followers: ‘Go in boldly among the English!’ and I myself did likewise.”
“Did you tell them to carry themselves boldly, and they would be fortunate?”
“I have certainly told them what has happened and what will yet happen.”
“Did you put, or did you ever cause to be put, Holy Water on the pennons when they were carried for the first time?”
“I know nothing of it; and if that were done, it was not by my order.”
“Did you never see any sprinkled?”
“That is not in your Case. If I ever did see any sprinkled, I am advised not to answer about it.”
“Did your companions-in-arms never put on their pennons ‘Jhesus Maria’?”
“By my faith! I do not know.”
“Have you not yourself carried cloth, or caused it to be carried, in procession round an altar or a church, and afterwards employed this cloth for pennons?”
“No; and I never saw it done.”
“When you were before Jargeau, what did you bear at the back of your helmet? Was it not something round?”[[52]]
“By my faith! there was nothing.”
“Did you ever know Brother Richard?”[[53]]
“I had not seen him when I came before Troyes.”
“What countenance did Brother Richard give you?”
“I suppose after the fashion of the town of Troyes who sent him to me, saying that they feared Jeanne was not a thing that came to them from God. When he approached me, Brother Richard made the sign of the Cross and sprinkled Holy Water; and I said to him: ‘Approach boldly, I shall not fly away!’”
“Have you never seen, nor had made, any images or picture of yourself and in your likeness?”
“I saw at Arras a painting[[54]] in the hands of a Scot: it was like me. I was represented fully armed, presenting a letter to my King, one knee on the ground. I have never seen, nor had made, any other image or painting in my likeness.”
“In the house of your host at Orleans, was there not a picture in which was painted three women, with these words: ‘Justice, Peace, Union’?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Do you not know that the people of your party had services, masses, and prayers offered for you?”
“I know nothing of it; if they had any service, it was not by my order; but if they prayed for me, my opinion is they did not do ill.”
“Did those of your party firmly believe that you were sent from God?”
“I do not know if they believed it, and in this I refer to their own feeling in this matter. But even though they do not believe, yet am I sent from God.”
“Do you not think they have a good belief, if they believe this?”
“If they think that I am sent from God, they will not be deceived.”
“In what spirit did the people of your party kiss your hands and your garments?”
“Many came to see me willingly, but they kissed my hands as little as I could help. The poor folk came to me readily, because I never did them any unkindness: on the contrary, I loved to help them.”
“What honour did the people of Troyes do you on your entry?”
“None at all. Brother Richard, so far as I remember, entered at the same time as I and our people; I do not recall seeing him at the entry.”
“Did he not preach a sermon on your arrival in the town?”
“I did not stop there at all, and did not even sleep there: I know nothing of his sermon.”
“Were you many days at Rheims?”
“We were there, I believe, five or six days.”
“Did you not act there as Godmother?” [“lever d’enfant.”]
“At Troyes I did, to one child. At Rheims, I do not remember it, nor at Château-Thierry. I was Godmother twice at Saint-Denis, in France. Usually, I gave to the boys the name of Charles, in honour of my King; and to the girls, Jeanne. At other times, I gave such names as pleased the mothers.”
“Did not the good women of the town touch with their rings that which you wore on your finger?”
“Many women touched my hands and my rings; but I know nothing of their feelings nor their intention.”
“Who of your people, before Château-Thierry, caught butterflies in your standard?”
RHEIMS CATHEDRAL.
CHURCH OF SAINT REMY.
“My people never did such a thing: it is your side who have invented it.”
“What did you do at Rheims with the gloves with which your King was consecrated?”
“There were favours of gloves for the knights and nobles at Rheims. There was one who lost his gloves; I did not say he would find them again. My standard has been in the Church of Rheims; and it seems to me it was near the altar.[[55]] I myself bore it for a space there. I do not know if Brother Richard held it.”
“When you were going through the country, did you often receive the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist in the good towns?”
“Yes, from time to time.”
“Did you receive the said Sacraments in man’s dress?”
“Yes; but I do not remember ever to have received them armed.”
“Why did you take the horse of the Bishop of Senlis?”
“It was bought for 200 saluts.[[56]] If he received these 200 saluts, I do not know. There was a place fixed at which they were to be paid. I wrote to him that he might have his horse back if he wished; as for me, I did not wish it, because it was worth nothing for weight-carrying.”
“How old was the child you visited at Lagny?”
“The child was three days old. It was brought before the image of Our Lady. They told me that the young girls of the village were before this image, and that I might wish to go also and pray God and Our Lady to give life to this infant. I went and prayed with them. At last, life returned to the child, who yawned three times, and was then baptized; soon after, it died, and was buried in consecrated ground. It was three days, they said, since life had departed from the child; it was as black as my coat; when it yawned, the colour began to return to it. I was with the other young girls, praying and kneeling before Our Lady.”
“Did they not say in the village that it was done through you, and at your prayer?”
“I did not enquire about it.”
“Have you ever seen or known Catherine de La Rochelle?”
“Yes, at Jargeau and at Montfaucon in Berry.”
“Did not Catherine shew you a lady, robed in white, who, she said, sometimes appeared to her?”
“No.”
“What did this Catherine say to you?”
“That a white lady came to her, dressed in cloth-of-gold, who told her to go through the good cities with heralds and trumpets which the King would give to her, and proclaim that any one who had gold, silver, or any concealed treasure should bring it immediately: that those who did not do so, and who had anything hidden, she would know, and would be able to discover the treasure. With these treasures, she told me, she would pay my men-at-arms. I told Catherine that she should return to her husband, look after her home, and bring up her children. And in order to have some certainty as to her mission, I spoke of it, either to Saint Catherine or to Saint Margaret, who told me that the mission of this Catherine was mere folly and nothing else. I wrote to the King as to what he should do about it; and, when I afterwards went to him, I told him that this mission of Catherine was only folly and nothing more. Nevertheless, Brother Richard wished to set her to work; therefore were they both displeased with me,—Brother Richard and she.”
“Did you never speak with the said Catherine on the project of going to La Charité-sur-Loire?”
“She did not advise me to go there: it was too cold, and she would not go. She told me she wished to visit the Duke of Burgundy in order to make peace. I told her it seemed to me that peace would be found only at the end of the lance. I asked her if this white lady who appeared to her came to her every night? and I said that, to see her, I would sleep one night with her in the same bed. I went to bed; I watched till midnight; I saw nothing, and then went to sleep. When morning came, I asked her if the White Lady had come. ‘Yes, Jeanne,’ she answered me, ‘while you were asleep she came; and I could not awaken you.’ Then I asked her if she would come again the following night. ‘Yes,’ she told me. For this reason I slept by day that I might be able to watch the night following. I went to bed with Catherine; watched all the night following: but saw nothing, although I asked her often, ‘Will she never come?’ and she always answered me, ‘Yes, in a moment.’”
“What did you do in the trenches of La Charité?”[[57]]
“I made an assault there; but I neither threw, nor caused to be thrown, Holy Water by way of aspersion.”
“Why did you not enter La Charité, if you had command from God to do so?”
“Who told you I had God’s command for it?”
“Did you not have counsel of your Voice?”
“I wished to go into France. The men-at-arms told me it was better to go first to La Charité.”
“Were you a long time in the Tower at Beaurevoir?”
“About four months. When I knew that the English were come to take me, I was very angry; nevertheless, my Voices forbade me many times to leap. In the end, for fear of the English, I leaped, and commended myself to God and Our Lady. I was wounded. When I had leaped, the Voice of Saint Catherine said to me I was to be of good cheer,[[58]] for those at Compiègne would have succour. I prayed always for those at Compiègne, with my Counsel.”
“What did you say when you had leaped?”
“Some said I was dead. As soon as the Burgundians saw I was alive, they reproached me with having leapt.”
“Did you not say then, that you would rather die than be in the hands of the English?”
“I said I would rather give up my soul to God than be in the hands of the English.”
“Were you not then very angry, to the extent of blaspheming the Name of God?”
“Never have I cursed any of the Saints; and it is not my habit to swear.”
“On the subject of Soissons[[59]] and the Captain who surrendered the town, did you not blaspheme God, and say, if you got hold of this Captain you would have him cut in quarters?”
“I have never blasphemed any of the Saints; those who say so have misunderstood.”
This done, Jeanne was conducted back to the place which had been assigned as her prison.
Nine Private Examinations.
The Bishop decrees that the Enquiries, if any are thought necessary, shall henceforth be made in private.
Afterwards, We, the Bishop, did say that, in pursuing this Process and without in any way discontinuing it, We would call before Us some Doctors and Masters, experts in law, religious and civil, in order, by them, to gather up and collect what shall seem to them of a nature to be gathered up and collected, in Jeanne’s Declarations, as these have already been established by her own answers set down in writing. Their labour ended, if there should remain any points, on the which it would seem Jeanne should submit to more full enquiry, We will make, for this supplementary examination, choice of certain Doctors; and in this manner We shall not fatigue all and each of the Masters, who, at this moment, assist Us in such great numbers. These new enquiries shall also be put into writing, in order that the above-named Doctors and other approved men of science may deliberate and furnish their opinion and advice at the right moment. In the meantime, We invite all the Assessors to study at home the Process, and what they have already gathered from it; to search out the consequences of which the affair is susceptible; and to submit the result of their deliberations either to Us, or to the Doctors who shall be appointed by Us—if they do not prefer rather to reserve themselves for the time and place when they shall have deliberated in full maturity; and to give their opinion on full knowledge of the Process.
In the meantime, We expressly forbid all and each to leave Rouen without Our permission before the full completion of the Process.
Meeting at the Bishop’s House of several Doctors.
Sunday, March 4th, and the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of the same month, We, the Bishop, assembled in Our dwelling, many grave Doctors-and Masters-in-law, sacred and civil, who were charged by Us to collect all that has been confessed or answered by Jeanne in these Enquiries, and to extract therefrom the points on which she answered in an incomplete manner, and which seem to these Doctors susceptible of further examination. This double work having been effected by them, We, the said Bishop, by the advice of the said Doctors, decide that there is occasion to proceed to further enquiries. But because Our numerous occupations do not permit Us to attend ourselves,[[60]] we appoint, to proceed therein, the venerable and discreet person, Jean Delafontaine, Master of Arts and Licentiate in Canon Law, who will interrogate the said Jeanne in Our name. We have for this appointed the 9th March, in presence of the Doctors and Masters, Jean Beaupère, Jacques de Touraine, Nicolas Midi, Pierre Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles, Nicolas Loyseleur, and Guillaume Manchon.
Saturday, March 10th, We, the Bishop, repaired to the part of the Castle of Rouen given to Jeanne as a prison, where, being assisted by Maître Jean Delafontaine, the Commissary appointed by Us, and by the venerable Doctors and Masters in Theology, Nicolas Midi, and Gerard Feuillet (witnesses, Jean Fécard, Advocate; and Maître Jean Massieu, Priest), We summoned Jeanne to make and take oath to speak the truth on what should be asked of her. She replied:
“I promise to speak truth on what touches your Case; but the more you constrain me to swear, the later will I tell you.”
Afterwards, the examination of Jeanne by Maître Jean Delafontaine took place as follows:
“On the faith of the oath you have just taken, from whence had you started when you went the last time to Compiègne?”
“From Crespy, in Valois.”
“When you were at Compiègne, were you several days before you made your sally or attack?”
“I arrived there secretly early in the morning,[[61]] and entered the town without the enemy knowing anything of it; and that same day, in the evening, I made the sally in which I was taken.”
“When you made your sally, did they ring the bells?”
“If they did ring them it was not by my order or knowledge; I do not think it was so, and I do not remember to have said they rang.”
“Did you make this sally by command of your Voice?”
“During the Easter week of last year, being in the trenches of Melun, it was told me by my Voices—that is to say, by Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret—‘Thou wilt be taken before Saint John’s Day; and so it must be: do not torment thyself about it: be resigned; God will help thee.’”
“Before this occasion at Melun, had not your Voices ever told you that you would be taken?”
“Yes, many times and nearly every day. And I asked of my Voices that, when I should be taken, I might die soon, without long suffering in prison; and they said to me: ‘Be resigned to all—thus it must be.’ But they did not tell me the time; and if I had known it, I should not have gone. Often I asked to know the hour: they never told me.”
“Did your Voices command you to make this sally from Compiègne, and signify that you would be taken if you went?”
“If I had known the hour when I should be taken, I should never have gone of mine own free-will; I should always have obeyed their commands in the end, whatever might happen to me.”
“When you made this sally from Compiègne had you any Voice or revelation about making it?”
“That day I did not know at all that I should be taken, and I had no other command to go forth; but they had always told me it was necessary for me to be taken prisoner.”
“When you made this sally, did you pass by the Bridge of Compiègne?”
“I passed by the bridge and the boulevard, and went with the company of followers of my side against the followers of my Lord of Luxembourg. I drove them back twice against the camp of the Burgundians, and the third time, to the middle of the highway. The English who were there then cut off the road from me and my people, between us and the boulevard. For this reason, my followers retreated, and, in retreating towards the fields, on the Picardy side, near the boulevard, I was taken. Between Compiègne and the place where I was taken there is nothing but the stream and the boulevard with its ditch.”
“Did you not have on the banner you carried a representation of the world, painted with two angels, etc.?”
“Yes; and I had no other.”
“What did this signify, to paint God holding the world, and these angels?”
THE BATTLE OF HERRINGS.
From a French Manuscript of the XVth Century.
THE MAID TAKEN PRISONER.
“Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret told me that I was to take my banner and to carry it boldly, and to have painted on it the King of Heaven. I told my King, much against my will: that is all I can tell of the signification of this painting.”
“Have you not a shield and arms?”
“I never had one; but my King has granted arms to my brothers,—that is to say, a shield azure, two fleurs-de-lys of gold, and a sword betwixt. These arms I described in this town to a painter, because he asked what arms I bore. The King gave them to my brothers, [to please[[62]] them,] without request from me and without revelation.”
“Had you, when you were taken, a horse, charger, or hackney?”
“I was on horseback; the one which I was riding when I was taken was a demi-charger.”
“Who had given you this horse?”
“My King, or his people, from the King’s money. I had five chargers from the King’s money, without counting my hacks, of which I had more than seven.”
“Had you any other riches from your King besides these horses?”
“I asked nothing from my King, except good arms, good horses, and money to pay my household.”
“Had you no treasure?”
“The ten or twelve thousand I was worth is not much treasure to carry on war, very little indeed; and such goods are my brothers’, in my opinion; what I have is my King’s own money.”
“What was the sign[[63]] that came to your King when you went to him?”
“It was beautiful, honourable, and most credible; the best and richest in the world.”
“Then why will you not tell it and shew it, since you wished to have the sign[[64]] of Catherine de la Rochelle?”
“I might not have asked to know the sign of the said Catherine, had that sign been as well shewn before notable people of the Church and others, Archbishops and Bishops, as mine was before the Archbishop of Rheims and other Bishops whose names I know not. There were there also Charles de Bourbon, the Sire de la Tremouille, the Duke d’Alençon,[[65]] and many other knights, who saw and heard it as well as I see those who speak to me to-day; and, besides, I knew already, through Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, that the doings of this Catherine were as nothing.”
“Does this sign still last?”
“It is well to know it; it will last a thousand years and more. My sign is with the King’s treasure.”
“Is it gold, silver, precious stones, or a crown?”
“I will tell you nothing more about it. No man in the world could devise so rich a thing as this sign; but the sign that you need is that God may deliver me from your hands; that is the most sure sign He could send you. When I was about to start to see my King, my Voices told me: ‘Go boldly; when thou art before the King, he shall have a sure sign to receive thee and believe in thee.’”
“When the sign came to your King, what reverence did you make to it? Did it come from God?”
“I thanked Our Lord for having delivered me from the trouble that I had with the clergy of my party, who were arguing against me; and I knelt down several times. An Angel from God, and from none other, sent the sign to my King; and for this I have many times thanked Our Lord. The priests of that party ceased to attack me when they had recognized the sign.”
“The Clergy of that party then saw the sign?”
“When my King and those who were with him had seen the sign and also the Angel[[66]] that brought it, I asked my King if he were satisfied. He answered, Yes. Then I left, and went to a little chapel close by. I have since heard that, after I left, more than three hundred persons saw the said sign. For love of me and that I should not be questioned about it, God permitted certain men of my party to see the sign in reality.”
“Your King and you, did you do reverence to the Angel who brought the sign?”
“Yes; I made a salutation, knelt down, and took off my cap.”
Monday, March 12th, in the morning; in Jeanne’s prison.—Present: The Bishop, assisted by Jean Delafontaine, Commissary; Nicholas Midi and Gerard Feuillet; and as their witnesses: Thomas Fiefvet, Pasquier de Vaux, and Nicolas de Houbent.
In presence of all the above-named, We required the said Jeanne to swear to speak truth on what should be asked her.
She replied: “On what touches your Case, as I have said already, I will willingly speak truth.” And thus did she make oath.
Then, by Our order, she was questioned by Maître Jean Delafontaine:
“Did not the Angel who bore the sign to your King speak to him?”
“Yes, he spoke to him; and he told my King it was necessary that I should be set to work, so that the country might be soon relieved.”
“Was the Angel who bore the sign to your King the same Angel who had before appeared to you?”
“It is all one; and he has never failed me.”
“Has not the Angel, then, failed you with regard to the good things of this life, in that you have been taken prisoner?”
“I think, as it has pleased Our Lord, that it is for my well-being that I was taken prisoner.”
“Has your Angel never failed you in the good things of grace?”
“How can he fail me, when he comforts me every day? My comfort comes from Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.”
“Do you call them, or do they come without being called?”
“They often come without being called; and other times, if they do not come soon, I pray Our Lord to send them.”
“Have you sometimes called them without their coming?”
“I have never had need of them without having them.”
“Has Saint Denis appeared to you sometimes?”
“Not that I know.”
“When you promised Our Saviour to preserve your virginity, was it to Him that you spoke?”
“It would quite suffice that I give my promise to those who were sent by Him—that is to say, to Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.”
“Who induced you to have cited a man of the town of Toul on the question of marriage?”
“I did not have him cited; it was he, on the contrary, who had me cited; and then I swore before the Judge to speak the truth. And besides, I had promised nothing to this man. From the first time I heard my Voices, I dedicated my virginity for so long as it should please God; and I was then about thirteen years of age. My Voices told me I should win my case in this town of Toul.”
“As to your visions, did you speak of them to your Curé or to any other Churchman?”
“No; only to Robert de Baudricourt and to my King. It was not my Voices who compelled me to keep them secret; but I feared to reveal them, in dread that the Burgundians might put some hindrance in the way of my journey; and, in particular, I was afraid that my father would hinder it.”
“Do you think that you did right to go without leave from your father or mother, when you should ‘honour your father and mother’?”
“In all things I obeyed them well, except in that of the journey: but afterwards I wrote to them, and they forgave me.”
“When you left your father and mother, do you think you sinned?”
“If God commanded, it was right to obey. If God commanded it, had I had a hundred fathers and mothers, and had I been a king’s daughter, I should have gone.”
“Did you ask your Voices if you should announce your departure to your father and mother?”
“As to my father and mother, my Voices would have been quite willing I should tell them, had it not been for the trouble I should have caused them in speaking of this. As for myself, I would not have told them at any price. My Voices agreed that I might either speak to my father and mother or be silent.”
“Did you do reverence to Saint Michael and the Angels when you saw them?”
“Yes; and, after they were gone I kissed the earth where they had been.”
“Were they long with you?”
“Very often they came among the faithful [i.e., in church] without being seen; and often I saw them among the faithful.”
“Had you had any letters from Saint Michael or from your Voices?”
“I have not permission to tell you. Eight days from this, I will tell you willingly what I know.”
“Did not your Voices call you ‘Daughter of God, daughter of the Church, great-hearted daughter’?”
“Before the raising of the Siege of Orleans and every day since, when they speak to me, they call me often, ‘Jeanne the Maid, Daughter of God.’”
“Since you call yourself a daughter of God, why do you not willingly say ‘Our Father’?”
“I do say it willingly. Last time, when I refused, it was because I meant that my Lord of Beauvais should hear me in confession.”
The same day, Monday, in the afternoon, in the same place.—Present: Jean Delafontaine, Commissary; Nicolas Midi; Gerard Feuillet; Thomas Fiefvet; Pasquier de Vaux; and Nicolas de Houbent.
The said Jeanne was interrogated as follows by Our order by the said Jean Delafontaine:
“Did not your father have dreams about you before your departure?”
“When I was still with my father and mother, my mother told me many times that my father had spoken of having dreamed that I, Jeannette, his daughter, went away with the men-at-arms. My father and mother took great care to keep me safe, and held me much in subjection. I obeyed them in everything, except in the case at Toul—the action for marriage. I have heard my mother say that my father told my brothers: ‘Truly, if I thought this thing would happen that I have dreamed about my daughter, I would wish you to drown her; and, if you would not do it, I would drown her myself!’ He nearly lost his senses when I went to Vaucouleurs.”
“Did these thoughts and dreams come to your father after you had your visions?”
“Yes, more than two years after I had had my first Voice.”
“Was it at the request of Robert de Baudricourt or of yourself that you took man’s dress?”
“It was of myself, and at the request of no living man.”
“Did your Voices command you to take man’s dress?”
“All that I have done of good, I have done by the command of my Voices. As to the dress, I will answer about it another time: at present I am not advised, but to-morrow I will answer.”
“In taking man’s dress, did you think you were doing wrong?”
“No; even now if I were with those of my own side and in this man’s dress, it seems to me it would be a great good for France to do as I did before I was taken.”
“How would you have delivered the Duke d’Orléans?”
“I should have taken enough English prisoners in France to have exchanged him back; if I had not taken enough in France, I should have crossed the sea to seek him in England, by force.”
“Did Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret tell you absolutely and without condition that you would take enough English to get the Duke d’Orléans, who is in England, or that otherwise you would cross the sea to seek him?”[[67]]
“Yes, and I said so to my King: and he allowed me to treat with the English lords who were then prisoners.[[68]] If I had continued three years without hindrance, I should have delivered him. To do this, it needed less time than three years and more than one. But I do not remember about it.”
“What was the sign you gave to the King?”
“I shall take counsel regarding that from Saint Catherine.”
Monday, March 12th, assembled in Our dwelling, summoned by Us, the religious and discreet person, Brother Jean Lemaître, of the Order of Saint Dominic, Deputy of the Inquisitor of the Evil of Heresy in the Kingdom of France, in presence of the Venerable and discreet persons the Lords and Masters, Thomas Fiefvet, Pasquier de Vaux, Nicolas de Houbent, Brother Ysambard de la Pierre.
We, the Bishop, did shew to the said Deputy, that, at the outset of the Action for Heresy brought by us against the woman, commonly called Jeanne the Maid, We had summoned and required him, the said Deputy, to join with us; and that we had offered to communicate to him the acts, documents and, in one word, all we possess bearing on the matter of the Process. He had then made a difficulty, not being, he told Us, commissioned except for the City and Diocese of Rouen; and the Action in question being deduced by Us; by right of our jurisdiction of Beauvais, on territory conceded to Us for this purpose. For this cause, in order to give all security to this matter and by an excess of precaution, We have, by the advice of the Masters, decided to write about it to the Chief Inquisitor, requesting him to come himself without delay to Rouen, or specially to appoint a Deputy to whom, for the deduction and completion of the Process, he might wish to give full powers. The said Inquisitor hath received Our letter, and acceding with kindness to Our request, for the honour and exaltation of the Orthodox Faith, he hath specially commissioned and appointed for this Action the said Brother Jean Lemaître, as doth appear in the letters patent furnished and attested with the seal of the Inquisition.
In consequence of this letter, We, the Bishop, summon and require the said Brother Jean Lemaître, here present, in the terms of the said letter, to join with us in this said Action.
To which the said Brother answered: that he would examine the Commission addressed to him, the Process signed by the registrars, and all that it should please Us to communicate to him; and that, all being seen and examined by him, he will give Us an answer and will do for the Holy Inquisition that which is right.
We, the Bishop, added: that the said Deputy had been present at a great part of the Process; that he had, in consequence, been able to hear a great part of Jeanne’s answers; that nevertheless We held ourselves satisfied by what he had just said, and would certainly communicate to him the Process and all that had already been done, that he may take fuller cognizance of everything.
The Deputy Inquisitor joins the Court.
Tuesday, March 13th, in the prison. Present: The Bishop and Brother Jean Lemaître, assisted by Jean Delafontaine, Nicolas Midi, and Gerard Feuillet; witnesses, Nicolas de Houbent and Ysambard de la Pierre.
The said Brother Jean Lemaître declared to Us that seeing the letter addressed to him which we had yesterday communicated, together with the other circumstances of the Process, and all being well considered, he joins himself to Us and is ready to proceed with Us according to law and right.
We, the Bishop, then made known with gentleness to Jeanne this intervention, exhorting and warning her, for the salvation of her soul, to speak the truth on all which should be asked of her.
The Deputy Inquisitor appoints his Officers.
And then, the Deputy of the Chief Inquisitor, wishing to proceed regularly in the Process, hath declared his choice of the Officers whose names follow:
1. As Promoter from the Holy Inquisition, Messire Jean d’Estivet, Canon of the Churches of Bayeux and Beauvais.
2. As Registrar of his office, Messire Nicolas Taquel, Priest of the Diocese of Rouen, Notary Public and Registrar of the Archiepiscopal Court of Rouen.
3. As Executor of his Orders and Citations, Messire Jean Massieu, Priest.
4. As keepers of the prison, the noble man, John Gris, Squire of the Body Guard of Our Lord the King, and John Berwoist. These, We, the Bishop, had, with the exception of Messire Nicolas Taquel, but only in that which concerns Our office, already appointed to the same functions, as confirmed for Our part in the letters above quoted, and as confirmed by the said Inquisitor by his letters, of which mention follows. The said officers did then take oath, between the hands of the said Deputy, to faithfully fulfil their functions.
[Here follow the three letters of Nomination of the Promoter, d’Estivet; the Registrar, Taquel; and the Usher, Massieu: dated Tuesday, March 13th: signed Boisguillaume, Manchon: the nomination of Taquel, Registrar, is dated March 14th.]
All which precedes having already taken place, as has been said up to the present time, We, the Bishop, and Brother Jean Lemaître, Deputy of the Inquisitor, have from this moment proceeded together to all the remainder of the Process, and have questioned or caused questions to be made as it had begun.
Tuesday, March 13th.—Present: The Bishop, and Brother Jean Lemaître, Jean Delafontaine, Nicolas Midi, Gerard Feuillet; in the presence of Nicolas de Houbent and of Brother Ysambard de la Pierre.
By Our order, Jeanne was asked as follows:
“What was the sign you gave your King?”
“Will you be satisfied that I should perjure myself?”
“Have you promised and sworn to Saint Catherine that you will not tell this sign?”
“I promised and swore not to tell this sign, and for my own sake, because I was pressed too much to tell it, and then I said to myself: ‘I promise not to speak of it to any one in the world.’ The sign was that an Angel assured my King, in bringing him the crown, that he should have the whole realm of France, by the means of God’s help and my labours; that he was to start me on the work—that is to say, to give me men-at-arms; and that otherwise he would not be so soon crowned and consecrated.”
“Have you spoken to Saint Catherine since yesterday?”
“I have heard her since yesterday, and she has several times told me to reply boldly to the Judges on what they shall ask me touching my Case.”
“How did the Angel carry the crown? and did he place it himself on your King’s head?”
“The crown was given to an Archbishop—that is, to the Archbishop of Rheims—so it seems to me, in the presence of my King. The Archbishop received it, and gave it to the King. I was myself present. The crown was afterwards put among my King’s treasures.”
“To what place was the crown brought?”
“To the King’s Chamber, in the Castle of Chinon.”
“What day and what time?”
“The day, I do not know; of the time, it was full day. I have no further recollection of it. Of the month it was March or April, it seems to me. In this present month of March or next April it will be two years since. It was after Easter.”[[69]]
“Was it the first day that you saw the sign when the King saw it?”
“Yes, he had it the same day.”
“Of what material was the said crown?”
“It is well to know it was of fine gold; it was so rich that I do not know how to count its riches or to appreciate its beauty. The crown signified that my King should possess the Kingdom of France.”
“Were there stones in it?”
“I have told you what I know about it.”
“Did you touch or kiss it?”
“No.”
“Did the Angel who brought this crown come from Heaven or earth?”
“He came from above, and I presume that he came by Our Lord’s command; he came in by the door of the room. When he came before my King, he did him reverence by bowing before him, and pronouncing the words I have already said; and at the same time the Angel put him in mind of the great patience he had had in presence of so many tribulations. From the door, the Angel walked, and touched the earth, in coming to the King.”
“What space was there between the door and the King?”
“My opinion is that there was quite the space of a lance-length [about 10 feet]; and he returned the way he came. When the Angel came, I accompanied him and went with him by the staircase to the King’s Chamber. The Angel went in first, then myself, and I said to the King: ‘Sire, there is your sign; take it.’”
“Where did the Angel appear to you?”
“I was nearly always at prayer that God might send the sign to the King; and I was at my lodging, at the house of a worthy woman,[[70]] near the Castle of Chinon, when he came; afterwards, we went together to the King. He was accompanied by other Angels whom no one saw. Had it not been for love of me, and to free me of trouble from those that accused me, I think that many who saw the Angel would not have seen him.”
“Did all those who were with the King see the Angel?”
“I believe that the Archbishop of Rheims saw him, and so did the Lords d’Alençon, la Trémouille, and Charles de Bourbon. As to the crown, many Clergy and others saw it who did not see the Angel.”
“Of what appearance, what height, was this Angel?”
“I have not permission to say; to-morrow I will answer about it.”
“All the Angels who accompanied him, had they the same appearance?”
“Some resembled him well enough, others not: at least, so far as I saw. Some had wings, others were crowned. In company with them were Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who were with the Angel aforesaid, and the other Angels also, right up to the King’s Chamber.”
“How did the Angel leave you?”
“He left me in that little Chapel. I was much vexed at his going; I wept; willingly would I have gone with him—that is to say, my soul.”
“After the departure of the Angel, did you remain happy [or[[71]] were you in great fear?”]
“He did not leave me in either fear or terror; but I was grieved at his going.”
“Is it for any merit of yours that God sent you this Angel?”
“He came for a great purpose: I was in hopes that the King would believe the sign, and that they would cease to argue with me, and would aid the good people of Orleans. The Angel came for the merits of the King and of the good Duke d’Orléans.”[[72]]
“Why to you rather than to another?”
“It has pleased God so to do by a simple maiden, in order to drive back the enemies of the King.”
“Was it told you whence the Angel had taken this crown?”
“It was brought from God; no goldsmith in the world would know how to fashion it so rich and fair.”
“Whence did he take it?”
“I refer me to God; and know nothing more of whence it was taken.”
“This crown, did it smell well and had it a good odour? did it glitter?”
“I do not remember about it; I will think it over.” [Remembering:] “Yes, it smelt good, and will smell good always, if it be well guarded, as it should be. It was in the form of a crown.”
“Did the Angel write you a letter?”
“No.”
“What sign had your King and the people who were with him and yourself, to believe that it was an Angel?”
“The King believed it by the teaching of the Clergy who were there, and by the sign of the crown.”
“But how did the Clergy know it was an Angel?”
“By their knowledge and because they were clerks.”
“What have you to say about a married priest and a lost cup that you were to have pointed out?”[[73]]
“Of all this I know nothing, nor have I ever heard of it.”
“When you came before Paris, had you revelations from your Voices to go there?”
“No, I went at the request of the gentlemen who wished to make an attack or assault-at-arms; I intended to go there and break through the trenches.”
“Had you any revelation to attack La Charité?”
“No, I went there at the request of the men-at-arms, as I said elsewhere.”
“Did you have any revelation to go to Pont l’Evêque?”[[74]]
“After I had had, in the trenches of Melun,[[75]] revelation that I should be taken, I consulted more often with the Captains of the army; but I did not tell them I had had any revelation that I should be taken.”
“Was it well to attack the town of Paris on the day of the Festival of the Nativity of Our Lady?”
“It is well done to observe the Festival of the Blessed Mary, and on my conscience it seems to me that it was, and ever will be, well to observe these festivals, from one end to the other.”
“Did you not say before Paris, ‘Surrender this town by order of Jesus’?”
“No, but I said, ‘Surrender it to the King of France.’”
Wednesday, March 14th.—Jean Delafontaine, Commissary, assisted by Nicolas Midi and Gerard Feuillet. Witnesses: Nicolas de Houbent and Ysambard de la Pierre.
Jeanne was interrogated as follows:
“Why did you throw yourself from the top of the Tower at Beaurevoir?”
“I had heard that the people of Compiègne, all, to the age of seven years, were to be put to fire and sword; and I would rather have died than live after such a destruction of good people. That was one of the reasons. The other was that I knew I was sold to the English; and I had rather die than be in the hands of my enemies, the English.”
“Did your Saints counsel you about it?”
“Saint Catherine told me almost every day not to leap, that God would help me, and also those at Compiègne. I said to Saint Catherine: ‘Since God will help those at Compiègne, I wish to be there.’ Saint Catherine said to me, ‘Be resigned, and do not falter: you will not be delivered before seeing the King of England.’ I answered her: ‘Truly I do not wish to see him; I would rather die than fall into the hands of the English.’”
“Is it true that you said to Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret: ‘Will God leave these good people of Compiègne to die so horribly’?”
“I did not say ‘so horribly,’ but, ‘How can God leave these good people of Compiègne, who have been, and are, so loyal to their lord, to die?’ After having fallen, I was two or three days without eating.[[76]] By the leap I was so injured that I could neither eat nor drink; and all the time I was consoled by Saint Catherine, who told me to confess, and to beg pardon of God; and without fail, those at Compiègne would have help before Saint Martin’s Day in the winter. Then I began to recover and to eat, and was soon cured.”
“When you made this leap, did you think you would kill yourself?”
“No; but, in leaping, I commended myself to God. I hoped by means of this leap to escape, and to avoid being delivered up to the English.”
“When speech returned to you, did you not blaspheme and curse God and His Saints? This is proved by allegation.”
“I have no memory of having ever blasphemed and cursed God and His Saints, in that place or elsewhere.”
“Will you refer this to the enquiry made or to be made?”
“I refer me to God and not to any other, and to a good confession.”
“Do your Voices ask delay to answer you?”
“Sometimes Saint Catherine answers me, but I fail to understand because of the great disturbance in the prison and the noise made by my guards. When I make a request to Saint Catherine, both my Saints make request to Our Lord; then, by order of Our Lord, they give answer to me.”
“When your Saints come to you, have they a light with them? Did you not see the light on a certain occasion when you heard the Voices in the Castle, without knowing if the Voice were in your room?”
“There is never a day that my Saints do not come to the Castle; and they never come without light. And as to this Voice of which you speak, I do not remember if on that occasion I saw the light or even Saint Catherine. I asked three things of my Voices:—1. My deliverance; 2. That God would come to the help of the French, and protect the towns under their control; 3. The salvation of my soul. [Addressing herself to the Judges:] If it should be that I am taken to Paris, grant, I pray you, that I may have a copy of my questions and answers, so that I may lend them to those at Paris, and that I may be able to say to them: ‘Thus was I questioned at Rouen; and here are my answers’: in this way, I shall not have to trouble again over so many questions.”
“You said that my Lord of Beauvais puts himself in great danger by bringing you to trial; of what danger were you speaking? In what peril or danger do we place ourselves, your Judges and the others?”
“I said to my Lord of Beauvais, ‘You say that you are my Judge; I do not know if you are, but take heed not to judge wrongly, because you would put yourself in great danger; and I warn you of it, so that, if Our Lord should punish you for it, I shall have done my duty in telling you.’”
“But what is this peril or danger?”
“Saint Catherine has told me that I shall have help; I do not know if this will be to be delivered from prison, or if, whilst I am being tried, some disturbance may happen, by which I shall be delivered. The help will come to me, I think, in one way or the other. Besides this, my Voices have told me that I shall be delivered by a great victory; and they add: ‘Be resigned; have no care for thy martyrdom; thou wilt come in the end to the Kingdom of Paradise.’ They have told me this simply, absolutely, and without fail. What is meant by my martyrdom is the pain and adversity that I suffer in prison; I do not know if I shall have still greater suffering to bear; for that I refer me to God.”
GATE TO THE PALACE OF CAUCHON, BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS.
“Since your Voices told you that you would come in the end to the Kingdom of Paradise, have you felt assured of being saved and of not being damned in Hell?”
“I believe firmly what my Voices have told me, that I shall be saved; I believe it as firmly as if I were already there.”
“After this revelation, do you believe that you cannot commit mortal sin?”[[77]]
“I do not know, and in all things I wait on Our Lord.”
“That is an answer of great weight!”
“Yes, and one which I hold for a great treasure.”
The same day, Wednesday, March 14th, in the afternoon. Present: Jean Delafontaine, Commissary, assisted by Nicolas Midi and Gerard Feuillet. Witnesses: Brother Ysambard de la Pierre and Jean Manchon.
And in the first place, Jeanne expressed herself thus:
“On the subject of the answer that I made to you this morning on the certainty of my salvation, I mean the answer thus: provided that I keep the promise made to Our Lord, to keep safe the virginity of my body and soul.”
“Have you any need to confess, as you believe by the revelations of your Voices that you will be saved?”
“I do not know of having committed mortal sin; but, if I were in mortal sin, I think that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret would abandon me at once. I do not think one can cleanse one’s conscience too much.”
“Since you have been in the prison, have you never blasphemed or cursed God?”
“No; sometimes I said: ‘bon gré Dieu,’ or ‘Saint Jean,’ or ‘Notre Dame’: those who have reported otherwise may have misunderstood.”
“To take a man at ransom, and to put him to death, while a prisoner, is not that mortal sin?”
“I never did it.”
“What did you do to Franquet d’Arras, who was put to death, at Lagny?”
“I consented that he should die if he had merited it, because he had confessed to being a murderer, thief, and traitor; his trial lasted fifteen days; he had for Judge the Bailly of Senlis and the people of the Court at Lagny. I had given orders to exchange this Franquet against a man of Paris, landlord of the Hôtel de l’Ours. When I learnt the death of the latter, and the Bailly told me that I should do great wrong to justice by giving up Franquet, I said to the Bailly, ‘As my man is dead, do with the other what you should do, for justice.’”
“Did you give, or cause to be given, money to him who took Franquet?”
“I am not Master of the Mint or Treasurer of France to pay out money so.”
“We recall to you:—1. That you attacked Paris on a Feast Day; 2. That you had the horse of my Lord the Bishop of Senlis; 3. That you threw yourself down from the Tower of Beaurevoir; 4. That you wear a man’s dress; 5. That you consented to the death of Franquet d’Arras: do you not think you have committed mortal sin in these?”
“For what concerns the attack on Paris, I do not think myself to be in mortal sin; if I have so done, it is for God to know it, and the Priest in confession. As to the horse of my Lord the Bishop of Senlis, I firmly believe I have not sinned against Our Lord: the horse was valued at 200 gold crowns, of which he received assignment; nevertheless, this horse was sent back to the Sire de la Trémouille, to restore it to my Lord of Senlis; it was no good for me to ride; besides, it was not I who took it; and, moreover, I did not wish to keep it, having heard that the Bishop was displeased that it had been taken from him, and, beyond all this, the horse was of no use for warfare. I do not know if the Bishop was paid, nor if his horse was restored to him; I think not. As to my fall from the Tower at Beaurevoir, I did not do it in despair, but thinking to save myself and to go to the help of all those brave folk who were in danger. After my fall, I confessed myself and asked pardon. God has forgiven me, not for any good in me: I did wrong, but I know by revelation from Saint Catherine that, after the confession I made, I was forgiven. It was by the counsel of Saint Catherine that I confessed myself.”
“Did you do penance for it?”
“Yes, and my penance came to me in great part from the harm I did myself in falling. You ask me if I believe this wrong which I did in leaping to be mortal sin? I know nothing about it, but refer me to God. As to my dress, since I bear it by command of God and for His service, I do not think I have done wrong at all; so soon as it shall please God to prescribe it, I will take it off.”
The following Thursday, March 15th, in the morning. Present: Jean Delafontaine, Commissary, assisted by Nicolas Midi and Gerard Feuillet. Witnesses: Nicolas de Houbent and Brother Ysambard de la Pierre.
First of all, Jeanne was charitably exhorted, warned, and required, if she had done anything which might be against our Faith, that she should refer it to the decision of Holy Mother Church.
“Let my answers,” she said, “be seen and examined by the Clergy: then let them tell me if there be anything against the Christian Faith. I shall know surely by my counsel what it is, and will say afterwards what shall be judged and decided. And, moreover, if there be anything wrong against the Christian Faith which Our Lord commanded, I should not wish to maintain it, and should be very sorry to be in opposition.”
Then we explained to her about the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant, and the difference between them. Required to submit to the decision of the Church Militant what she had said or done, whether of good or ill:
“I will not answer you anything more about it now,” she said.
“Upon the oath that you have taken, tell us, how did you think to escape from the Castle of Beaulieu between two planks of wood?”[[78]]
“Never was I prisoner in such a place that I would not willingly have escaped. Being in that Castle, I should have shut my keepers in the tower, if it had not been that the porter espied me and encountered me. It did not please God that I should escape this time: it was necessary for me to see the English King,[[79]] as my Voices had told me, as has been already said.”
“Have you had permission from God or your Voices to leave prison when it shall please you?”
“I have asked it many times, but I have not yet had it.”
“Would you go now, if you saw your starting-point?”
“If I saw the door open, I should go: that would be leave from Our Lord. If I saw the door open, and my keepers and the other English beyond power of resistance, truly I should see in it my leave and help sent me by Our Lord. But without this leave, I shall not go, unless I make a forcible attempt to go,[[80]] and so learn if Our Lord would be pleased: this on the strength of the proverb, ‘Help thyself, and God will help thee’: I say this in order that, if I do escape, no one may say I did so without God’s leave.”
“When you asked to hear Mass, did it not seem to you that it would be more proper to be in female dress? Which would you like best, to have a woman’s dress to hear Mass, or to remain in a man’s dress and not hear it?”
“Give me assurance beforehand that I shall hear Mass if I am in female attire, and I will answer you this.”
“Very well, I give you assurance of it: you shall hear Mass if you put on female attire.”
“And what say you, if I have sworn and promised to our King my Master, not to put off this dress? Well, I will answer you this: Have made for me a long dress down to the ground, without a train; give it to me to go to Mass, and then on my return I will put on again the dress I have.”
“I say it to you once again, do you consent to wear female attire to go and hear Mass?”
“I will take counsel on this, and then I will answer you: but I beseech you, for the honour of God and Our Lady permit me to hear Mass in this good town.”
“You consent simply and absolutely to take female attire?”
“Send me a dress like a daughter of your citizens—that is to say, a long ‘houppeland.’[[81]] I will wear it to go and hear Mass. I beseech you as earnestly as I can, permit me to hear it in the dress I wear at this moment and without changing anything!”
“Will you submit your actions and words to the decision of the Church?”
“My words and deeds are all in God’s Hands: in all, I wait upon Him. I assure you, I would say or do nothing against the Christian Faith: in case I have done or said anything which might be on my soul and which the clergy could say was contrary to the Christian Faith established by Our Lord, I would not maintain it, and would put it away.”
“Are you not willing to submit yourself in this to the order of the Church?”
“I will not answer you anything more about it now. Send me a cleric on Saturday; and, if you do not wish to come yourself, I will answer him on this, with God’s help; and it shall be put in writing.”
“When your Voices come, do you make obeisance to them as to a Saint?”
“Yes; and if perchance I have not done so, I have afterwards asked of them grace and pardon. I should not know how to do them such great reverence as belongs to them, for I believe firmly they are Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. I believe the same of Saint Michael.”
“For those who are Saints of Paradise, offerings are voluntarily made of candles, etc.: have you never made an offering of lighted candles, or other things, to the Saints who come to you, in the Church or elsewhere, or had Masses said?”
“No, unless it be in the offering of the Mass, in the hands of the Priest, in honour of Saint Catherine, one of the Saints who appeared to me. I have never lighted as many candles as I wish to Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who are in Paradise; and I firmly believe it is they who come to me.”
“When you place lights before the image of Saint Catherine, do you place them in honour of the one who appears to you?”
“I do it in honour of God, of Our Lady, and of Saint Catherine who is in Heaven, and of her who appears to me.”
“Do you place these lights in honour of Saint Catherine, who has shewn herself to you, who has appeared to you?”
“Yes, I make no difference between the one who has appeared to me, and the one who is in heaven.”[[82]]
“Do you always do, always accomplish, what your Voices command you?”
“With all my power I accomplish the command that Our Lord sends me through my Voices, in so far as I understand them. My Voices command nothing but by the good pleasure of Our Lord.”
“In warfare, have you done nothing without counsel of your Voices?”
“I have already answered you thereon: read your book again well, and you will find it. At the request of the men-at-arms, there was an assault made before Paris, and, at the request of the King himself, one also before La Charité. These were neither against nor by the order of my Voices.”
“Have you never done anything against their command and will?”
“All that I could and knew how to do, I have done and accomplished to the best of my power. As to the matter of the fall from the keep of Beaurevoir, I did it against their command; but I could not control myself. When my Voices saw my need, and that I neither knew how, nor was able, to control myself, they saved my life and kept me from killing myself. Whatever things I did in my greatest undertakings, they always helped me; and that is a sign they are good spirits.”
“Have you no other sign that they are good spirits?”
“Saint Michael assured me of it before the Voices came to me.”
“How did you know it was Saint Michael?”
“By the speech and language of the Angels. I believe firmly that they were Angels.”
“But how did you know it was the language of Angels?”
“I believed it at once, and I had the will to believe it. When Saint Michael came to me, he said to me: ‘Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret will come to thee; follow their counsel; they have been chosen to guide thee and counsel thee in all that thou hast to do: believe what they shall tell thee, it is the order of Our Lord.’”
“If the devil were to put himself in the form or likeness of an angel, how would you know if it were a good or an evil angel?”
“I should know quite well if it were Saint Michael or a counterfeit. The first time I was in great doubt if it were Saint Michael; and I was much afraid. I had seen him many times before I knew it was Saint Michael.”
“Why did you recognize him sooner that time, when you say you believed it was he, than the first time he appeared to you?”
“The first time I was a young child, and I was much afraid; afterwards, he had taught me so well, and it was so clear to me, that I believed firmly it was he.”[[83]]
“What doctrine did he teach you?”
“Above all things he told me to be a good child, and that God would help me,—to come to the help of the King of France, among other things. The greater part of what he taught me is already in the book in which you are writing: he told me of the great misery there was in the Kingdom of France.”
“What was the height and stature of this Angel?”
“On Saturday I will reply, with other things which I should answer, as it shall please God.”
“Do you not think it a great sin, and one which offends Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret who appeared to you, to act against their commands?”
“Yes, certainly; and the greatest I have ever committed, in my opinion, has been the leap from the Tower of Beaurevoir; for the which I have besought their mercy, and for all other offences I may have done against them.”
“Will Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret take bodily vengeance for this offence?”
“I do not know, and did not ask them.”
“You have asserted that, for speaking the truth, men were sometimes hanged: do you, then, know any crime or fault in yourself for which you should die, if you confessed it?”
“I know of none.”
The following Saturday, March 17th:—Present: Jean Delafontaine, Commissary, assisted by Nicolas Midi, and Gerard Feuillet, in the presence of Ysambard de la Pierre and of Jean Massieu.
The said Jeanne was required to take the oath already made by her. Afterwards, she was again interrogated:
“In what form, kind, size, and dress did Saint Michael come to you?”
“In the form of a true honest man [‘prud homme’]; of his dress and the rest I will say nothing more. As to the Angels, I saw them with my eyes; you will hear naught else about it. I believe the deeds and words of Saint Michael, who appeared to me, as firmly as I believe that Our Saviour Jesus Christ suffered Death and Passion for us. And that which makes me believe it, is the good counsel, comfort, and good doctrine which he has given me.”
“Will you, in respect of all your words and deeds, whether good or bad, submit yourself to the decision of our Holy Mother the Church?”
“The Church! I love it, and would wish to maintain it with all my power, for our Christian Faith; it is not I who should be prevented from going to Church and hearing Mass! As to the good deeds I have done and my coming to the King, I must wait on the King of Heaven, who sent me to Charles, King of France, son of Charles, who was King of France. You will see that the French will soon gain a great victory, that God will send such great doings that nearly all the Kingdom of France will be shaken by them. I say it, so that, when it shall come to pass, it may be remembered that I said it.”
“When will this happen?”
“I wait on Our Lord.”
“Will you refer yourself to the decision of the Church?”
“I refer myself to God Who sent me, to Our Lady, and to all the Saints in Paradise. And in my opinion it is all one, God and the Church; and one should make no difficulty about it. Why do you make a difficulty?”
“There is a Church Triumphant in which are God and the Saints, the Angels, and the Souls of the Saved. There is another Church, the Church Militant, in which are the Pope, the Vicar of God on earth, the Cardinals, Prelates of the Church, the Clergy and all good Christians and Catholics: this Church, regularly assembled, cannot err, being ruled by the Holy Spirit. Will you refer yourself to this Church which we have thus just defined to you?”
“I came to the King of France from God, from the Blessed Virgin Mary, from all the Saints of Paradise, and the Church Victorious above, and by their command. To this Church I submit all my good deeds, all that I have done or will do. As to saying whether I will submit myself to the Church Militant, I will not now answer anything more.”
“What do you say on the subject of the female attire which is offered to you, to go and hear Mass?”
“I will not take it yet, until it shall please Our Lord. And if it should happen that I should be brought to judgment, [and that I have to divest myself in Court,][[84]] I beseech the lords of the Church to do me the grace to allow me a woman’s smock and a hood for my head; I would rather die than revoke what God has made me do; and I believe firmly that God will not allow it to come to pass that I should be brought so low that I may not soon have succour from Him, and by miracle.”
“As you say that you bear a man’s dress by the command of God, why do you ask for a woman’s smock at the point of death?”
“It will be enough for me if it be long.”
“Did your Godmother who saw the fairies pass as a wise woman?”
“She was held and considered a good and honest woman, neither divineress nor sorceress.”
“You said you would take a woman’s dress, that you might be let go: would this please God?”
“If I had leave to go in woman’s dress, I should soon put myself back in man’s dress and do what God has commanded me: I have already told you so. For nothing in the world will I swear not to arm myself and put on a man’s dress; I must obey the orders of Our Lord.”
“What age and what dress had Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret?”
“You have had such answers as you will have from me, and none others shall you have: I have told you what I know of it for certain.”
“Before to-day, did you believe fairies were evil spirits?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Do you know if Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret hate the English?”
“They love what God loves: they hate what God hates.”
“Does God hate the English?”
“Of the love or hate God may have for the English, or of what He will do for their souls, I know nothing; but I know quite well that they will be put out of France, except those who shall die there, and that God will send victory to the French against the English.”
“Was God for the English when they were prospering in France?”
“I do not know if God hated the French; but I believe that He wished them to be defeated for their sins, if they were in sin.”
“What warrant and what help do you expect to have from Our Lord for wearing this man’s dress?”
“For this dress and for other things that I have done, I wish to have no other recompense than the salvation of my soul.”
“What arms did you offer at Saint Denis?”
“My whole suit of white armour [‘album harnesium suum;’ Gallicè, ‘un blanc harnoys,’] as beseems a soldier, with a sword I had won before Paris.”
“Why did you make this offering?”
“In devotion, and as is the custom of soldiers when they have been wounded. Having been wounded before Paris, I offered them at Saint Denis, because that is the war-cry of France.”
“Did you do it that these arms might be worshipped?”
“No.”
“What was the purpose of these five crosses which were on the sword that you found at Saint Catherine of Fierbois?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Who prompted you to have painted on your standard Angels with arms, feet, legs, and clothing?”
“I have already answered you.”
“Did you have them painted as they came to see you?”
“No, I had them painted in the way they are painted in the Churches.”
“Did you ever see them in the manner they are painted?”
“I will tell you nothing more.”
“Why did you not have painted the brightness that comes to you with the Angels and the Voices?”
“It was not commanded me.”
The same day, March 17th, afternoon. Present: The Bishop and the Deputy Inquisitor, assisted by Jean Beaupère, Jacques de Touraine, Nicolas Midi, Pierre Maurice, Gerard Feuillet, Thomas de Courcelles, Jean Delafontaine; in presence of Brother Ysambard de la Pierre and John Gris.
We interrogated the said Jeanne, as follows:
“Did the two Angels painted on your standard represent Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel?”
“They were there only for the honour of Our Lord, Who was painted on the standard. I only had these two Angels represented to honour Our Lord, Who was there represented holding the world.”
“Were the two Angels represented on your standard those who guard the world? Why were there not more of them, seeing that you had been commanded by God to take this standard?”
“The standard was commanded by Our Lord, by the Voices of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, which said to me: ‘Take the standard in the name of the King of Heaven’; and because they had said to me ‘Take the standard in the name of the King of Heaven,’ I had this figure of God and of two Angels done; I did all by their command.”
“Did you ask them if, by virtue of this standard, you would gain all the battles wherever you might find yourself, and if you would be victorious?”
“They told me to take it boldly, and that God would help me.”
“Which gave most help, you to your standard, or your standard to you?”
“The victory either to my standard or myself, it was all from Our Lord.”
“The hope of being victorious, was it founded on your standard or on yourself?”
“It was founded on Our Lord and nought else.”
“If any one but you had borne this standard, would he have been as fortunate as you in bearing it?”
“I know nothing about it: I wait on Our Lord.”
“If one of the people of your party had sent you his standard to carry, would you have had as much confidence in it as in that which had been sent to you by God? Even the standard of your King, if it had been sent to you, would you have had as much confidence in it as in your own?”
“I bore most willingly that which had been ordained for me by Our Lord; and, meanwhile, in all I waited upon Our Lord.”
“For what purpose was the sign you put on your letters and these words: ‘Jhesus Maria’?”
“The clerks who wrote my letters put it; some told me that it was suitable for me to put these two words: ‘Jhesus Maria.’”
“Was it never revealed to you that if you lost your virginity, you would lose your happiness, and that your Voices would come to you no more?”
“That has never been revealed to me.”[[85]]
“If you were married, do you think your Voices would come?”
“I do not know; I wait on Our Lord.”
“Do you think, and do you firmly believe, that your King did right in killing, or causing to be killed, my Lord the Duke of Burgundy?”
“It was a great injury to the Kingdom of France; and, whatever there may have been between them, God sent me to the help of the King of France.”
“As you have declared to my lord of Beauvais that you will reply to him and his Commissioners as you would before our most holy Lord the Pope, and as there are many questions which you will not answer, would you reply before the Pope more fully than before us?”
“I have answered you all the truth that I know; and if I know anything which comes to my memory that I have left unsaid, I will tell it willingly.”
“Does it not seem to you that you are bound to reply more fully to our Lord the Pope, the Vicar of God, on all that might be asked you touching the Faith and the matter of your conscience, than you should to us?”
“Very well; let me be taken before him, and I will answer before him all I ought to answer.”
“Of what material was one of your rings, on which was written ‘Jhesus Maria’?”
“I do not exactly know; if it were of gold, it was not fine gold; I do not know if it were of gold or of brass; there were three crosses on it, and no other mark that I know of, except ‘Jhesus Maria.’”
“Why was it that you generally looked at this ring when you were going into battle?”
“For pleasure, and in honour of my father and mother; I had that ring in my hand and on my finger when I touched Saint Catherine as she appeared to me.”
“What part of Saint Catherine?”
“You will have no more about it.”
“Did you ever kiss or embrace Saint Catherine or Saint Margaret?”
“I have embraced them both.”
“Did they smell good?”
“It is well to know, they smelled good.”
“In embracing them, did you feel any 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 proper and respectful to kiss their feet.”
“Did you not give them crowns?”
“In their honour, I often put crowns on their images in the Churches. As to those who appeared to me, I never gave any to them that I can remember.”
“When you placed crowns of flowers on the tree of which you spoke before, did you put them in honour of those who appeared to you?”
“No.”
“When these Saints came to you, did you do them no reverence? did you bend the knee before them? did you bow?”
“Yes: and, so far as I could do them reverence, I did; I know it is they who are in the Kingdom of Paradise.”
“Do you know nothing of those who came in the air with the fairies?”
“I have never done or known anything about them; but I have heard of them, and that they came on Thursdays; but I do not believe it; I think it is sorcery.”
“Did not they wave your standard round the head of your King when he was consecrated at Rheims?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“Why was it taken to the Church of Rheims for the consecration more than those of other captains?”
“It had shared the pain, it was only right it should share the honour.”
Meeting at the Bishop’s house of the Doctors and Assessors to consider the Case. Sunday of the Passion of our Saviour, 18th day of the month of March. The Bishop and Jean Lemaître, assisted by twelve Assessors, present.
We, the said Bishop, shewed that Jeanne had lately been questioned during eight days, and that a great number of her replies had been put in writing; to-day we have need of the opinion of the Assessors as to the mode of procedure.
Then We caused to be read a great number of assertions which, by Our order, have been extracted by several Masters from the answers of Jeanne: so that, by means of these assertions, they, the said Assessors, will be able the better to take up the Process as a whole, and thus decide more certainly on what remains to be done.
After this shewing, the said Lords and Masters did deliberate with great solemnity and maturity; and each of them did give us his opinion.
We, the Judges, did then conclude and give order as follows:
Each of the Doctors and Masters shall have the matter to examine and study for his own part in all diligence, and to make research in authentic books for the opinion of the Doctors on each of the said assertions. On Thursday next, We will re-assemble anew to confer upon them. On that day, each one shall submit to Us his opinion.
Besides this, we have given orders that between this and then shall be extracted from the questions and answers of Jeanne certain Articles, which shall be moved against her in the Court before Us, the Judges.
[The Seventy Articles prepared by the Promoter, which form the Act of Accusation for the Trial in Ordinary, were read to Jeanne by Thomas de Courcelles, on Tuesday, March 27th. These Articles will be found, with Jeanne’s replies to them, in the Appendix. The Seventy Articles were afterwards reduced to Twelve by Maître Nicolas Midi. These are given in the Appendix, p. [341].]
Another Meeting in the Bishop’s house, in which it is decided to compile Articles from the said Extracts.
And the following Thursday, 22nd March, under the presidence of Us, the Bishop, and Maître Jean Lemaître, assisted by 23 Assessors.
In presence of the above, have been reported sundry assertions gathered and considered in the matter, in a notable and scientific manner, by many Doctors and Masters. In view of these assertions, after having the opinions conferred thereon at length with each of the Assessors, We, the Judges, did conclude and give order that the assertions thus extracted from the register of the declarations of Jeanne shall be drawn up in a very small number of Articles under the form of propositions; that the Articles thus prepared shall be communicated at once to all and each of the Doctors and Masters, who can thus the more easily pronounce their opinion.
On the question of whether Jeanne ought to be again interrogated and examined later on, We will proceed in such sort, with the help of Our Lord, that Our case may be conducted to the praise of God and the exaltation of the Faith, being affected by no blemish.
The questions are read to Jeanne in prison.
On the following Saturday, March 24th, in the prison of Jeanne; Maître Jean Delafontaine, Commissioner for Us, the Bishop, and Brother Jean Lemaître; assisted by J. Beaupère, N. Midi, P. Maurice, G. Feuillet, Thomas de Courcelles, Enguerrand de Champrond.
In presence of the above-named, We caused to be read to Jeanne the Register which contained the questions made to her and her answers. This reading was made in the presence of the said Jeanne by G. Manchon, Registrar, and in the French language.
But before proceeding to this reading, Our Promoter, Messire d’Estivet, offered to prove, in case Jeanne should not recognize some of her answers, that all the contents of the said Register, questions and answers, had been pronounced as they were there written. And on her side, Jeanne made oath that, during the reading, which was about to be made, she would add or change nothing in her answers that was not the truth.
The Register was then read. In one place during the reading, Jeanne said:
“I have as surname d’Arc or Rommée: in my country the girls take the name of their mother.”
Further on, she said:
“Let the questions and answers, all that has to be read, be read without stopping: if I do not contradict at all, I hold it true and acknowledged.”
On the subject of the passage relative to her dress, she said in addition:
“Give me a woman’s dress to go and rejoin my mother; I will take it that I may get out of prison, because when I am outside I will consider as to what I should do.”
The reading of the contents of the said Register being finished, she said:
“I believe certainly to have so spoken as it is written in the Register, and as has been read; I do not contradict on any point.”
Exhortation to Jeanne.
Palm Sunday, 25th day of March, in the morning, in the prison of Jeanne, in the Castle of Rouen, We, the Bishop, did make an address to Jeanne, in the presence of the venerable Lords and Masters, J. Beaupère, N. Midi, P. Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles.
We told her, that many times already and notably yesterday, she had requested, because of the solemnity of these days and the time, that she might be permitted to hear Mass to-day, Palm Sunday; in consequence, We were come to ask her if, supposing this favour were accorded to her, she would consent to put off her man’s dress, and to take the dress of a woman, as formerly she had been accustomed to wear it in her birth-place, and as worn by all the women of her country?
The said Jeanne answered by again asking of Us permission to hear Mass in the dress she now wears, and in the same dress to receive the Eucharist on Easter Day.
“Reply,” We said to her, “to what we ask you; tell us, in the event of your being permitted to hear Mass, if you will consent to abandon the dress you wear.”
“I have not consulted thereon,” she said, “and cannot yet take a woman’s dress.”
“Do you wish to have counsel of your Saints to know if you ought to take woman’s garments?”
“May I not then,” she said, “be permitted to hear Mass in the state in which I am? I desire it ardently! As to changing my dress, I cannot: it is not in my power.”
All the Assessors then joined themselves with Us, and each exhorted her, for so great a benefit, and to satisfy the feeling of devotion with which she seemed animated, to consent to take the only garment which was suitable to her sex.
“That,” she declared, “is not in my power: if it were, it would soon be done!”
“Speak of it to your Voices,” said the Assessors, “to know if you may again take your woman’s dress, in order that at Easter you may receive the Viaticum.”
“I cannot change my dress: I cannot therefore receive the Viaticum. I beg of you, my Lords, permit me to hear Mass in man’s dress; this dress does not weigh upon my soul, and is not contrary to the laws of the Church.”
Of all the preceding, Master Jean d’Estivet, Promoter, hath asked that there may be delivered to him a Public Instrument, in the presence of the Lords and Masters, Adam Hillet, William Brolbster, and Pierre Orient, of the Clergy of Rouen, London and Châlons, respectively.
THE TRIAL IN ORDINARY
Here begins the Trial in Ordinary, after the Trial Ex-Officio.
Monday after Palm Sunday, 26th day of March, in Bishop’s House. Present: The Bishop and Brother Jean Lemaître, assisted by 12 Assessors.
In presence of the above, We caused to be read certain Articles comprising that one which the Promoter intendeth to produce against Jeanne.
After the reading of these Articles, it was decided that, following the preliminary trial until now conducted from our Office, as We, the Bishop, and subsequently We, the Deputy, have decreed and concluded, it will be expedient to proceed henceforward by an action in Ordinary.
It was also decided that the Articles just read have been well put together; that Jeanne should be questioned and heard upon each of them; that these Articles shall be proposed, in the name of the Promoter, by some grave advocate, or by the Promoter himself; that if Jeanne should refuse to answer after a Canonical monition shall have been addressed to her, as a preliminary, the said Articles shall be held as acknowledged.
Following on this decision, We, the Judges, gave order that the Articles of which we treat shall, from to-morrow be proposed by our Promoter; and that Jeanne should be, in like manner, interrogated upon each of them and heard in answer.
The Promoter presents his petition.
The next day, Tuesday after Palm Sunday, 27th day of March, in the room near the Great Hall of the Castle of Rouen. The Promoter opened the case. Present: The Bishop and Brother Jean Lemaître, assisted by 38 Assessors.
He then shewed the text of the accusation drawn up by him against Jeanne, in the which are found stated the Articles just spoken of, and of which the tenour shall be written below.
This done, We, the Judges, did request the Lords and Masters here present to deliberate and to give Us their opinion.
This deliberation[[86]] took place in presence of Jeanne, as follows:
And first, Maître Nicolas de Venderès said: that Jeanne should in the first place be compelled to swear what the Promoter hath rightly demanded; that should Jeanne refuse to swear, she be accounted contumacious and excommunicate, and be proceeded against according to law.
Maître Jean Pinchon: That the Articles should first be read to her.
Maître Jean Basset: That the Articles should be read to her before she be excommunicated.
Maître Jean Guerin: Agrees with preceding.
Maître Jean Delafontaine: Of the same opinion as M. Venderès.
Maître Geoffrey de Crotay: That she should be given at least three days before being declared excommunicate and convicted; in civil matters there is always a three days’ delay for taking the oath.
Maître Jean Ledoux: Agrees with preceding.
Maître Gilles Deschamps: That the Articles should be read to her, and that a day should be assigned for her to answer.
Maître Robert Barbier: Agrees with preceding.
The Lord Abbot of Fécamp: She is bound to speak the truth on what touches the Case; that, if she has not already been summoned to that effect, she be so summoned with the due legal interval.
Maître Jean de Châtillon: She is bound to speak the truth, her own affairs being in question.
Maître Erard Ermengard: Agrees with the Abbot of Fécamp.
Maître Guillaume Lebouchier: Agrees with the preceding.
The Lord Prior of Longueville: For those things to which she does not know how to answer, it seems to be exacting too much to wish her to reply by “I believe” or “I do not believe.”
Maître Jean Beaupère: To questions of fact on which she has certain knowledge she should reply at once; to others, on which she has not certain knowledge or which relate to law, delay should be granted if she asks for it.
Maître Jacques de Touraine: Agrees with the preceding.
Maître Nicolas Midi: The same, with this addition: That the Jurists should be consulted in order to decide if she should be constrained to swear from the present time.
Maître Maurice Duguesnay: The same as the Abbot of Fécamp.
Maître Jean de Nibat: As to the Articles he would refer to the Jurists; as to the oath, she is bound to swear regarding such things as touch on the Trial or the Faith; if on other subjects she should ask delay, let it be granted to her.
Maître Jean Lefevre: Refers to the Jurists.
Maître Pierre Maurice: She should answer to what she knows.
Maître Gerard: She is bound to reply on oath.
Maître Jacques Guesdon: Agrees with preceding.
Maître Thomas de Courcelles: She should answer; each Article should be read to her, and she should answer them in order. As to delay, it should be granted to her on such points of the subject as she should request it.
Maître André Marguerie: She ought to swear on what touches the Case: as to doubtful points she should be allowed delay.
Maître Denis Gastinel: She ought to swear; the Promoter is right to demand her oath; as to what action should be taken in case she should refuse, it would be necessary for him to consult his books.
Maître Aubert Morel, and Maître Jean Duchemin: She ought to swear.
The opinion of the others is lacking.
Then We, the Judges, considering the request of the Promoter, by the advice of each of the Assessors, gave order, and do give order, that the Articles just produced by the Promoter shall at once be read and shewn in French to the said Jeanne, who, on each of them, shall answer according to knowledge; and if there are any points on which she asks delay, delay of right shall be granted to her.
Then the Promoter did abjure all calumny—that is to say, affirmed upon oath, that he was not led to bring these Articles against the said Jeanne by favour, rancour, hate or fear, but was solely animated by zeal for the Faith.
These preliminaries being completed, We, the Bishop did address to Jeanne a Canonical Admonition. We told her that all the Assessors were ecclesiastical persons of consummate knowledge, experts in law, human and divine, who desired and intended to proceed against her, as they had already done up to this time, with kindness and piety, and that, far from seeking vengeance or punishment, they desired, on the contrary, only her instruction and return into the way of truth and salvation. “But because you are neither well enough taught nor instructed in these arduous matters, by yourself, to provide what you should do or say, We offer you to choose for counsel such of the Assessors as you shall be pleased to point out; if you do not of yourself know how to make this choice, We offer to do it for you, and to point out to you some who will counsel you on what you have to answer or do, on the condition always, that in matters of pure faith you will answer yourself, and charging you to swear to speak the truth on those things which are personal to yourself.”
To Our exhortation, Jeanne replied in these terms:
“First, as to that on which you admonish me for my good and for our Faith, I thank you and all the company also; as to the counsel which you offer me, also I thank you; but I have no intention of desisting from the counsel of Our Lord. As to the oath that you wish me to make, I am ready to speak the truth on all that touches the Case.”
And thus did she swear, her hands on the Holy Gospels.
After this, by Our order were read the Articles contained in the document which the Promoter hath just deposited. Each of these Articles was read to Jeanne in the French language by Thomas de Courcelles; and she was called upon to reply in succession to each of these Articles: which she did. The completion of this formality hath filled up the end of the Sitting for this day, and all the Sitting of the next day.
Jeanne is interrogated in prison on submission to the Church.
And the following Saturday, the last day of the month of March, Easter Eve, under the presidency of Us, the aforesaid Judges, in Jeanne’s prison, being assisted by the Lords and Masters, Jean Beaupère, J. de Touraine, N. Midi, P. Maurice, G. Feuillet, G. Haiton, and T. de Courcelles; Guillaume Muton and John Gris, witnesses:
Jeanne hath been questioned as follows, touching sundry points on which she did, as hath been seen, ask delay for reply:
“Will you refer yourself to the judgment of the Church on earth for all you have said or done, be it good or bad? Especially will you refer to the Church the cases, crimes, and offences which are imputed to you and everything which touches on this Trial?”
“On all that I am asked I will refer to the Church Militant, provided they do not command anything impossible. And I hold as a thing impossible to declare that my actions and my words and all that I have answered on the subject of my visions and revelations I have not done and said by the order of God: this, I will not declare for anything in the world. And that which God hath made me do, hath commanded or shall command, I will not fail to do for any man alive. It would be impossible for me to revoke it. And in case the Church should wish me to do anything contrary to the command which has been given me of God, I will not consent to it, whatever it may be.”
“If the Church Militant tells you that your revelations are illusions, or diabolical things, will you defer to the Church?”
“I will defer to God, Whose Commandment I always do. I know well that that which is contained in my Case has come to me by the Commandment of God; what I affirm in the Case is, that I have acted by the order of God: it is impossible for me to say otherwise. In case the Church should prescribe the contrary, I should not refer to any one in the world, but to God alone, Whose Commandment I always follow.”
“Do you not then believe you are subject to the Church of God which is on earth, that is to say to our Lord the Pope, to the Cardinals, the Archbishops, Bishops, and other prelates of the Church?”
“Yes, I believe myself to be subject to them; but God must be served first.”
“Have you then command from your Voices not to submit yourself to the Church Militant, which is on earth, nor to its decision?”
“I answer nothing from my own head; what I answer is by command of my Voices; they do not order me to disobey the Church, but God must be served first.”
“At the Castle of Beaurevoir, at Arras or elsewhere, had you any files?”
“If any were found upon me, I have nothing to say.”
This done we did retire, postponing to another day the continuation of this present Trial for Belief.
Choice is made of assertions on which the deliberation should bear, and these assertions are drawn up in Twelve Articles.
The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after Easter, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of April, in the year of Our Lord, 1431.
We, the Judges, have convoked sundry Doctors and Masters with whom we have carefully examined the Seventy Articles which have been recently transcribed, together with the questions and answers of Jeanne, attached to each of these Seventy Articles.
This examination carried out, We did decide that it is expedient to extract from this collection certain assertions and propositions, and to embody these assertions and propositions in Twelve Articles only, which shall thus comprehend, in a summary and succinct manner, the greater part of the sayings of the Accused.
These Twelve Articles having been prepared, We, the Judges, did decree that it is expedient to transmit these Articles to the Doctors, and others, expert in laws Divine and human, in order to have from them, for the benefit of the Faith, advice and counsel on the character of the assertions therein contained. [The Twelve Articles of Accusation will be found in the Appendix, p. [366].]
The Twelve Articles are sent to the Committee.
The following Thursday, April 5th, We, the Judges, sent the Articles in question to each of the Doctors and Masters having knowledge thereof, whom we knew were to be found in this town. We accompanied our missive with a letter of requisition for each of them, couched in these terms:
“We, Pierre, by the Divine mercy Bishop of Beauvais, and Brother Jean Lemaître, Vicar of the Inquisition, To you, such an one [here followeth the name, surname, and quality of the Doctor or Master], we pray you, and for the good of the Faith, require you, that before Tuesday next you will give us in writing and under your seal wholesome counsel on the subject of the assertions borne in the Twelve Articles hereto annexed, in order to know if, the said assertions being by you maturely weighed, considered, and compared, all or any of them seem to you contrary to the Orthodox Faith, or, on any point contrary to Holy Writ, to the decisions of the Holy Roman Church, to the decisions of Doctors approved by the Church, or to the Canonical sanction; and if all or any seem to you scandalous, audacious, disturbing to the Commonwealth, injurious, criminal, contrary to good manners, or culpable in any other manner whatsoever; and in effect for you to say what appears to you should be enacted with regard to them in a matter of Faith. Written at Rouen, Thursday after Easter, April 5th, the year of our Lord, 1431.”
Exhortations and Admonitions.
Private Exhortation by the Bishop.
Wednesday, 18th day of April, We, the Judges, having cognizance already by the deliberations and opinions of a great number of Doctors in Theology and in Canon Law, of Licentiates and other Graduates, of the many and considerable errors brought out in the replies and assertions of the said Jeanne, and knowing that she doth expose herself, if she doth not correct herself, to serious dangers:
For this reason, We did decide to exhort her charitably, to admonish her gently, and to cause her to be gently admonished by many men of knowledge and probity, Doctors and others, in order to lead her back into the way of truth and to a sincere profession of our Faith.
To this end, We did to-day repair to the place of her prison, having with us Guillaume Lebouchier, Jacques de Touraine, Maurice de Quesnay, Nicolas Midi, Guillaume Adelie, Gerard Feuillet, and Guillaume Haiton.
In their presence We, the Bishop, did begin to speak to Jeanne, who declared herself ill.[[87]] We told her that the Doctors and Masters who accompanied Us were come to see her in a friendly and charitable way, to visit her in her suffering and to bring her consolation and comfort. Then, We recalled to her, that she had been during many days, and at divers times, and in presence of many ecclesiastics full of wisdom, questioned on points, grave and difficult, concerning the Faith; that she had made answers, varied and diverse, which wise and lettered men have examined with the most scrupulous attention; that they have noted many of her words and avowals which, from the point of view of the Faith, have appeared to them perilous; but that she is only a poor illiterate woman, who knoweth not the Scriptures. We come to her and We offer her learned and wise men, watchful and honest, who will give her, as is their duty, the knowledge which she hath not. And at the same time We did exhort the Doctors and Masters here present to give to Jeanne, counsel profitable to the salvation of her body and soul, and this in virtue of the duty which binds them to the doctrine of the true Faith. If Jeanne should know others who appear to her more apt than the Doctors here present, We offer to send them to her to counsel and instruct her on what she should do, maintain, and believe. We added that we are all Clergy, always disposed by vocation, will and inclination, to seek by all means the salvation of body and soul, absolutely, as we should do it for our nearest and for ourselves. We shall be happy to furnish her each day with such men to procure her the instruction that We owe her, and to do towards her all that the Church is accustomed to do in such circumstances, she who shutteth not the fold against the repentant lamb. Finally We told her to take into great consideration this admonition which We address to her for her salvation, and to follow it up efficiently: for, if she should act in opposition to Our words, if she should be obstinate in her own mind in consulting only her inexperienced brain, we must abandon her; and she can see to what peril she doth expose herself in this case. It is this peril which We seek to avoid for her with all the power of Our affection.
To which Jeanne hath answered:
“I thank you for what you say to me for my salvation. It seems to me, seeing how ill I am, that I am in great danger of death: if it be that God may do His pleasure on me, I ask of you that I may have confession, and my Saviour also, and that I may be put in holy ground.”
“If you will have the rights [droits] and Sacraments of the Church,” We said to her, “you must do as good Catholics do, and submit yourself to the Church. If you persevere in your intention of not submitting to the Church, you cannot have the Sacraments you ask administered to you, except the Sacrament of Penance, which We are always ready to give you.”
“I have for the moment nothing else to say to you.”
“The more you fear for your life, on account of the illness that you have, the more should you amend; you will not have the rights of a Catholic if you do not submit to the Church.”
“If my body dies in prison, I trust that you will have it put in holy ground; if you do not have it put there, I place my trust in God!”
“You said in your Trial that if you had said or done anything against the Christian Faith established by Our Lord, you would not maintain it.”
“I refer to the answer that I have made to that, and to Our Lord.”
“You say you have had many revelations from God by Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret: if any good person were to come affirming that he had revelations from God touching your mission, would you believe him?”
“There is no Christian in this world who could come to me and say he had had a revelation but that I should know if he were speaking truly or not; I should know it by Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.”
“You imagine then that God can reveal nothing to any one which is unknown to you?”
“I know well that He can; but for me, I should not believe in this case any man or woman if I had not some sign.”
“Do you believe that the Holy Scriptures have been revealed by God?”
“You know it well; I know it well!”
“We summon you, We exhort you, We beseech you to take counsel of the Clerks and notable Masters here present, and to believe in the counsel that they will give you for the salvation of your soul. And once more We ask you if you will submit to the Church Militant your sayings and your doings?”
“Whatever may happen to me, I will do and say no other thing than what I have already said in the Trial.”
Here the venerable Doctors who were assisting Us did exhort her with the most lively instance and did strive to obtain from her that she would submit herself and her acts to the Church Militant. They cited to her a number of authorities taken from Holy Scripture, and shewed her numerous examples. They enlarged upon these authorities and these examples. One of the Doctors,[[88]] in his exhortation, brought forward this passage of Matthew, chapter xviii.: “If thy brother sin against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone”; and this other, “If he will not hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen-man and a publican.” He shewed to Jeanne these truths in French, and said to her at the end, that if she would not submit to the Church and obey it, the Church must abandon her as an Infidel [sarrazine].
“I am a good Christian,” she answered, “I have been baptized; I shall die a good Christian!”
“As you ask that the Church should administer the Eucharist to you, why will you not submit to the Church? It would be administered to you at once.”
“Of this submission I will say no more than I have said: I love God, I serve Him; I am a good Christian; I wish to help and maintain the Church with all my power.”
“Do you not wish that a good and notable procession might be ordained to restore you to a good estate if you are not therein?”
“I desire that the Church and the Catholics should pray for me.”
Public Admonition by the Judges.
Wednesday, the 2nd day of May, the Judges held a sitting in the room of the Castle of Rouen near the Great Hall of the same Castle; assisted by 63 Assessors.
We, the Bishop, did first address to the above-named the following words:
“After having been thoroughly questioned, this woman hath had to reply to the Articles judicially prepared against her by the Promoter; then We have had a summary made of her avowals and declarations in a succinct and abridged form of assertions in Twelve Articles, which We have addressed to the Doctors and other persons consummate in knowledge of Theology, of Civil Law and of Canon Law, in order to have their advice. By the answers which many amongst them have for some time past been sending, We have been able to recognize that, in their eyes, this woman hath fallen short in many things: but nothing as regards this has as yet been decided by Us; and before We come to a final decision, many honest men, conscientious and wise, have thought it would be well to seek by all means to instruct her on the points in which she seems to be lacking, and to reinstate her in the way and knowledge of the truth. This result We have always desired, and We ardently desire it still. For We ought all to bend ourselves thereto, We who live in the Church, and in the ministration of holy things; We ought to strive to shew to this woman with all gentleness that she is, by her words and by her actions, outside the Faith, the truth, and religion, and to warn her charitably to think of her salvation.
“We were indeed penetrated with this idea when We attempted to convince her, in sending to her, divers times and privately, eminent Doctors, sometimes one, sometimes another. These Doctors have responded to our call with the greatest zeal, and have occupied themselves with her with the greatest gentleness, abstaining in every way from coercion. But the cunning of the Devil has continued to prevail, and their efforts have been able to produce nothing.
“Now that it has become certain to Us that private admonitions are of no effect with her, it appears to Us opportune to assemble you together in a solemn manner, in order that this woman should be admonished before you with gentleness and charity on the necessity of her return [to truth]. Perchance your presence and the exhortations of some among you will better induce her to humility and obedience, and turn her back from continuing obstinate in her own ideas; perchance she will believe the counsels of worthy men, of the wise, versed in the science of the laws, divine and human; she will cease to expose herself to the gravest dangers into which body and soul can fall.
“In order to address to her this solemn admonition, We have chosen an ancient Master in Theology, very learned and singularly well versed in these matters, Maître Jean de Châtillon, Archdeacon of Evreux, who, if it so please him, will shortly accept this charge of demonstrating clearly to this woman sundry points on the which her error is evident, according to what we have already gathered from the opinions which have reached Us, and who will persuade her to leave the criminal path where she now is, to return again to that of truth.
“It is for this purpose that this woman will be brought before you presently; she will, therefore, receive in your presence a solemn admonition. Now, if there be any one among you who thinketh that he hath anything to say or do which may facilitate her return, or instruct her in a manner profitable to the salvation of her body and soul, we beseech him not to hesitate to open himself to Us or to state his views publicly.”
Jeanne was then brought, and placed before the assembly.
We, the Bishop, in our name and in the name of the other Judge, did give her counsel to attend to the monitions about to be made to her by the aforesaid Lord Archdeacon, Professor in Sacred Theology, who was about to say many things profitable to the salvation of her body and soul, and that she ought to agree, for if she did not, she would expose herself to great dangers both soul and body.
Then we, the said Judges, did invite the said Lord Archdeacon to proceed with charity to the performance of the said monitions. Obeying our order, the said Lord Archdeacon did begin to instruct the said Jeanne, by shewing her a great number of things contained in a schedule whose tenour will be presently transcribed. He first shewed her that all the faithful in Christ are bound and obliged to believe the Christian Faith, and certain Articles of this Faith; and he did warn and beseech her, by means of a general monition, to correct and amend both herself and her deeds; he reminded her that this was the advice of the venerable Doctors and Masters of consummate experience and skill.
To this general monition, Jeanne replied:
“Read your book” [speaking of the writing which the Lord Archdeacon held in his hand], “read your book, then I will answer. I rely upon God, my Creator, for everything. I love Him with all my heart.”
Asked if she had anything more to say to this general monition, she replied:
“I rely on my Judge: He is the King of Heaven and earth.”
Afterwards the Lord Archdeacon, proceeding to special monitions, did, in conformity with a writing which he had under his eyes, speak as follows:
[Here follows, in the Original Documents, an Exhortation in Six Articles, addressed to Jeanne in the French language by the Archdeacon, on her submission to the Church, her dress, her Visions and Revelations.]
Jeanne replies to the Six Articles.
On the 1st and 2nd Article, she said:
“Thereupon I answer to-day as I have done before.”
On the subject of the Church Militant, she said:
“I believe indeed in the Church which is here below; but for my words and deeds, as I have said elsewhere, I rely on and refer me to the only God. I believe that the Church Militant cannot err or fail; but as to my words and deeds, I submit them and refer all to God, Who caused me to do what I have done. I submit me to God, my Creator, Who caused me to do all these things; I refer me to God thereupon and to my own self.”
“Do you mean by this to say that you have no judge on earth? Is not our Holy Father, the Pope, your judge?”
“I will say nothing else to you. I have a good Master, that is God; it is to Him I look in everything and to none other.”
“If you will not believe in the Church, if you will not believe that Article of the Creed, ‘the Church, One, Holy, Catholic,’ you will be declared a heretic and, by other judges, punished with the pains of fire.”
“I will say no more to you, and, if I saw the fire, I should say all that I am saying to you, and naught else.”[[89]]
“If a General Council—that is to say, our Holy Father the Pope, the Cardinals, Bishops and others—were here, would you not then refer and submit yourself to this Holy Council?”
“You shall drag nothing else from me upon this.”
“Will you submit to our Holy Father the Pope?”
“Take me to him, I will reply to him.” [She would answer no more.]
On the subject of the 3rd Article, she replied:
“As to my garments, I will indeed take a long dress and a woman’s hood to go to Church and to receive there the Sacrament of the Eucharist—as I said elsewhere—provided that, directly after, I may put off that dress and take again what I bear at this moment.” And when it was suggested to her that she had taken this dress without necessity, especially while in prison, she said: “When I have done that for which I am sent by God, I will resume woman’s dress.”
“Do you think you do well to wear a man’s dress?”
“I refer me to Our Lord.”
“Will you leave off wearing this dress and the believing that you do right in wearing it? Will you resume a woman’s dress?”
“I will do nothing different.”
On the subject of the 4th Article she replied:
“I have blasphemed neither God nor His Saints.”
“When Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret came to you, did you make the sign of the Cross?”
“Sometimes I made it, sometimes not.”
On the subject of the 5th Article she answered:
“As to my revelations, I refer me to my Judge—that is to say, to God. My revelations came to me from God direct.”
“On the subject of the sign given to your King, will you refer to the Archbishop of Rheims, to the Sire de Boussac,[[90]] to Charles de Bourbon, to the Seigneur de la Trémouille, and to Etienne, called La Hire, to whom or to some of whom you say that you shewed the crown, these being present when the Angel brought it to the King, who afterwards gave it to the Archbishop? or will you consent to refer to some of your party who may write under their seal about it?”
“Give me a messenger and I will write to them about this Trial.” [She would not believe in, or refer otherwise to them.]
On the subject of the 6th Article, she answered:
“I refer to my Judge—that is to say, to Our Lord—and to what I have before answered, which is written in the book.”
“If three or four Clergy of your party are sent to you, coming under a safe conduct, will you refer yourself to them on the subject of your apparitions and of all that is contained in your trial?”
“Let them come; I will answer.” [She would not refer nor otherwise submit to them on the subject of the trial.]
“Will you refer or submit yourself to the Church of Poitiers, where you were examined?”
“Do you think you will take me in that way, and draw me to you by it?”
Afterwards, to conclude, she was anew and in full, generally warned by the Lord Archdeacon to submit to the Church under pain of being abandoned by the Church. He said, and repeated to her, that, if the Church abandoned her, she would be in great peril both of body and soul, and would fall into danger of the pains of eternal fire as to her soul and, by sentence of other Judges, into danger of temporal fire for her body.
To which she answered:
“You will not do what you say against me without evil overtaking you, body and soul!”
“Tell us a reason, one only, why you should refuse to refer yourself to the Church.”
[But she would make Us no other answer.]
Afterwards, many Doctors and competent people of divers estates and faculties, set themselves to admonish and to counsel her with gentleness. They exhorted her to submit to the Church Universal, to our Holy Father the Pope, and to the Sacred General Council. They explained to her the peril to which she exposed both soul and body in refusing to submit herself and her deeds to the judgment of the Church Militant.
[She answered as before.]
And then We, the Bishop, told Jeanne to think well over it, to take good heed to the monitions, counsels, and exhortations which had just been made to her, and to reflect on them most seriously.
Jeanne expressed herself thus:
“What time will you give me to think over it?”
We told her that she could think over it at once, and answer as she wished. But, as she would reply no more, we retired, and Jeanne was conducted back to prison.
Wednesday, May 9th, We, the Judges, being in the great Tower of the Castle of Rouen, assisted by the reverend Fathers, Doctors and Masters whose names follow: the Reverend Father Abbot of Corneille de Compiègne, Jean de Chatillon, Guillaume Erard, André Marguerie, Nicolas de Venderès, Guillaume Haiton, Aubert Morel, Nicolas Loyseleur, Jean Massieu: did cause Jeanne to be brought before us.
We did require and warn her:
To speak the truth to Us on divers and numerous points on which she hath hitherto refused to reply or hath replied untruthfully, the which are established in the highest degree by informations, proofs, and grave presumptions. A great number of these points were read and shewn to her. Then she was told that, if she would not tell the truth, she would immediately be put to the torture, the instruments of which were here, in this same tower, under her eyes. There also were present the executioners, who by Our order had made all the necessary preparations for torturing her, in order to bring her back by this means into the way and knowledge of the truth, and thus to procure for her salvation both of body and soul, which she doth expose to such grave peril by her lying inventions.
To which Jeanne replied in this manner:
“Truly if you were to tear me limb from limb, and separate soul and body, I will tell you nothing more; and, if I were to say anything else, I should always afterwards declare that you made me say it by force. Last Thursday[[91]] I received comfort from Saint Gabriel; I believe it was Saint Gabriel: I knew by my Voices it was he. I asked counsel of my Voices if I ought to submit to the Church, because the Clergy were pressing me hard to submit, and they said to me: ‘If thou willest that God should come to thy help, wait on Him for all thy doings.’ I know that Our Lord hath always been the Master of all my doings, and that the Devil hath never had power over them. I asked of my Voices if I should be burned, and my Voices answered me: ‘Wait on Our Lord, He will help thee.’”
“On the subject of the crown which you say was given to the Archbishop of Rheims, will you defer to him?”
“Make him come here, and I will hear him speak, and then I will answer you. Nevertheless, he dare not say the contrary to what I have said thereon.”
Seeing the hardness of her heart, and her manner of replying, We, the Judges, fearing that the punishment of the torture would profit her little, decided that it was expedient to delay it, at least for the present, and until We have had thereupon more complete advice.
Saturday, May 12th, in the abode of Us, the Bishop,[[92]] We, the Judges, having taken our seats, assisted by the venerable Doctors and Masters whose names follow:—Raoul Roussell, Nicolas de Venderès, André Marguerie, Guillaume Erard, Robert Barbier, Denis Gastinel, Jean Ledoux, Aubert Morel, Thomas de Courcelles, Nicolas Coppequesne, Nicolas Loyseleur, Brother Ysambard de la Pierre.
We, the Bishop, did make known to the Assessors what had taken place on the previous Wednesday, and ask their counsel on what should be now done; We did in particular consult them on the question of submitting Jeanne to the torture.
[Here follow the deliberations of the fourteen Assessors consulted, only two of whom, Aubert Morel and Thomas de Courcelles, recommended recourse to the torture. Nicolas Loyseleur considered it “a salutary medicine for her soul,” but nevertheless agreed that it should not be adopted.]
We, the Judges, after having gathered the opinion of each, taking into consideration the answers made by Jeanne at the Sitting on Wednesday last, taking into consideration also the disposition of her mind, her will so energetically manifested, and all the other circumstances of the Case, decide that it is neither profitable nor expedient to submit her to the torture; and for the rest, We will proceed later.
[The Twelve Articles of the Indictment, or Accusation, were sent to the University of Paris, for their consideration and report, by the hands of Maîtres Jean Beaupère, Nicolas Midi, Jacques de Touraine, and Gerard Feuillet, who left Rouen for this purpose on April 19th. On April 29th, the University was solemnly convoked at Saint-Bernard to consider the question; on May 14th, the deliberation of the Faculty of Theology and the Faculty of Decrees was submitted to all the Faculties, solemnly assembled for that purpose, and adopted by the University as its own. Letters from the University of Paris were sent to the Bishop of Beauvais and to King Henry VI. on the same day, by the messengers then returning to Rouen.]
The Bishop communicates the Resolutions of the University of Paris [approving of the Twelve Articles], and asks the advice of all the Doctors present.
Saturday, May 19th, in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor of Rouen.—Present: the Judges, assisted by 51 Assessors.
In presence of the above named, We, the Bishop, said:
For a long time, We have been receiving a very considerable number of Resolutions and opinions, coming from notable Doctors and Masters, on the subject of the assertions made and confessed by Jeanne. We might awhile since have proceeded to the conclusion of the Process, basing Ourselves on these Resolutions, because these Resolutions were assuredly quite sufficient. But in order to testify all honour and all respect towards our Mother, the University of Paris; to have on the matter a more full and complete elucidation; to give to consciences more guarantee and surety: We did decide to send the assertions in question to Our Mother the University of Paris, and principally to the Faculties of Theology and of Decrees; and to beseech the deliberation of the Doctors and Masters of the said University, principally of the said two Faculties of Theology and Decrees. The University—in particular, the said two Faculties—being ardently enflamed with zeal for the Faith—have maturely and solemnly given their opinion upon each of the assertions, and have sent them to Us in the form of a Public Instrument.
This statement ended, We gave orders that the Resolutions contained in the said Instrument should be read.
Afterwards, upon the reading of the Resolutions of the said two Faculties and the said University, each of the Doctors and Masters present did give and explain his opinion: and this, in addition to the opinion already given for the most part in the deliberations reported above.
The opinion of all is in conformity with the Resolutions of the University and of the two Faculties; and it doth bear not only on the qualifications to be given to the assertions comprised in the Twelve Articles, but also on the manner of proceeding which shall be followed finally.
Here follow the deliberations of the Doctors and Masters; [agreeing with the Resolutions of the University, and advising that Jeanne should be again charitably admonished and warned before a final sentence be pronounced.]
For all which, We, the Judges, thanked the reverend Fathers, Lords, and Masters.
We decided that Jeanne should be again warned to return into the way of truth and salvation of soul and body.
Besides, and in accordance with the excellent deliberations which had just taken place, and with the counsels full of sense just enunciated, We decided that We will, after this last monition, pronounce the closing of the Process and give a day for the announcement of the sentence.
FINAL SESSION AND SENTENCE. RECANTATION.
Wednesday, May 23rd, We, the Judges, assisted by the reverend Fathers and Lords the Bishops of Thérouanne and de Noyon; and the Doctors and Masters Jean de Châtillon, Jean Beaupère, Nicolas Midi, Guillaume Erard, Pierre Maurice, André Marguerie and Nicolas de Venderès, seated ourselves in tribunal in a room in the Castle of Rouen, situated near the place which serves Jeanne as prison.
We did cause the said Jeanne to be brought before Us, because We judged it profitable to shew her the points on which the Faculties of Theology and Decrees of the University of Paris have declared that she hath erred and fallen short; We have judged it profitable also to make known to her the omissions, crimes and errors which, in the terms of the Resolutions of each of these Faculties, exist on each of these same points; and afterwards, to warn her, or cause her to be warned, to abandon these errors and shortcomings: to correct and submit herself, in fine, to the censure and judgment of Our Holy Mother the Church.
Maître Pierre Maurice, Canon of the Church of Rouen, a celebrated Doctor in Theology, hath been charged by us with this mission, and he hath fulfilled it by addressing to Jeanne the words written by him in French in a schedule thus expressed.
[Here follows a recapitulation of the Twelve Articles, with the opinion, adverse to Jeanne, given upon them by the Clerics consulted.]
After these assertions had been thus shewn to her, and the decision of the University of Paris upon each of them had been made known to her, Jeanne was admonished, in the French language, by the said Doctor Pierre Maurice to pay great attention to the character given to her sayings and deeds by this decision of the University of Paris. Above all he did exhort her to reflect well on the gravity of the error contained in her refusal to submit to the Church Militant.
And he concluded by thus speaking to her:
“Jeanne, my very dear friend, it is now time, at the end of your Trial, to reflect well on all that has been said to you. This is the fourth time[[93]] that the Lord Bishop of Beauvais, the Lord Vicar of the Inquisition, and other Doctors who have been thereto appointed, have, either in public or in private, in honour and reverence for God, for the Faith, and the Law of Jesus Christ, for the tranquillity of their own consciences and for the alleviation of so great a scandal, admonished you with the greatest zeal—so great is their care for the salvation of your soul and body! Four times have been made known to you the perils which endanger your soul and body, if you do not at last consent to correct yourself and your sayings by submitting to the Church, yourself and your deeds, and by accepting her judgment.
“Up to this time you have obstinately refused. And although many others might long since have declared the Case heard and have given judgment upon you, nevertheless my Lords your Judges, enflamed with zeal for the salvation of your soul and body, desired, in order to have their advice, to send your sayings and deeds to the University, that light of all Science, that extirpator of all error. The resolutions of the University of Paris have come to your Judges. They have then decided, always in the hope of your salvation, to admonish you once again, to again call your attention to your errors, your scandals and all the faults that you have committed in such great number.
“They exhort you, your Judges, they beseech you, they admonish you by the bowels of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath suffered a cruel death for the redemption of man, they beseech you to correct your words, to submit them to the judgment of the Church, as all the faithful are bound and obliged to do. Do not allow yourself to be separated from Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath created you to be a sharer in His glory; do not choose the way of eternal damnation with the enemies of God, who daily set their wits to work to find means to trouble mankind, transforming themselves often, to this end, into the likeness of Our Lord, of Angels and of Saints, as is seen but too often in the lives of the Fathers and in the Scriptures.
“Therefore, if such things have appeared to you, do not believe them. The belief which you may have had in such illusions, put it away from you. Believe rather in the words and opinions of the University of Paris and other Doctors, who, knowing the law of God and Holy Scripture, decide that no faith should be placed in such apparitions, nor should faith be placed in any extraordinary apparitions, in any novelty which is not supported by Holy Scripture, by a sign, or by a miracle.
“You have very lightly believed in such things, you who have not turned to God in earnest prayer that He would grant you certainty; you who, to enlighten yourself, have not applied to a prelate or a learned ecclesiastic. This you ought to have done: it was your duty, considering your estate and the simplicity of your knowledge.
“Let us take an example: If your King had given you a treasure to guard, forbidding you to receive any one, whoever it might be, should you not refuse to receive one who presented himself to you, saying he came by order of the King, unless he brought you a letter or some certain sign? For the Church it is the same thing: when Our Lord Jesus Christ, ascending into Heaven, confided the government of His Church to the blessed Apostle Peter and his successors, He forbade us to accept anything from others who might come in His Name, who should have for the support of their mission only their own sayings. You ought not to have put faith in those whom you say came to you; and we also, we ought not to believe in you, since Our Lord hath expressly commanded the contrary.
“Reflect, Jeanne, upon this: if, when you were in your King’s realm, a soldier or another, born in his kingdom and placed under his dominion, had suddenly risen and said, ‘I will not obey the King, I will not submit either to him or his officers,’ would you not have said yourself that this man should be condemned? But what will you say of yourself, you, brought up in the Faith of Christ, if you do not obey the officers of Christ—that is to say, the Prelates of the Church? What judgment will you give on yourself? Cease, therefore, to hold this damnable speech, if you love God, your Creator, your Spouse, and your Salvation: obey the Church, consent to submit to its judgment; know well that, if you do not, if you persevere in your error, your soul will be condemned to eternal punishment; and, for your body, I fear much that it will come to perdition. [Anima vestra damnabitur supplicio perpetuo crucianda, et de corpore plurimum dubito ne in perditionem veniat.]
“Let not fear of the world hold you back; do not give way to the fear of losing, by doing as I ask you, the great honours you have received. The honour of God and the salvation of your body and soul must be preferred before all. All is perishable, save only what I tell you to do. If you do it not, you separate yourself from the Church and from the Faith to which you have sworn in Holy Baptism; you detach yourself from the authority of the Church, from the Church which is led, ruled, and governed by the authority of the Spirit of God. Did not God say to the chiefs of the Church: ‘He that heareth you heareth Me, he that despiseth you despiseth Me’? If you will not submit to the Church, you separate yourself in deed, and you refuse at the same time to submit yourself to God; you are in error on this article of the Faith, ‘the Church, One, Holy, and Catholic.’ What this Church and her authority is, hath been sufficiently explained to you in former monitions.
“Thus have my Lords the Bishop of Beauvais and the Vicar of the Inquisition, your Judges, charged me to tell you.
“And now, I admonish, I beseech, I exhort you, in the name of your devotion to the Passion of your Creator, and of the affection you should bear to the salvation of your body and soul, I admonish, I beseech you, amend yourself, return into the way of truth, obey the Church, submit to her judgment and decision.
“In thus acting you will save your soul; you will redeem—so I believe—your body from death. But if you do not, if you persist, know that your soul will be overwhelmed by damnation, and I fear for the destruction of your body.
“May Our Saviour Jesus Christ preserve you from all these evils!”
After being thus admonished and exhorted, Jeanne did reply:
“As to my words and deeds, such as I have declared them in the Trial, I refer to them and will maintain them.”
“Do you not, then,” We asked her, “think yourself bound to submit your words and deeds to the Church Militant, or to any other but God?”
She replied: “What I have always said in the Trial, and held, I wish still to say and maintain. If I were condemned, if I saw the fire lighted, the faggots prepared, and the executioner ready to kindle the fire, and if I myself were in the fire, I would not say otherwise, and would maintain to the death all I have said.”[[94]]
Then, We, the Judges, asked of the Promoter and of Jeanne herself if they had anything else to say. They replied, No. In consequence, We did proceed to close the Process, following the formula contained in a schedule which We, the Bishop, held in Our hands, and which was thus expressed:
We, the Judges, competent in this Process, declare anew our competence in so far as is necessary;
Considering the declaration just made by the Promoter and the Accused that they have no more to say;
We declare the Process concluded;[[95]] and, this conclusion pronounced, We summon you both to-morrow to hear the law which will be laid down by Us, and the sentence which shall be pronounced by Us, to be afterwards carried out and proceeded with according to law and right.
On Thursday after Whitsuntide, the 24th day of May in the morning, We, the Judges, did repair to a solemn Assembly, publicly held in the Cemetery of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen, at Rouen.[[96]] We did have with us:—The most reverend Father in Christ, Henry, by Divine Permission Priest of the Holy Roman Church, under the title of Saint Eusebius, usually called the Cardinal of England; the reverend Fathers in Christ, the Lords Bishops of Thérouanne, Noyon, and Norwich; the Lords Abbot of Saint Trinité de Fécamp, of Saint Ouen of Rouen, of Jumièges, Bec, Cormeilles, Saint-Michel au Peril-de-la-Mer, Mortemer, and Preaux; the Priors of Longueville-la-Giffard, and Saint Lo of Rouen; and many others.
Jeanne was placed opposite to Us on a scaffold or platform prepared for this purpose.
First of all, We did charge Maître Guillaume Érard, Doctor in Theology, a preacher of great renown, to pronounce a solemn sermon for the salutary admonition of Jeanne and the great crowd which surrounded us.
This Doctor began by taking for text that Word of God in St. John, Chapter XV., “A branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine.” Then he explained solemnly that all Catholics should abide in the true vine of the Holy Mother Church which Christ had planted: he shewed how Jeanne, by many errors and grave crimes, had separated herself from Holy Mother Church, to the great scandal of Christian people. Finally, he admonished and exhorted her and all the people by the most edifying teaching.
In concluding, he spoke to her in these terms:
“Jeanne, behold my Lords your Judges, who, at divers times, have summoned and required you to submit yourself, your words and deeds, to Our Holy Church, shewing you that there doth exist in your words and deeds many things which, as it doth seem to the Clergy, are not good either to say or maintain.”
To which Jeanne replied:
“I will answer you. As to my submission to the Church, I have answered the Clergy on this point. I have answered them also on the subject of all the things I have said and done. Let them be sent to Rome to our Holy Father the Pope, to whom after God I refer me as to my words and deeds: I did them by God’s order; I charge no one with them, neither my King nor any one else. If there be any fault found in them, the blame is on me, and no one else.”
“Will you revoke all your words and deeds which are disapproved by the Clergy?”
“I refer me to God and to our Holy Father the Pope.”
SOUTH DOOR OF ST. OUEN AT ROUEN.
Then she was told that this answer would not suffice; that it was not possible to send to seek the Pope from such a distance; that the Ordinaries are Judges, each in their own diocese; that it was necessary she should refer to our Holy Mother the Church; and that she should hold as true all that the Clergy and other people cognizant thereof have said and decided on the subject of her words and deeds.
She was admonished on this to the third monition.
But as this woman would say no more, We, the Bishop, did then begin the reading of Our sentence as follows:
THE SENTENCE
In the Name of the Lord, Amen.
All the pastors of the Church who have it in their hearts to watch faithfully over their flock, should, when the perfidious Sower of Errors works by his machinations and deceits to infest the Flock of Christ, strive with great care to resist his pernicious efforts with the greatest vigilance and the most lively solicitude, and above all in these perilous times, when so many false prophets are come into the world with their sects of error and perdition, according to the prediction thereof made by the Apostle. Their diverse and strange doctrines might cause the faithful in Christ to stray, if Holy Mother Church, with the aid of wholesome doctrine and canonical sanction, did not study with great zeal to refute their inventions and errors.
Therefore, because that before Us, Pierre by the Divine Mercy Bishop of Beauvais, and before Us, Brother Jean Lemaître, Deputy in this City and Diocese for Maître Jean Graverend, renowned Doctor Inquisitor in France for the Evil of Heresy, specially appointed for this in this Case; because, before Us, competent Judges, thou, Jeanne, commonly called the Maid, hast been indicted and cited in a Case of Faith, on account of thy pernicious errors; after having seen and examined with great attention the whole series of thy Trial[[97]]....
Our sentence had thus been already read, in great part, when Jeanne did begin to speak and said:
“I will hold[[98]] all that the Church ordains, all that you, the Judges, wish to say and decree—in all I will refer me to your orders!”
Then many times did she say:
“Inasmuch as the Clergy decide that the apparitions and revelations which I have had are not to be maintained or believed, I will not believe nor maintain them; in all I refer me to you and to our Holy Mother Church!”
Abjuration.
Then, in the presence of all the aforenamed, in presence of an immense number of people and Clergy, she did make and utter her recantation and abjuration, following a formula written in French, which was read to her; a formula which she did pronounce herself, and the schedule of which she did sign with her own hand, and of which the tenour follows:
“All who have erred and been mistaken in the Christian Faith and, by the grace of God, have since returned into the light of truth and the unity of Our Holy Mother Church, should well guard themselves that the Evil One doth not drive them back and cause them to relapse into error and damnation. For this cause, I, Jeanne, commonly called the Maid, a miserable sinner, after that I had recognized the snares of error in the which I was held, and [after] that, by the grace of God, I had returned to our Holy Mother Church, in order that it may be seen that, not feigningly but with a good heart and good will, I have returned thereto; I confess that I have most grievously sinned, in pretending untruthfully to have had revelations and apparitions from God, from the Angels, and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; in seducing others; in believing foolishly and lightly; in making superstitious divinations; in blaspheming God and His Saints; in breaking the Divine Law, Holy Scripture, and the lawful Canons; in wearing a dissolute habit, mis-shapen and immodest and against the propriety of nature, and hair clipped ‘en ronde’ in the style of a man, against all the modesty of the feminine sex; also, in bearing arms in great presumption; in cruelly desiring the effusion of human blood; in saying that all these things I did by the command of God, the Angels, and the aforesaid Saints, and that in these things I did well and was not mistaken; in despising God and His Sacraments; in making seditions; and in being idolatrous, by adoring evil spirits and invoking them. I confess also that I have been schismatic and in many ways have erred from the Faith. The which crimes and errors, from my heart and without lying, I—by the grace of Our Lord, returned into the way of truth, by the holy doctrine and good counsel of you and the Doctors and Masters who have conveyed it to me—abjure as blasphemy and renounce them all, and depart therefrom. And upon all these things aforesaid I submit to the correction, disposal, amendment, and entire decision of our Holy Mother Church and of your good justice. Also I swear and promise to you, to my Lord Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, to our Holy Father the Pope of Rome, his Vicar, and his successors, and to you, my Lords, the reverend Father in God my Lord the Bishop of Beauvais, the religious person, Brother Jean Lemaître, Deputy of my Lord the Inquisitor of the Faith, as my Judges, that never, by any exhortation or other manner, will I return to the aforesaid errors, from which it hath pleased Our Lord to deliver and take me; but always I will remain in union with our Holy Mother Church and in the obedience of our Holy Father the Pope of Rome. And this I say, affirm, and swear, by God Almighty and by the Holy Gospels.
“And in sign of this, I have signed this schedule with my signature. (Signed thus): Jehanne +.”
After her revocation and her abjuration had been, as has just been said, received by us, the Judges, We, the Bishop, did finally deliver our sentence in these terms:
[The sentence then follows as given above up to the words “thy Trial,” and then proceeds:]
... all that therein occurred, principally thine answers, thine avowals, and thine affirmations; after having seen the most renowned decision of the faculties of Theology and Decrees of the University of Paris; after having also seen the decision of the entire University and the numerous Resolutions of so many Prelates, Doctors, and other Masters, who at Rouen or elsewhere have sent in such great numbers their assertions as to thy sayings and deeds; after having had, upon this, advice and mature deliberation of so many Doctors zealous for the Christian Faith; after having weighed and considered all that there is to weigh and consider of what is in the nature of enlightenment; having before our eyes Christ and the honour of the Orthodox Faith, so that our judgment may emanate even from the face of Our Lord: we, the Judges, say and decree: that thou, Jeanne, hast deeply sinned in pretending untruthfully that thy revelations and apparitions are of God; in seducing others; in believing lightly and rashly; in making superstitious divinations; in blaspheming God and the Saints; in prevaricating as to the law, Holy Scripture, and the Canonical sanctions; in despising God in His Sacraments; in fomenting seditions and revolts; in apostatizing; in encouraging the crime of heresy; in erring on numerous points in the Catholic Faith.
But because that, after being many times charitably admonished and long waited for, thou hast at last, with the help of God, returned into the bosom of the Church, thy Holy Mother, with contrite heart, and hast openly revoked thy errors; because, having solemnly and publicly cast these far from thee, thou hast abjured them by the words of thine own mouth, together with the heresy with which thou wast charged: We declare thee set free by these presents, according to the form appointed by Ecclesiastical sanction, from the bonds of excommunications which held thee enchained, charging thee to return to the Church with a true heart and sincere faith, and to observe what hath been already enjoined thee and what shall yet be enjoined thee by us.
But because thou hast sinned rashly against God and Holy Church, We condemn thee, finally, definitely and for salutary penance, saving Our grace and moderation, to perpetual imprisonment, with the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction, in order that thou mayest bewail thy faults, and that thou mayest no more commit [acts] which thou shalt have to bewail hereafter.
Exhortation made to Jeanne by the Deputy Inquisitor, in Prison.
And the same day, Thursday, May 24th, in the afternoon, We, Brother Jean Lemaître, the aforesaid Deputy, assisted by the Lords and Masters N. Midi, N. Loyseleur, Thomas de Courcelles, Brother Ysambard de la Pierre, and several others,
We did repair to the place in the prison where Jeanne was to be found.
We, and the persons assisting us, did set forth before her how God had on this day had mercy on her, and how the Clergy had shewn themselves merciful in receiving her to the Grace and pardon of Holy Mother Church. In return, it was right that she, Jeanne, should obey with humility the sentence and orders of the Judges and the Ecclesiastics; that she should wholly give up her errors and all her inventions, never to return to them: because, in case she should return to them, the Church could no longer admit her to pardon, and must abandon her altogether. We told her to leave off her man’s dress and to take a woman’s garments, as the Church had ordered her.
In all our observations Jeanne did reply that she would willingly take woman’s garments, and that in all things she would obey the Church.
Woman’s garments having been offered to her, she at once dressed herself in them, after having taken off the man’s dress she was wearing; and her hair, which up to this time had been cut “en ronde” above her ears, she desired and permitted them to shave and take away.
Here ends the First Part of the Trial, called “The Lapse.”
BATTLE OUTSIDE ORLEANS.
II
SECOND PROCESS: THE RELAPSE
Monday, May 28th, the day following Trinity Sunday.
We, the aforesaid Judges, repaired to the place of Jeanne’s prison, to learn the state and disposition of her soul. There were found with us the Lords and Masters Nicolas de Venderès, Guillaume Haiton, Thomas de Courcelles, Brother Ysambard de la Pierre; witnesses, Jacques Cannes, Nicolas Bertin, Julien Floquet and John Gris.
And because Jeanne was dressed in the dress of a man—that is to say, a short mantle, a hood, a doublet and other effects used by men—although, by our orders, she had, several days before, consented to give up these garments, we asked her when and for what reason she had resumed this dress.[[99]]
She answered us:
“I have but now resumed the dress of a man and put off the woman’s dress.”
“Why did you take it, and who made you take it?”
“I took it of my own free will, and with no constraint: I prefer a man’s dress to a woman’s dress.”
“You promised and swore not to resume a man’s dress.”
“I never meant to swear that I would not resume it.”
“Why have you resumed it?”
“Because it is more lawful and suitable for me to resume it and to wear man’s dress, being with men, than to have a woman’s dress. I have resumed it because the promise made to me has not been kept; that is to say, that I should go to Mass and should receive my Saviour and that I should be taken out of irons.”
“Did you not abjure and promise not to resume this dress?”
“I would rather die than be in irons! but if I am allowed to go to Mass, and am taken out of irons and put into a gracious prison, and [may have a woman for companion[[100]]] I will be good, and do as the Church wills.”
And as We, the Judges, heard from several persons that she had returned to her old illusions on the subject of her pretended revelations, We put to her this question:
“Since last Thursday [the day of her abjuration] have you heard your Voices at all?”
“Yes, I have heard them.”
“What did they say to you?”
“They said to me:[[101]] ‘God had sent me word by St. Catherine and St. Margaret of the great pity it is, this treason to which I have consented, to abjure and recant in order to save my life! I have damned myself to save my life!’ Before last Thursday, my Voices did indeed tell me what I should do and what I did on that day. When I was on the scaffold on Thursday, my Voices said to me, while the preacher was speaking: ‘Answer him boldly, this preacher!’ And in truth he is a false preacher; he reproached me with many things I never did. If I said that God had not sent me, I should damn myself, for it is true that God has sent me; my Voices have said to me since Thursday: ‘Thou hast done a great evil in declaring that what thou hast done was wrong.’ All I said and revoked, I said for fear of the fire.”
“Do you believe that your Voices are Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret?”
“Yes, I believe it, and that they come from God.”
“Tell us the truth on the subject of this crown which is mentioned in your Trial.”
“In everything, I told you the truth about it in my Trial, as well as I know.”
“On the scaffold, at the moment of your abjuration, you did admit before us, your Judges, and before many others, in presence of all the people, that you had untruthfully boasted your Voices to be Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.”
“I did not intend so to do or say. I did not intend to deny my apparitions—that is to say, that they were Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; what I said was from fear of the fire: I revoked nothing that was not against the truth. I would rather do penance once for all—that is die—than endure any longer the suffering of a prison. I have done nothing against God or the Faith, in spite of all they have made me revoke. What was in the schedule of abjuration I did not understand. I did not intend to revoke anything except according to God’s good pleasure. If the Judges wish, I will resume a woman’s dress; for the rest, I can do no more.”
After hearing this, We retired from her, to act and proceed later according to law and reason.
Final Adjudication.
The next day, Tuesday, May 29th, in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor of Rouen, the Judges and 40 Assessors present.
We, the Bishop, did, in presence of all the above-named, set forth that, after the Sitting held by Us in this same place, on Saturday, May 19th, the Eve of Whitsunday, We had, by the advice of the Assessors, caused Jeanne to be admonished on the following Wednesday, and had made known to her in detail the divers points on which, according to the decision of the University of Paris, she must be considered to have fallen short and erred; We caused her to be exhorted in the most lively manner to abandon her errors, and to return into the way of truth; up to the last moment she refused to agree to these admonitions and these exhortations, and would say nothing more; the Promoter, on his side, asserted that he had nothing more to bring forward against her. We then pronounced the closing of the Case, and summoned the parties on the following day, Thursday, 24th May next, to hear the law pronounced, all whereof is proved by the documents of the Procès Verbal transcribed above.
Afterwards, We did recall what had passed on Thursday, May 24th; how Jeanne, after having on that day received a solemn preachment and numerous admonitions, did end by signing with her own hand her revocation and abjuration; the whole whereof is at greater length recounted in the preceding document. We did add that, in the afternoon of the same day, the Deputy Inquisitor, Our Coadjutor, did go to seek her in her prison, and did charitably admonish her to persist in her good purpose and to guard herself well against any relapse. Obeying the orders of the Church, Jeanne did then put off the dress she was wearing, and take that of a woman; all whereof hath been likewise set forth at greater length as to time and place.
But since that day, driven by the Devil, behold! she hath, in the presence of many persons, declared anew that her Voices and the spirits that appeared to her have returned to her, and have said many things to her; and, casting away her woman’s dress she hath again taken male garments. As soon as We, the Judges, did receive information of this lapse, We were eager to return to her and to question her.
And then, in presence of all the above-named, in the said Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor of Rouen, We, the Bishop, did order to be read the declarations and affirmations which Jeanne pronounced yesterday before us, and which are reproduced above.
After this reading had been made, We asked advice and counsel thereon from the Assessors. Each one hath given his opinion, as follows:—
Maître Nicolas de Venderès: Jeanne should be considered a heretic: the sentence declaring her to be so, once given by Us, the Judges, she should be abandoned to the secular authority, which should be prayed to act towards her with gentleness. [“Rogando eam ut cum velit mite agere,” the usual formula for victims sent to the stake.]
The Reverend Father in Christ, the Lord Gilles, Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Fécamp: Jeanne is relapsed. Nevertheless, it would be well that the schedule containing her last answers, which hath just been read, should be read anew and set forth to her, reminding her once more of the Word of God; afterwards, We, the Judges, should declare her a heretic and abandon her to the secular authority, praying this authority to deal gently with her.
[The remainder of the Assessors agreed in general with this opinion of the Abbot of Fécamp; some added that she should be again charitably admonished, in regard to the salvation of her soul, and should be told that she had nothing further to expect as to her earthly life.]
After having gathered this advice, We, the Judges, did thank the Assessors, and gave orders that Jeanne should be afterwards proceeded against, as relapsed, according to law and reason.
Mandate citing Jeanne to appear on Wednesday, May 30th.
“Pierre, by the Divine Mercy Bishop of Beauvais, and Jean Lemaître, Deputy of Maître Jean Graverend, renowned Doctor, appointed by the Holy See Inquisitor of the Evil of Heresy in the Kingdom of France; to all public Priests, to all Curés of this town and of any other place wherever it be in the Diocese of Rouen, to each of them in particular, according as it shall be required: Greeting in Our Saviour. For the causes and reasons to be elsewhere deduced at greater length, a certain woman of the name of Jeanne, commonly called the Maid, having fallen into errors against the Orthodox Faith—errors which she hath publicly abjured before the Church, and to which she hath returned—as is established and proved by her avowals and assertions: We command to all of you and to each in particular, by this requisition, without the one waiting for the other, or excusing himself by another, that you cite the said Jeanne to appear before Us in person to-morrow, at the hour of 8 o’clock in the morning, at Rouen, in the place called the Old Market, in order that she may be declared by us relapsed, excommunicate, and heretic, with the intimation that it shall be done to her as is customary in such cases.
“Given in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor of Rouen, Tuesday, May 29th, the year of Our Lord, 1431.”
On the following day, Wednesday, 30th of May, Jeanne, by virtue of the preceding mandate from Us, was cited for the same day, in order to hear the law pronounced, as is proved at greater length by the tenour of the following relation, done for us by the Executor of our mandates:
“To the reverend Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord Pierre, by the Divine Mercy Bishop of Beauvais, and to the venerable and religious person Brother Jean Lemaître, Deputy of Maître Jean Graverend, renowned Doctor, by order of the Holy Apostolic See Inquisitor of the Faith and of the Evil of Heresy in the Kingdom of France: your humble Jean Massieu, Priest, Dean of the Christendom of Rouen[[102]] sends earnest Greeting, with all protestations of obedience and respect. This is to inform your Reverend Paternities, that I, Massieu, in virtue of your mandate sent to me, to which these presents will be annexed, have cited, speaking to her in person, this woman, commonly called the Maid, to appear before you this day, Wednesday, May 30th, at the hour of eight in the morning, at Rouen, in the place of the Old Market, according to the form and tenour of your said mandate, and to that which I have been ordered to do. All the which, thus done by me, I signify to your Reverend Paternities by these presents, signed by my seal.
“Given in the year of Our Lord 1431, on the aforesaid Wednesday, at 7 o’clock in the morning.
“Massieu.”
SENTENCE OF DEATH
Final Sentence given before the People.
Wednesday, May 30th, towards 9 o’clock in the morning,
We, the Judges, repaired to the place of the Old Market, in Rouen, near the Church of Saint Sauveur.
We were assisted by the reverend Fathers in Christ the Lords Bishops of Thérouanne and Noyon; and by a number of other Lords, Masters, and ecclesiastical personages.
Before Us was brought the said Jeanne, in presence of the people, assembled in this place in an immense multitude.
She was placed upon a scaffold or platform.
For her wholesome admonition and for the edification of the whole multitude, a solemn address was made by the renowned Doctor, Nicolas Midi, who took for his text those words of the Apostle in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter xii., “If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.”
COURT OF JUSTICE.
From a Miniature by Jean Fouquet.
This address ended, We, the Bishop, did once more admonish Jeanne to look to her salvation, to reflect on her misdeeds, to repent of them, to have a true contrition for them. We exhorted her to believe hereon the opinion of the Clergy, of the notable persons who have taught and instructed her on all that treats of her salvation. We did particularly exhort her to believe the good advice of the two venerable Dominicans[[103]] who were at that moment beside her, and whom we had sent to her to converse with her up to the last moment and to furnish her in all surety with wholesome admonitions and counsels profitable to her salvation.
Afterwards, We, the Bishop and Vicar aforesaid, having regard to all that has gone before, in which it is shewn that this woman hath never truly abandoned her errors, her obstinate temerity, nor her unheard-of crimes; that she hath even shewn the malice of her diabolical obstinacy in this deceitful semblance of contrition, penitence, and amendment; malice rendered still more damnable by perjury of the Holy Name of God and blasphemy of His ineffable Majesty; considering her on all these grounds obstinate, incorrigible, heretic, relapsed into heresy, and altogether unworthy of the grace and of the Communion which, by our former sentence, We did mercifully accord to her; all of which being seen and considered, after mature deliberation and counsel of a great number of Doctors, We have at last proceeded to the Final Sentence in these terms:
In the Name of the Lord: Amen.
At all times when the poisoned virus of heresy attaches itself with persistence to a member of the Church and transforms him into a member of Satan, extreme care should be taken to watch that the horrible contagion of this pernicious leprosy do not gain other parts of the mystic Body of Christ. The decisions of the holy Fathers have willed that hardened heretics should be separated from the midst of the Just, so that to the great peril of others this homicidal viper should not be warmed in the bosom of pious Mother Church. It is for this that We, Pierre, by the Divine Mercy, Bishop of Beauvais, and We, Brother Jean Lemaître, Deputy of the renowned Doctor, Jean Graverend, Inquisitor of the Evil of Heresy, specially delegated by him for this Process, both Judges competent in this Trial, already, by a just judgment, have declared this woman fallen into divers errors and divers crimes of schism, idolatry, invocation of demons and many others. But because the Church closes not her bosom to the child who returns to her, we did think that, with a pure spirit and a faith unfeigned, thou hadst put far from thee thy errors and thy crimes, considering that on a certain day thou didst renounce them and didst publicly swear, vow, and promise never to return to thy errors and heresies, to resist all temptations, and to remain faithfully attached to the unity of the Catholic Church and the communion of the Roman Pontiff, as is proved at greater length in a writing signed by thine own hand. But after this abjuration of thine errors, the Author of Schism and Heresy hath arisen in thine heart, which he hath once more seduced, and it hath become manifest by thy spontaneous confessions and assertions—O, shame!—that, as the dog returns again to his vomit, so hast thou returned to thine errors and crimes; and it hath been proved to us in a most certain manner that thou hast renounced thy guilty inventions and thy errors only in a lying manner, not in a sincere and faithful spirit. For these causes, declaring thee fallen again into thine old errors, and under the sentence of excommunication which thou hast formerly incurred, We decree that thou art a relapsed heretic, by our present sentence which, seated in tribunal, we utter and pronounce in this writing; we denounce thee as a rotten member, and that thou mayest not vitiate others, as cast out from the unity of the Church, separate from her Body, abandoned to the secular power as, indeed, by these presents, we do cast thee off, separate and abandon thee;—praying this same secular power, so far as concerns death and the mutilation of the limbs, to moderate its judgment towards thee, and, if true signs of penitence should appear in thee, [to permit] that the Sacrament of Penance be administered to thee.
Here follows the Sentence of Excommunication, [the introductory part being word for word the same as the previous sentence, read on May 24th, up to the words “We, the Judges, say and decree”; after which follows:]
... that thou hast been on the subject of thy pretended divine revelations and apparitions lying, seducing, pernicious, presumptuous, lightly believing, rash, superstitious, a divineress and blasphemer towards God and the Saints, a despiser of God Himself in His Sacraments; a prevaricator of the Divine Law, of sacred doctrine and of ecclesiastical sanctions; seditious, cruel, apostate, schismatic, erring on many points of our Faith, and by all these means rashly guilty towards God and Holy Church. And also, because that often, very often, not only by Us on Our part but by Doctors and Masters learned and expert, full of zeal for the salvation of thy soul, thou hast been duly and sufficiently warned to amend, to correct thyself and to submit to the disposal, decision, and correction of Holy Mother Church, which thou hast not willed, and hast always obstinately refused to do, having even expressly and many times refused to submit thyself to our lord the Pope and to the General Council; for these causes, as hardened and obstinate in thy crimes, excesses and errors, We declare thee of right excommunicate and heretic; and after thine errors have been destroyed in a public preaching, We declare that thou must be abandoned and that We do abandon thee to the secular authority, as a member of Satan, separate from the Church, infected with the leprosy of heresy, in order that thou mayst not corrupt also the other members of Christ; praying this same power, that, as concerns death and the mutilation of the limbs, it may be pleased to moderate its judgment; and if true signs of penitence should appear in thee, that the Sacrament of Penance may be administered to thee.
Attestations by the Registrars.
“I, Boisguillaume, Priest, Registrar above qualified, affirm that I have duly collated the foregoing document with the original Minute of the Process; for which reason I have marked this present copy with my sign manual, the which will be done after me by the two other Registrars, I signing in this place with my own hand.
(Signed) “Boisguillaume.”
“And I, Guillaume Manchon, Priest, of the Diocese of Rouen, Apostolic and Imperial Notary, I affirm that I assisted in the collation made of the aforesaid Process, with the Registrars signed above and below; I affirm that this collation of the present copy with the original Minute of the Process hath been duly made. For which, in the same way as the two other Registrars, I have subscribed the present copy with my own hand, affixing thereto my sign-manual, to this required.
(Signed) “G. Manchon.”
“And I, Nicholas Taquel, Priest of the Diocese of Rouen, sworn Imperial Public Notary and of the Archiepiscopal Court of Rouen, called as Registrar to a part of the foregoing Process, I affirm that I have seen and heard the present copy collated with the original register of the said Process; I affirm that this collation hath been duly made. For which, with the two other Registrars preceding, I have subscribed with my own hand the present Process, affixing thereto, here, my sign-manual, to this required.
(Signed) “N. Taquel.”
[Here follow the seals of the two Judges, marked in red wax on the original copies of the Process, prepared to the number of five.]
SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATIONS[[104]]
AND
PROCEEDINGS AFTER THE RELAPSE.
Information given after the Execution on many things said by Jeanne, at the end of her life and in articulo mortis.
Thursday, 7th day of June, 1431, We, the Judges, did ex-officio take information upon certain things which the late Jeanne had said before persons worthy of credit when she was still in prison and before being brought to judgment.
Examination of Witnesses.
1. The venerable and circumspect Maître Nicolas de Venderès, licentiate in Canon Law, Archdeacon of Eu, hath declared upon oath as follows:
Wednesday, 30th day of May, Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, Jeanne, being still in the prison of the Castle of Rouen where she was detained, did say that considering the Voices which came to her had promised she should be delivered from prison, and that she now saw the contrary, she realized and knew she had been, and still was, deceived by them. Jeanne did, besides, say and confess that she had seen with her own eyes and heard with her own ears the apparitions and Voices mentioned in the Case.
At this were present, you, the Judges aforesaid, and besides Maître Pierre Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles, Nicolas Loyseleur, Brother Martin Ladvenu, Jean Toutmouillé, Jacques Lecamus, and several others.
Brother Martin Ladvenu, Priest of the Order of Saint Dominic, did say and depose, upon oath, as follows:
On the morning of the day on which sentence was delivered and before she was brought to judgment, Jeanne, in presence of Maître Pierre Maurice, Nicolas Loyseleur, and Brother Jean Toutmouillé, who were with me, did say and confess that she knew and recognized that the Voices and apparitions which had come to her, mentioned in the Case, had deceived her, because they had promised she should be delivered and freed from prison; and that she certainly now saw clearly the contrary.
Asked by the Bishop: Who induced Jeanne so to speak?
Replied: Pierre Maurice, Nicolas Loyseleur, and I exhorted her to save her soul, and asked her if it were true that she had these Voices and apparitions? She replied that it was indeed true, and she continued so to tell us up to the end, but without stating decidedly, at least, so far as I understood, under what form the apparitions came to her. All I remember is that she said they came to her in great multitude and in the smallest size [in magnâ multitudine et quantitate minimâ]. Besides, I did at this time hear Jeanne say and confess that, inasmuch as the Clergy held and believed that if they were spirits who came to her they proceeded from evil spirits, she also held and believed as did the Clergy, and would no longer put faith in these spirits. And as it appeared to me, Jeanne was then of a sound mind.
Brother Martin Ladvenu did add this: The same day I heard Jeanne say that, although she had stated in her avowals and confessions, and had affirmed above in the course of the Case, that an Angel from God had brought a crown to him whom she called her King, with all other details connected with this fact in the interrogatories, nevertheless, of her free-will and without being constrained thereto, she did this day confess as follows: that in spite of all she had affirmed on the subject of this Angel, no Angel had brought the crown; it was she, Jeanne, who had been the Angel, and who said and promised to him whom she called her King, that, if he would set her to the work, she would have him crowned at Rheims. There was no other crown sent from God, in spite of all she might have affirmed in the course of the Case on the subject of the crown and the sign given to him whom she called her King.
The venerable and discreet Maître Pierre Maurice, Professor in Theology, Canon of Rouen, deposed, upon oath, as follows:
The day of the sentence, Jeanne being still in the prison, I repaired to her in the morning to exhort her to save her soul. In so exhorting her, I asked her what was the Angel mentioned in the Trial, who, according to her, had brought a crown to him whom she called her King?
She replied that it was herself who was the Angel.
Having questioned her afterwards on the subject of the crown which she had promised to her King, of the multitude of Angels who at that time accompanied her, she replied that it was true that Angels appeared to her under the form of very minute things. Finally, I asked her if this apparition were real? “Yes,” she replied, “the spirits did really appear to me—be they good or be they evil spirits—they did appear to me.” She also said that she had in particular heard her Voices at the hour of Compline, when the bells rang, and in the morning also, when the bells rang. And when I told her that they were evil spirits—in this, that they had promised her deliverance and had deceived her—“It is true,” she replied, “they have deceived me.” I also heard her declare that to know whether they were good or evil spirits, she referred to the Clergy. When she thus spoke, Jeanne, so far as it seemed to me, was sound in mind and understanding.
Brother Jean Toutmouillé, Priest, of the Order of Saint Dominic, did say and declare upon oath as follows:
The day that sentence was given upon Jeanne, Wednesday, Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I accompanied Brother Martin Ladvenu, who, early in the morning, repaired to her to exhort her to save her soul. I first heard Maître Pierre Maurice, who had gone earlier to her, declare she had confessed that all which concerned the crown was fiction: that it was she who was the Angel. The said Master reported all this to us in Latin. Afterwards, Jeanne was questioned on the subject of the Voices and apparitions which had come to her. She replied that she had really heard voices, chiefly when the bells rang Compline or Matins; and she persisted in saying this, although Maître Pierre Maurice told her that, sometimes when the bells rang, one thought one could hear and catch the sounds of human voices. Jeanne did also say and confess that she had had apparitions which came to her in great multitude and in minute quantity—that is to say, under small forms;—she did not perfectly explain the form, or kind, of her apparitions. The same day, after you, the Bishop, had come in with the Lord Deputy Inquisitor into the room where she was detained, you said to Jeanne in French, “Now then, Jeanne, you always told us that your Voices assured you that you would be delivered: you see now how they have deceived you; tell us the truth now.” “Truly,” Jeanne replied to you, “I see indeed that they have deceived me!” I did not hear her say more, save only that, early in the same day, before you were come to the prison, Jeanne, being asked if her Voices and apparitions proceeded from good or evil spirits, did reply: “I know not—I wait on my Mother, the Church,” or “I wait on you, who are of the Church.” And, so far as it seemed to me, Jeanne was at this time of sound mind; I heard Jeanne herself then declare that she was of sound mind.
Messire Jacques Lecamus, Priest, Canon of Rheims, did say and declare upon oath as follows:
Wednesday, Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I went with you, the Bishop, into the room of the Castle of Rouen where Jeanne was detained, and there I heard Jeanne say and confess, publicly and in a voice loud enough to be heard by all those present, that she had had apparitions and had also heard Voices; that these apparitions and Voices had promised her that she should be delivered from prison; but now she saw in truth that they had deceived her, and, for having thus deceived her, she believed they could not be good Voices nor good things. A little while after, she confessed her sins to Brother Martin, of the Order of Saint Dominic. After the Sacrament of Confession and Penitence, when the same Brother was about to administer the Sacrament of the Eucharist to her, and already held in his hands the Consecrated Host, “Do you believe,” he asked her, “that this is the Body of Christ?” “Yes,” she replied, “and I believe that He alone can deliver me; I ask that It may be administered to me.” After the Communion, the same Brother said to her: “Do you still believe in your Voices?” “I believe in God only,” she answered, “and will no more put faith in my Voices, for having deceived me on this point.”
Maître Thomas de Courcelles, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Theology, did say and depose, upon oath, as follows:
Wednesday, Vigil of the Feast of Corpus Christi, being in the presence of you, the Bishop, in the room of the Castle of Rouen where Jeanne was detained, I heard and understood that you asked Jeanne if it were not true that her Voices had promised to deliver her? She replied that her Voices had truly promised this, and had told her to keep a good countenance; and, “as it seems to me,” she added, “I see indeed that I have been deceived.” And then you, the Bishop, said to Jeanne, that now she could certainly see her Voices to be only evil spirits and that they did not come from God; for, had they been of such a nature, they would never have said a false thing and thus have lied.
Maître Nicolas Loyseleur, Master of Arts, Canon of Rouen and Chartres, said and declared, upon oath, as follows:
Wednesday, the Vigil of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I repaired in the morning with the venerable Maître Pierre Maurice, to the place where Jeanne, commonly called the Maid, was detained, to exhort and admonish her on the subject of the salvation of her soul. She was besought to speak truth on the subject of that Angel who, she had declared, had brought to him she called her King a crown, very precious, and of the purest gold: she was pledged not to hide the truth, inasmuch as nothing more remained to her but to think of her own salvation. Then I heard her declare that it was she herself who had brought him she called her King the crown in question; that it was she who was the Angel of whom she had spoken; and that there had been no other Angel but herself. Asked if she had really sent a crown to him whom she called her King, she replied that he had no other crown but the promise of his coronation—a promise she had made in giving to her King the assurance that he would be crowned. In the presence of Maître Pierre Maurice, of the two Dominicans, of you, the Bishop, and of several others, I heard her many times declare that “she had really had revelations and apparitions of spirits; that these revelations had deceived her; that she recognized it in this, that they had promised her deliverance, and that she now saw the contrary; that she was willing to refer to the Clergy to know if these spirits were good or evil; that she did not put, and would no more put, faith in them.” I exhorted her, to destroy the error that she had sown among the people, to declare publicly that she had herself been deceived, and that through her fault she had deceived the people by putting faith in these revelations and in counselling the people to believe in them; and I told her it was necessary that she should humbly ask pardon. She told me she would do it willingly, but that she did not think she would be able to remember, when the proper moment came—that is to say, when she found herself in the presence of the people; she prayed her Confessor to remind her of this point and of all else which might tend to her salvation. From all this, and from many other indications, I conclude that Jeanne was then of sound mind. She shewed great penitence and great contrition for her crimes. I heard her, in the prison, in presence of a great number of witnesses, and subsequently after sentence, ask, with much contrition of heart, pardon of the English and Burgundians for having caused to be slain, beaten, and damned, a great number of them, as she recognized.
Part II
THE REHABILITATION
In the following Enquiries and Depositions, it has been considered advisable, in order to avoid unnecessary repetitions, to give extracts only from certain of the Depositions. The names of all witnesses are given in full, and no evidence of importance is omitted.
In the Original, the whole of the first Enquiry is in French, the second and third are in Latin.
An Introductory Note to the Rehabilitation will be found in the Appendix on p. [371].
