[180] Hecuba.
[181] Mortune. Q.
CHAP. LVIII.
JUDGMENT GIVEN AGAINST JACQUES COEUR AND THE DAMSEL OF MORTAIGNE.—MASTER WILLIAM EDELIN, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY, IS PUBLICLY REPRIMANDED AT EVREUX.
On the 29th of May, in the year 1453, judgment was pronounced by the chancellor of France, in the presence of the king, against Jacques Coeur, for the crimes he had been charged with, and for which he had been imprisoned.
In consequence of the charges made out against him, he was condemned to death and confiscation of effects; but as the king inclined to mercy, and would rather sinners should repent than die, out of his especial grace, he remitted the first part of the sentence, on condition that he redeemed, at any price, the Christian whom he had restored to the Saracens,—or if that could not be done, then he was to redeem some other Christian slave from their power.
In regard to the money which he had unjustly wrung from the king's subjects, to the amount of incalculable sums, he was adjudged to repay one hundred thousand crowns; and for the many and various offences that he had committed against the king, he was sentenced to pay a fine of four hundred thousand crowns, and the overplus of his effects, wheresoever they might be placed, was confiscated to the crown. He was also deprived of his offices, both public and private, and declared incapable of ever again holding them, and was likewise banished France.
He was also adjudged to make amende honorable[182] to the king, in the person of his attorney, bareheaded and ungirdled, having a lighted link of ten pounds weight in his hands; and he was to declare, that he had falsely and disloyally restored the Christian to the Saracens, and supplied them with arms and ammunition, requesting pardon from God, from the king, and from Justice.
It was also declared, that the bonds of the lords de la Fayette and de Cadillac were void, and of none effect; and that neither Jacques Coeur nor any of his heirs should receive any advantage from them, as they were now annulled.
When the chancellor had passed this sentence, he added, by command of the king, that his majesty reserved to himself the ultimate decision of the banishment and other graces.