The sittings in the room at the end of the great hall of the castle were resumed on May second, all the assessors being present. Cauchon summed up all the trial, saying that in spite of the diligence and gentleness of the doctors their efforts had produced nothing. It seemed good, therefore, that the woman should be admonished before them all. Maître Jean Chatillon, the lord Archdeacon of Evreux, was invited to make the address 365 whereby he might “persuade her to leave the criminal path where she now is and return again to that of truth.”
Jeanne listened dutifully to a long preamble by Maître Chatillon, and finally bade her admonisher to come to the point.
“Read your book, and then I will answer,” she said. “I refer myself to God, my master in all things. I love Him with all my heart.”
The trial was turning upon the point as to whether she was willing to submit all her words and deeds to the judgment of the holy Mother Church.
“The Church,” she exclaimed. “I love it, and desire to sustain it with my whole power, for the sake of our Christian faith. It is not I who should be hindered from going to church, and hearing mass.” As to what she had done for her King and her country she submitted it all to God, who had sent her. The question of submission was again asked, and she replied that she submitted all to God, our Lady, and the saints.
“And my opinion is,” she added, “that God and the Church are one.”
To Maître Jean’s specific exhortations, touching upon her submission to the Church, her dress, her visions, and revelations, she gave her old answers.
“I will say no more,” she answered briefly with some impatience, when they urged her further, and threatened her with the sentence of fire. “And if I saw the fire, I should say all that I am saying to you, and naught else.”
A week later she was led forth from her cell again, but this time she was taken to the torture chamber of the great tower, where she found nine of her judges awaiting her, and was once 366 more adjured to speak the truth, with the threat of torture if she remained obdurate. But with the rack and screws before her, and the executioner ready for his work, she said:
“Truly, if you were to tear me limb from limb, and separate soul from body, I will tell you nothing more; and if I were to say anything else, I should always declare that you had compelled me to do it by force.”