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.