Part 116 (1/2)
”Jeanne is and must be held a heretic. She must be delivered to the secular authority.”[2524]
[Footnote 2524: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 462, 463.]
The Lord Abbot of Fecamp expressed his opinion in the following terms: ”Jeanne has relapsed. Nevertheless it is well that the terms of her abjuration once read to her, be read a second time and explained, and that at the same time she be reminded of G.o.d's word. This done, it is for us, her judges, to declare her a heretic and to abandon her to the secular authority, entreating it to deal leniently with her.”[2525]
[Footnote 2525: _Ibid._, p. 463.]
This plea for leniency was a mere matter of form. If the Provost of Rouen had taken it into consideration he also would have been excommunicated, with a further possibility of temporal punishment.[2526]
And yet there were certain counsellors who even wished to dispense with this empty show of pity, urging that there was no need for such a supplication.
[Footnote 2526: L. Tanon, _Tribunaux de l'inquisition_, pp. 472, 473.]
Maitre Guillaume Erard and sundry other a.s.sessors, among whom were Maitres Marguerie, Loiseleur, Pierre Maurice, and Brother Martin Ladvenu, were of the opinion of my Lord Abbot of Fecamp.[2527]
[Footnote 2527: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 463, 467.]
Maitre Thomas de Courcelles advised the woman being again charitably admonished touching the salvation of her soul.
Such likewise was the opinion of Brother Isambart de la Pierre.[2528]
[Footnote 2528: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 466.]
The Lord Bishop, having listened to these opinions, concluded that Jeanne must be proceeded against as one having relapsed. Accordingly he summoned her to appear on the morrow, the 30th of May, in the old Market Square.[2529]
[Footnote 2529: _Ibid._, pp. 467, 469.]
On the morning of that Wednesday, the 30th of May, by the command of my Lord of Beauvais, the two young friars preachers, bachelors in theology, Brother Martin Ladvenu and Brother Isambart de la Pierre, went to Jeanne in her prison. Brother Martin told her that she was to die that day.
At the approach of this cruel death, amidst the silence of her Voices, she understood at length that she would not be delivered. Cruelly awakened from her dream, she felt heaven and earth failing her, and fell into a deep despair.
”Alas!” she cried, ”shall so terrible a fate betide me as that my body ever pure and intact shall to-day be burned and reduced to ashes? Ah me! Ah me! Liefer would I be seven times beheaded than thus be burned.
Alas! had I been in the prison of the Church, to which I submitted, and guarded by ecclesiastics and not by my foes and adversaries, so woeful a misfortune as this would not have befallen me. Oh! I appeal to G.o.d, the great judge, against this violence and these sore wrongs with which I am afflicted.”[2530]
[Footnote 2530: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 3, 4 (evidence of Brother Isambart de la Pierre). _Ibid._, p. 8 (evidence of Brother Martin Ladvenu).]
While she was lamenting, the doctors and masters, Nicolas de Venderes, Pierre Maurice and Nicolas Loiseleur, entered the prison; they came by order of my Lord of Beauvais.[2531] On the previous day thirty-nine counsellers out of forty-two, declaring that Jeanne had relapsed, had added that they deemed it well she should be reminded of the terms of her abjuration.[2532] Wherefore, according to the counsel of these clerics, the Lord Bishop had sent certain learned doctors to the relapsed heretic and had resolved to come to her himself.
[Footnote 2531: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 481. (In the Introduction I have given my reasons for regarding the information given after the death of the Maid as possessing great historical significance.)]
[Footnote 2532: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 462-467.]
She must needs submit to one last examination.
”Do you believe that your Voices and apparitions come from good or from evil spirits?”
”I know not; but I appeal to my Mother the Church.”[2533]
[Footnote 2533: _Ibid._, p. 479. Or ”to such of you as are churchmen.”
_Ibid._, p. 482 (information furnished after her death).]