Part 117 (1/2)
The Bishop a.s.sembled certain doctors to confer on this subject; and after they had deliberated, he replied to the Usher: ”Tell Brother Martin to give her the communion and all that she shall ask.”[2542]
[Footnote 2542: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 158.]
Messire Ma.s.sieu returned to the castle to bear this reply to Brother Martin. For a second time Brother Martin heard Jeanne in confession and gave her absolution.[2543]
[Footnote 2543: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 334.]
A cleric, one Pierre, brought the body of Our Lord in an unceremonious fas.h.i.+on, on a paten covered with the cloth used to put over the chalice, without lights or procession, without surplice or stole.[2544]
[Footnote 2544: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 334. De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le proces_, pp. 116, 117.]
This did not please Brother Martin, who sent to fetch a stole and candles.
Then, taking the consecrated host in his fingers and presenting it to Jeanne, he said: ”Do you believe this to be the body of Christ?”
”Yes, and it alone is able to deliver me.”
And she entreated that it should be given to her.
”Do you still believe in your Voices?” asked the officiating priest.
”I believe in G.o.d alone, and will place no trust in the Voices who have thus deceived me.”[2545]
[Footnote 2545: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 482, 483 (information procured after Jeanne's death).]
And shedding many tears she received the body of Our Lord very devoutly. Then to G.o.d, to the Virgin Mary and to the saints she offered prayers beautiful and reverent and gave such signs of repentance that those present were moved to tears.[2546]
[Footnote 2546: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 308, 320; vol. iii, pp. 114, 158, 183, 197.]
Contrite and sorrowful she said to Maitre Pierre Maurice:[2547] ”Maitre Pierre, where shall I be this evening?”
[Footnote 2547: For Jeanne's communion see also De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le proces_, pp. 116-117.]
”Do you not trust in the Lord?” asked the canon.
”Yea, G.o.d helping me, I shall be in Paradise.”[2548]
[Footnote 2548: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 191.]
Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur exhorted her to correct the error she had caused to grow up among the people.
”To this end you must openly declare that you have been deceived and have deceived the folk and that you humbly ask pardon.”
Then, fearing lest she might forget when the time came for her to be publicly judged, she asked Brother Martin to put her in mind of this matter and of others touching her salvation.[2549]
[Footnote 2549: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 485. Maitre N. Taquel would lead us to believe that the interrogatories took place after Jeanne's communion, but this can hardly be admitted.]
Maitre Loiseleur went away giving signs of violent grief. Walking through the streets like a madman, he was howled at by the _G.o.dons_.[2550]
[Footnote 2550: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 320; vol. iii, p. 162.]
It was about nine o'clock in the morning when Brother Martin and Messire Ma.s.sieu took Jeanne out of the prison, wherein she had been in bonds one hundred and seventy-eight days. She was placed in a cart, and, escorted by eighty men-at-arms, was driven along the narrow streets to the Old Market Square, close to the River.[2551] This square was bordered on the east by a wooden market-house, the butcher's market, on the west by the cemetery of Saint-Sauveur, on the edge of which, towards the square, stood the church of Saint-Sauveur.[2552] In this place three scaffolds had been raised, one against the northern gable of the market-house; and in its erection several tiles of the roof had been broken.[2553] On this scaffold Jeanne was to be stationed, there to listen to the sermon. Another and a larger scaffold had been erected adjoining the cemetery. There the judges and the prelates were to sit.[2554] The p.r.o.nouncing of sentence in a religious trial was an act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. For the place of its p.r.o.nouncement the Inquisitor and the Ordinary preferred consecrated territory, holy ground. True it is that a bull of Pope Lucius forbade such sentences to be given in churches and cemeteries; but the judges eluded this rule by recommending the secular arm to modify its sentence. The third scaffold, opposite the second, was of plaster, and stood in the middle of the square, on the spot whereon executions usually took place. On it was piled the wood for the burning. On the stake which surmounted it was a scroll bearing the words: