Part 123 (1/2)

[Footnote 2682: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 212, 214. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 287. Duleau, _Vidimus d'une charte de Charles VII, concedant a Pierre du Lys la possession de l'Isle-aux-Boeufs_, Orleans, 1860, in 8vo. 6. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 28, note 1.]

[Footnote 2683: I have not made use of the very late evidence given by Pierre Sala (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 281). It is vague and somewhat legendary, and cannot possibly be introduced into the Life of La Dame des Armoises. For the bibliography of this interesting subject, see Lanery d'Arc, _Le livre d'or de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 573, 580, and G.

Lefevre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1895, in 8vo, concerning the account given by M. Gaston Save.

There are those who have supposed, without adducing any proof, that this pseudo-Jeanne was a sister of the Maid (Lebrun de Charmettes, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iv, pp. 291 _et seq._). Francis Andre, _La verite sur Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1895, in 18mo, pp. 75 _et seq._]

CHAPTER XVI

AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID (_continued_)--THE ROUEN JUDGES AT THE COUNCIL OF BaLE AND THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION--THE REHABILITATION TRIAL--THE MAID OF SARMAIZE--THE MAID OF LE MANS

From year to year the Council of Bale drew out its deliberations in a series of sessions well nigh as lengthy as the tail of the dragon in the Apocalypse. Its manner of reforming at once the Church, its members, and its head struck terror into the hearts of the sovereign Pontiff and the Sacred College. Sorrowfully did aeneus Sylvius exclaim, ”There is a.s.sembled at Bale, not the Church of G.o.d indeed, but the synagogue of Satan.”[2684] But though uttered by a Roman cardinal, even such an expression can hardly be termed violent when applied to the synod which established free elections to bishoprics, suppressed the right of bestowing the pallium, of exacting annates and payments to the papal chancery, and which was endeavouring to restore the papacy to evangelical poverty. The King of France and the Emperor, on the other hand, looked favourably on the Council when it essayed to bridle the ambition and greed of the Bishop of Rome.

[Footnote 2684: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p.

335.]

Now among the Fathers who displayed the greatest zeal in the reformation of the Church were the masters and doctors of the University of Paris, those who had sat in judgment on Jeanne the Maid, and notably Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur and Maitre Thomas de Courcelles.

Charles VII convoked an a.s.sembly of the clergy of the realm in order to examine the canons of Bale. The a.s.sembly met in the Sainte-Chapelle at Bourges, on the 1st of May, 1438. Master Thomas de Courcelles, appointed delegate by the Council, there conferred with the Lord Bishop of Castres. Now in 1438 the Bishop of Castres was that elegant humanist, that zealous counsellor of the crown, who, in style truly Ciceronian, complained in his letters that so closely was he bound to his glebe, the court, that no time remained to him to visit his spouse.[2685] He was none other than that Gerard Machet, the King's confessor, who had, in 1429, along with the clerks at Poitiers, pleaded the authority of prophecy in favour of the Maid, in whom he found nought but sincerity and goodness.[2686] Maitre Thomas de Courcelles at Rouen had urged the Maid's being tortured and delivered to the secular arm.[2687] At the Bourges a.s.sembly the two churchmen agreed touching the supremacy of General Councils, the freedom of episcopal elections, the suppression of annates and the rights of the Gallican Church. At that moment it was not likely that either one or the other remembered the poor Maid. From the deliberations of this a.s.sembly, in which Maitre Thomas played an important part, there issued the solemn edict promulgated by the King on the 7th of July, 1438; the Pragmatic Sanction. By this edict the canons of Bale became the const.i.tution of the Church of France.[2688]

[Footnote 2685: Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'eglise de son temps_, p. 10.]

[Footnote 2686: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 565.]

[Footnote 2687: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 403.]

[Footnote 2688: _Ordonnances_, vol. xiii, pp. 267, 291. _Preuves des libertes de l'eglise gallicane_, edited by Lenglet-Dufresnoy, second part, p. 6. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, pp.

353, 361. N. Arlos, _Histoire de la pragmatique sanction, etc._]

The Emperor also agreed to the reforms of Bale. So audacious did the Fathers become that they summoned Pope Eugenius to appear before their tribunal. When he refused to obey their summons, they deposed him, declaring him to be disobedient, obstinate, rebellious, a breaker of rules, a perturber of ecclesiastical unity, a perjurer, a schismatic, a hardened heretic, a squanderer of the treasures of the Church, scandalous, simoniacal, pernicious and d.a.m.nable.[2689] Such was the condemnation of the Holy Fathers p.r.o.nounced among other doctors by Maitre Jean Beaupere, Maitre Thomas de Courcelles and Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur, who had all three so sternly reproached Jeanne with having refused to submit to the Pope.[2690] Maitre Nicolas had been extremely energetic throughout the Maid's trial, playing alternately the parts of the Lorraine prisoner and Saint Catherine; when she was led to the stake he had run after her like a madman.[2691] This same Maitre Nicolas now displayed great activity in the Council wherein he attained to some eminence. He upheld the view that the General Council canonically convoked, was superior to the Pope and in a position to depose him. And albeit this canon was a mere master of arts, he made such an impression on the Fathers at Bale that in 1439, they despatched him to act as juris-consult at the Diet of Mainz. Meanwhile his att.i.tude was strongly displeasing to the chapter which had sent him as deputy to the Council. The canons of Rouen sided with the Sovereign Pontiff and against the Fathers, on this point joining issue with the University of Paris. They disowned their delegate and sent to recall him on the 28th of July, 1438.[2692]

[Footnote 2689: Hefele, _Histoire de l'eglise gallicane_, vol. xx, p.

357. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p. 363. De Beaurepaire, _Les etats de Normandie sous la domination anglaise_, pp.

66, 67, 185, 188.]

[Footnote 2690: Du Boulay, _Hist. Universitatis_, vol. v, p. 431. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 28.]

[Footnote 2691: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 10, 12, 332, 362; vol. iii, pp.

60, 133, 141, 145, 156, 162, 173, 181.]

[Footnote 2692: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges et a.s.sesseurs du proces de cond.a.m.nation_, pp. 78, 82.]

Maitre Thomas de Courcelles, one of those who had declared the Pope disobedient, obstinate, rebellious and the rest, was nominated one of the commissioners to preside over the election of a new pope, and, like Loiseleur, a delegate to the Diet of Mainz. But, unlike Loiseleur, he was not disowned by those who had appointed him, for he was the deputy of the University of Paris who recognised the Pope of the Council, Felix, to be the true Father of the Faithful.[2693] In the a.s.sembly of the French clergy held at Bourges in the August of 1440, Maitre Thomas spoke in the name of the Fathers of Bale. He discoursed for two hours to the complete satisfaction of the King.[2694] Charles VII, while remaining loyal to Pope Eugenius, maintained the Pragmatic Sanction. Maitre Thomas de Courcelles was henceforth one of the pillars of the French Church.

[Footnote 2693: J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, p. 106.]

[Footnote 2694: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p.