Part 124 (2/2)
The registrars of the Lord Bishop of Beauvais, the Boisguillaumes, the Manchons, the Taquels, all those ink-pots of the Church who had been used for her death sentence, worked wonders when that sentence had to be annulled; all the zeal they had displayed in the inst.i.tution of the trial they now displayed in its revision; they were prepared to discover in it every possible flaw.[2724]
[Footnote 2724: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 161; vol. iii, pp. 41, 42, 195.]
And in what a poor and paltry tone did these benign fabricators of legal artifices denounce the cruel iniquity which they had themselves perpetrated in due form! Among them was the Usher, Jean Ma.s.sieu, a dissolute priest,[2725] of scandalous morals, but a kindly fellow for all that, albeit somewhat crafty and the inventor of a thousand ridiculous stories against Cauchon, as if the old Bishop were not black enough already.[2726] The revision commissioners produced a couple of sorry monks, Friar Martin Ladvenu and Friar Isambart de la Pierre, from the monastery of the preaching friars at Rouen. They wept in a heart-rending manner as they told of the pious end of that poor Maid, whom they had declared a heretic, then a relapsed heretic, and had finally burned alive. There was not one of the clerks charged with the examination of Jeanne but was touched to the heart at the memory of so saintly a damsel.[2727]
[Footnote 2725: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_.]
[Footnote 2726: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 329 _et seq._]
[Footnote 2727: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 363 _et seq._, 434 _et seq._]
Huge piles of memoranda drawn up by doctors of high repute, canonists, theologians and jurists, both French and foreign, were furnished for the trial. Their chief object was to establish by scholastic reasoning that Jeanne had submitted her deeds and sayings to the judgment of the Church and of the Holy Father. These doctors proved that the judges of 1431 had been very subtle and Jeanne very simple. Doubtless, it was the best way to make out that she had submitted to the Church; but they over-reached themselves and made her too simple. According to them she was absolutely ignorant, almost an idiot, understanding nothing, imagining that the clerics who examined her in themselves alone const.i.tuted the Church Militant. This had been the impression of the doctors on the French side in 1429. _La Pucelle_, ”_une puce_,”
said the Lord Archbishop of Embrun.[2728]
[Footnote 2728: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 576.]
But there was another reason for making her appear as weak and imbecile as possible. Such a representation exalted the power of G.o.d, who through her had restored the King of France to his inheritance.
Declarations confirming this view of the Maid were obtained by the commissioners from most of the witnesses. She was simple, she was very simple, she was absolutely simple, they repeated one after the other.
And they all in the same words added: ”Yes, she was simple, save in deeds of war, wherein she was well skilled.”[2729] Then the captains said how clever she was in placing cannon, albeit they knew well to the contrary. But how could she have failed to be well versed in deeds of war, since G.o.d himself led her against the English? And in this possession of the art of war by an unskilled girl lay the miracle.
[Footnote 2729: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 32, 87, 100, 116, 119, 120, 126, 128 _et pa.s.sim_.]
The Grand Inquisitor of France, Jean Brehal, in his reminiscence enumerates the reasons for believing that Jeanne came from G.o.d. One of the proofs which seems to have struck him most forcibly is that her coming is foretold in the prophecies of Merlin, the Magician.[2730]
[Footnote 2730: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations_, p. 402.]
Believing that he could prove from one of Jeanne's answers that her first apparitions were in her thirteenth year, Brother Jean Brehal argues that the fact is all the more credible seeing that this number 13, composed of 3, which indicates the Blessed Trinity, and of 10, which expresses the perfect observation of the Decalogue, is marvellously favourable to divine visitations.[2731]
[Footnote 2731: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 398.]
On the 16th of June, 1455, the sentence of 1431 was declared unjust, unfounded, iniquitous. It was nullified and p.r.o.nounced invalid.
Thus was honour restored to the messenger of the coronation, thus was her memory reconciled with the Church. But that abundant source whence on the appearance of this child there had flowed so many pious legends and heroic fables was henceforth dried up. The rehabilitation trial added little to the popular legend. It rendered it possible to connect with Jeanne's death the usual incidents narrated of the martyrdom of virgins, such as the dove taking flight from the stake, the name of Jesus written in letters of flame, the heart intact in the ashes.[2732] The miserable deaths of the wicked judges were insisted upon. True it is that Jean d'Estivet, the Promoter, was found dead in a dove-cot,[2733] that Nicolas Midi was attacked by leprosy, that Pierre Cauchon died when he was being shaved.[2734] But, among those who aided and accompanied the Maid, more than one came to a bad end.
Sire Robert de Baudricourt, who had sent Jeanne to the King, died in prison, excommunicated for having laid waste the lands of the chapter of Toul.[2735] The Marechal de Rais was sentenced to death.[2736] The Duke of Alencon, convicted of high treason, was pardoned only to fall under a new condemnation and to die in captivity.[2737]
[Footnote 2732: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 355.]
[Footnote 2733: _Ibid._, p. 162.]
[Footnote 2734: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. xi, col. 793.]
[Footnote 2735: _Histoire ecclesiastique et politique de la ville et du diocese de Toul_, 1707, p. 529.]
[Footnote 2736: Abbe Bossard, _Gilles de Rais_, pp. 333 _et seq._]
[Footnote 2737: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, p.
197.]
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