The Life of Joan of Arc Part 109

[Footnote 2399: _Ibid._]

Now that the inquiries and examinations were concluded, it was announced that the preliminary trial was at an end. The so-called trial in ordinary opened on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday, the 27th of March, in a room near the great hall of the castle.[2400]

[Footnote 2400: _Ibid._, p. 194.]

Before ordering the deed of accusation to be read, my Lord of Beauvais offered Jeanne the aid of an advocate.[2401] If this offer had been postponed till then, it was doubtless because in his opinion Jeanne had not previously needed such aid. It is well known that a heretic's advocate, if he would himself escape falling into heresy, must strictly limit his methods of defence. During the preliminary inquiry he must confine himself to discovering the names of the witnesses for the prosecution and to making them known to the accused. If the heretic pleaded guilty then it was useless to grant him an advocate.[2402] Now my Lord maintained that the accusation was founded not on the evidence of witnesses but on the avowals of the accused.

And this was doubtless his reason for not offering Jeanne an advocate before the opening of the trial in ordinary, which bore upon matters of doctrine.

[Footnote 2401: _Ibid._, p. 195.]

[Footnote 2402: J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 130, 131. E.

Meru, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, Romae, 1578, p. 295.]

The Lord Bishop thus addressed the Maid: "Jeanne," said he, "all persons here present are churchmen of consummate knowledge, whose will and intention it is to proceed against you in all piety and kindness, seeking neither vengeance nor corporal chastis.e.m.e.nt, but your instruction and your return into the way of truth and salvation. As you are neither learned nor sufficiently instructed in letters or in the difficult matters which are to be discussed, to take counsel of yourself, touching what you should do or reply, we offer you to choose as your advocate one or more of those present, as you will. If you will not choose, then one shall be appointed for you by us, in order that he may advise you touching what you may do or say...."[2403]

[Footnote 2403: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 200, 201. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 129, 130.]

Considering what the method of procedure was, this was a gracious offer. And even though my Lord of Beauvais obliged the accused to choose from among the counsellors and a.s.sessors, whom he had himself summoned to the trial, he did more than he was bound to do. The choice of a counsel did not belong to the accused; it belonged to the judge, whose duty it was to appoint an honest, upright person. Moreover, it was permissible for an ecclesiastical judge to refuse to the end to grant the accused any counsel whatsoever. Nicolas Eymeric, in his _Directorium_, decides that the Bishop and the Inquisitor, acting conjointly, may const.i.tute authority sufficient for the interpretation of the law and may proceed informally, _de plano_, dispensing with the ceremony of appointing counsel and all the paraphernalia of a trial.[2404]

[Footnote 2404: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, pp. 400 _et seq._ U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p.

34.]

We may notice that my Lord of Beauvais offered the accused an advocate on the ground of her ignorance of things divine and human, but without taking her youthfulness into account. In other courts of law proceedings against a minor--that is, a person under twenty-five--who was not a.s.sisted by an advocate, were legally void.[2405] If this rule had been binding in Inquisitorial procedure the Bishop, by his offer of legal aid, would have avoided any breach of this rule; and as the choice of an advocate lay with him, he might well have done so without running any risk. "Our justice is not like theirs," Bernard Gui rightly said, when he was comparing inquisitorial procedure with that of the other ecclesiastical courts which conformed to the Roman law.

[Footnote 2405: Meru, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, p. 147.]

Jeanne did not accept the judge's offer: "First," she said, "touching what you admonish me for my good and in matters of religion, I thank you and the company here a.s.sembled. As for the advocate you offer me, I also thank you, but it is not my intent to depart from the counsel of Our Lord. As for the oath you wish me to take, I am ready to swear to speak the truth in all that concerns your suit."[2406]

[Footnote 2406: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 201.]

Thereupon Maitre Thomas de Courcelles began to read in French the indictment which the Promoter had drawn up in seventy articles.[2407]

This text set forth in order the deeds with which Jeanne had already been reproached and which were groundlessly held to have been confessed by her and duly proved. There were no less than seventy distinct charges of horrible crimes committed against religion and Holy Mother Church. Questioned on each article, Jeanne with heroic candour repeated her previous replies. The tedious reading of this long accusation was continued and completed on the 28th of March, the Wednesday after Palm Sunday.[2408] As was her wont, she asked for delay in order to reply on certain points. On Easter Eve, the 31st of March, the time granted having expired, my Lord of Beauvais went to the prison, and, in the presence of the doctors and masters of the University, demanded the promised replies. They nearly all touched on the one accusation which included all the rest, the heresy in which all heresies were comprehended,--the refusal to obey the Church Militant. Jeanne finally declared her resolve to appeal to Our Lord rather than to any man; this was to set at naught the authority of the Pope and the Council.[2409]

[Footnote 2407: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 202-323.]

[Footnote 2408: _Ibid._, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2409: _Ibid._, pp. 324, 325.]

The doctors and masters of the University of Paris advised that an epitome should be made of the Promoter's voluminous indictment, its chief points selected, and the seventy charges considerably reduced.[2410] Maitre Nicolas Midi, doctor in theology, performed this task and submitted it when done to the judges and a.s.sessors.[2411] One of them proposed emendations. Brother Jacques of Touraine, a friar of the Franciscan order, who was charged to draw up the doc.u.ment in its final stage, admitted most of the corrections requested.[2412] In this wise the incriminating propositions,[2413] which the judges claimed, but claimed falsely, to have derived from the replies of the accused, were resolved into twelve articles.[2414]

[Footnote 2410: _Ibid._, p. 327; vol. iii, p. 143.]

[Footnote 2411: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 60. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 38.]

[Footnote 2412: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 232. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 124, 129.]

[Footnote 2413: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 22, 212; vol. iii, p. 306; vol.

v, p. 461.]

[Footnote 2414: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 328, 336.]

These twelve articles were not communicated to Jeanne. On Thursday, the 12th of April, twenty-one masters and doctors met in the chapel of the Bishop's Palace, and, after having examined the articles, engaged in a conference, the result of which was unfavourable to the accused.[2415]

[Footnote 2415: _Ibid._, p. 337.]

According to them, the apparitions and revelations of which she boasted came not from G.o.d. They were human inventions, or the work of an evil spirit. She had not received signs sufficient to warrant her believing in them. In the case of this woman these doctors and masters discovered lies; a lack of verisimilitude; faith lightly given; superst.i.tious divinings; deeds scandalous and irreligious; sayings rash, presumptuous, full of boasting; blasphemies against G.o.d and his saints. They found her to have lacked piety in her behaviour towards father and mother; to have come short in love towards her neighbour; to have been addicted to idolatry, or at any rate to the invention of lying tales and to schismatic conversation destructive of the unity, the authority and the power of the Church; and, finally, to have been skilled in the black art and to have strongly inclined to heresy.[2416]

[Footnote 2416: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 337, 374.]

Had she not been sustained and comforted by her heavenly Voices, the Voices of her own heart, Jeanne would never have endured to the end of this terrible trial. Not only was she being tortured at once by the princes of the Church and the rascals of the army, but her sufferings of body and mind were such as could never have been borne by any ordinary human being. Yet she suffered them without her constancy, her faith, her divine hope, one might almost say her cheerfulness, ever being diminished. Finally she gave way; her physical strength, but not her courage, was exhausted; she fell a victim to an illness which was expected to be fatal. She seemed near her end, or rather, alas! near her release.[2417]

[Footnote 2417: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 51.]

On Wednesday, the 18th of April, my Lord of Beauvais and the Vice-Inquisitor of the Faith went to her with divers doctors and masters to exhort her in all charity; she was still very seriously sick.[2418] My Lord of Beauvais represented to her that when on certain difficult matters she had been examined before persons of great wisdom, many things she had said had been noted as contrary to religion. Wherefore, considering that she was but an unlettered woman, he offered to provide her with men learned and upright who would instruct her. He requested the doctors present to give her salutary counsel, and he invited her herself, if any other such persons were known to her, to indicate them, promising to summon them without fail.

[Footnote 2418: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 374-375.]

"The Church," he added, "never closes her heart against those who will return to her."

Jeanne answered that she thanked him for what he had said for her salvation, and she added: "Meseemeth, that seeing the sickness in which I lie, I am in great danger of death. If it be thus, then may G.o.d do with me according to his good pleasure. I demand that ye permit me to confess, that ye also give me the body of my Saviour and bury me in holy ground."

My Lord of Beauvais represented to her that if she would receive the sacraments she must submit to the Church.

"If my body die in prison," she replied, "I depend on you to have it put in holy ground; if you do not, then I appeal to Our Lord."[2419]

[Footnote 2419: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 376, 378.]

Then she vehemently maintained the truth of the revelations she had received from G.o.d, Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret.

And when she was asked yet again whether she would submit herself and her acts to Holy Mother Church, she replied: "Whatever happens to me, I will never do or say aught save what I have already said at the trial."[2420]

[Footnote 2420: _Ibid._, p. 379.]

The doctors and masters one after the other exhorted her to submit to Holy Mother Church. They quoted numerous pa.s.sages from Holy Writ. They promised her the body of Our Lord if she would obey; but she remained resolute.

"Touching this submission," she said, "I will reply naught save what I have said already. I love G.o.d, I serve him, I am a good Christian, and I wish with all my power to aid and support Holy Church."[2421]

[Footnote 2421: _Ibid._, pp. 380, 381.]

In times of great need recourse was had to processions. "Do you not wish," she was asked, "that a fine and famous procession be ordained to restore you to a good estate if you be not therein?"

She replied, "I desire the Church and all Catholics to pray for me."[2422]

[Footnote 2422: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 381.]

Among the doctors consulted there were many who recommended that she should be again instructed and charitably admonished. On Wednesday, the 2nd of May, sixty-three reverend doctors and masters met in the Robing Room of the castle.[2423] She was brought in, and Maitre Jean de Castillon, doctor in theology, Archdeacon of evreux,[2424] read a doc.u.ment in French, in which the deeds and sayings with which Jeanne was reproached were summed up in six articles. Then many doctors and masters addressed to her in turn admonitions and charitable counsels.

They exhorted her to submit to the Church Militant Universal, to the Holy Father the Pope and to the General Council. They warned her that if the Church abandoned her, her soul would stand in great peril of the penalty of eternal fire, whilst her body might be burned in an earthly fire, and that by the sentence of other judges.