The Life of Joan of Arc Part 112

"If you are a good Christian," he said, "you will agree to submit all your deeds and sayings to Holy Mother Church, and especially to the ecclesiastical judges."

Maitre Jean Beaupere thought he heard her reply, "So I will."[2449]

[Footnote 2449: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 21.]

If such were her answer, then it must have been because, worn out by a flight of agony, her physical courage quailed at the thought of death by burning.

Just when he was leaving her, as she stood near a door, Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur gave her the same advice, and in order to induce her to follow it, he made her a false promise:

"Jeanne, believe me," he said. "You have your deliverance in your own hands. Wear the apparel of your s.e.x, and do what shall be required of you. Otherwise you stand in danger of death. If you do as I tell you, good will come to you and no harm. You will be delivered into the hands of the Church."[2450]

[Footnote 2450: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 146. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 445 _et seq._]

She was taken in a cart and with an armed guard to that part of the town called Bourg-l'Abbe, lying beneath the castle walls. And but a short distance away the cart was stopped, in the cemetery of Saint-Ouen, also called _les aitres[2451] Saint-Ouen_. Here a highly popular fair was held every year on the feast day of the patron saint of the Abbey.[2452] Here it was that Jeanne was to hear the sermon, as so many other unhappy creatures had done before her. Places like this, to which the folk could flock in crowds, were generally chosen for these edifying spectacles. On the border of this vast charnel-house for a hundred years there had towered a parish church, and on the south there rose the nave of the abbey. Against the magnificent edifice of the church two scaffolds had been erected,[2453] one large, the other smaller. They were west of the porch which was called _portail des Marmousets_, because of the mult.i.tudes of tiny figures carved upon it.[2454]

[Footnote 2451: Old name for a cemetery close to a church. G.o.defroy, _Lexique de l'ancien francais_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2452: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 351.]

[Footnote 2453: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 54.]

[Footnote 2454: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur le cimetiere de Saint-Ouen de Rouen_, in _Precis a.n.a.lytique des travaux de l'Academie de Rouen_ 1875-1876, pp. 211, 230, plan. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc et l'authenticite de sa formule_, p. 44. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 351.]

On the great scaffold the two judges, the Lord Bishop and the Vice-Inquisitor, took their places. They were a.s.sisted by the most reverend Cardinal of Winchester, the Lord Bishops of Therouanne, of Noyon, and of Norwich, the Lord Abbots of Fecamp, of Jumieges, of Bec, of Corneilles, of Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Peril-de-la-Mer, of Mortemart, of Preaux, and of Saint-Ouen of Rouen, where the a.s.sembly was held, the Priors of Longueville and of Saint-Lo, also many doctors and bachelors in theology, doctors and licentiates in canon and civil law.[2455] Likewise were there many high personages of the English party. The other scaffold was a kind of pulpit. To it ascended the doctor who, according to the use and custom of the Holy Inquisition was to preach the sermon against Jeanne. He was Maitre Guillaume Erard, doctor in theology, canon of the churches of Langres and of Beauvais.[2456] At this time he was very eager to go to Flanders, where he was urgently needed; and he confided to his young servitor, Brother Jean de Lenisoles, that the preaching of this sermon caused him great inconvenience. "I want to be in Flanders," he said. "This affair is very annoying for me."[2457]

[Footnote 2455: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 442, 444. O'Reilly, _Les deux proces_, vol. i, pp. 70-93.]

[Footnote 2456: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 402, 408.]

[Footnote 2457: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 113.]

From one point of view, however, he must have been pleased to perform this duty, since it afforded him the opportunity of attacking the King of France, Charles VII, and of thereby showing his devotion to the English cause, to which he was strongly attached.

Jeanne, dressed as a man, was brought up and placed at his side, before all the people.[2458]

[Footnote 2458: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 469, 470.]

Maitre Guillaume Erard began his sermon in the following manner:

"I take as my text the words of G.o.d in the Gospel of Saint John, chapter xv: 'The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.'[2459] Thus it behoveth all Catholics to remain abiding in Holy Mother Church, the true vine, which the hand of Our Lord Jesus Christ hath planted. Now this Jeanne, whom you see before you, falling from error into error, and from crime into crime, hath become separate from the unity of Holy Mother Church and in a thousand manners hath scandalised Christian people."

[Footnote 2459: _Ibid._, p. 444. E. Richer, _Histoire ma.n.u.scrite de la Pucelle d'Orleans_, bk. i, fol. 8; bk. ii, fol. 198, v'o.]

Then he reproached her with having failed, with having sinned against royal Majesty and against G.o.d and the Catholic Faith; and all these things must she henceforth eschew under pain of death by burning.

He declaimed vehemently against the pride of this woman. He said that never had there appeared in France a monster so great as that which was manifest in Jeanne; that she was a witch, a heretic, a schismatic, and that the King, who protected her, risked the same reproach from the moment that he became willing to recover his throne with the help of such a heretic.[2460]

[Footnote 2460: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 61.]

Towards the middle of his sermon, he cried out with a loud voice:

"Ah! right terribly hast thou been deceived, n.o.ble house of France, once the most Christian of houses! Charles, who calls himself thy head and a.s.sumes the t.i.tle of King hath, like a heretic and schismatic, received the words of an infamous woman, abounding in evil works and in all dishonour. And not he alone, but all the clergy in his lordship and dominion, by whom this woman, so she sayeth, hath been examined and not rejected. Full sore is the pity of it."[2461]

[Footnote 2461: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 15, 17.]

Two or three times did Maitre Guillaume repeat these words concerning King Charles. Then pointing at Jeanne with his finger he said:

"It is to you, Jeanne, that I speak; and I say unto you that your King is a heretic and a schismatic."

At these words Jeanne was deeply wounded in her love for the Lilies of France and for King Charles. She was moved with great feeling, and she heard her Voices saying unto her:

"Reply boldly to the preacher who is preaching to you."[2462]

[Footnote 2462: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 456, 457. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 46, 47.]

Then obeying them heartily, she interrupted Maitre Jean:

"By my troth, Messire," she said to him, "saving your reverence, I dare say unto you and swear at the risk of my life, that he is the n.o.blest Christian of all Christians, that none loveth better religion and the Church, and that he is not at all what you say."[2463]

[Footnote 2463: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 15, 17, 335, 345, 353, 367.]

Maitre Guillaume ordered the Usher, Jean Ma.s.sieu, to silence her.[2464]

Then he went on with his sermon, and concluded with these words: "Jeanne, behold my Lords the Judges, who oftentimes have summoned you and required you to submit all your acts and sayings to Mother Church.

In these acts and sayings were many things which, so it seemed to these clerics, were good neither to say nor to maintain."[2465]

[Footnote 2464: _Ibid._, p. 17.]

[Footnote 2465: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 444, 445.]

"I will answer you," said Jeanne. Touching the article of submission to the Church, she recalled how she had asked for all the deeds she had wrought and the words she had uttered to be reported to Rome, to Our Holy Father the Pope, to whom, after G.o.d, she appealed. Then she added: "And as for the sayings I have uttered and the deeds I have done, they have all been by G.o.d's command."[2466]

[Footnote 2466: _Ibid._, p. 445.]

She declared that she had not understood that the record of her trial was being sent to Rome to be judged by the Pope.

"I will not have it thus," she said. "I know not what you will insert in the record of these proceedings. I demand to be taken to the Pope and questioned by him."[2467]

[Footnote 2467: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 358.]

They urged her to incriminate her King. But they wasted their breath.

"For my deeds and sayings I hold no man responsible, neither my King nor another."[2468]

[Footnote 2468: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 445.]

"Will you abjure all your deeds and sayings? Will you abjure such of your deeds and sayings as have been condemned by the clerks?"

"I appeal to G.o.d and to Our Holy Father, the Pope."