The Life of Joan of Arc Part 124

Inquiries were inst.i.tuted at Domremy, at Orleans, at Paris, at Rouen.[2708] The friends of Jeannette's childhood, Hauviette, Mengette, either married or grown old; Jeannette, the wife of Thevenin; Jeannette, the widow of Estellin; Jean Morel of Greux; Gerardin of epinal, the Burgundian, and his wife Isabellette, who had been G.o.dmother to Jacques d'Arc's daughter; Perrin, the bell-ringer; Jeanne's uncle La.s.sois; the Leroyer couple and a score of peasants from Domremy all appeared. Bertrand de Poulengy, then sixty-three and gentleman of the horse to the King of France, was heard; likewise Jean de Novelompont, called Jean de Metz, who had been raised to n.o.ble rank and was now living at Vaucouleurs, where he held some military office.

Gentlemen and ecclesiasties of Lorraine and Champagne were examined.[2709] Burgesses of Orleans were also called, and notably Jean Luillier, the draper, who in June, 1429, had furnished fine Brussels cloth of purple for Jeanne's gown and ten years later had been present at the banquet given by the magistrates of Orleans in honour of the Maid who, as it was believed, had escaped burning.[2710]

Jean Luillier was the most intelligent of the witnesses; as for the others, of whom there were about two dozen townsmen and townswomen, of between fifty and sixty years of age, they did little but repeat his evidence.[2711] He spoke well; but the fear of the English dazzled him and he saw many more of them than there had ever been.

[Footnote 2708: _Ibid._, pp. 291, 463; vol. iii, pp. 1, 202.]

[Footnote 2709: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 378, 463.]

[Footnote 2710: _Ibid._, vol. v, pp. 112, 113, 331.]

[Footnote 2711: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 23, 35.]

Touching the examination at Poitiers there were called an advocate, a squire, a man of business, Francois Garivel, who was fifteen at the time of Jeanne's interrogation.[2712] The only cleric summoned was Brother Seguin of Limousin.[2713] The clerics of Poitiers were first as disinclined to risk themselves in this matter as were those of Rouen; a burnt child dreads the fire. La Hire and Poton of Saintrailles were dead. The survivors of Orleans and of Patay were called; the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Jean, now Count of Dunois and Longueville, who gave his evidence like a clerk;[2714] the old Sire de Gaucourt, who in his eighty-fifth year made some effort of memory, and for the rest gave the same evidence as the Count of Dunois;[2715] the Duke of Alencon, on the point of making an alliance with the English and of procuring a powder with which to dry up the King,[2716] but who was none the less talkative and vain-glorious;[2717] Jeanne's steward, Messire Jean d'Aulon, who had become a knight, a King's Counsellor and Seneschal of Beaucaire,[2718] and the little page Louis de Coutes, now a n.o.ble of forty-two.[2719] Brother Pasquerel too was called; even in his old-age he remained superficial and credulous.[2720] And there was heard also the widow of Maitre Rene de Bouligny, Demoiselle Marguerite la Toroulde, who delicately and with a good grace related what she remembered.[2721]

[Footnote 2712: _Ibid._, pp. 1, 19.]

[Footnote 2713: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2714: _Ibid._, pp. 2 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2715: _Ibid._, p. 16.]

[Footnote 2716: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, p.

43. P. Dupuy, _Histoire des Templiers_, 1658, in 4to. Cimber and Danjou, _Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France_, vol. i, pp.

137-157. (See also, Michelet, History of France, translated by G.H.

Smith, vol. ii, p. 206.) Note--Alencon says to his English valet: "If I could have a powder that I wot of and put it in the vessel in which the King's sheets are washed, he should sleep sound enough [_dormir tout sec_]." _Trial of Alencon_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2717: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 90.]

[Footnote 2718: _Ibid._, p. 209.]

[Footnote 2719: _Ibid._, p. 65.]

[Footnote 2720: _Ibid._, p. 100.]

[Footnote 2721: _Ibid._, p. 85.]

Care was taken not to summon the Lord Archbishop of Rouen, Messire Raoul Roussel, as a witness of the actual incidents of the trial, albeit he had sat in judgment on the Maid, side by side with my Lord of Beauvais. As for the Vice Inquisitor of Religion, Brother Jean Lemaistre, he might have been dead, so completely was he ignored.

Nevertheless, certain of the a.s.sessors were called: Jean Beaupere, canon of Paris, of Besancon and of Rouen; Jean de Mailly, Lord Bishop of Noyon; Jean Lefevre, Bishop of Demetriade; divers canons of Rouen, sundry ecclesiastics who appeared some unctuous, others stern and frowning;[2722] and, finally, the most ill.u.s.trious Thomas de Courcelles, who, after having been the most laborious and a.s.siduous collaborator of the Bishop of Beauvais, recalled nothing when he came before the commissioners for the revision.[2723]

[Footnote 2722: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 20, 21, 161; vol. iii, pp. 43, 53, _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 2723: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 44, 56. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, p. 106.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE b.a.s.t.a.r.d OF ORLEANS

_From an old engraving_]

Among those who had been most zealous to procure Jeanne's condemnation were those who were now most eagerly labouring for her rehabilitation.

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.]