Jeanne d’Arc, Maid of Orleans

Appendix

Note on Original Documents of the Process of Condemnation

1. The Minute.

The original French notes of the Trial, taken down at the time by the Registrars, formed the material on which the Authentic Document was subsequently based. A part of this original MS. is still in existence in the National Library at Paris, and is known as the ‘MS. D’Urfé.’ It begins with March 3rd, the day of the last Public Examination, and is apparently in the handwriting of Manchon, the Registrar, who had the whole in his own possession at the time of the Trial of Rehabilitation. The Fragment was discovered among the MSS. of the D’Urfé Library in the reign of Louis XVI. by Laverdy.

2. The Authentic Document.

This was the original Latin translation of the Minute, made by Thomas de Courcelles, signed by the Registrars, and attested by the seals of the two Judges. No trace of this first document can be found; but the Bishop of Beauvais caused five complete and legally attested copies to be made, three of these being in the writing of Manchon, the Registrar, of which there are still in existence, (1) Copy made for the King of England, now in the Library of the Corps Législatif in Paris; (2) Copy for the Bishop of Beauvais, formerly in the Colbert Library; and (3) Copy for the Inquisitor, formerly in the Dupuy Library—the last two being now in the National Library at Paris. The two other copies are lost, one having been sent to the Pope, whilst the other was the property of Manchon himself.

Besides these Original Documents, there are also seven copies of the Process, of different dates: five in the National Library, one in the Vatican, and one at Geneva.

Note on the Documents Connected With the Trial of Rehabilitation

In the Preface to the Authentic Document of the Rehabilitation, the Notaries, Denis Lecomte and François Ferrebouc, state that they have prepared under their seals three copies of the Process of Rehabilitation, one containing also the entire Process of the Trial of Condemnation: this Copy is unfortunately lost. The two still in existence, both in the National Library of Paris, contain only the text of the Trial of 1455–6. In one of these Manuscripts are inserted the Eight Memorials presented to the Holy See in favour of Jeanne.

The Second Manuscript contains only the Memorial of Gerson. Other Documents connected with the Enquiries may be found in Quicherat, Vol. II., and in Lanery d’Arc’s Mémoires et Consultations en faveur de Jeanne d’Arc, the most important being the Opinions of sundry learned Doctors given in 1452, and the Recollectio of Jean Bréhal in 1456.

Introductory Note to the Trial

In order to understand more fully the course of events in the last year of Jeanne’s life, it may be well to give in some detail the story of her capture at Compiègne on May 23rd, 1430, and of the negotiations and legal preliminaries which preceded the opening of the Case in the following February. Strangely enough, there is in the Trial of Rehabilitation absolutely no witness to this period. It may therefore be more satisfactory to quote at some length from the contemporary Chronicles, which, as regards the Capture itself, are fortunately very explicit.

In the early dawn of Tuesday, May 23rd, Jeanne started from Crespy with about 400 followers to reinforce the garrison of Compiègne, then besieged by the combined forces of England and Burgundy. Of the events of that day there is no better account than that given in the Chronicle of Percival de Cagny,213 which reads as follows:—

‘The 23rd day of the month of May, the Maid, being in the said place of Crespy, learned that the Duke of Burgundy,214 with a great number of men-at-arms and others, and the Earl of Arundel, had come to besiege the said town of Compiègne. About midnight she departed from the said place of Crespy, in the company of 300 or 400 fighting men. And although her followers said to her, that she had too few people with her to pass through the army of the Burgundians and of the English, she exclaimed: “By my staff! [Par mon martin!] we are enough; I am going to see my good friends of Compiègne.”

‘She arrived at the said place about sunrise, and, without loss or disturbance either to herself or to her followers, she entered the said town. On the same day the Burgundians and English had come to make an assault in the field before the said town. There were done many feats of arms on the one side and on the other. The Burgundians and English, knowing that the Maid was in the town, thought that those within would sally forth in great strength, and for this the Burgundians placed a strong ambush of their followers under cover of a lofty mountain near by, named the Mount of Clairoy. And, about nine in the morning, the Maid heard that the assault was hot and fierce in the field before the said town. She armed herself and her followers, mounted on horseback, and went to join the mêlée. And no sooner was she come than the enemy turned back and were put to flight. The Maid charged hard upon the flank of the Burgundians. Those in ambush gave warning to their followers, who turned back in great disorder, and then, breaking up their ambuscade, they spurred on to place themselves between the town-bridge and the Maid and her company. And the one part of them turned right on the Maid in such force that those of her company could not withstand them, and said to the Maid, “Strive hard to regain the town, or you and we are lost.”

‘When the Maid heard them speak thus, she cried to them, angrily, “Silence! It only depends on you to discomfit them. Think only of striking them down.” But whatsoever she might say, these people would not believe it, and forcibly compelled her to withdraw to the bridge. And when the Burgundians and English saw that she was returning to the town, they, by supreme effort, reached the end of the bridge. And great feats of arms were done there. The captain of the place, seeing vast multitudes of Burgundians and English about to cross the bridge, for the fear that he had of the loss of the place, commanded the bridge of the town to be raised and the gates closed. And there remained the Maid hemmed in without, and few of her followers with her. When her enemies saw this, all made effort to seize her. She resisted stoutly against them, but in the end was taken by five or six acting together, some laying hands on her, others on her horse, and each saying, “Surrender to me and give parole.” She answered and said, “I have sworn and given my parole to Another than you, and to Him will I give my oath.” And, saying these words, she was taken to the lodging of Messire Jehan de Luxembourg.

‘Messire Jehan de Luxembourg215 had her kept in his lodging for three or four days; and, after that, he remained at the siege of the said town and had the Maid sent to a castle named Beaulieu, in Vermandois. And there was she kept prisoner during the space of four months or thereabouts. After this, the said de Luxembourg, by means of the Bishop of Thérouanne,216 his brother, and Chancellor of France for the English King, delivered her to the Duke of Bedford, Lieutenant in France for the King of England, his nephew, for the price of fifteen or sixteen thousand saluts [the salut being worth about £1] paid to the said de Luxembourg. Thus was the Maid put into the hands of the English and taken to the Castle of Rouen, at which the said Duke then held his residence. She being in prison in the said Castle of Beaulieu, he who had been her steward217 before her capture, and who served her in prison, said to her, “That poor town of Compiègne, which you have so much loved up to this time, will fall again into the hands and the power of the enemies of France!”

’And she answered him, “It will not be, for all the places which the King of Heaven hath subdued and put into the hands and jurisdiction of the gentle King Charles by my means, will not be retaken by his enemies, so long as he will take pains to keep them.”’

The following additional details in regard to the Capture of the Maid are taken from George Chatellain’s Histoire de Philippe Le Bon:—‘The Maid, passing the nature of woman, did bear great weight, and took much pains to preserve her company from loss, remaining in the rear as becomes the chief and as the most valiant of the troop, when fortune did so permit, for the ending of her glory and for the last time that ever she should bear arms. An archer, a hard man and very churlish, having great spite that a woman of whom he had heard so much talk should drive back so many valiant men as she had done, caught her from one side by her surcoat of cloth-of-gold, and dragged her from her horse to the ground: she could find neither rescue nor help from her followers that she might be remounted, notwithstanding the pains they took. But a man-at-arms, named the Bastard de Wandonne,218 who arrived just as she fell, pressed her so closely that she gave him her parole, for that he said he was a man of noble birth. The which man-at-arms, more joyful than if he had gotten a king into his hands, took her hastily to Marigny, and there kept her under guard till the end of the affair. And there were taken also with her, Pouthon the Burgundian, a gentleman-at-arms of the French party; the brother of the Maid; her steward; and certain others, in small numbers, who were taken to Marigny and held in safe keeping.’

On the same day, the Duke of Burgundy wrote the following letter to the people of Saint Quentin:—

‘By order of the Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, Artois, Burgundy, and Namur.

‘Very dear and well-beloved, knowing that you desire to have news of us, we signify to you that this day, the 23rd May, towards six o’clock in the afternoon, the adversaries of our Lord the King [Henry VI.] and of us, who were assembled together in great power, and entrenched in the town of Compiègne, before which we and the men of our army were quartered, have made a sally from the said town in force on the quarters of our advanced guard nearest to them, in the which sally was she whom they call the Maid, with many of their principal captains. In the encounter with whom, our fair cousin, Messire Jehan de Luxembourg, who was there present, and others of our people, and some of the people of our Lord the King whom he had sent before us to pass over to Paris, made great and bitter resistance. And presently we arrived in person and found that the said adversaries were already driven back, and by the pleasure of our blessed Creator, it had so happened and such grace had been granted to us, that the said Maid had been taken; and with her many captains, knights, squires and others were taken, drowned, and killed, of whom to this hour we yet know not the names, only that none of our followers nor the followers of my Lord the King are either killed or taken, and that only twenty are wounded, thanks to God. The which capture, as we certainly hold, will be great news everywhere; and by it will be recognized the error and foolish belief of all those who have shewn themselves well-disposed and favourable to the doings of the said woman. And this thing we write for our news, hoping that in it you will have joy, comfort, and consolation, and will render thanks and praise to our Creator, Who seeth and knoweth all things, and Who by His blessed pleasure will conduct the rest of our enterprizes to the good of our said Lord the King and his kingdom, and to the relief and comfort of his good and loyal subjects.

‘Very dear and well-beloved, the Holy Spirit have you in His Holy Keeping.

‘Written at Codun, near Compiègne, the 23rd day of May. Subscribed: To our very dear and good friends the Clergy, citizens and inhabitants of Saint Quentin, in Vermandois.’

In the Notes of Clement de Fauquembergue, Registrar of the Parliament of Paris, occurs the following passage:—‘Thursday, the 25th day of May, 1430, Messire Louis de Luxembourg, Bishop of Thérouanne, Chancellor of France, received letters from Messire Jean de Luxembourg, Knight, his brother, making mention, among other things, that on Tuesday last, in a sally made by the captains and men-at-arms of Messire Charles de Valois, then in the town of Compiègne, against the people of the Duke of Burgundy, encamped and come against the said town with the intention of besieging it, the people of the said De Valois were in such manner compelled to retreat that many of them had no time to enter again into the said town. And many of them threw themselves into the river adjacent to the walls, to the peril of their lives; others remained prisoners of the said Messire Jean de Luxembourg, and the followers of the said Duke of Burgundy, who, among others, seized and held prisoner this woman whom the followers of the said Messire Charles called the Maid.’219

The news of the Maid’s capture was received in Paris with much rejoicing,220 and Te Deums were ordered to be sung in the Churches. The University and the Inquisition at once took up the matter, and wrote on the following day, May 26th, to the Duke of Burgundy, requesting him to claim the prisoner as a heretic against the Church. Six weeks later, on July 14th, letters were sent from the University both to the Duke and to Jean de Luxembourg to the same effect. On the same day, Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, acting for the Regent Bedford, arrived at the Burgundian camp to negotiate for the purchase of the Maid. He claimed her as a prisoner of the Church, but nevertheless offered the usual ransom of a king, 10,000 livres tournois [about £16,000 of our present value].

The arrangements presented, however, matters of long deliberation. The Duke and Jean de Luxembourg, whether from scruples of conscience or in hope of still higher ransom from the party of the King of France, were in no hurry to part with their prisoner. She had been removed to the Castle of Beaulieu at the end of May; and here she remained until August, with her faithful follower d’Aulon still in attendance on her. No records remain of her sojourn; but she herself gives evidence at the Trial of her attempt to escape, which was all but successful. Early in August, she was sent to Beaurevoir, where for a time she had the society of the wife and the aunt of Jean de Luxembourg. Of the latter, the Countess de Ligny, she spoke at the Trial in terms of great affection. Whilst at Beaurevoir, she heard of the negotiations for her delivery to the English. In despair for herself, and overwhelmed with grief for the sorrows of her beloved friends of Compiègne, who were then in great straits, she threw herself221 from the top of the Keep, a height of sixty feet, hoping, as she afterwards said, at least to escape from her enemies. She was taken up, stunned, but not severely injured by her fall, and was kept in closer ward until, in the middle of November, the arrangements for her purchase were completed. From Beaurevoir she was removed to Arras; thence to Crotoy, where she was handed over to the tender mercies of the English, who kept her, in comparatively easy confinement, until it should be decided where the Trial was to take place—the University claiming her for Paris, the Regent preferring to keep her more strictly within his own power. In December, a decision was arrived at. Rouen was fixed upon as the most suitable place, both as a stronghold of the English and as the residence of the Regent and the Court. To Rouen, accordingly, the Maid was brought, and there lodged in a tower of the Castle, under the guard of English soldiers.

The room in which she was confined was situated in a tower of the Castle of Rouen, now no longer in existence; it was on the first floor, up eight steps;222 not far from the back entrance,223 and facing the fields.224 There were three keys to the prison: one retained by the Cardinal of England or his Secretary, one kept by the Inquisitor, and one by the Promoter.225 The Maid was under the close surveillance of five common soldiers (houcepailliers), three of whom remained in the room day and night, while two guarded the door.226 She was heavily ironed, and chained to a beam which crossed the end of her bed.227 It is reported also that a cage, in which she could stand upright had been made for her; but, although this is mentioned by several persons, no one can remember to have seen it in use. The Castle being under the control of the Governor, the Earl of Warwick, the captive was officially in his hands; and for this reason the guardians appointed later to see to her safe custody were members of his household or of the Royal Bodyguard: John Gris or Grey, Talbot, and Berwoist, whose commission is made out by the authority of the Bishop on March 13th.

Many of the Assessors considered that Jeanne should have been placed in the prisons of the Church, and not left in the hands of the English. Lefevre remarks that no one dared say this; and De Courcelles states that it was never brought up as a matter for consultation, although Ladvenu refers to a discussion at the first Session, during which, in response to a generally expressed opinion that Jeanne should be placed under Ecclesiastical ward, the Bishop announced that this could not be done “for fear of the English.” At this first Session, February 21st, neither Ladvenu nor De Courcelles was present.

The Trial opened, according to the Official Report, on January the 9th. It was based on the Procedure of the trials of the Holy Office; and, although the Inquisitor himself was not officially present until a month later, the Inquisitorial form was punctiliously observed. This form was as follows:—

1. Process ex officio.
    Enquiry as to facts of accusation.
    Examination of the Accused on the results of this enquiry.
    The Promoter then draws up the case, if any be undertaken.

2. Process in ordinary.
    Trial and examination of the Accused, sometimes by torture.
    Sentence.

This Procedure was carefully observed in the case of Jeanne. The process ex officio, beginning in January, with the suppressed Domremy Enquiry, comprised the Six Public and Nine Private Examinations, and ended with the drawing up of the Seventy Articles, the Act of Accusation, on March 26th. The Process in Ordinary began on March 27th, with the reading of the Seventy Articles and Jeanne’s examination upon them. She was brought into the Torture Chamber on May the 9th; but the decision of the greater number of the Assessors being against the use of extreme measures, nothing was done. The Sentence was read on May 24th, condemning her to perpetual imprisonment.

Of the legality of the Trial there were grave doubts, expressed both at the beginning and also later on, when some opportunity had been given by the Public Examinations for those not absolutely prejudiced against the Accused, to form an opinion as regards the impartiality of the Judges. On the first day, Houppeville, whose testimony was given in full at the Rehabilitation, was present in Court; but, having dared to express his opinion that the action to be undertaken was fraught with some danger, he was afterwards refused admission, and was sent for by the Bishop to be reprimanded. As he was not in the Diocese of Beauvais he refused submission; but his appeal to his own Chapter at Rouen was disregarded, and he was thrown into prison, from which he was only released some days later through the intervention of the Abbot of Jumièges.

Lohier, a celebrated legal authority, who was present in Rouen during the earlier part of the Examination, expressed his opinions to the Bishop at some length, stating that the whole Trial was absolutely worthless: (1) on account of its form, (2) that the Assessors were not at liberty to hold their own views, the Trial being in the Castle and therefore not in open Court, (3) that no opportunity was given to the party of the French King to speak for themselves, (4) that Jeanne herself was allowed no Counsel,228 nor had proper documents been prepared to support the Accusation. The Bishop, furious at this interference, summoned a meeting at his house to discuss the matter, and announced his decision to take no notice of the opinions thus expressed, but to continue as before. On the following day, Lohier left Rouen, remarking to the Registrar of the Trial: “It seems to me they act more from hate than aught else: and for this reason I will not stay here, for I do not wish to be in it.”

Massieu, the Usher of the Court, afterwards stated that Jeanne had asked for Counsel, and had been refused; but there is no reference to any such request in the message he gives from her at the time of her citation.229

The Bishop’s violent resentment at any interference is noted by more than one witness; and, indeed, the whole conduct of the Trial may be not inaptly described in the words of one of the Assessors, Maître Grouchet: “all was violence in this affair.”

The Trial itself was held in the Castle of Rouen, where Henry VI. had just been spending Christmas in state.

At the First Session, in the Castle Chapel, the noise and disturbance were so great that it was decided that future Sessions should be held in a smaller room, and from this time the Court met in the Ornament Room, opening from the Great Hall. Two Englishmen kept the door.230

The Meetings of May 19th and May 29th, preliminary to the closing of the First and Second Processes, respectively were held outside the Castle in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor, possibly with a view to giving an air of greater publicity to the proceedings. The room in which the instruments of torture were exhibited to Jeanne is on the ground-floor of the only part of the old Castle now standing, called the Great Tower. The smaller tower, in which Jeanne’s prison was situated, was still in ruins until the beginning of the present century, and went by the name of the Tower of La Pucelle; but it has now entirely disappeared.

The three Registrars, Manchon, Boisguillaume, and Taquel (the last only after March 14th), were seated at the feet of the Judges. The clerks of Beaupère and Erard, Jean de Monnet and Jean de Lenozelles, were sometimes with them; two English clerks, under the direction of Loyseleur, were hidden behind a curtain.231

Jeanne was seated on a chair, and questioned, generally from 8 to 11 a.m., by the Bishop and the six University Delegates. Sometimes they all spoke together, insomuch that Jeanne protested: “Beaux Seigneurs, faites l’un après l’autre.”232

In the evidence given at the Rehabilitation, we learn that on more than one occasion Jeanne received advice from friendly Assessors, notably from Brother Duval and Brother Ysambard de la Pierre; but their well-meant interference seems only to have further incensed her Judges against her, and occasionally produced a violent altercation.

On the other hand, Jeanne was cruelly misled by Nicolas Loyseleur, one of the Canons of Rouen, who disguised himself as a fellow-countryman of the Marches of Lorraine, and, by false messages from her friends, wormed himself into the confidence of the Maid, even inducing her to allow him to act as her Confessor: nor did he scruple to report any admission she might make to the Bishop and the Inquisitor. The Registrars, Manchon and Boisguillaume, were even required by Cauchon to place themselves in a room adjoining the prison, provided with a so-called “Judas” ear, in order that they might take notes of the conversation between the prisoner and Loyseleur: but this, to their everlasting honour, they refused to do.

The Registrars appear to have had their difficulties from the very beginning. The notes taken by them at the morning sittings were read over in the presence of some of the Assessors at the Bishop’s lodgings in the afternoon, and compared with those made by the concealed English clerks. Differences of opinion arose very often; but the officials refused to allow their own notes to be overridden, and, whenever any disputed point was referred to the Accused, their version was always found to be correct. These notes were finally drawn up by Manchon in a complete form, and upon them is based the whole account of the Trial as it appears in the Latin translation, the subsequent work of Thomas de Courcelles.

Act of Accusation Prepared by the Promoter

The Seventy Articles

[The Seventy Articles, prepared by the Promoter, d’Estivet, which form the Accusation of the Trial in Ordinary, were read to Jeanne by Thomas de Courcelles, on Tuesday, March 27th. In her replies, here given, Jeanne refers constantly to previous answers. The dates of Examinations, in which these are said to occur, follow in notes.]

Article I. And first, according to Divine Law, as according to Canon and Civil Law, it is to you, the Bishop, as Judge Ordinary, and to you, the Deputy, as Inquisitor of the Faith, that it appertaineth to drive away, destroy, and cut out from the roots in your Diocese and in all the kingdom of France, heresies, witchcrafts, superstitions, and other crimes of that nature; it is to you that it appertaineth to punish, to correct and to amend heretics and all those who publish, say, profess, or in any other manner act against our Catholic Faith: to wit, sorcerers, diviners, invokers of demons, those who think ill of the Faith, all criminals of this kind, their abettors and accomplices, apprehended in your Diocese or in your jurisdiction, not only for the misdeeds they may have committed there, but even for the part of their misdeeds that they may have committed elsewhere, saving, in this respect, the power and duty of the other Judges competent to pursue them in their respective dioceses, limits, and jurisdictions. And your power as to this exists against all lay persons, whatever be their estate, sex, quality, and pre-eminence: in regard to all you are competent Judges.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I believe surely that our Lord the Pope of Rome, the Bishops, and other Clergy, are established to guard the Christian Faith and punish those who are found wanting therein: but as for me, for my doings I submit myself only to the Heavenly Church—that is to say, to God, to the Virgin Mary, and to the Saints in Paradise. I firmly believe I have not wavered in the Christian Faith, nor would I waver.”

Article II. The Accused, not only this year, but from her infancy, and not only in your Diocese, Bishop, and your jurisdiction, Deputy, but also in many other places of this kingdom, hath done, composed, contrived and ordained a number of sacrileges and superstitions: she made herself a diviner; she caused herself to be adored and venerated; she hath invoked demons, and evil spirits; consulted them, associated with them, hath made and had with them compacts, treaties, and conventions, hath made use of them, hath furnished to others, acting in the same manner, aid, succour, and favour, and hath, in much, led them on to act like herself; she hath said, affirmed, and maintained that to act thus, to use witchcraft, divinations, superstitions, was not a sin, was not a forbidden thing, but, on the contrary, a thing lawful, to be praised, worthy of approval; also she hath led into these errors and evil doings a very great number of persons of divers estates, of both sexes, and hath imprinted on their hearts the most fatal errors. Jeanne hath been taken and arrested within the limits of your diocese of Beauvais, in the very act (flagrante delicto) of perpetrating all these misdoings.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I deny ever having used witchcraft, superstitious works, or divinations. As to allowing myself to be adored, if any kissed my hands and my garments, it was not my doing or by my wish; I sought to protect myself from it, and to prevent it as much as in me lay. And as for the rest of the Article, I deny it.”

Article III. The Accused hath fallen into many diverse and detestable errors which reek of heresy. She hath said, vociferated, uttered, published and inculcated within the hearts of the simple, false and lying propositions allied to heresy, even themselves heretical, contrary to our Catholic Faith and its principles, to Gospel rules, and to the Statutes established or approved by General Councils; propositions, contrary not only to the Divine Law but also to Canon and Civil Law; propositions scandalous, sacrilegious, contrary to good manners, offensive to pious ears: she hath furnished help, counsel and favour to the people who dogmatized, affirmed, or promulgated such propositions.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I deny it, and on the contrary affirm that I have always upheld the Church so far as it lay in my power.”

Article IV. But it is time to instruct you more fully and more directly, my Lords and Judges, on the offences, excesses, crimes, and misdemeanours, committed by the Accused in the diocese of Beauvais and elsewhere, in many and divers places.

It is true that the Accused was born in the village of Grus [Greux], of Jacques d’Arc and Isabelle, his wife; that she lived until seventeen years old or thereabouts in the village of Domremy, on the Meuse, in the diocese of Toul, in the Bailly of Chaumont, in Bassigny, in the provosty of Montclère and Andelot. In her childhood, she was not instructed in the beliefs and principles of our Faith; but by certain old women she was initiated in the science of witchcraft, divination, superstitious doings, and magical arts. Many inhabitants of these villages have been known for all time as using these kinds of witchcraft: Jeanne hath herself said that she learned from several, notably from her godmother, many things touching her visions and the apparitions of fairies; through others also, she hath been penetrated by the detestable and pernicious errors of these evil spirits—so much so, that, in these interrogations before you, she hath confessed that even now she doth not know if these fairies were evil spirits or not.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“For the first part it is true, in so far as concerns my father, my mother, and the place of my birth. As to the fairies, I do not know what they are. On what touches my teaching, I learnt to believe, and have been brought up well and duly to do what a good child ought to do. For what concerns my godmother, I refer to what I have said on another occasion. You ask me to say the Creed? Ask my confessor, to whom I said it.”

Article V. Near the village of Domremy there is a great tree, big and ancient; it is called “the Charmed Tree of the Fairy of Bourlement”: near by is a spring; round this tree and this spring live, it is said, evil spirits called fairies, with whom those who use witchcraft are accustomed to come and dance at night.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“For the tree and the spring, I refer to my previous answers. The rest, I deny.”233

Article VI. Accustomed to frequent this tree and this spring, above all by night, sometimes also by day, but at the times when the Church celebrates the Divine Office, Jeanne, in order to find herself more alone, danced roundelays around this tree and this spring; from time to time she hung from its branches garlands of herbs and flowers woven by her own hands, accompanying her dances with songs mingled with invocations, sorceries, and other witchcrafts: the garlands thus left overnight on the following morning were not to be found.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer for a part to my previous answers; the rest I deny.”234

Article VII. Jeanne was in the habit of carrying about with her a mandrake, hoping thereby to secure fortune and riches in this world, she, in fact, believed that the mandrake has the virtue of procuring fortune.

“What have you to say about the mandrake?”

“I deny it entirely.”235

Article VIII. Towards her twentieth year, Jeanne, of her own wish, and without permission of her father and mother, went to Neufchâteau, in Lorraine, and was in service for some time at the house of a woman, an inn-keeper named La Rousse, where lived women of evil life, and where soldiers were accustomed to lodge in great numbers. During her stay in this inn, Jeanne sometimes stayed with these evil women, sometimes took the sheep into the fields, or led the horses to watering in the meadows and pastures: it was there that she learnt to ride on horseback and to use arms.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I said elsewhere. I deny the rest.”236

Article IX. Whilst she was in service with these women Jeanne indicted a young man before the Officials at Toul for breach of promise; many times she repaired to Toul for this end, and spent thus nearly all that she had. This young man refused to marry her, because he knew she had been connected with evil women. He died during the trial. Jeanne then, unable to remain longer, quitted the service of this woman.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“On the subject of this trial for marriage I have answered elsewhere and refer to my answer. I deny the rest.”237

Article X. After having quitted the service of La Rousse, Jeanne pretended, and still doth pretend, to have had continually during five years, visions and apparitions of Saint Michael Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. They revealed to her, she says, by order of God, that she should raise the siege of Orleans and crown Charles, whom she calls her King; and that afterwards she would drive out his enemies from the realm of France. In spite of her father and mother, she left home, of her own motion, of her sole inspiration, and went to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of Vaucouleurs, to whom she communicated, in virtue of the order of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, the visions and revelations that God had made to her, asking of the said Robert to find her the means to accomplish what had been revealed to her. Twice repulsed by Robert, she returned twice to her parents. Returning a third time to the attempt, on a pretended order sent to her by revelation, she was then admitted and received by the said Robert.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I said before.”238

Article XI. Having become familiar with the said Robert, Jeanne boasted that, after having done and accomplished all that had been commanded her of God, she would have three sons, of whom the first should be Pope, the second Emperor, and the third King. Robert de Baudricourt, hearing this, said to her, “Would I could be father to one myself, if they are to be such great people! my own value would thereby be the greater!” “Nay, nay, gentle Robert,” replied Jeanne, “it is not time; the Holy Spirit will accomplish it.”239 This is the tale which the said Robert hath in many places often affirmed, told and published, and this in presence of prelates, lords, and high personages.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I have already said.240 I never boasted that I should have three children.”241

Article XII. In order the more openly and better to attain her end, Jeanne asked of Robert de Baudricourt to have made for her a man’s dress and armour appropriate. This captain, with great repugnance, ended by acquiescing in her request. These garments and armour made and furnished, Jeanne, rejecting and abandoning women’s clothing, her hair cut a-round like a young coxcomb, took shirt, breeches, doublet, with hose joined together and fastened to the said doublet by twenty points, long leggings laced on the outside, a short mantle [surcoat] to the knees, or thereabouts, close-cut cap, tight-fitting boots or buskins, long spurs, sword, dagger, breastplate, lance and other arms in fashion of a man of war, affirming that in this she was executing the order of God, as had been prescribed to her by revelation.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I refer to what I said before.”

“Did you then take this costume, these arms, and all this warlike apparel by the order of God?”

“On this also I refer to what I said before.”242

Article XIII. Jeanne attributes to God, His Angels and His Saints, orders which are against the modesty of the sex, and which are prohibited by the Divine Law, things abominable to God and man, interdicted on pain of anathema by ecclesiastical censure, such as dressing herself in the garments of a man, short, tight, dissolute, those underneath as well as above. It is in virtue of these pretended orders that she hath attired herself in sumptuous and stately raiment, cloth-of-gold and furs; and not only did she wear short tunics, but she dressed herself in tabards, and garments open at both sides; and it is notorious that she was taken prisoner in a loose cloak of cloth-of-gold. She was always seen with a cap on her head, her hair cut short and a-round in the style of a man. In one word, putting aside the modesty of her sex, she acted not only against all feminine decency, but even against the reserve which beseems men of good morals, wearing ornaments and garments which only profligate men are accustomed to use, and going so far as to carry arms of offence. To attribute all this to the order of God, to the order which had been transmitted to her by the Angels and even by Virgin Saints, is to blaspheme God and His Saints, to destroy the Divine Law and violate the Canonical Rules; it is to libel the sex and its virtue, to overturn all decency, to justify all examples of dissolute living, and to drive others thereto.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I have not blasphemed God nor His Saints.”243

Article XIV. Jeanne affirms that she has done right in attiring herself in garments worn only by dissolute men; she doth profess that she will continue to retain them until she shall have received, by revelation, the express order of God: by this, she outrages God, the Angels, and the Saints.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I do no wrong in serving God; to-morrow I will answer you.”

[One of the Assessors]: “Did you have revelation or order to wear a man’s dress?”

“I have already answered that elsewhere. I refer to my previous sayings. To-morrow I will answer. I know well who made me take a man’s dress; but I do not know how I can reveal it.”244

Article XV. Jeanne, having many times asked that she might be permitted to hear Mass, hath been invited to quit the dress she now wears and to take again her woman’s dress; she hath been allowed to hope that she will be admitted to hear Mass and to receive Communion, if she will renounce entirely the dress of a man and take that of a woman, as beseems her sex; she hath refused. In other words, she hath chosen rather not to approach the Sacraments nor to assist in Divine Service, than to put aside her habit, pretending that this would displease God. In this appears her obstinacy, her hardness of heart, her lack of charity, her disobedience to the Church, and her contempt of Divine Sacraments.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I would rather die than revoke what I have done by the order of Our Lord.”

“Will you, to hear Mass, abandon the dress of a man?”

“I will not abandon it yet; the time is not come. If you refuse to let me hear Mass, it is in the power of Our Lord to let me hear it, when it shall please Him, without you. I recollect being admonished to take again a woman’s dress. As to the irreverence and such like things, I deny them.”245

Article XVI. Previous to, and since her capture, at the Castle of Beaurevoir and at Arras, Jeanne hath been many times advised with gentleness, by noble persons of both sexes, to give up her man’s dress and resume suitable attire. She hath absolutely refused, and to this day also she refuses with persistence; she disdains also to give herself up to feminine work, conducting herself in all things rather as a man than as a woman.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“At Arras and Beaurevoir I was invited to take a woman’s dress; then I refused, and I refuse still. As to the women’s work of which you speak, there are plenty of other women to do it.”246

Article XVII. When Jeanne found herself in the presence of Charles, thus attired and armed, she promised him these three things among others: that she would raise the siege of Orleans; that she would have him consecrated at Rheims; that she would avenge him on his enemies, who, all of them, English or Burgundians, should be, thanks to her, killed or driven out of the kingdom. Many times and in many places did she repeat publicly the same boasts; and, to give them greater weight, then and often afterwards, she did use divinations, and by these means unveiled the morals, the entire life, the most secret acts, of persons who came before her, whom she had never before seen or known; she boasted of knowing all by revelation.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“In the name of God I brought the news to my King that Our Lord would restore the kingdom to him, cause him to be crowned at Rheims, and drive out all his enemies; I was a messenger from God, when I told the King boldly to set me to work and I would raise the siege of Orleans. I mean, in so saying, the whole kingdom; and if my Lord of Burgundy and the other subjects of the King do not return to their obedience, the King will know how to make them by force. As to the end of the Article, of knowing Robert de Baudricourt and my King, I hold to what I said before.”247

Article XVIII. So long as Jeanne remained with Charles, she did dissuade him with all her power, him and those with him, from consenting to any treaty of peace, any arrangement with his adversaries; inciting them always to murder and effusion of blood; affirming that they could only have peace by sword and lance; and that God willed it so, because otherwise the enemies of the King would not give up that which they held in his kingdom; to fight against them thus, is, she told them, one of the greatest benefits that can happen to all Christendom.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“As to my Lord of Burgundy, I requested him by my ambassadors and my letters that he would make peace between my King and himself; but as to the English, the peace they need is that they may go away to their own country, to England. I have answered on the remainder of the Article; and I refer to this answer.”248

Article XIX. It was by consulting demons and using divinations, that Jeanne sent to look for a sword hidden in the Church of Saint Catherine de Fierbois: (perchance she had already maliciously, fraudulently, and deceitfully hidden or caused to be hidden this sword in the same church, to seduce the princes, nobles, clergy, and people, to induce them to believe more easily that she knew by revelation in what place this sword was). By this stratagem and others of a like nature she succeeded in inspiring an absolute faith in all her words.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I said before; I deny all the rest.”249

Article XX. She hath put faith in her ring, in her banner, in certain pieces of linen, and pennons which she carried or caused to be carried by her people, and also in the sword found by revelation, according to her, at Saint Catherine de Fierbois, saying that these things were very fortunate. She made thereon many execrations and conjurations, in many and divers places, publicly asserting that by them she would do great things and would obtain victory over her enemies; that to those of her people who carried pennons of this kind no ill could happen. She said all this at Compiègne on the eve of the day when, having sallied to attack my lord the Duke of Burgundy, she was taken prisoner and many of her followers were wounded, killed, or taken. She said as much at Saint Denis, when she incited her army to attack Paris.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I refer to what I have already said. In all I have done there was never any sorcery or evil arts. As for the good luck of my banner, I refer it to the fortune sent through it by Our Lord (de bonâ fortunâ sui estandart se refert ad fortunium quod Dominus Noster in es transmissit).”250

Article XXI. Jeanne, by temerity or presumption, hath caused to be written certain letters at the head of which she placed the names ‘Jhésus Maria,’ with a cross in the middle. These letters she caused to be addressed in her name to our Lord the King, to my Lord of Bedford, Regent of France, to the lords and captains who were then at the siege of Orleans, containing a number of things wicked, pernicious, contrary to the Catholic Faith, the tenour of which is found in the Article which follows:

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I did not send the letters of which you speak in pride or in presumption, but by command of Our Lord. I remember and acknowledge the contents of these letters, with the exception of three words. If the English had believed my letters, they would only have been wise; and before seven years are gone they will perceive it well enough!”251

Article XXII. Tenour of the letter:252

“What have you to say to this letter?”

“I remember having it written except three words, which I did not dictate. If the English had believed my words they would have acted wisely. Before seven years are gone, they will feel the truth of what I wrote to them, and for that, I refer to the answer which I made elsewhere.”

Article XXIII. The tenour of the letter contained in the preceding Article proves well that Jeanne hath been the sport of evil spirits, and that she often consulted them to know what she ought to do; or, at least, that, to seduce the people, she imagined these inventions by lying or wickedness.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I deny ever having done anything under the inspiration of evil spirits.”253

Article XXIV. Jeanne hath gravely misused the names “Jhésus Maria” and the sign of the cross placed beside them; it was understood between her and her people that, when they saw on her letters these words and this sign, they were to do the contrary of what she wrote: and, in fact, they did do the contrary.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I said before.”254

Article XXV. Usurping the office of Angels, Jeanne hath said and affirmed that she hath been sent by God; and she hath said this even for cases which tend openly to violence and effusion of human blood: a proposition the most foreign to all holiness, horrible and abominable to all pious souls.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“First, I begged them to make peace; and it was only in case they would not make peace that I was ready to fight.”255

Article XXVI. Jeanne, being at Compiègne in August of 1429, did receive from the Count d’Armagnac a letter of which the tenour forms the article which follows.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I said before.”256

Article XXVII. Tenour of the said letter.257

Article XXVIII. To this letter Jeanne did send in answer the letter signed with her name, found in the Articles which follow.

Articles XXIX. and XXX. Letter of Jeanne to the Count d’Armagnac.258

“What have you to say on these Articles, XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX., XXX., which have been read to you with great care, from the first word to the last?”

“I refer to what I answered on Article XXVI.”259

Continuation of the Reading of the Articles in Open Court.

[The next day, Wednesday, March 28th, in the same room, near the great Hall of the Castle of Rouen, before the Bishop and Brother Jean Lemaître, assisted by 35 Assessors.]

Before them hath been resumed the reading, begun the preceding day, of the Articles in the document produced by the Promoter. Their contents in French, being shewn to Jeanne, Article by Article, she hath been questioned on each of these Articles and hath continued to reply, as here followeth, after having anew sworn to speak truth on everything touching the Trial.260

Article XXXI. From the time of her childhood and since, Jeanne hath boasted, and every day still doth boast, of having had, and of still having, numerous revelations and visions on the subject which, although she hath been on this charitably admonished and legally required to swear, she hath not made, nor wished to make, nor is now willing to make, any oath. She will not even make known the revelations made to her, by words nor by signs. This she hath postponed, contested, refused, and doth now also postpone, contest, and refuse. Many times hath she said and affirmed in a formal manner, in Court and outside, that she will not make known these revelations and visions to you, her Judges, even if her head should be cut off, or her body dismembered. “They shall not drag it from my mouth,” she hath said, “neither the sign that God revealed to me, nor the means whereby I knew that this sign came to me from God.”

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“As to revealing the sign and the other things, of which you speak, I may well have said I will not reveal them. I add, to what I before acknowledged that I should have said I would not reveal it without leave from Our Lord.”261

Article XXXII. By this refusal to make known these pretended revelations, you may and should presume strongly that the revelations and visions of Jeanne, if she had them always, came to her from lying and evil spirits rather than from good. And all the world may take it for certain, considering her cruelty, her pride, her dress, her actions, her lies, the contradictions here given in various Articles, that all these together constitute in this respect the most powerful of presumptions, both of law and right.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I did it by revelation, from Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; and I will maintain it even unto death. If I put on my letters the names ‘Jhésus Maria,’ it was because I was advised to do so by certain persons of my party; sometimes I used these names, sometimes not. As to that passage in my answer of which you remind me, ‘All that I did, I did by the counsel of Our Lord,’ it should be completed thus: ‘All that I did well.’”

“Did you do well or ill to advance on La Charité?”

“If it were ill done, it will be confessed.”

“Did you do well to advance on Paris?”

“The gentlemen of France wished to advance on Paris. In doing this, it seems to me they did their duty in going against their enemies.”

Article XXXIII. Jeanne hath presumptuously and audaciously boasted, and doth still boast, of knowing the future and of having foreseen the past, of knowing things that are in the present, but hidden or unknown; all which, an attribute of the Deity, she claims for herself, a simple and ignorant creature.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“It is in Our Lord’s power to give revelations to whom He pleases; that which I said of the sword of Fierbois and of things to come, I knew by revelation.”262

Article XXXIV. Obstinate in her temerity and presumption, Jeanne hath said, proclaimed, and published, that she recognized and discerned the voices of Archangels, Angels, and Saints; she hath affirmed and doth still affirm that she knoweth how to distinguish their Voices from human voices.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I hold by what I have already said: of my pretended temerity, and, of that which has been concluded against me, I refer to Our Lord, my Judge.”263

Article XXXV. Jeanne hath boasted and affirmed that she did know how to discern those whom God loveth and those whom He hateth.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I hold by what I have already said elsewhere of the King and the Duke d’Orléans; of the others I know not; I know well that God, for their well-being,264 (pro ediis corporum suorum), loves my King and the Duke d’Orléans better than me. I know it by revelation.”265

Article XXXVI. Jeanne hath said, affirmed, and boasted, she doth say, affirm, and every day boast, that she hath known, and could know exactly—and that not only herself, but also others through her means recognized and surely knew—the Voice which came to her, although from its nature a voice must be invisible to every human being.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I hold by what I have said elsewhere.”266

Article XXXVII. Jeanne doth confess to having frequently done the contrary to what hath been commanded her by the revelations she doth boast to have had from God; for example, when she retired from St. Denis, after the assault on Paris, and when she leaped from the top of the tower of Beaurevoir. By this, it is manifest, either that she hath had no revelations from God, or that, if she hath had them, she hath despised them. And she it is, who, after this, doth dare to affirm that she is in all things guided and governed by commands from on high and by revelation! Besides, she hath said that, when she had had the order not to leap from the top of the tower, she was compelled to act contrary to this order, without being able to resist the constraint put upon her will; in the which she appears to think wrongly on the matters of Free-will and to fall into the error of those who believe that man is led by Fate or by some other irresistible power.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I hold by what I have said elsewhere. I state in addition that when I left St. Denis I had permission from my Voices.”

“In acting against your Voices, do you think you committed mortal sin?”

“I have answered elsewhere to that; I refer to that answer. On the concluding part of this Article, I refer me to God.”267

Article XXXVIII. Jeanne, from the time of her childhood, hath said, done, and committed a great number of crimes, sins and evil deeds—shameful, cruel, scandalous, dishonouring, unworthy of her sex; now she doth say and affirm that all that she hath done hath been with the approbation and by the will of God; that she hath done nothing and now doeth nothing which proceedeth not from God, by means of the revelations transmitted to her by the Holy Angels and the Holy Virgins, Catherine and Margaret.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I refer to what I have said elsewhere.”268

Article XXXIX. Although the Just sin seven times a day, Jeanne hath said and published that she hath never committed, or, at least, that she doth believe never to have committed, mortal sin. Nevertheless, as many Articles of the present accusation prove, she hath indeed practised, and on a vast scale, acts customary to nations who are at war, and others yet more grave.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have answered it; I refer to what I have said elsewhere.”269

Article XL. Forgetful of her salvation, impelled by the devil, she is not and hath not been ashamed several times and in many and divers places to receive the Body of Christ, having upon her a man’s dress of unseemly form, a dress which the laws of God and man do forbid her to wear.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have answered elsewhere. I rely upon what I have said before. I rely upon Our Lord.”270

Article XLI. Jeanne, as one desperate, for hate and contempt of the English, and foreseeing the destruction of Compiègne, which she believed to be imminent, did attempt to kill herself by throwing herself down from the top of a tower; at the instigation of the devil, she took it into her head to commit this action; she applied herself to commit it; she did commit it in so far as she was able; on the other hand, in so throwing herself down, she was so well impelled and guided by a diabolic instinct that she had in view rather the safety of her body than that of her soul and of many others. Often indeed, hath she boasted that she would kill herself rather than that she should be delivered to the English.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I rely upon what I have said before.”271

Article XLII. Jeanne hath said and published that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and Saint Michael have bodies—that is to say, head, eyes, face, hair, etc.; that she hath touched them with her hands; that she hath kissed them and embraced them.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have already answered it, and I rely upon what I have said.”272

Article XLIII. Jeanne hath said and published that the Saints, the Angels, and the Archangels speak the French language and not the English language, because the Saints, the Angels, and the Archangels are not on the side of the English, but of the French; she hath outraged the Saints in glory, in implying to them a mortal hatred against a Catholic realm and a nation devoted, according to the will of the Church, to the veneration of all the Saints.

This Article having been set forth to Jeanne word for word, she only answered thus:

“I rely on Our Lord, and upon what I have replied before.”273

Article XLIV. Jeanne hath boasted and doth yet boast, she hath published and doth publish, that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have promised to lead her to Paradise, and have assured her that she will obtain heavenly joy if she preserve her virginity; she affirms she is certain of this.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I rely on Our Lord and on what I answered elsewhere.”274

Article XLV. Although the judgments of God are impenetrable to us, nevertheless Jeanne hath said, uttered, declared, and promulgated that she hath known and can know those who are Saints, Archangels, Angels, or the elect of God; she knoweth how to discern them.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I refer to what I have already said.”275

Article XLVI. She hath said that, before leaping from the tower of Beaurevoir, she did most lovingly entreat Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret for the people of Compiègne, saying to these Saints in a reproachful manner, “And how can God allow these people of Compiègne, who are so loyal, to die thus miserably?” In the which did appear her impatience and her irreverence towards God and the Saints.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I refer to what I have already said.”276

Article XLVII. Provoked with her wound, Jeanne, after the leap from the tower of Beaurevoir, seeing she had not attained her end, began to blaspheme God and the Saints, abjuring them with horrible taunts, insulting them terribly, to the great confusion of all those present. In the same way, when she was in the Castle of Rouen, many times, and on different days, did she blaspheme and deny God, the Blessed Virgin, and the Saints, in impatience and resentment at being brought for judgment before an ecclesiastical tribunal and forced to appear there.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I hold by Our Lord and by what I have already said.”277

Article XLVIII. Jeanne hath said that she did and doth still believe that the spirits which appear to her are Angels and Archangels and the Saints of God, as firmly as she believes in the Christian Faith, and in the Articles of that Faith, although she can report no sign which can be of a nature to prove that she hath in reality had this communication; she hath consulted neither Bishop, Priest, nor Prelate, nor any ecclesiastical person whatsoever, to know whether she ought to have faith in such spirits; yet more, she saith that her Voices have forbidden her to reveal anything to any one whosoever it may be, save first to a captain of soldiers, then to Charles her King, and afterwards to other persons purely laic. By this, she admits that her belief on this point is audacious, her faith erroneous, her revelations doubtful, having always kept them from the knowledge of the clergy and never having been willing to reveal them save to seculars.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I have answered it already. I refer to what is written. And as to the signs, if those who asked for them were not worthy, I could not help it. Many a time did I pray that it might please God to reveal it to some of this party. It is true, that to believe in my revelations I asked neither Bishop, Priest, nor any one else. I believe it was Saint Michael, from the good teaching he shewed me.”

“Did Saint Michael say to you: ‘I am Saint Michael’?”

“I have answered before.”

As to the concluding part of the Article, she answered: “I refer me to Our Lord.... As firmly as I believe Our Saviour Jesus Christ suffered death to redeem us from the pains of hell, so firmly do I believe that it was Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret whom Our Saviour sent to comfort and to counsel me.”278

Article XLIX. On the foundation of this fancy alone Jeanne hath venerated spirits of this kind, kissing the ground on the which she said they had walked, bending the knee before them, embracing them, kissing them, paying all sorts of adoration to them, giving them thanks with clasped hands, taking the greatest familiarities with them; when she did not know if they were good or evil spirits, and when, by reason of all the circumstances revealed above, these spirits should have been rather considered by her as evil. This worship, this veneration, is idolatry: it is a compact with demons.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have already answered; for the conclusion, I refer me to Our Lord.”279

Article L. Every day and many times daily Jeanne doth invoke these evil spirits and consult them on what she should do,—notably on the manner in which she should answer in court. This seems to constitute, and doth in effect constitute, an invocation of demons.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have already answered it; I shall call them to my help as long as I live.”

“In what way shall you call them?”

“I beseech Our Lord and Our Lady that they will send me counsel and comfort, and then They send it to me.”

“In what words do you beseech this?”

“I say ‘Most sweet Lord, in honour of Thy Holy Passion I beseech Thee, if Thou lovest me, that Thou wilt reveal to me how I should answer these Clergy. I know well, as regards this dress, the command by which I have taken it; but I do not know in what way I should leave it off: for this, may it please Thee to teach me.’ And soon they come to me. I often by my Voices have news of my Lord of Beauvais.”

The Bishop: “What do your Voices say of Us?”

“I will tell you apart.... To-day they came to me three times.”

“In your chamber?”

“I have answered you; I hear them well. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have told me what I should say on the subject of my dress.”280

Article LI. Jeanne hath not feared to proclaim that Saint Michael, the Archangel of God, did come to her with a great multitude of Angels in the house of a woman where she had stopped at Chinon; that he walked with her, holding her by the hand; that they together mounted the stairs of the Castle and together gained the Chamber of the King; that the Angel did reverence to the King, bowing before him, surrounded by this multitude of Angels, of which some had crowns on their heads and others had wings. To say such things of Archangels and the Holy Angels is presumption, audacity, lying, as in the holy books we do not read that they did a like reverence, a like demonstration, to any saint—not even to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. Jeanne hath said that the Archangel Saint Gabriel hath often come to her with the blessed Michael, and sometimes even with thousands of Angels. She hath also proclaimed that the same Angel, at her prayer, did bring in this company of Angels a crown, the most precious possible, to place upon the head of her King—a crown which is to-day deposited in the treasury of the King; that the King would have been crowned at Rheims with this crown, if he had deferred his consecration some days: it was only because of the extreme haste of his coronation that he received another. All these are lies imagined by Jeanne at the instigation of the devil, or suggested by demons in deceitful apparitions, to make sport of her curiosity,—she who would search secrets beyond her capacity and condition.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“On the subject of the Angel who brought the sign I have already answered. As to what the Promoter suggests on the subject of the thousands of Angels, I do not recollect having said it—that is to say, the number; I did certainly say that I had never been wounded without receiving great comfort and help from God and from the Saints Catherine and Margaret. As to the crown, on this also I have replied. Of the conclusion which the Promoter makes against my deeds, I refer me to God, Our Lord; and where the crown was made and forged, I leave to Our Lord.”281

Article LII. By all these inventions, Jeanne hath so seduced Christian people that many have in her presence adored her as a Saint, and in her absence do adore her still, composing in her honour masses and collects; yet more, going so far as to call her the greatest of all the Saints after the Virgin Mary, raising statues and images to her in the Churches of the Saints, and bearing about them medals in lead or other metal representing her—exactly as the Church does to honour the memory and the recollection of the canonized Saints—publicly proclaiming that she is sent from God, and more Angel than woman. Such things are pernicious to the Christian religion, scandalous, and prejudicial to the salvation of souls.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“As to the commencement of the Article, I have already answered; as to the conclusion, I refer to Our Lord.”282

Article LIII. In contempt of the orders of God and the Saints, Jeanne, in her presumption and pride, hath gone so far as to take command over men; she hath made herself commander-in-chief and hath had under her orders nearly 16,000 men, among whom were Princes, Barons, and a number of Gentlemen: she hath made them all fight, being their principal captain.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“As to the fact of being commander-in-chief, I have answered before; if I have been commander-in-chief, it was to fight the English. As to the conclusion of the Article I refer me to God.”283

Article LIV. Jeanne doth behave in an unseemly manner with men, refuses the society of women, wishes to live with men only, to be waited upon by them, even in her own room and in the most private details: a like thing hath never been seen nor heard of a chaste and pious woman.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“It is true that my command was over men; but as to my quarters and lodging, most often I had a woman with me. And when I was engaged in the war I slept fully dressed and armed, not being able always to find a woman. As to the conclusion of the Article, I refer me to God.”

Article LV. Jeanne hath abused the revelations and prophecies that she saith she hath had from God, to procure for herself lucre and temporal profit; by means of these pretended revelations, she hath acquired great riches, a great show and great estate in officers, horses, and attire; she hath obtained great revenues for her brothers and relations, imitating in this the false prophets, who, to acquire temporal gain or to obtain the favour of kings, were accustomed to pretend that they had had revelations from God on things which they knew would be to the taste of their princes; abusing the divine oracles, she hath thus attributed her lies to God.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I have answered elsewhere. As to the gifts made to my brothers, that which the King gave to them was of his grace, without my asking. As to the charge made by the Promoter and the conclusion of the Article, I refer me to Our Lord.”284

Article LVI. Jeanne hath many times proclaimed that she hath two counsellors whom she calls ‘Counsellors of the Well,’ and who have come to her since she hath been taken captive, as appears from the declaration made by Catherine de la Rochelle before the Officials in Paris.285 This Catherine hath said that Jeanne, if she be not well guarded, will get out of prison, by the help of the Devil.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I hold by what I have already said; and as to the ‘Counsellors of the Well,’ I do not know what it means. I certainly believe that I overheard Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret there. The conclusion of the Article I deny.”

[And then she did swear by her oath286 that she did not wish that the Devil should get her out of prison.287]

Article LVII. The day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, Jeanne did assemble the whole army of Charles, to make an attack on the city of Paris; she did lead the army against the city, affirming that she would enter it on that day—that she knew it by revelation: she directed all the arrangements possible for the entry. And, nevertheless, she is not afraid to deny it before us here in court. And at other places also, at La Charité-sur-Loire, for example, at Pont L’Evêque, at Compiègne, when she attacked the army of the Duke of Burgundy, she affirmed and foretold that which, according to her, would take place, saying that she knew it by revelation: now, not only did the things predicted by her not come to pass, but the very contrary happened. Before you she hath denied having made these predictions, because they were not realized, as she had said; but many people worthy of trust report288 to have heard her utter them. At the time of the assault on Paris, she said that thousands of angels were around her, ready to bear her to Paradise if she should be killed: now, when she was asked why, after the promises made to her, not only did she not enter Paris but that many of her men and she herself had been wounded in a horrible manner and some even killed, she answered “It was Jesus, who broke His word to me.”

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“As to the beginning, I have answered it already. If I think of more later, I will willingly answer then. I never said that Jesus had failed me.”289

Article LVIII. Jeanne did cause to be painted a standard whereon are two Angels, one on each side of God holding the world in His hand, with the words “Jhésus Maria” and other designs. She said that she caused this standard to be done by the order of God, who had revealed it to her by the agency of His Angels and Saints. This standard she did place at Rheims near the Altar, during the consecration of Charles, wishing, in her pride and vain glory, that it should be peculiarly honoured. Also did she cause to be painted arms, in the which she placed two golden lilies on a field azure; between the lilies a sword argent, with a hilt and guard gilded, the point of the sword pointing upwards and surmounted with a crown, gilded. All this is display and vanity, it is not religion nor piety; to attribute such vanities to God and to the Angels, is to be wanting in respect to God and the Saints.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have already answered it; for the conclusions drawn by the Promoter, I refer to Our Lord.”290

Article LIX. At St. Denis in France Jeanne did offer and cause to be placed in the Church, in the most prominent place, the armour she wore when she was wounded while attacking the town of Paris; she desired that this armour should be honoured as relics. In this same town, she did cause to be lighted candles, for the melted wax to fall on the heads of little children, saying that this would bring them happiness, and making by such witchcrafts many divinations.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“As to my armour, I have answered; as to the candles lighted and melted, I deny it.”291

Article LX. In contempt of the laws and sanction of the Church, Jeanne hath several times before this tribunal refused to speak the truth: by this, she doth render suspect all she hath said or done in matters of faith and revelation, because she dares not reveal them to ecclesiastical judges; she dreads the just punishment she hath merited and of which she appears herself to be conscious, when, on this question, she did in court urge this proverb, that “for speaking the truth, one was often hanged.” Also she hath often said: “You will not know all,” and again, “I would rather have my head cut off than tell you all.”

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I never sought delay, except to answer more surely on what was asked me. When I am doubtful if I ought to answer, I ask delay to know if I ought to speak. As to the counsel of my King, because it does not touch on this case, I would not reveal it. Of the sign given to the King, I have told it, because the clergy did constrain me to do so.”292

Article LXI. Admonished of having to submit all her words and actions to the Church Militant, after that the distinction between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant had been shewn to her, Jeanne declared that she submitted herself to the Church Triumphant and refused to submit to the Church Militant, confessing by this that she doth not rightly understand the Article of the Faith ‘I believe in the Church, One, Holy, Catholic,’ and that she is in error on this point. She hath said she would reveal them only to God, and that she referred her acts to God and to His Saints and not to the judgment of the Church.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I wish with all my power to give honour and reverence to the Church Militant. For referring my acts to the Church Militant, I must refer to Our Lord Who caused me to do them.”

“Will you refer to the Church Militant as to what you have done?”

“Send me the clerk on Saturday next, and I will answer.”293

Article LXII. Jeanne hath laboured to scandalize the people, to induce them to believe in her talk, taking to herself the authority of God and His Angels, presumptuously seeking to seduce men from ecclesiastical authority, as do the false prophets who establish sects of error and perdition and separate themselves from the unity of the Church; a thing pernicious in the Christian religion, which, if the Bishops did not provide against it, might destroy ecclesiastical authority; on all sides, in fact, raising up men and women who, pretending to have revelations from God and the Angels, will sow untruth and error—as hath already happened to many since this woman hath arisen and hath begun to scandalize Christian people and to publish her knaveries.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I will answer next Saturday.”

Article LXIII. Jeanne is not afraid to lie in court, and to violate her own oath when on the subject of her revelations; she doth affirm a number of contradictory things, and which imply contradiction among themselves: she doth not fear to hurl malediction against a whole nation, the rulers of that nation and its greatest people; she doth speak of them without respect, allowing herself a tone of mockery and derision such as no woman in a state of holiness would allow; which sheweth well that she is ruled and guided by evil spirits and not, as she hath boasted, by God and the Angels. Christ said of false prophets, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I refer to what I have said, and, for the conclusion, to God Our Lord.”294

Article LXIV. Jeanne doth pretend to know that she hath obtained pardon of the sin committed when, in despair, driven by the evil spirits, she threw herself from the tower of the Castle at Beaurevoir: yet the Scriptures say that no one knoweth if he is worthy of love or hate, nor, in consequence, if he is purged of sin and justified.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have answered you, and to that I refer. Of the charge and the conclusion, I refer me to Our Lord.”

Article LXV. Many times Jeanne hath said that she asked of God to send her special revelations by the Angels and by the Saints Catherine and Margaret upon what she ought to do: for example, in the matter of learning if she ought to make known the truth in court on certain points and certain facts which are personal to herself. It is to tempt God, to ask Him that which ought not to be asked of Him, because there is no need, and man may himself suffice for it by his own research. Thus, by the leap from the tower of Beaurevoir she doth seem manifestly to have tempted God.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I have answered it, and will not, without the leave of Our Lord, reveal what has been revealed to me. It is not without need that I beseech God. I would He might send me yet more, so that it might be discerned that I am come from God and that it is He Who hath sent me.”

Article LXVI. Of many of the deeds and words that have just been noticed some are opposed to the Divine Law, to Gospel Law, to Canon Law, to Civil Law, and to the rules of General Councils; others are witchcrafts, divinations, or superstitions; others breathe heresy and errors in faith; others are attempts against peace and tend to the effusion of human blood; others constitute blasphemies against God and the Saints and are wounding to pious ears. In all this, the Accused, by her audacious temerity, at the instigation of the Devil, hath offended God and sinned against Holy Church; she hath been a cause of scandal; she is on all these points notoriously defamed: she should be punished and corrected by you.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I am a good Christian; for all with which you charge me I refer to Our Lord.”

Article LXVII. All and each of these transgressions the Accused hath committed, perpetrated, said, uttered, recited, dogmatized, promulgated, put in action, as much in your jurisdiction as elsewhere, in many and divers places of this realm, not once only but many times, in divers times, days and hours. She hath fallen again and again into all these errors; she hath furnished counsel, help, and favour to those who have committed them with her.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“I deny it.”

Article LXVIII. Because a persistent clamour hath struck your ears not once only, but many times; because public rumour and an information based on what hath gone before hath made you recognize that the Accused is vehemently suspect and defamed; you have decreed that there is reason to bring an action against her, and to proceed therein, by you or one of you, by causing the said woman to be cited, and by setting her to answer—as hath been done.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“This Article concerns the Judges.”

Article LXIX. By all which precedes, the Accused is vehemently suspect, scandalized and as far as possible defamed by all honest and serious people. But by all that hath gone before she is neither corrected nor amended; she hath postponed and doth still postpone; she hath refused and doth still refuse to correct or amend herself; she hath continued and persevered, doth continue and persevere, in her errors, although by you the Judges, and by a great number of notable clergy, and other honest persons, she hath been charitably and otherwise duly and sufficiently warned, summoned and required.

“What have you to say to this Article?”

“The misdeeds brought forward against me by the Promoter, I have not done. For the rest, I refer me to God. Of all the misdeeds brought forward against me, I do not think I have committed any against the Christian faith.”

“If you have done anything against the Christian faith, will you submit to the Church and to those to whom correction belongs?”

“On Saturday, after dinner, I will answer you.”

Article LXX. All and each of these propositions contained in these Articles are true, notorious and manifest; the public voice and rumour hath occupied and doth occupy itself therewith; the Accused hath recognized and acknowledged these things as true, many times and sufficiently, before witnesses proved and worthy of belief, in and out of court.

“What have you to say on this Article?”

“I deny all that I have not recognized and confessed.”

CONCLUSION.—Having attained conviction of the truth of all or part of the preceding Articles in a manner to justify the proposed end, which is that you may be enabled to pronounce in recognition of the cause, the Promoter doth conclude that it will be ultimately judged by you, upon the whole, according to law and right.

And the said Promoter humbly imploreth your offices on all these things, as may be suitable.

The Seventy Articles preceding [p. 341] which form the Act of Accusation for the Trial, were reduced to Twelve by Maître Nicolas Midi; the twelve Articles are here given.

The Twelve Articles of Accusation

Article I.

A woman doth say and affirm that when she was of the age of thirteen years or thereabouts, she did, with her bodily eyes, see Saint Michael come to comfort her, and from time to time also Saint Gabriel; that both the one and the other appeared to her in bodily form. Sometimes also she hath seen a great multitude of Angels; since then, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have shewn themselves to her in bodily form; every day she sees these two Saints and hears their voices; she hath often kissed and embraced them, and sometimes she hath touched them, in a physical and corporeal manner. She hath seen the heads of these Angels and these Saints, but of the rest of their persons and of their dress she will say nothing. The said Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have also formerly spoken to her near a spring which flows at the foot of a great tree, called in the neighbourhood “The Fairies’ Tree.” This spring and this tree nevertheless have been, it is said, frequented by fairies; persons ill of fever have repaired there in great numbers to recover their health. This spring and this tree are nevertheless in a profane place. There and elsewhere she hath often venerated these two Saints, and hath done them obeisance.

Besides this, she doth say that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret appear and shew themselves to her adorned with most beautiful and most precious crowns. At this time and very often since, they have announced to her, by the order of God, that she was to go in search of a certain secular Prince, promising that, by her help and succour, this same Prince should, by force of arms, recover a great temporal domain and the honour of this world, and should obtain victory over his adversaries: this same Prince received her, and furnished her with arms and soldiers for the carrying out of what has just been said. Further, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have ordered this same woman, by the command of God, to take and to wear a man’s dress, which she hath borne and doth still bear, persisting in obeying this order, to the extent that she saith she would rather die than give up this dress, adding that she will only abandon it by the express order of God. She hath even preferred not to assist in the Office of the Mass and to deprive herself of the Holy Communion of the Eucharist, at the time when the Church commands the faithful to receive it, rather than to resume female dress and to quit this man’s habit.

The said woman hath gone so far, under the inspiration of these two Saints, that without the knowledge and against the will of her parents, at the age of seventeen, she did quit the paternal roof and joined herself to a great troop of soldiers, with whom she lived night and day, having never had, or at least very rarely, another woman with her. These two Saints have said and prescribed to her many other things for the which she declares herself sent by the God of Heaven and the Church Victorious, composed of Saints who already enjoy celestial blessedness; it is to them that she submits as right all she hath done. As to the Church Militant, she hath deferred and refused to submit herself, her deeds, and her words to it, although many times required and admonished so to do, saying always that it is impossible to her to do contrary to what she hath, in her Trial, affirmed to have done by the order of God; and that for these things she will not refer to the decision or the judgment of any man alive, but to the judgment of God alone.

The said Saints have revealed to this woman that she will obtain the glory of the blessed and will gain the salvation of her soul if she doth preserve the virginity which she vowed to these Saints the first time she saw and recognized them. As a result of this revelation, she doth affirm that she is as assured of her salvation as if, now and in fact, she were already in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Article II

The same woman saith that the sign which was received by the Prince to whom she was sent—a sign which decided this Prince to believe in her and to aid her to carry on the war—was, that Saint Michael came to the said Prince, accompanied by a multitude of Angels, of which some had crowns and others had wings; with them also were Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. She and the Angel proceeded together, their feet touching the ground, by the road, the staircase, and the Prince’s chamber; the Angel was accompanied by other Angels and by the said two Saints; he gave to the Prince a crown, very precious and made of the purest gold, bowing before him and doing him reverence. Once she hath said that when her Prince received this sign, it seemed to her he was alone, although many other persons were close by; another time she hath said that it seemed to her that an Archbishop had received the sign of the crown and had given it to the Prince, in the presence of several temporal lords.

Article III

The same woman doth say and affirm that he who visits her is Saint Michael; that which makes her believe in him is the good counsel, the comfort, and the good teaching which he doth give her, and because he hath named himself to her, and hath told her that he was Saint Michael. She hath in the same way recognized Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; she knoweth how to distinguish the one from the other, because they name themselves to her and greet her.

On the subject of the pretended Saint Michael who appeared to her, she believes that it is truly Saint Michael; and the sayings and deeds of this Michael she believes to be true and good as firmly as she believes that Our Lord Jesus suffered and died for our redemption.

Article IV

The same woman doth say and affirm that she is certain of what should happen on the subject of certain future things, as surely as she is certain of those which she sees passing under her eyes. On the subject of occult things she doth boast to know or to have known them by means of the revelations which have been made to her by the Voices of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret: for example, that she will be delivered from her captivity, and that the French will do, under her guidance, the greatest exploits that they have ever done in all Christendom; for example, again, she saith she hath known by revelation without any one pointing them out to her, men whom she had never seen, and herself revealed and pointed out the existence of a sword which was hidden in the earth.

Article V.

The same woman doth say and affirm that, by the command and good pleasure of God, she hath taken and borne and continueth still to bear a man’s dress. Further, she doth say that, because she hath had God’s command to bear this habit, it was necessary that she should have a short tunic, cap, jerkin, breeches, hose with many points, hair cut close above her ears, keeping no garment which might indicate her sex. She doth say and affirm that she hath, in this dress, several times received the Sacrament of the Eucharist. She hath not desired and doth still not desire to resume woman’s dress, although many times required and charitably admonished so to do. At times she saith that she would rather die than leave off the dress which she bears; at times she saith that she will leave it off only by the command of God. She doth also say, that if she again found herself with this dress among those for whom she hath armed herself, she would act as she did before her capture; and this would be, she doth add, one of the greatest benefits that could happen to the whole kingdom of France. Also, for nothing in the world will she swear to wear this dress or to take arms no more. In all this she doth say that she hath done and doeth well, obeying God and His Commandments.

Article VI

The same woman doth avow and acknowledge that she hath caused to be written many letters and warnings on the which were placed these names “Jhésus Maria,” with the sign of the Cross. Sometimes, she put a cross, and between her and her party this signified that she did not wish them to do what in this same letter she told them to do. At other times she caused it to be written that she would have those who did not obey her warnings killed, and “by the blows she would give they would see who had the true right from the God of Heaven.” She hath often said that she hath done nothing but by the revelation and order of God.

Article VII

The same woman doth say and confess that, being of the age of seventeen, by revelation, as she saith, and spontaneously, she went to seek a Knight whom she had never seen, abandoning for this the paternal roof, against the will of her parents. These, when they had knowledge of her departure, were wild with grief. This same woman ordered the Knight to conduct her, or to have her conducted, to the Prince already mentioned. The said Knight, or Captain, furnished this woman, on her demand, with a man’s dress and a sword, and appointed and commanded for her conduct a Knight, a Squire, and four servants. When they had come to the Prince, this woman told him that she wished to fight against his adversaries. She promised to establish him in great sovereignty and to vanquish his enemies; and for this she had been sent by the God of Heaven. She saith she hath acted well, having had revelation and the command of God.

Article VIII

The same woman doth say and affirm that she, of herself, no one compelling her, did throw herself down from a very high tower, wishing rather to die than to be placed in the hands of her enemies and to live after the destruction of the town of Compiègne. She saith also that she was not able to avoid this fall, although Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had forbidden it to her. To offend them is, she herself saith, a great sin. But she knoweth that this sin was remitted to her after she had confessed it; she saith she received revelation of this.

Article IX

The same woman saith that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have promised to conduct her to Paradise, if she doth preserve with care the virginity of body and soul which she vowed to them. Of this she saith she is as assured as if she were already in the glory of the blessed. She doth not think she hath committed mortal sin; for, if she were in a state of mortal sin, she saith it seemeth to her that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret would not visit her each day as they do.

Article X.

The same woman doth say and affirm that God doth love sundry persons still living, designated by her and named, more than He doth this woman: this, she knoweth by revelation from Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who speak frequently to her, but in French and not in English, because these Saints are not on the side of the English. Since she hath known by revelation that their Voices were for the Prince aforesaid she hath ceased to love the Burgundians.

Article XI

The same woman doth say and confess that to the Voices and the Spirits now under consideration, whom she calls Michael, Gabriel, Catherine and Margaret, she doth often do reverence, uncovering, bending the knee, kissing the earth on which they walk, vowing to them her virginity, at times kissing and embracing Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; she hath touched them with her own hands, corporeally and physically; she hath asked of them counsel and help; at times she doth call them, and they even come to her without being called; she accedes to and obeys their counsels and their commands; she hath always obeyed them, without having asked counsel thereon from whomsoever it be—father, mother, curé, prelate, or any ecclesiastic whatsoever. She doth believe no less firmly that the Voices and the revelations she receives by the medium of the Saints of whom she speaks come from God and by His order: she believes it as firmly as she believes the Christian Faith and that Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for us Death and Passion. She doth add that, if it were an evil spirit who had come to her under the appearance and mask of Saint Michael she would quite well have known how to distinguish that it was not Saint Michael. Finally she saith, that of her own wish and without any one pressing her thereto, she hath sworn to Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who appeared to her, to reveal to no one the sign of the crown given to the Prince to whom she was sent, until she should have permission from God to reveal it.

Article XII

The same woman doth say and confess that if the Church wished that she should do anything contrary to the order she doth pretend to have received from God, she would not consent, whatsoever it might be. She doth affirm that she knows well, that all contained in her Trial has come to her by the order of God, and it would be impossible for her to do contrary to what she doth. Thereupon she doth not wish to refer to the decision of the Church Militant, nor to any one, whoever it be in the world, but to God alone, Our Lord, Whose commands she doth always execute, above all in what doth concern her revelations, and in what she doth in consequence. This answer and all the others are not from her own head, she saith, but she hath made and given them by order of her Voices and revelations: she doth persist [in this], although by the Judges and others of the Assessors, the Article of Faith, ‘The Church, One, Holy, Catholic,’ hath often been recalled to her, and it hath often been shewn to her that all the faithful are bound to obey the Church Militant and to submit to it their words and actions—above all in matters of faith and in all which concerns sacred Doctrine and Ecclesiastical sanction.

Introductory Note to the Rehabilitation

It was not until nearly twenty years after the death of Jeanne d’Arc that any attempt was made by those in authority to vindicate her memory or even to acknowledge the services she had rendered to the kingdom of France.

In 1450, however, after the occupation of Normandy and the submission of the town of Rouen, the idea appeared to have occurred to Charles VII. that to suffer the stigma of heresy and witchcraft to rest on the name of the Maid of Orleans, who had “led him to his anointing,” was to throw a doubt upon his own orthodoxy, and to justify the taunt of his enemies that he had been the mere tool of “a lyme of the Fiend.” On February 13th, 1450, therefore, he issued a Declaration empowering one of his Counsellors, Guillaume Bouillé, to enquire into the conduct of the Trial undertaken against Jeanne by “our ancient enemies the English,” who, “against reason, had cruelly put her to death,” and to report the result of his investigations to the Council.

Bouillé was Rector of the University of Paris, Dean of the Theological Faculty, Dean of Noyon, a Member of the Great Council, and at one time Ambassador to Rome. It is very probable that he was the author of the first memorial issued in favour of Jeanne, throwing doubts upon the validity of the Rouen sentence—a memorial which, according to some, was prior to the Enquiry of 1450 with which we are now dealing.

It was to an able and competent person therefore, that Charles committed the Enquiry, which was held at Rouen on March 4th and 5th, less than three weeks after the issue of the Royal Mandate.

Seven witnesses were heard; namely, Toutmouillé, de la Pierre, Ladvenu, and Duval,—all Dominicans of Saint Jacques, Rouen; the Notary Manchon, the Usher Massieu, and Beaupère, one of the chief Examiners. But the Court took no further interest in the matter; and, although in the opinion of several legal authorities consulted by De Bouillé, the Process of Condemnation was held as null and void, the proceedings were carried no further: the Enquiry was forwarded to the King and Council, and the whole question once more fell into abeyance.

Two years later, the Cardinal-Bishop of Digne, Guillaume d’Estouteville, Legate in France for Pope Nicholas V. took up the Enquiry, at the formal request of Isabel d’Arc, mother of the Maid, who claimed, on Civil as well as on Ecclesiastical authority, the rehabilitation of her daughter, and the restoration of the family to the position they had lost by the imputation of heresy cast on them in the person of one of their number.

The failure of the former Enquiry was due, in great part, to the fear of arousing the hostility of the English, and also of meeting with opposition from the Ecclesiastical authorities, by bringing forward an action instituted by the Sovereign against proceedings which had received the unquestioned sanction of the Holy Office and the University of Paris, and which were also guaranteed by the protection of the English King. The expedient of shifting the entire responsibility on to the shoulders of the d’Arc family obviated these difficulties, and enabled the Case to be taken as a purely private one, an appeal against a judgment given on false premisses. The reversal of this verdict could offend no one, as the action was brought against Defendants none of whom were living to meet the charge, and who could therefore be represented only by their titular legal successors. Their innocence in the whole matter made the case a perfectly harmless one—a legal fiction which might satisfy many and could injure none.

The first act of the Cardinal d’Estouteville was to associate with himself the Prior of the Convent of the Jacobins at Paris, Jean Bréhal, Inquisitor of France; and, together, they proceeded to an Enquiry at Rouen in April, 1452, at which witnesses to the number of twenty-one, including some of those heard in 1450, gave their evidence. The Cardinal being obliged by his duties to leave Rouen, the Enquiry was left in the hands of Bréhal and of Philippe la Rose, the Treasurer of the Cathedral. There were still difficulties in the way. The Pope feared to wound English susceptibilities; and, in spite of the efforts of the Cardinal and of the petition presented to Rome by Isabel d’Arc and her two sons, the proceeding languished; and three more years passed without any definite step being taken.

In 1455, however, the Pope Nicholas V. died, and his successor Calixtus III. [Borgia], less timorous, acceded to the request of the d’Arc family, granting a Rescript authorizing the process of revision, and appointing as delegates for the Trial the Archbishop of Rheims (Jean Jouvenal des Ursins), the Bishop of Paris (Guillaume Chartier), and the Bishop of Coutances (Richard de Longueil), who afterwards associated with themselves the Inquisitor, Jean Bréhal.

The Case was solemnly opened on November 7th, 1455, in the Church of Notre Dame at Paris, when the mother and brothers of the Maid came before the Court to present their humble petition for a revision of her sentence, demanding only “the triumph of truth and justice.” The Court heard the request with some emotion. When Isabel d’Arc threw herself at the feet of the Commissioners, shewing the Papal Rescript and weeping aloud, while her Advocate, Pierre Maugier, and his assistants prayed for justice for her and for the memory of her martyred daughter, so many of those present joined aloud in the petition, that at last, we are told, it seemed that one great cry for justice broke from the multitude.

The Commissioners formally received the petition, and appointed November 17th, ten days later, for its consideration, warning the Petitioners of the possible danger of a confirmation of the previous Trial, instead of the reversal they looked for, but promising careful consideration of the Case should they persist in their appeal.

On November 17th the Court met a second time at Notre Dame; the Papal Rescript was solemnly read, and the Advocate for the Petitioners brought his formal accusation against the Judges and Promoter of the late Trial—none of whom, as has been said, were then alive—carefully excluding the Assessors concerned in the case, who, he said, were led to wrong conclusions by false deductions. At the close of the Advocate’s address, the Archbishop of Rheims and the Bishop of Paris declared themselves ready to act as Judges in the Appeal Case, in conjunction with the Inquisitor Bréhal, appointing the following December 12th for the inaugural sitting, and citing all those concerned in this Case to appear before them on that day.

The Trial opened on December 12th. The family of d’Arc were represented by the Procurator, Guillaume Prévosteau, who had formerly been appointed Promoter in the case instituted by Cardinal d’Estouteville: but the Plaintiffs alone were represented, no one appearing to answer for either of the accused Judges nor for the Promoter d’Estivet. The Case was adjourned until December 15th, in order that Advocates for the Defendants might be summoned to appear.

The Court met accordingly on the 15th December; but, in spite of mandates and citations placed on Church-doors and other public places, no one was found to come forward as representatives of the accused; and a further delay of five days was therefore granted. At the same time, the Commissioners formally constituted the Tribunal and appointed their Officers: Simon Chapitault as Promoter or Advocate-General, Ferrebouc and Lecomte as Registrars for the Court. The Registrars of the former Trial, being present, were asked if they wished in any way to defend the Process in which they had been concerned; but, on their replying in the negative, they were requested to lay before the Court any documents relating to the previous Trial which they might have in their possession. By this means the Commissioners were enabled to have before them the actual Minute of the Trial of 1431, written in Manchon’s own hand and presented by him, and also to obtain his formal attestation of the authenticity of the Official Procès-Verbal, upon which their further enquiries were to be based.

The “Preliminary Enquiry” made in 1452, by command of the Cardinal d’Estouteville and his delegates, was formally annexed, by request of the Promoter, to the official documents of the Trial of Rehabilitation; but the earlier Enquiry of 1450, having been made under secular authority, was unfortunately treated as of no value, and not included in the authorized Case.

On December 18th the Promoter lodged his request on the part of the family of d’Arc, and prayed for a Judgment of Nullity on the previous sentence, on the ground that, both in form and substantiation, it was null and void, and that it should therefore be publicly and legally so declared.

On December 20th—the last day appointed for the appearance of any representatives of the accused—only the Advocate for the family of Cauchon presented himself. He made a declaration to the effect that the heirs of the late Bishop had no desire to maintain the validity of a Trial with which they had no concern, and which took place either before they were born or when they were very little children; that Jeanne had been the victim of the hatred of the English, and that therefore the responsibility fell rather upon them; finally they begged that the Rehabilitation of Jeanne might not be to their prejudice, invoking for themselves the benefits of the King’s amnesty granted after the conquest of Normandy.

The Procurator having declared his willingness to agree, the heirs of Cauchon were put out of the question; and the other Defendants, not having appeared, were declared contumacious, and cited once more to appear on February 16th following. On the same day [Dec. 20th] the Promoter formulated his Accusation, and brought before the notice of the Court certain special points in the previous Trial which tended to vitiate the whole: 1st, the intervention of the hidden registrars and the alterations, additions, and omissions made in the Twelve Articles; 2nd, the suppression of the Preliminary Enquiry, and the obvious predisposition of the Judges; 3rd, the incompetence of the Court, and the unfairness of the treatment received throughout by the Accused, culminating in an illegal sentence and an irregular execution.

The Promoter then asked that enquiries might be instituted into the life and conduct of the Maid, and as to the manner in which she had undertaken the reconquest of the country. Orders were accordingly given, that information should at once be taken at Domremy and Vaucouleurs, under the direction of Reginald de Chichery, Dean of Vaucouleurs, and of Wautrin Thierry, Canon of Toul.

While these enquiries were being made, a document containing 101 Articles was drawn up,295 setting forth the case of the Plaintiffs for the consideration of the still-absent Defendants, and stating at great length the grounds, both in fact and reason, for the demand of a revision of sentence.

On the day fixed for the final citation of the Defendants—Feb. 16th, 1456,—the Court again assembled; and on this occasion the accused were represented by their legal successors: the Promoter of the Diocese of Beauvais, Brédouille, as representative of the authority of the Bishop, Guillaume de Hellande; and Chaussetier, the Prior of the Convent of Evreux, as representing the Dominicans of Beauvais, to whose Order Jean Lemaître, the other Judge of the Maid, belonged. Both of these disclaimed any responsibility for the former Trial, but submitted themselves to the mandate of the Court; and, no objection being offered to the 101 Articles, these were accepted by the Judges, and the case was proceeded with.

The Enquiry of 1456 extended over several months. Thirty-four witnesses were heard, in January and February, at Domremy and Vaucouleurs; forty-one, in February and March, at Orleans; twenty at Paris, in April and May; nineteen at Rouen, in December and May; and on May 28th, at Lyons, the Vice-Inquisitor of the province received the deposition of Jean d’Aulon, whose evidence is specially important, as being that of the Steward of the Maid’s household, and the most devoted of her followers.

After the close of these Enquiries and their formal reception as part of the Process, the Advocate of the d’Arc family petitioned the Judges to give their attention to certain Memorials drawn up on the Case by learned men, which documents he prayed might also be inserted among the formal proceedings of the Trial. The request being granted, Eight Memorials were presented and formally annexed to the Authentic Documents of the Process. The whole case was then admirably summed up, for the guidance of the Judges, in the ‘Recollectio’ of the Inquisitor, Jean Bréhal, and on this document the final Sentence of Rehabilitation was subsequently based.

On the 18th of June, Jean d’Arc and the Promoter, Chapitault in the name of the Plaintiffs, appeared at the Palace of the Bishop of Paris, and prayed that a day might be fixed for the conclusion of the Case. In answer to this request the following 1st of July was appointed for the purpose, and an announcement to that effect was ordered to be placed on all the doors of the Cathedral at Rouen.

On July 2nd the Pontifical Delegates met and appointed the following Wednesday, July 7th, for the pronouncement of the final Sentence; and on that day, at 8 a.m., the Court assembled in the Hall of the Archiepiscopal Palace, and the formal Sentence of Rehabilitation was solemnly read by the Archbishop of Rheims. This was followed by a procession and sermon on the same day in the Place St. Ouen, and by a second sermon on the day following in the Old Market Place, where a Cross to perpetuate the memory of the martyrdom was then erected, “for the salvation of her soul.” This Cross remained until the end of the following century, when it was replaced by a fountain, with a statue of the Maid under an arcade surmounted by a Cross; the fountain now standing was erected in 1756.

Chronological Table of Principal Events in the Life of Jeanne D’Arc

1411–12.	January 6th	Birth at Domremy.
1424 (?).	Summer	First visions.
		Sojourn at Neufchâteau.
1428.		Call to mission in France.
	May	Visit to Vaucouleurs (?), May 13th; Ascension Day.
1428–9.	February	Second visit to Vaucouleurs.
		Visit to Duke of Lorraine.
		Pilgrimage to Saint Nicolas.
	February 12th	Battle of the Herrings.
	February 13th (First Sunday in Lent)	Return to Vaucouleurs.
	February 23rd, Wednesday	Departure from Vaucouleurs, with Jean de Metz and others.
	March 5th, Saturday	Fierbois.
	March 6th, Sunday	Arrival at Chinon.
	March 8th, Tuesday	Interview with the King.
	March 22nd, Tuesday in Holy Week.	First letter to the English.
1429.	March 27th, Easter Day.
Note.—The year, in the fifteenth century, is computed from Easter.
	April	Stay at Tours. Household appointed. Banner painted.
		Joins the army at Blois.
	April 27th, Wednesday (?)	Start for Orleans.
	April 29th, Friday	Arrival at Orleans.
	May 4th, Wednesday	Fort of Saint Loup taken.
	May 5th,	Ascension Day Third letter to the English.
	May 6th, Friday	Fort of the Augustins taken.
	May 7th, Saturday	Jeanne wounded.
	May 8th, Sunday	Siege of Orleans raised.
	May 10th, Tuesday	Leaves for Blois.
	May 12th, Thursday	Tours.
	May 13th, Friday	Meeting with King Charles.
	May 23rd, Monday	Loches.
	June 2nd, Thursday	Selles: grant of arms to Jeanne and her family.
	[June 6th, Monday	Selles: Incident of the horse.]
	June 9th, Thursday	Return to Orleans.
	June 11–12th	Siege of Jargeau.
	June 14th	Attack on Meung.
1429.	June 16th	Siege of Beaugency.
	June 17th, Friday	Arrival of the Constable of France.
	June 18th, Saturday	Battle of Patay.
	June 19th, Sunday	Return to Orleans.
	June 24th, Friday	Jeanne encamps at Gien.
	June 29th, Wednesday	Start for Rheims.
	July 1st, Friday	Arrival before Auxerre.
	July 5th, Tuesday	Arrival before Troyes.
	July	Meeting with Brother Richard.
	July 9th, Saturday	Surrender of Troyes.
	July 10th, Sunday	Entry into Troyes.
	July 12th, Tuesday	Departure from Troyes.
	July 14th, Thursday	Chalons.
	July 15th, Friday	Departure from Chalons.
	July 16th, Saturday	Charles enters Rheims.
	July 17th, Sunday	Coronation of Charles.
	July 21st, Thursday	Charles touches for “the Evil” at Saint Marcoul.
	July 22nd, Friday	Charles receives keys of Soissons and Laon at Vailly,
	July 23rd, Saturday	and of four other towns.
	July 29th, Friday	Skirmish at Château Thierry.
	August 4th, Thursday	Charles signs fifteen days’ truce with the Duke of Burgundy.
	August 13th, Saturday	Skirmish at Dammartin.
	August 18th, Thursday	Compiègne entered.
	August	Senlis and Beauvais surrender; flight of Bishop.
	August 23rd, Tuesday	Jeanne leaves Compiègne for Saint Denis; letter from the Count of Armagnac received when starting.
	August 26th, Friday	Jeanne at Saint Denis.
	August 28th, Sunday	Secret treaty of Charles VII. with the Duke of Burgundy, to Christmas.
	September 8th, Thursday (Nativity B.V.M.)	Attack on Paris. Jeanne wounded.
	September 10th, Saturday	Retreat ordered by Charles.
	September	Jeanne’s armour hung up in the church at Saint Denis.
	September 13th, Tuesday	Charles leaves Saint Denis.
	September 18th, Sunday	Second treaty of Charles VII. With the Duke of Burgundy.
	October	Jeanne at Bourges.
	November	Saint Pierre-le-Moustier assailed and taken.
	November 9th, Wednesday	Siege of La Charité.
	November	Truce with Burgundy till Easter.
1429–30.	December January February	Passed in visiting the towns she had freed. Orleans visited for the last time on January 19th.
	March 3rd	At Sully with the King.
		Leaves Sully, accompanied by D’Aulon and Pasquerel, and goes to Lagny.
	April	Franquet d’Arras taken and executed at Lagny.
		Alleged miracle.
1430.	April 16th, Easter day
	April Easter-tide	Melun—warning of capture.
	April 23rd, Sunday	Henry VI. lands at Calais.
	May 13th, Saturday	Jeanne at Compiègne (Archbishop of Rheims then in the city). During this month she visits Senlis, Soissons, and other towns.
	May	Jeanne repulsed on the Oise whilst trying to relieve Choisy, then besieged by the Duke of Burgundy.
		Jeanne in Compiègne; prediction in the church of Saint Jacques.
	May 22nd, Monday.	Jeanne goes to Crespy for reinforcements.
	May 23rd, Tuesday	Jeanne’s return to Compiègne, and capture. Letter of Duke of Burgundy to the people of Saint-Quentin, announcing the capture.
	May 25th, Ascension Day	News of capture reaches Paris.
	May	Jeanne a prisoner for several days at Marigny.
	May	In prison at Beaulieu.
1430.	June 6th	At Noyon.
	July 14th, Friday	Cauchon’s mission to the Duke of Burgundy.
	July 29th, Saturday	Henry VI. arrives at Rouen.
	August	In prison at Beaurevoir.
	October	Leap from the Tower of Beaurevoir.
		Prophecy of the relief of Compiègne “before Martinmas.”
	October 25th	Relief of Compiègne.
	Nov. (about the middle)	Jeanne sold by Jean de Luxembourg.
		Jeanne taken to Arras, then Crotoy.
	December (late)	Brought to Rouen.
1430–1.	January 3rd, Wednesday	Order of surrender of Jeanne as “suspect of heresy,” from Henry VI. To the Judges.
I. Cause de Lapse.
Trial Ex Officio.
	January 9th, Tuesday	First day of the Trial. Preliminary meeting in the Bishop’s house. Appointment of officers.
	January 13th, Saturday	First consultation of the Bishop with the Doctors; the result of the Domremy enquiry discussed (?) Articles of Accusation to be prepared.
	January 23rd, Tuesday	Second consultation with the six Doctors. Articles approved. Delafontaine appointed to make further enquiries.
	February 13th–17th, Tuesday-Saturday	Officers make oath of fidelity.
1430–1.	February 19th, Monday	Consultation of the Bishop with twelve Doctors. Decision that the Case shall be proceeded with, and the Inquisitor or his Deputy invited to attend. The Deputy Inquisitor, being summoned, pleads inability.
	February 20th, Tuesday	The Deputy Inquisitor again appears, but still refuses to act as Judge without Commission from his Superior. It is decided to write to the Chief Inquisitor. Jeanne is cited to appear the next day.
	February 21st, Wednesday	First Public Examination, in the Chapel-Royal. Jeanne’s guardians appointed from the King’s Body Guard. (42 Assessors.)
	February 22nd, Thursday	Second Public Examination, in the Ornament Room. The Deputy Inquisitor declares his assent to the Trial. Beaupère charged with the examination. (48 Assessors.)
	February 24th, Saturday	Third Public Examination, in the Ornament Room. (52 Assessors.)
	February 27th, Tuesday	Fourth Public Examination, in the Ornament Room. (54 Assessors.)
	March 1st, Thursday	Fifth Public Examination, in the Ornament Room. (58 Assessors.)
	March 3rd, Saturday	Sixth Public Examination, in the Ornament Room. (41 Assessors.)
		The Bishop decides to continue the Examination privately.
	March 4th–9th, Sunday-Friday	The Examinations are considered by the Bishop and some of the Doctors, and it is decided to question Jeanne on sundry doubtful points.
	March 10th, Saturday	First Private Examination, in prison, conducted by Delafontaine, assisted by two Assessors and two witnesses.
	March 12th, Monday	Second Private Examination, in prison, in the morning.
		Third Private Examination, in prison, in the afternoon, the Bishop not present.
		In the Bishop’s house, on the same day, the letter from the Inquisitor, appointing his Vicar to act as his Deputy, is read; and the Vicar is appointed to act as Judge.
	March 13th, Tuesday	The Vicar joins with the Bishop and appoints his officers.
		Fourth Private Examination,—the first at which the Inquisitor is present as Judge.
	March 14th, Wednesday.	Fifth Private Examination, in prison, in the morning.
		Sixth Private Examination, in prison, in the afternoon.
1430–1.	March 15th, Thursday	Seventh Private Examination in prison.
	March 17th, Saturday	Eighth Private Examination, in prison, in the morning.
		Ninth Private Examination, in prison, in the afternoon.
	March 18th, Passion Sunday	Consultation of the Bishop with twelve Assessors, in the Bishop’s house. They adjourn till March 22nd, to deliberate over the examinations already held.
	March 22nd, Thursday	Consultation at the Bishop’s house. Résumé of the answers of Jeanne read to twenty-two Assessors.
	March 24th, Saturday	The Judges, Delafontaine, and six Assessors visit Jeanne in prison, and the examinations are read over to her in French by Manchon.
	March 25th, Palm Sunday	The Bishop and four Assessors visit Jeanne in prison.
		The complete papers of the Process ex officio are given to the Promoter that he may prepare the Articles of Accusation for the Trial in Ordinary.
	March 26th, Monday	At a meeting at the Bishop’s house, twelve Assessors and the two Judges being present, it is decided to proceed on the following day to the Trial in Ordinary, to be conducted by the Promoter.
Trial in Ordinary.
1430–1.	March 27th, Tuesday	Solemn sitting in the Great Hall of the Castle; the two Judges and 38 Assessors present. The Act of Accusation, in Seventy Articles, is produced by the Promoter, and read to Jeanne by Thomas de Courcelles. Questions are put to her on each Article.
	March 28th, Wednesday.	The same continued—35 Assessors present.
	March 31st, Easter Eve.	The Judges and 9 Assessors visit Jeanne in prison, to question her on sundry points upon which she had asked for delay.
1431.	April 1st, Easter Day.
	April 2nd–4th, Monday-Wednesday	The Judges and certain of the Assessors employ themselves in reducing the Seventy Articles to Twelve; these are finally drawn up by Nicholas Midi.
	April 5th, Thursday	The Twelve Articles are sent to the Assessors for their opinion, which they are asked to send in by April 10th.
	April 12th, Thursday	Consultation of 22 Assessors, who decide that Jeanne must be condemned.
		During the following week many other opinions, all more or less in accordance with this, are sent in.
	April 18th, Wednesday	Jeanne is ill. The two Judges and 7 Assessors visit her in prison; and the Bishop addresses to her a charitable exhortation.
	April 19th, Thursday	The Twelve Articles are sent to the University of Paris.
	(May 14th)	These are discussed in full assembly on April 29th; then by the Faculties of Theology and Decrees, separately; and finally, the Resolutions of these Faculties are adopted by the University and forwarded to Rouen.
	May 2nd, Wednesday	Solemn assembly in the Ornament Room; the two Judges and 63 Assessors present. Jeanne is summoned and admonished by the Bishop; and a solemn preachment is made to her by the Archdeacon of Eu.
	May 9th, Wednesday	The Judges and 9 Assessors summon Jeanne to the Torture Chamber in the Great Tower, and threaten her with torture.
	May 10th, Ascension Day.
	May 12th, Saturday	Consultation in the Bishop’s house; the Judges and 12 Assessors present. It is decided not to torture Jeanne.
	May 19th, Saturday	Solemn assembly in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor—51 Assessors present. The Resolutions of the University of Paris are read, and the opinions of the Assessors taken.
	May 23rd, Wednesday	Solemn meeting in a room near the prison. The Judges and 7 Assessors are accompanied by the Bishops of Noyon and Thérouanne. Jeanne is summoned, and solemnly admonished by Pierre Maurice. The Final Sentence is appointed for the next day.
	May 24th, Thursday	Public assembly in the Cemetery of St. Ouen; the Cardinal of England and the Bishop of Norwich present. Exhortation from Érard. Abjuration of Jeanne. Sentence of perpetual imprisonment. In the afternoon, the Deputy Inquisitor and sundry Assessors visit Jeanne in prison.
II. Cause de Relapse.
	May 28th, Monday	The Judges and 4 Assessors visit Jeanne in prison, having been informed of her relapse.
	May 29th, Tuesday	Solemn meeting in the Chapel of the Archiepiscopal Manor, 40 Assessors present. Consultation on the relapse of Jeanne. Decision of the Assessors that she must be delivered up to the secular arm as a relapsed heretic.
	May 30th, Wednesday	Massieu delivers the order of execution to Jeanne. Visit of sundry Assessors and of the Bishop to the prison.
		Jeanne receives the Holy Communion. Final Exhortation from Nicholas Midi at the public assembly in the Old Market Place. Sentence pronounced against Jeanne. Her Death.
	June 7th, Wednesday	Information taken after the death of Jeanne by certain persons who visited her in prison on May 30th.
	June 8th, Thursday	(1) Letter from the King, Henry VI., to the Emperor, announcing the trial, sentence, and execution of Jeanne.
	June 12th, Monday	Letter of Guarantee for those concerned in the Trial, from Henry VI.
	June 28th. (2)	Letter from Henry VI. to the same effect as (1), to prelates and nobles.
		Letter of the University of Paris to the Pope.
	August 8th	Sentence pronounced against a monk who had spoken ill of the Judges.

Notes

1. Had there been any desire on the part of the French King to rescue Jeanne from captivity, a ‘King’s ransom,’ which was later paid for her by Cauchon, could scarcely have been refused in those days for a prisoner of war, however renowned. Unhappily for the memory of Charles, she was left to the tender mercies of the English without any offer being made for her release, or any attempt at rescue. There existed a bitter feeling of jealousy towards Jeanne in consequence of her great successes in the field. This was notably shown during her attack upon Paris, where she was thwarted in every direction, and all possibility of victory was taken from her by the conduct of the King. Whether or not Flavy, the Governor of Compiègne, who was completely under the control of the King, betrayed Jeanne at Compiègne, by shutting the gates and closing the drawbridge at her approach, will never be known, but suspicion has always pointed to his betrayal of the Maid.
Alain Bouchard states that, in the year 1488, he heard from two aged men of Compiègne, who had themselves been present, that a few days before her capture, the Maid was attending Mass in the Church of St. Jacques. After communicating and spending some time in devotion, she turned to the assembled congregation, and, leaning against a pillar, uttered this prediction: “My good friends, my dear little children, I am sold and betrayed. Soon I shall be given up to death. Pray to God for me, for I can no longer serve the King and the Kingdom of France.”—Grandes Annales de Bretagne, also Miroir des Femmes Vertueuses.

2. The House of Lancaster was fervidly orthodox. Persecution of heretics begins with Henry IV. The “Cardinal of England” (Beaufort Bishop of Winchester) was the malleus hereticorum at home and abroad. He spoke against the Hussites at the Council of Basle, and he planned Crusades against both heretics and “Saracens.”

3. The court before which Jeanne was brought to trial at Rouen was not a court of the Holy Office or Inquisition, neither was it, as the English courts for the trial of heresy were in Lancastrian times, a statutable court of ecclesiastical jurisdiction on whose decision, certified by the bishop, the sheriff was bound to act. It was a composite tribunal. The Bishop of Beauvais claimed and exercised jurisdiction as Ordinary. But the Deputy Inquisitor was joined with him as co-ordinate judge with officers of his own.
The Inquisition arose out of the troubles in Spain and South France, where heresy was to some extent necessarily a kind of treason to the polity of Christian Europe. Men were punished for heretical opinions, but these heretical opinions were in most cases lapses from allegiance at a time of national peril. The later Inquisition has no such excuse.

4. The Great Schism arose out of the Babylonian captivity at Avignon (1306–1376). Popes and anti-Popes contended for 40 years (1378–1418). France was on the side of the Avignon Popes, while the Empire and England supported the Popes in Rome. Philip the Fair, by arrangement with the Pope, changed the Papal chair to Avignon. During the seventy years of the captivity, when the Church was ruled by French Popes, France underwent the disasters of Crecy and Poitiers, and became almost a province of England.

5. It is agreed by all authorities that Jeanne was not captured in the Diocese of Beauvais, which ended at the Bridge of Compiègne. Jeanne was taken north of the Bridge, on the right bank of the river, and either in the Diocese of Noyon or Soissons, which of the two has not been determined. The Bishop’s assertion is distinctly untrue.

6. On January 6th, 1412. “In nocte Epiphiniarum Domini.” (Letter from Boulainvilliers to the Duke of Milan. Quicherat, vol. v., 116.)

7. The Font and Holy water stoup in the old Church at Domremy are said to be those in use in the 15th century.

8. Jeanne appears to have had a great many godparents. In the Enquiry made at Domremy in 1455, eight are mentioned, viz.: Jean Morel, Jean Barrey, Jean de Laxart, and Jean Raiguesson, as godfathers; and Jeannette Thévenin, Jeannette Thiesselin, Beatrix Estellin, and Edith Barrey, as godmothers.

9. John Gris, or Grey, a gentleman in the Household of the Duke of Bedford, afterwards knighted. He was appointed chief guardian to the Maid, with two assistants, all members of the King’s Body Guard. They appear to have left her entirely in the hands of the common soldiers five of whom kept constant watch over her.

10. There is no certain date for this event. By some it is placed between the first and second visits to Vaucouleurs, in 1428; by others, earlier, at the time of the Picard ravages of the neighbourhood in the September of 1426.

11. Robert de Baudricourt, Squire, Captain of Vaucouleurs in 1428; afterwards knighted and made Councillor and Chamberlain to the King and Bailly of Chaumont, 1454.

12. Of the ancient château the “Porte de France” alone survives. From this gate Jeanne rode out with her escort to visit the King at Chinon. The crypt of the chapel remains, where Jeanne constantly prayed.

13. This is said to have been on account of the impression produced on him by Jeanne’s prediction, on February 12th: “To-day the gentle Dauphin hath had great hurt near the town of Orleans, and yet greater will he have if you do not soon send me to him.” This “great hurt” proved to be the Battle of Rouvray, in which the French and Scottish troops were defeated by the English under Sir John Fastolf.

14. Charles I., the reigning Duke de Lorraine in 1428, was in very bad health, and, having no son, the succession was a matter of some anxiety. He died in 1431, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Réné of Anjou, who had married his only daughter, Isabella. This Réné was a brother of Queen Mary, wife of Charles VII., and father of our own Queen Margaret, married in 1441 to Henry VI.

15. Jean de Novelomport, called de Metz, Bertrand de Poulengey, Colet de Vienne, the King’s Messenger, and three servants.

16. March 22nd, 1428.

17. This letter appears later, p. 36. Jeanne may have forgotten its contents, as both these expressions occur; or the Clerics who acted as her amanuenses may have inserted them without her knowledge.

18. Jeanne was entertained by command of the King in a small room on the first floor of the Tour de Coudray, within the Castle walls. Her room was approached by a staircase outside the tower. The vaulted roof of the room has fallen in and the fireplace is in ruins, but the room could easily be restored. Jeanne stayed here from March 8th to April 20th, 1429. She was two days at Chinon before she obtained access to the King.

19. Charles de Bourbon, Count de Clermont, Governor of the Duchy of the Bourbonnais and the Comté of Auvergne, during the captivity of his father in England.

20. On September 8th, 1429.

21. Up to the end of her life, Jeanne spoke of the Bishop as the person responsible for her trial and death. “Bishop, I die through you,” was her last speech to him, on May 30th, the day of her martyrdom.

22. This, and a subsequent enquiry, on February 27th, as to Jeanne’s habit of fasting, would seem to suggest a desire on the part of the questioner to prove that her visions had a more or less physical cause in a weak bodily state resulting from abstinence. As Jeanne’s usual food consisted of a little bread dipped in wine and water, and as she is reported to have had when at home (not in war) but one meal a day, it need hardly be supposed that she suffered much from the results of a Lenten Fast.

23. The fifteen days’ respite would coincide with the first Examination held in the Prison, May 10th, the first day on which the Allegory of the Sign was given.

24. Gérardin of Epinal, to whose child Jeanne was godmother, is probably the person alluded to; he gave witness in 1455 that Jeanne had called him “Burgundian.”

25. A small fortress in an island formed by two arms of the Meuse, nearly opposite the village of Domremy.

26. According to local tradition, this tree stood to within the last 50 years, and was struck by lightning; another has been planted in its place. The house, in which Jeanne was born, remained in the possession of the De Lys family till the 16th Century, when it passed into the hands of the Count de Salm, Seigneur of Domremy. In the 18th Century it became the property of Jean Gerardin, whose grandson, Nicolas, gave it up in 1818 to the Department of Vosges; so that it is now preserved as National property.

27. This is probably a survival of the Fontinalia, an old Latin festival. The custom of decorating the wells and springs was kept up in England until the last century, and still exists in a few remote villages. The name ‘Well Sunday’ survives, though the processions of youths and maidens have long passed away. The ‘fontaine aux Groseilliers’ is still in existence. It is an oblong tank of water, with the original spring flowing through it. The great beech tree stood close by.

28. Pierre de Bourlement, Head of the ancient house of Bassigny, and Lord of the Manor of Bourlement. He was the last of his race.

29. Merlin had foretold the coming of a maiden out of an Oak-wood from Lorraine; and a paper containing a prophecy to this effect had been sent, at the beginning of Jeanne’s career, to the English Commander, the Earl of Suffolk. There was also an old prophecy (quoted by Jeanne herself to Catharine Leroyer) that France, which had been “lost by a woman, should be saved by a Maid.” The conduct of Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI., might certainly be said to have fulfilled the first half of this prophecy; and a tradition in the eastern counties that “deliverance should come from a maid of the Marches of Lorraine” must have directed many hopes to the mission of the Maiden from Domremy, though she herself does not seem to have known of the last prediction until some time later. The Oak-wood covers the hills above Domremy to this day.

30. This is the first identification of the “revelations” with any name; Jeanne had always spoken of her “Voices” or her “Counsel.”

31. This Examination at Poitiers had taken place in the Chapel attached to the Palace of the Counts of Poitou, which still exists and adjoins the ‘Salle des Pas Perdus,’ now the Great Hall of the Palais de Justice. It was conducted under the direction of the Archbishop of Rheims during the months of March and April, 1429, and extended over three weeks. At the conclusion, the assembly sent, as the result of their inquiries, a resolution to the King to the effect that he should follow the Maid’s guidance, and seek for the sign she promised him in the relief of Orleans, as a proof of the Divine origin of her mission, “for,” they added, “to doubt or forsake her without any appearance of evil would be to vex the Holy Spirit, and to make himself unworthy of the help of God: so saith Gamaliel in the Council of the Jews with regard to the Apostles.”
Unfortunately, no trace of this Examination has been found: the ‘Book of Poitiers’ is referred to several times in the Trial; but it was not forthcoming at the time of the Rehabilitation. It was probably lost or destroyed by Jeanne’s enemies among her own party. The Archbishop of Rheims would have had it in his charge: and he was consistently opposed to Jeanne throughout.
During her stay at Poitiers the Maid lodged in the house of Jean Rabatier.

32. According to local tradition, this Church was originally founded by Charles Martel in 732, after his victory over the Saracens, whom he here ceased to pursue, and deposited his sword as an offering. This is by some supposed to have been the sword which later Jeanne sent for; but the legend is not of an early date, and there is no suggestion of the kind in contemporary writings.
According to one authority, the Greffier de la Rochelle, the sword was found in a reliquary, which had not been opened for twenty years or more. The Chronique de la Pucelle and the Journal of the Siege of Orleans state that it was one of many votive offerings, and was recognized by Jeanne’s description of the five crosses on the blade, possibly a Jerusalem Cross. Some of the old Chronicles say that Jeanne told the King she had never been at Fierbois: but this statement is disproved by her own words in this answer. The suggestion that, having been to three Masses in the Church, she might easily have seen the sword, is to some extent answered by the alleged difficulty of the Priests to find, among the many swords there, the one she had specially described.
Of the ultimate fate of this sword there are many versions, and no two agree exactly as to date. It was certainly broken in striking a camp-follower, one of a class the Maid had forbidden to enter the Camp; but whether this was just after the retreat from Paris or earlier, it does not seem possible to decide. Jeanne herself says she “had it up to Saint-Denis” and “Lagny,” both of which dates would imply the autumn of 1429: but most witnesses tell the story of its being broken in the July preceding, though several different places are mentioned as the scene of the incident.

33. On September 13th, 1429.

34. A small town near Auxerre. In this neighbourhood some of the chronicles place the incident referred to of the breaking of the sword. The question may, therefore, have been intended to elicit the story.

35. The armour offered at Saint-Denis was the “blanc harnois” she wore during the earlier part of her career. When the church was pillaged by the English troops shortly after, this armour was sent to the King of England; but no further trace of it is known to exist.

36. Jeanne appears to have been a good horse-woman; she rode “horses so ill-tempered that no one would dare to ride them.” The Duke de Lorraine, on her first visit to him, and the Duke d’Alençon, after seeing her skill in riding a course, each gave her a horse; and we read also of a gift of a war-horse from the town of Orleans, and “many horses of value” sent from the Duke of Brittany. She had entered Orleans on a white horse, according to the Journal du Siège d’Orléans; but seems to have been in the habit of riding black chargers in war; and mention is also made by Châtelain of a “lyart” or grey. A story, repeated in a letter from Guy de Laval, relates that, on one occasion (June 6th, 1428), when her horse, “a fine black war-horse” was brought to the door, he was so restive that he would not stand still. “Take him to the Cross,” she said; and there he stood, “as though he were tied,” while she mounted. This was at Selles; and local tradition says that, from her lodging (a Dominican Monastery now the Lion d’Or hotel) the old iron town-cross was visible. It stood until about a century ago some fifteen paces in front of the north door of the Church, and was removed when the cemetery was converted into a market place. The Monastery was the property of the monks of Glatigny.
The writers of the letter referred to above, Guy and André de Laval, were grandsons of Bertrand du Guesclin: the letter was dated Selles, June, 1429. The following are extracts:
“... On Monday (June 6th) I left the King to go to Selles en Berry, four leagues from Saint Aignan. The King had summoned the Maid to come before him from Selles, where she then was, and many said this was much in my favour, so that I might see her. The said Maid treated my brother and me with great kindness: she was armed at all points, save the head, and bore lance in hand. After we had arrived at Selles, I went to her lodging to see her, and she called for wine for me and said she would soon have me drink it in Paris. She seemed to me a thing divine, in all she did and all I saw and heard.
“On Monday evening she left Selles to go to Romorantin.... I saw her mounting her horse armed all in white, save the head, a little axe in her hand.... And then, turning to the door of the Church, which was quite near, she said in a gentle woman’s voice, ‘You priests and clergy, make processions and prayers to God.’ Then she turned again on her way saying, ‘Draw on, draw on!’ her standard flying, borne by a gracious page, and her little axe in her hand. One of her brothers who arrived eight days since, left also with her, armed all in white.”

37. The banner was painted at Tours, while Jeanne was staying there, before her march to the relief of Orleans. The account for payment, in the “Comptes” of the Treasurer of War, gives: “À Hauvres Poulnoir, paintre, demourant à Tours, pour avoir paint et baillé estoffes pour une grand estandart et ung petit pour la Pucelle... 25 livres tournois.”
The description of this banner varies in different authors. The following account is compiled from them. “A white banner, sprinkled with fleur-de-lys; on the one side, the figure of Our Lord in Glory, holding the world, and giving His benediction to a lily, held by one of two Angels who are kneeling on each side: the words ‘Jhesus Maria’ at the side; on the other side the figure of Our Lady and a shield with the arms of France supported by two Angels” (de Cagny). This banner was blessed at the Church of Saint-Sauveur at Tours (Chronique de la Pucelle and de Cagny).
The small banner or pennon had a representation of the Annunciation.
There was also a third banner round which the priests assembled daily for service, and on this was depicted the Crucifixion (Pasquerel).
Another banner is mentioned by the Greffier de la Rochelle, which Jeanne is said to have adopted as her own private pennon. It was made at Poitiers; and represented on a blue ground a white dove, holding in its beak a scroll, with the words, “De par le Roy du Ciel.”

38. May 7th, 1429.

39. This prophecy is recorded in a letter written, April 22nd, 1429, a fortnight before the event, by a Flemish diplomatist, De Rotslaer, then at Lyons. Her chaplain, Pasquerel, also states, in his evidence given in 1455, that she had told him of the coming injury on the previous day.

40. June 11th, 1429.

41. Gallicè: “en leur petite cotte,” i.e., with only the light clothing worn under their armour.

42. The “three Pontiffs” referred to are Martin V. (Colonna), the real and acknowledged Pope; the schismatic, Clement VIII.; and a mere pretender, Benedict XIV., who was supported only by one Cardinal. The Schism was practically at an end at the time of this letter, as Clement had abdicated a month earlier (July 26th). Clement VIII. is the true title, though called Clement VII. in Count d’Armagnac’s letter.

43. The English lost Paris in 1436.

44. Compiègne was relieved early in November; Saint Martin’s Day is November 11th.

45. The mandrake was a part of the accepted paraphernalia of a sorcerer. It was kept wrapped in a silk or linen cloth, and was supposed to preserve its owner from poverty. Brother Richard had recently preached a sermon against them (April, 1429); and many had been burned in consequence.

46. The balance was a frequent accessory to Saint Michael in the French stained glass windows of the 13th and 14th centuries. A noted example in the Cathedral at Arles represents him weighing the souls of the departed in a balance as big as himself. One of the earliest examples in England is that in a fresco-painting at Preston Manor, Sussex, said to be of the reign of Edward I., in which Saint Michael appears weighing the souls of the faithful, accompanied by Jeanne’s saints, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.

47. Mary of Anjou, wife of Charles VII., daughter of Louis, Duke of Anjou and Yolande of Arragon.

48. Jeanne was taken from Beaurevoir early in August, and removed from there, when the negotiations for selling her were complete, about the middle of November.

49. Jeanne, Countess de Saint-Pol et Ligny, sister to Count Waleran de Luxembourg and aunt to Jean de Luxembourg.

50. Jeanne de Bethune, Viscountess de Meaux, wife of Jean de Luxembourg. Both these ladies were at Beaurevoir during Jeanne’s captivity, and shewed her great kindness, even interceding for her that she should not be sold to the English.

51. The Sieur de Pressy, in Artois. Present in the Burgundian camp when Jeanne was taken prisoner, and afterwards at Arras, where she was imprisoned on her way from Beaurevoir to Rouen. The questions seem to suggest that Beaupère had before him some information which has not come down to us.

52. This may perhaps refer to a popular belief in a halo, as of a Saint, surrounding the Maid’s head.

53. Brother Richard, a Mendicant Friar; some say, Augustan; some, Cordelier. He was preaching in Paris and the neighbourhood in 1428–9; and said, amongst other things, in a sermon at Sainte Géneviève, April 16th, 1419, that “strange things would happen in 1430.” He professed to have been in Jerusalem; and his sermons were so popular that congregations were found to listen to him for 10 or 11 hours, from 5 o’clock in the morning! He was driven out of Paris by the English and went to Troyes, where he joined the Maid.

54. No absolutely authentic portraits of Jeanne are known. A head of fine work, the portrait of a young girl wearing a casque and of Jeanne’s time, is at the Musée Historique at Orleans. Tradition asserts that when Jeanne entered Orleans in triumph with the relieving force a sculptor modelled the head of his statue of St. Maurice from Jeanne herself. This head is a portion of the statue which formerly stood in the church at Orleans dedicated to St. Maurice. The church was demolished in 1850. A photograph from the head is given as the frontispiece to this book, and an admirable copy maybe seen at the Musée du Trocadéro in Paris. It should have been stated on the frontispiece that the original is at Orleans, the copy in Paris.

55. Latin text adds: “dum rex suus consecraretur.” Tradition asserts that at the Coronation Jeanne stood on the left and slightly in front of the altar, coming direct from the sacristy of the cathedral. The coronation throne stood in front of the high altar. The cathedral and its painted glass exist as at the Coronation, with the exception of some comparatively recent stone work surrounding the choir. The Coronation of the Kings of France has taken place at Rheims Cathedral since the twelfth century. The King was not to all intents King of France until he had been anointed by the Holy Oil, brought in great state to the cathedral from the more ancient church of St. Remy.
An inscription on the front of the Hotel Maison Rouge, situated near the west entrance of the cathedral, states that the town entertained Jeanne’s father and mother in that house during the Coronation.

56. About £200.

57. November 9th, 1429.

58. The Minute adds: “and I should be cured.”

59. Surrendered July 22nd.

60. In spite of this assertion, the Bishop was present at four out of the nine Examinations.

61. On May 23rd, 1430.

62. In the Minute only.

63. Not in the Minute. Latin text reads: “quod dedit regi suo dum venit ad eum.”

64. The “sign,” i.e. the appearance of “the White Lady.”

65. Jean, Duke d’Alençon: son of the Duke killed at Agincourt. He was of the blood-royal of France, and had married a daughter of the Duke d’Orléans. Jeanne was on very friendly terms with him, and always called him her “Beau Duc.”

66. The allegory of the Angel sent with a crown, here first given to avoid “perjury,” i.e., breaking her promise to preserve the King’s secret, is explained by Jeanne herself, on the last day of her life, to mean her own mission from Heaven to lead Charles to his crowning.

67. In the Minute: “et l’admener en trois ans”: not in the Latin Text.

68. The Minute reads: “la laissant faire de prisonniers.”

69. March 8th, 1428; it was before Easter, which in that year fell on March 7th.

70. The house in which Jeanne lodged at Chinon is said to have belonged to a certain Regnier de la Barrier, whose widow or daughter is the “worthy woman” referred to. Jeanne was afterwards lodged in the Tower of Coudray, where her room may still be seen. It is approached by a staircase outside the tower. The vaulted roof has fallen in, and the fireplace is damaged, but the walls are intact, and the room could easily be restored. Jeanne stayed in this tower from March 8th to April 20th, 1429.

71. In the Minute only.

72. Charles, Duke d’Orléans, then a prisoner in England: one of the five princes of the blood taken at Agincourt.

73. There is no allusion to either of these in any evidence of the time.

74. May, 1430.

75. Easter week, April 16th–23rd, 1430.

76. Jeanne says that her leap from the tower was “towards the end,” and as the town of Compiègne was in great straits in October, she probably made her attempt at escape towards the end of that month. The army of relief under the Count de Vendôme started on October 25th, and the siege was raised early in November.

77. The Minute inverts the order of this and the following question and answer.

78. There is no fuller account of this attempt. It probably took place during the month of July, and may have been the reason for her removal to the stronger prison of Beaurevoir, early in August.

79. Henry VI. arrived in Rouen first on July 29th, 1430, when Jeanne was at Beaulieu; he was crowned at Paris in the following November, and returned to Rouen for Christmas, remaining there about six weeks, for the date of his landing at Dover is given as February 11th. It is not improbable that the prisoner may have seen the King, as they were both residing in the same Castle, and her windows looked on the fields, where he would probably take exercise.

80. “Faceret unam aggressionem;” Gallicè, “une entreprise.”

81. In the Minute: “mesme le chaperon de femme.”

82. In the Minute: “et ne fait point de différence de celle qui est au ciel et celle qui se appert à moi.”

83. “Le vrai office de Monseigneur Saint-Michel est de faire grandes révélations aux hommes en bas, en leur donnant moult sainct conseils.” (“Le Livre des Angeles de Dieu.”—MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.)

84. In the Minute.

85. In the Minute: “et toute voyes de tout, je m’en attendaye à Notre Seigneur.”

86. Given only in the Minute.

87. Guillaume Delachambre says that he was sent for by the Cardinal of England and the Earl of Warwick to attend Jeanne, with Desjardins and other Doctors; he was told by Warwick to give all attention to the patient, “as the King would not for anything in the world, that she should die a natural death; she had cost too dear for that; he had bought her dear, and he did not wish her to die except by justice and the fire.”

88. Nicolas Midi.

89. In the margin is written “Superba responsio.”

90. Jean de la Brosse, Marshal of France, called occasionally Marshal de Boussac and de Saint Sevère, being lord of both these territories.

91. The Day of the Holy Cross, May 3rd.

92. The Minute adds: “in the evening.”

93. April 18th, May 2nd, 19th, and 23rd.

94. Against this passage is written, on the margin of the original MS. note in the hand of the Registrar Manchon, ‘Responsio Johannæ superba.’

95. In ipsâ Causâ concludimus.

96. In the Square of Saint-Ouen were two platforms on each side of the south door of the Church: Jeanne and Maître Érard, the preacher, occupied one; the Bishop of Beauvais, together with a great number of Assessors, filled the other. In those days, and up to comparatively recent times, a cemetery occupied this site, which is now a garden. There was ample space for a large crowd to collect on the gently sloping ground facing the south door.

97. There is no note as to when Jeanne interrupted the Bishop. The Latin gives no hint. It is probable that, during the reading of the sentence, Érard and Loiseleur were trying to induce Jeanne to recant and sign the schedule, and that her abjuration was the result of their endeavours, not of the Bishop’s.

98. The Latin reading is, “Ante finem sententiæ, Johanna, timens ignem, dixit se velle obedire ecclesiæ.”

99. Several versions of the reasons which caused Jeanne to resume the forbidden dress were given in the evidence taken at the Rehabilitation, all purporting to have come from her. According to Massieu, her woman’s dress was taken away while she was asleep, and the English soldiers refused to give it back to her, offering in its stead the man’s dress she had previously worn, ‘which they emptied from a sack.’ She refused to wear it, reminding them that it was forbidden her; but at last, at mid-day, finding them deaf to her remonstrance, she was obliged to rise and attire herself in the prohibited garments. The Dominican Brothers declared that she had been assaulted by an English milord, as she told them, and that she therefore considered it necessary to return to the protection of her old dress; but considering the type of soldier in whose care she was placed, there seems no need to seek for any further explanation than her own, as given in the text, and as later corroborated by Manchon and De Courcelles. In the Rehabilitation Enquiry, both Jean de Metz and de Poulengey claim to have suggested the male attire. At Poitiers, Jeanne herself stated that she had adopted it as most suitable to her work and the company she must share.

100. This request is found only in the Minute.

101. In the margin, the Registrar has written against this answer: “Responsio mortifera.”

102. An appointment equivalent to a Rural Dean.

103. Brothers Ysambard de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenu.

104. Not included in the Official Text of the Trial.

105. ‘Old style’ is adopted throughout: thus 1449 is given instead of 1449
1450.

106. The word is given in English in the text. Cauchon prided himself on his knowledge of this language.

107. Jean de Saint Avit, formerly Abbot of Saint-Denis, and, about 1390, Bishop of Avranches. In 1432, he was imprisoned at Rouen, on suspicion of complicity with the French, who wished to get possession of the town.

108. “Doyen de la Rote”—Court of Appeals at Rome.

109. On the Minute of Manchon, which was in the hands of the Judges of the Rehabilitation in 1455.

110. This was the Examination called the Acta Posterius, which, though included by Cauchon in the Process, is not signed by the Official Registrars, Manchon, Boisguillaume, and Taquel.

111. Jeanne was burnt in the Market Place at Rouen, where an inscribed stone marks the site. It is stated that the execution took place in front of the Church of St. Sauveur, and facing the principal street which leads to the Market Place, thus accommodating a larger number of spectators than was possible in any other part of the Place.
There is still some dispute as to the actual spot; but as the Cemetery was religious ground and the execution was, nominally at least, a secular one, the ground chosen must have been on land belonging to the municipality of Rouen. Probably this was in the Marché aux Veaux, as we find an order for the burning of a heretic there in 1522, “lieu accoutumé faire telles exécutions.”

112. Cognomen given to the Promoter, d’Estivet.

113. At the beginning of the Trial, Jeanne had asked for Counsel, and it had been refused.

114. There were three keys to the prison, one being in the possession of the Promoter, one of the Inquisitor, and one belonging to the Cardinal.

115. May 28th.

116. To the Schismatic Council, then being held at Basle.

117. Articles for Examination of Witnesses in the Second Enquiry of 1452 were prepared under the direction of Cardinal d’Estouteville and Brother Jean Bréhal, Inquisitor. The witnesses were examined on twelve questions. Articles were also prepared under the direction of Philippe de Rose, Delegate for Cardinal d’Estouteville, the witnesses being examined on twenty-seven questions.

118. Note by Quicherat: This is an error of the witness. [The Promoter was d’Estivet.]

119. Jeanne’s father went also to Rheims for the coronation. There still exists in the old accounts of the town an item for his expenses at the inn; and, in the Compte of the Treasurer Raguier there is also an entry of 60 livres tournois, paid Jeanne to give to her father. On the day after the coronation, Jeanne obtained from the King an exemption from taxes for the village of Domremy and Greux: this document, dated July 31st, 1429, still exists in the Archives of France. This exemption from taxes has now lapsed.

120. Durand Laxart, her uncle.

121. This is also called the “Fontaine aux Groseilliers”; the Latin name is probably intended for Rhamnus, the Buckthorn.

122. Mid-Lent Sunday, the 4th Sunday in Lent; so-called, because the introit for the day begins, “Laetare Jerusalem,” &c.

123. “Ad cameram regis.”

124. Margaret, daughter of James I. of Scotland, who was betrothed to Louis, afterwards Louis XI.

125. February 13th, 1428.

126. 1455.

127. March 6th, 1428.

128. June 23rd, 1428.

129. July 17th, 1429.

130. Near Vaucouleurs.

131. This covers the period of several visits, made between May 1428, and February 1429.

132. The mother of Charles VII., who denied the legitimacy of her own son, being Burgundian at heart, and ratified the iniquitous Treaty of Troyes, so disastrous for France.

133. In the text Vaucouleurs is an obvious misprint for Saint-Nicolas.

134. He also gave her a horse; cf. previous depositions.

135. Saint-Nicolas-du-Port—then a celebrated centre of pilgrimage—near Nancy. As both Poulengey and Laxart connect this pilgrimage with her visit to the Duke de Lorraine, whose residence was at Nancy, it is clear that Saint-Nicolas-du-Port is meant, and not the Chapel of St. Nicolas near Vaucouleurs.

136. The village of Domremy, although in the territory of Lorraine, belonged to France, not to Lorraine; for administrative purposes it was a dependance of Champagne.

137. May 13th, 1428.

138. See Deposition of Jean Morel.

139. This Chapel in the crypt may still be seen at Vaucouleurs.

140. Jean, a natural son of Louis, Duke d’Orléans, was brought up with the family of Orleans, and acknowledged by Valentine, the widowed Duchess, after the murder of his father in 1407. At 25 years of age, in company with de Gaucourt, he defeated the English under Warwick at Montargis in 1427, and afterwards defended Orleans till its relief in 1429. He was created Count de Dunois, in 1439.

141. Then Captain of Blois.

142. Regnault de Chartres.

143. Gilles de Laval, Seigneur de Rais, notorious for the horrible excesses which brought him to the scaffold in 1440.

144. The Duke was then a prisoner in England.

145. 7th of May.

146. Antiquarians state that the Café le Bœuf at Orleans covers the ancient “Boulevard” captured by Jeanne d’Arc. This redoubt adjoined the “Tourelles” and was close to the bridge of Orleans. Many steps below ground, and entered from the Café le Bœuf, is a room of carefully constructed masonry, being the interior of a tower, with embrasures for cannon, and iron rings to which cannons were attached.

147. i.e., William Glasdale, Bailly of Alençon. He was Captain of the Fort of the Tourelles, called here the Bridge Tower.

148. Gerard Machet, according to the Chronique de la Pucelle; he was not Bishop until after the death of Jeanne.

149. Robert le Maçon, Chancellor, in 1418, was harassed by the opposition of the Burgundian faction and the favourites of the Dauphin. He retired in 1421, and acted henceforward as a simple Councillor.

150. Jean Leguise, ennobled by Charles VII. for his share in the surrender of the town.

151. William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, Grand Steward of the King of England.

152. The prophecy of Merlin, as it appears in MS. 7301 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, runs: “Descendit virgo dorsum sagittari et flores virgineos obscultabit.”

153. Raoul, not Jean, de Gaucourt, Grand Steward, born 1370. Fought, in 1394, under the banner of Jean de Nevers, afterwards Duke of Burgundy, for Sigismund, King of Hungary, against Bajazet; and was knighted on the field of Nicopolis, from which only himself, his leader, and twenty-two other French nobles escaped. He defended Harfleur against Henry V., in 1415, and was a prisoner for ten years, being one of those specially named by Henry in his dying commands to Bedford as prisoners “to be kept.” In 1425, he was ransomed for the sum of 20,000 gold crowns; in 1427, he aided Dunois at the victory of Montargis, and afterwards in the defence of Orleans.

154. Quicherat thinks there is an error of copy here; that Bellier could not have been Bailly of Troyes when that town was in the hands of the English, nor could he at any time have combined so high an office with the lieutenancy of Chinon.

155. Master of the Horse, Counsellor and Steward to the Court. He was made prisoner in 1437, but ransomed from the English for 500 crowns. In 1459, he was sent by Charles VII. to Bordeaux, in order to settle a dispute between the municipal authority and some English ships. He was living in 1472, and in receipt of a pension from Louis XI.

156. In December, 1429.

157. 7th May.

158. Seigneur de Bignon, whose father was distinguished at the siege of Orleans. He was great-grandfather of Christopher de Thou, first President of the Parliament of Paris.

159. Head of one of the principal families of Orleans. Amian de Saint-Mesmin was ennobled in 1460, on account of his services. He died at the ripe age of 118 years.

160. Brother-in-law to Louis de Contes, Jeanne’s page, and owner of the lordships of la Chaussée and Miramion. From his younger brother, Guillaume, descended the Beauharnais who was husband to Josephine and father of Eugène.

161. Daughter of Jacques Bourchier, Treasurer of Orleans, at whose house Jeanne lodged.

162. See decrees of Henry VI. against fugitives, “terrificatos incautionibus puellae.”

163. Nevertheless, his name appears as having agreed with the Abbot of Fécamp in his opinion of the Condemnation.

164. Not mentioned elsewhere.

165. Secretary to the King of England.

166. It is, however, stated that, on being consulted, he did advise the extreme measure of putting Jeanne to the torture.

167. Louis de Contes was brother-in-law of Beauharnais, the Bourgeois of Orleans. He was a son of Jean de Contes, Captain of Châteaudun, and Chamberlain to the Duke d’Orléans.

168. Jacques Bouchier.

169. [“Ha! sanglant garçon, vous ne me dyriez pas que le sanc de France feust repandu!”]

170. Cœlestinorum, in the text.

171. John de la Pole, Captain of Avranches, brother of the Earl of Suffolk.

172. Jeanne’s hatred of swearing is noticed by many of her followers, and in her hearing they endeavoured to abstain from it. La Hire, whose language was apparently the most violent, was permitted by her to employ the mild expletive ‘Par mon martin,’ ‘By my baton,’ an expression she herself is constantly reported to have used.

173. A nickname of Poulengey.

174. These three forts were on the left bank of the Loire; the fort of the Tourelles, of the Augustins, and of Saint-Privé were further west.

175. A woman called “la gasque d’Avignon,” whose predictions made much stir at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

176. The devoted Margaret of Bavaria, who was separated from him on account of his evil life.

177. Jean, Duke d’Alençon, son of the Duke killed at Agincourt. He was of the Blood Royal, descended from Philip II.

178. The Bishop referred to is Simon Bonnet, Bishop of Senlis at that time, not the partisan of the English who occupied the seat in 1429.

179. Yolande, daughter of John I. of Aragon; wife of Louis XI., Duke of Anjou, and titular King of Sicily. She was the mother of Mary, wife of Charles VII., and grandmother of Margaret, afterwards wife of Henry VI.
A receipt is recorded, in Quicherat (III. 93), for the carriage of corn, on her behalf, from Orleans to Blois.

180. A captain of some repute, exchanged for Talbot after the Battle of Patay.

181. In the Accounts (formerly kept in the Chambre des Comtes at Paris), of Maître Hemon Raguier, Treasurer of War, there is an item relating to this suit of armour: “To the Master Armourer, for a complete harness for the said Pucelle, 100 livres tournois.”

182. A street in Orleans is still called after d’Illiers, then Captain of Châteaudun.

183. Jeanne, daughter of the Duke d’Orléans.

184. The Duke d’Alençon, at the age of eighteen, had been taken prisoner at the battle of Verneuil, in 1424, and kept for five years in the Castle of Crotoy, where Jeanne herself was afterwards imprisoned.

185. Head-covering without visor, “chapeline casque léger en forme de calotte sans masque.”

186. Jargeau was taken on June 11th, 1429.

187. John Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury. He was exchanged for Ambroise de Loré and killed while attempting the relief of Châtillon, then besieged by Dunois.

188. Arthur, Count de Richemont, Constable of France, brother of the Duke of Britanny. He was one of the Princes of the Blood taken at Agincourt, but was released on parole; and Henry V. dying soon after, he claimed his freedom, saying he had given his word to the King alone. He married a sister of the Duke of Burgundy and widow of the late Dauphin. Although friendly to the French cause, he was distrusted by Charles, and, at this time, was in disgrace. He was uncle to the Duke d’Alençon, his sister Mary having married the preceding Duke. He succeeded to the Duchy of Britanny in 1453, but died childless.

189. It was after this battle of Patay that Sir John Fastolf, one of the English captains, was deprived of the Garter, for his conduct in retreating before the French army.

190. Louis, Duke d’Orléans, taken prisoner at Agincourt, in 1415, was imprisoned in England until the year 1440, when he was ransomed at the price of 54,000 nobles (about £36,000), the negotiations being carried out on the English side by Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais.

191. Of the Order of Hermit Friars of Saint Augustin, living at their Convent in Tours in 1429, and at Bayeux in 1456.

192. There is some doubt as to the identity of this town. The text gives “Aniciensis,” which would refer to Puy-en-Valais; but this, Quicherat says, is unlikely, owing to the distance, and proposes to substitute “Anceinsi,” i.e., Anche. Fabre, following Simon de Lune, is in favour of the former reading, as the town was one noted for pilgrimages; and, in the Lent of 1429, there was an unusual number of pilgrims, in honour of the special feast of La Vierge Noire de Puy, which, in that year, fell on Good Friday. This fact might account for the presence of Jeanne’s mother at Puy, and of the men-at-arms, who had escorted the Maid to Chinon.

193. Quicherat prefers to read, “brother.”

194. Probably the husband of the woman named Lapau, mentioned by Louis de Contes.

195. Doubt had been thrown on the fact here stated, since Charles VII.’s mother, Queen Isabeau, had denied her son’s legitimacy.

196. The account for this banner appears in the 13th Compte of Maître Hemon Raguier, Treasurer of War: 25 liv. tour. were paid to “Hauves Poulnois, painter, living at Tours, for painting and procuring materials for a great standard, and a small one for the Maid.”

197. The siege was raised on the 8th of May.

198. Established on the site of a convent in the previous December.

199. The first letter was sent on March 22nd, 1429: of the second nothing is known.

200. i.e., Glasdale.

201. 8th May. The commemoration of the relief of Orleans was made a national festival by Louis XI. and confirmed by Richelieu. This day is still kept in the town with great rejoicings and religious processions: it has been celebrated, excepting during the Revolution, ever since the relief of the city.

202. Louis de Luxembourg.

203. “Godon,” or “goddam,” a common term for the English in the Middle Ages and to the present day.

204. An error; the first sermon was by Érard.

205. Louis de Contes, called “Imerguet” and “Mugot” by his companions.

206. The phrase is left thus unfinished in all the MSS. It is quoted in the Latin texts in the original French, as above.

207. The Court of the Bailiff.

208. “Crimen læsæ majestatis.”

209. The examination of d’Aulon, who served Jeanne d’Arc as Steward, and who, at the time of being examined, was Seneschal of Beaucaire, is the only evidence preserved in the original French.

210. Guillaume d’Estouteville: Enquiry of 1452.

211. See Appendix: Note on Documents of Rehabilitation Enquiry: p. 332.

212. Viz., the Twelve Articles.

213. Chronicles of the Dukes of Alençon.

214. Philip the Good, son of Jean Sans-Peur, the Duke murdered at the Bridge of Montereau in 1418 by the Armagnac faction; he was consequently an ally of England. Anne, his sister, married John, Duke of Bedford. Efforts were constantly made by both sides to secure the sympathies of so powerful an ally; but after the death of his sister in 1432, the Duke’s attachment to the English cause waned; and in 1435, a week after the death of Bedford, he made peace with Charles VII., and signed the Treaty of Arras, which practically restored France to the King. He died in 1467, and was succeeded by his son Charles the Bold.

215. Jean de Luxembourg, Sire de Luxembourg and de Choques, nephew of the Constable Waleran de Luxembourg. A captain of Free-Lances in the service of the Duke of Burgundy, afterwards Count de Ligny and Guise, and a knight of the Toison d’Or. He remained true to the English, even after his chief had made terms with Charles, and died in 1441, still obstinately refusing to recognize the Treaty of Arras.

216. Louis de Luxembourg, Bishop of Thérouanne, 1414, and Chancellor of France for Henry VI., 1425, surnamed “Le Renard”; afterwards Archbishop of Rouen, Bishop of Hély, and Cardinal. A warm adherent of the English cause, and a consistent supporter of Bedford and Warwick. It was he who received information of the capture of Jeanne on May 25th, and himself went with the news to the Parliament. When the tide turned, and Charles VII. was able to establish himself in his kingdom, the Bishop retired to England, and there died, 1443.

217. Jean D’Aulon. Formerly a squire in the service of the King, appointed Chief of Jeanne’s Household by Charles VII., in 1428. He remained with her from that time till her capture at Compiègne; was taken prisoner with her, and carried to Beaulieu, but was ransomed during the autumn. He was afterwards knighted, and made Seneschal of Beaucaire.

218. Lionel Bastard de Wandonne; now Wandomme, a castle in Artois; a captain in the service of Jean de Luxembourg, to whom the Maid finally surrendered at Compiègne. For his share of the reward he received 300 pounds rente. He was afterwards Count de Nesle and Beaulieu, in Vermandois.

219. The much-vexed question of the date of the Capture seems to be decided by these two last contemporary documents. The same date, May 23rd, is also given in the Chronicle of William of Worcester.

220. The news, received in the letter from Jean de Luxembourg, was communicated by his brother, the Bishop of Thérouanne, to the Parliament.

221. Or let herself down, as some state, by a rope that was too short to reach the ground.

222. Massieu.

223. Cusquel.

224. Taquel.

225. Lebouchier.

226. Massieu.

227. Ibid.

228. According to the rules of Inquisitorial Trials it was not necessary to grant an advocate to the accused. In the “Directorium Inquisitorum” the Decretal on the treatment of Heretics empowers the Bishop and the Judge of the Inquisition, acting conjointly, to dispense with other assistance, and to act alone.

229. See “Execution of the Mandate,” Feb. 20th.

230. Manchon.

231. Ibid.

232. Massieu.

233. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 8th Private Examination, 17th; and 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

234. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th.

235. Cf. 5th Public Examination, March 1st.

236. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd, and 3rd Public Examination, February 24th.

237. Cf. 2nd Private Examination, March 12th.

238. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 2nd Private Examination, March 12th; 3rd Private Examination, March 12th.

239. This answer is given in French in the text.

240. No previous answer is recorded.

241. Cf. 2nd Private Examination, March 12th.

242. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 3rd Private Examination, March 12th; and 8th Private Examination, March 17th.

243. The two following questions and answers appear in the Minute only:—
“But, Jeanne, the Holy Canons and Holy Writ declare that women who take men’s dress or men who take women’s dress, do a thing abominable to God. How then can you say that you took this dress at God’s command?”
“You have been answered. If you wish that I should answer you further, grant me delay, and I will answer you.”
“Will you not take the dress of a woman to receive your Saviour on Easter Day?”
“Neither for that nor for anything else will I yet put off my dress. I make no difference between man’s dress and woman’s dress for receiving my Saviour. I ought not to be refused for this question of dress.” Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th, and 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

244. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 3rd Private Examination, March 12th; 8th Private Examination, March 17th. These questions and answers come after Article XIII. in the minute.

245. Cf. 7th Private Examination, March 15th; 8th Private Examination, March 17th.
After Article XV., the following sentence is inserted in the Extracts, but is not in the Procès. “She added that the Demoiselle de Luxembourg prayed the Seigneur de Luxembourg not to give her up to the English.”

246. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

247. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 4th Private Examination, March 13th.

248. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th.

249. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 8th Private Examination, March 17th.

250. Cf. 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

251. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

252. Vide 5th Public Examination, March 1st: pages 36–38.

253. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th.

254. Cf. 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

255. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

256. Cf. 5th Public Examination, March 1st.

257. Vide 5th Public Examination, March 1st: pages 34–35.

258. Vide ante, page 35.

259. Cf. 5th Public Examination, March 1st.

260. The following incident occurs in the Minute only:
The Bishop, referring to the promise given on the previous day by Jeanne that she would answer on the subject of her dress, asks that, before proceeding with the reading, this answer may be given. To which Jeanne replies:
“The dress and the arms that I wear, I wear by the permission of God: I will not leave them off without the permission of God, even if it cost me my head: but, if it should so please Our Lord, I will leave them off: I will not take a woman’s dress if I have not permission from Our Saviour.”

261. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 7th Private Examination, March 15th; 8th Private Examination, March 17th.

262. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 1st Private Examination, March 10th; 3rd Private Examination, March 12th; 5th Private Examination, March 14th.

263. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 7th Private Examination, March 15th.

264. Minute reads: “pour l’aise de son corps.”

265. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 3rd Public Examination, Feb. 24th; 8th Private Examination, March 17th.

266. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd.

267. Cf. 2nd Public Examination, February 22nd; 1st Private Examination, March 10th; 7th Private Examination, March 15th.

268. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 7th Private Examination, March 15th.

269. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 6th Private Examination, March 14th.

270. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

271. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 5th Private Examination, March 28th.

272. Cf. 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

273. Cf. 5th Public Examination, March 1st.

274. Cf. 5th Private Examination, March 14th; 6th Private Examination, March 14th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st.

275. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

276. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

277. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 6th Private Examination, March 14th.

278. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 2nd Private Examination, March 12th.

279. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 1st Private Examination, March 10th; 2nd Private Examination, March 12th; 7th Private Examination, March 15th; 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

280. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 2nd Private Examination, March 12th; 4th Private Examination, March 13th; 5th Private Examination, March 14th.

281. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 1st Private Examination, March 10th; 2nd Private Examination, March 12th; 4th Private Examination, March 13th.

282. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

283. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th.

284. Cf. 1st Private Examination, March 10th.

285. This is the only known reference to this declaration of Catherine de la Rochelle.

286. Her usual oath was ‘En nom Dé’ or ‘Par mon martin’ (bâton).

287. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd.

288. These reports do not appear in the official documents.

289. Cf. 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 4th Private Examination, March 13th.

290. 4th Public Examination, February 28th; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 1st Private Examination, March 10th; 8th Private Examination, March 17th; 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

291. Cf. 8th Private Examination, March 17th.

292. Cf. 3rd Public Examination, February 24th; 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st; 6th Public Examination, March 3rd; 2nd Private Examination, March 12th.

293. Cf. 7th Private Examination, March 15th; 9th Private Examination, March 17th.

294. Cf. 4th Public Examination, February 27th; 5th Public Examination, March 1st.

295. Of these 101 Articles, the first thirty-three form the basis of the succeeding enquiries made at Paris, Orleans, and Rouen.