Trial_of_Joan_of_Arc
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THE ABJURATION: 24TH MAY 1431
[5 days later]: At a solemn assembly publicly held in the
cemetery of Saint Ouen at Rouen, before the lord Bishop of
Beauvais and the Vice-Inquisitor, in the presence of the most
reverend father in Christ Henry, Cardinal of England, the
reverend fathers in Christ the lord Bishops of Therouanne,
Noyon and Norwich, together with the lords and masters, Jean
Beaupère, Nicolas Midi, Nicolas de Venderes, Andre Marguerie,
Denis Gastinel, Jean de Châtillon, the lord abbots of Saint
Ouen, Fécamp and Saint Michel-au-peril-de-la-mer, Maurice de
Chene, Jean Pinchon and Jean Alespee.
After the sermon (from the fifteenth chapter of Saint John,
"A branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the
vine") the preacher, Guillaume Erard, said to Jeanne:
ERARD
... there never has been in France
such a monster as you, who are a
magician, heretic, schismatic!
The King who was favourable to you
is the same as you in that he has
tried to recover his kingdom with
the help of such a heretical woman.
Oh, royal house of France, you have
never known monsters before, but
now you stand dishonoured for
giving your faith to this woman,
this witch, this heretic, this
child of superstition!
JEANNE
Don't speak of my King like that.
He is a good Christian.
ERARD
Oh, France, you are greatly abused!
You have always been a most
Christian country. Yet Charles, who
calls himself your king and your
governor, has subscribed, like a
heretic and a schismatic, to the
words and deeds of a good-for
nothing woman, an infamous
sorceress abounding in all
dishonour. And not the King only,
but all the clergy of his obedience
and in his realm by whom she has
been examined and not rebuked!
Then, turning to Jeanne, he spoke to her with raised finger —
ERARD
I am speaking to you, Jeanne, and I
tell you that your King is a
heretic and a schismatic!
JEANNE
By my faith, and with all respect
to you, let me tell you — and swear
it on my life — that my King is the
noblest Christian of all Christians
and loves the Faith and the Church
better than any. He is not as you
say!
ERARD
Make her be quiet!
Jean Massieu advised Jeanne to be silent.
ERARD
Here are my lords the judges, who
have time and again summoned and
required you to submit your words
and deeds to our Mother Holy
Church, inasmuch as it seems to the
learned clerks that there are many
things contained in these words and
deeds of yours which it is not good
to either say or to uphold.
JEANNE
I will answer you. As to submission
to the Church, I have already told
you that concerning all that I have
done I appeal, after God, to our
Holy Father the Pope. Everything I
have done, I have done at God's
command.
ERARD
This does not suffice, for it is
not possible to send you to the
Holy Father, being so far away,
and the Ordinaries are each one
judge in his own diocese, and
therefore you must submit to our
Mother Holy Church and recant by
— signing this schedule of
abjuration.
JEANNE
You take great pains to seduce me.
I leave it to your consciences
whether I should recant or not.
MASSIEU
Jeanne — if you do not sign, they
will burn you. The executioner is
ready to do his office.
JEANNE
Let this schedule be seen by the
clerks and by the Church in whose
hands I ought to be placed. If
they advise me that I should sign
it and do what I am told, I will
do it gladly.
ERARD
You must do it now, or else you
will end your life today in the
fire. If you sign, you will be
free. If you do not, you will
burn.
At that moment there was a great uproar among the crowd that
was present, urging her to sign, and stones were flung...
JEANNE
I would rather be free than burn.
Then in the presence of the aforenamed persons and a great
multitude of people, Jean Massieu took out "a little schedule
of six or seven lines written on a piece of paper folded in
two" which he read to her:
MASSIEU
I Jeanne, called the Pucelle...
JEANNE
I Jeanne, called the Pucelle...
MASSIEU
... do confess that I have
sinned...
JEANNE
... do confess that I have
sinned...
MASSIEU
... and all my words and deeds
which are contrary to the church I
do hereby revoke...
JEANNE
... and all my words and deeds
which are contrary to the church I
do hereby revoke...
MASSIEU
In witness whereof I place my
sign...
JEANNE
In witness whereof I place my
sign...
[Massieu guided Jeanne's hand in signing her name — JHENNE —
then she alone signed a cross: +]
THE READING OF THE SENTENCE
Here follows the Definitive Sentence, pronounced by the
Bishop of Beauvais, after the abjuration and the signing of
the schedule:
CAUCHON
In the Name of the Lord, Amen. All
pastors of the Church who would
faithfully lead God's people, must
carefully and diligently watch lest
the devil, through his subtle arts,
seduces and deceives the flock of
Jesus Christ, to which end he
labours ceaselessly. Wherefore
there is need of great diligence,
to resist his false and sinful
wiles. Since you, Jeanne, commonly
called the Pucelle, have been found
guilty of many errors in the Faith
of Jesus Christ, for which you have
been called to judgment, and
concerning which you have been
heard; and since all the points and
articles of your trial, your
confessions, answers and assertions
have been examined by us, and the
whole trial has been seen and
deliberated upon by the masters and
doctors of the Faculty of Theology
in Paris, as well as by a number of
prelates and doctors in law, both
canon and civil, who are in this
town of Rouen, by whom you have
been charitably admonished with
long appeals for your change of
heart. Notwithstanding these
warnings and remonstrances, and
after the abjuration made to you,
you have rashly and wantonly fallen
into sin; wherefore, that you may
make salutary penance, we have
condemned you, and do now condemn
you by this Definitive Sentence, to
perpetual imprisonment, to eat the
bread of sorrow and drink the
waters of affliction, that you may
weep for your sins, and nevermore
commit them, saving Our grace and
moderation, if hereafter you shall
deserve them.
JEANNE
Now, you churchmen, take me to your
prison, and let me no longer be in
the hands of the English.
CAUCHON
Take her back to where she came
from.
After the Sentence was pronounced, the Vice-Inquisitor and
several others who had been present at the Sentence, went to
see Jeanne after dinner in the prison in which she was kept.
They remonstrated with her, pointing out that the Church had
dealt kindly with her, and she should accept the sentence
with humility and be obedient to the Church. She must leave
her revelations and other stupidities, warning her that if
she should again fall into such sins, the Church would not
take her back, and begging her to leave off male clothes and
wear a woman's dress.
To this Jeanne replied that she would willingly wear a
woman's dress and be obedient to the Church. And immediately
she put on a woman's dress, and allowed her hair, which had
been cut en rond, to be cut off.
THE TRIAL FOR RELAPSE: VISIT OF THE JUDGES TO THE PRISON
[4 days later:] The following Monday, the 28th day of May,
the judges went to the prison, and found Jeanne dressed in
man's clothing, that is, a robe, hood, and the other garments
normally worn by men, which she had left off by order of the
Church.
CAUCHON
Why have you again put on a man's
dress?
JEANNE
I did so just now.
CAUCHON
Who induced you to do it?
JEANNE
Nobody forced me to do so. I did it
of my own free will. I prefer a
man's dress to a woman's.
CAUCHON
But you swore and promised never
again to wear male clothing.
JEANNE
I never intended to take an oath
not to wear a man's dress again.
CAUCHON
Why have you taken it up again?
JEANNE
It seems to me more suitable and
convenient to wear a man's dress,
being with men, than to wear a
woman's dress.
And I've taken it up again because
you have not kept your promise that
I could hear Mass and receive the
Body of Our Lord, and that I should
be let free from my chains and
fetters.
CAUCHON
Did you not make abjuration and
especially promise not to resume
man's clothes?
JEANNE
I would rather die than be kept in
irons, but if I am permitted to go
to Mass and be taken out of irons,
and be kept in a pleasant prison
with women for company, I will be
good and do what the Church wishes.
CAUCHON
Have you heard the voices of Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret since
last Thursday?
JEANNE
Yes.
CAUCHON
What have they told you?
JEANNE
They told me that God sent word by
them that I'd put myself in great
danger of perdition, in that I made
the abjuration and renunciation in
order to save my life, and that I
was damning myself by doing so.
Before Thursday, my voices always
told me what I ought to do, and I
have always done it. When I was on
the platform [at the cemetery of St
Ouen], my voices told me that I
should answer the preacher boldly.
He was a false preacher, for he
said that I'd done many things
which I've never done. If I said
that God had not sent me, I should
damn myself. It is true that God
has sent me. My voices have since
told me that I did a great injury
in confessing that I had not done
well in what I'd done. Everything
that I said and revoked that
Thursday I did only for fear of the
fire.
CAUCHON
Do you believe that the voices that
come to you are those of Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret?
JEANNE
Yes — and that they come from God.
CAUCHON
Will you now tell the truth about
the crown you mentioned?
JEANNE
I told you all the truth at the
trial, as best I could.
CAUCHON
When you were on the platform
before the judges and the people,
when you made your abjuration, you
were urged to tell the truth. And
you admitted that you had boasted
falsely that the voices you said
you heard were those of Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret.
JEANNE
I never intended to deny my
visions — that they were Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret —
and what I said, I said for fear
of the fire — and if I recanted,
it was untrue. I would rather do
penance once and for all by dying
than suffer the agony of
imprisonment any longer. I have
never done anything contrary to
God and the faith, regardless of
what you made me revoke, and as
for the schedule of abjuration, I
didn't understand it. I never
intended to revoke anything,
unless it was pleasing to God
that I should do so. If the
judges want it, I will wear a
woman's dress again, but for the
rest, I will do nothing further.
If you, my lords of the Church,
had taken me and kept me in one
of your own ecclesiastical
prisons, perhaps things would not
have turned out for me like this.
That heard, we went away from her to proceed thereafter
according to law and to reason.
DECISION TO HAND OVER JEANNE TO THE SECULAR ARM
On Tuesday the twenty-ninth day of May, We, the Bishop of
Beauvais, called together the doctors and other ecclesiastics
in great number in the chapel of the Archepiscopal Manor, and
explained to them that Joan had been again and again
admonished to return into the way of truth. And how, after
being so admonished before the people, she had sworn that
never would she relapse, and had signed a schedule with her
own hand; and on Thursday after dinner, being the day of her
Sentence, she had been charitably admonished by the Vice
Inquisitor and others that she should continue in her good
intentions and take great care she did not relapse.
But, being persuaded by the devil, she had declared time and
again, in the presence of several persons, that her voices,
who had been accustomed to appear to her, had come again; and
she had taken off her woman's dress and again taken man's
clothing.
And after this, before all the clerks who were present in the
chapel, the confessions and assertions which she had made the
day before were read; after which, their opinions were asked
as to what should be done, and they were all of the opinion
and stated that she ought to be considered a heretic, and
should be left to secular justice, with a request that they
should treat her more kindly than she deserved.
THE DEFINITIVE SENTENCE: 30TH MAY 1431
And on Wednesday the penultimate day of May, being the last
day of the trial, the said Joan was cited to hear the law and
to appear in person before us in the Old Market of the town
of Rouen at eight o'clock in the morning, to see herself
declared relapsed into her errors, heretic and excommunicate;
together with the intimations customary to be made in such a
case.
Later on the same day, at about nine o'clock in the morning,
We the Bishop and judges being in the Old Market of Rouen,
near to the church of Saint Sauveur, in the presence of the
Bishops of Therouanne and Noyon, and several other doctors,
clerks and masters, after the sermon had been preached, We
admonished Joan, for the salvation of her soul, that she
should repent her evil deeds and show true contrition, by
means of counsel from two Friar Preachers, who were near her
in order that they might continually advise her, whom for
this purpose We had appointed.
All these matters referred to being done, We, the aforesaid
bishop and Vice-Inquisitor, having regard to the afore
mentioned matters wherein it appeared that Joan remained
obstinate in her errors, and through malice and devilish
obstinacy had falsely shown signs of contrition and
penitence;
and that she had blasphemed the holy and divine Name of God;
and showing herself an incorrigible heretic had relapsed into
heresy and error, and was unworthy and incapable of any pity,
We proceeded to the Definitive Sentence in the manner
following:
CAUCHON
In the Name of the Lord, Amen.
We, Pierre, by Divine pity,
humble Bishop of Beauvais, and
We, Brother Jean le Maire, deputy
of the Inquisitor of the Faith,
judges competent in this matter.
Since you, Joan, called the
Pucelle, have been found by Us
relapsed into divers errors and
crimes of schism, idolatry,
invocation of devils, and various
other wickednesses, and since for
these reasons by just judgement
We have found you so to be,
nevertheless, since the Church
never closes her arms to those
who would return to her, We did
believe that, with full
understanding and unfeigned
faith, you had left all the
errors which you had renounced,
vowing, swearing and publicly
promising that never again would
you fall into such errors, nor
into any other heresies, but
would live in Catholic unity and
communion with our Church and our
Holy Father the Pope, as is
stated in a schedule signed by
your own hand. Nonetheless, time
and again you have relapsed, as a
dog that returns to its vomit, as
We do state with great sorrow.
Wherefore We declare that you
have again incurred the Sentence
of excommunication which you
formerly incurred, and are again
fallen into your previous errors,
for which reasons We now declare
you to be a heretic, and by this
Sentence, seated upon Our
tribunal of justice, as it is
herein written, We do cast you
forth and reject you from the
communion of the church as an
infected limb, and hand you over
to secular justice, praying the
same to treat you with kindness
and humanity in respect of your
life and of your limbs.
THE EXECUTION
After the Sentence was read, the bishop, the Inquisitor,
and many of the judges went way, leaving Joan upon the
scaffold.
Then the Bailli of Rouen, an Englishman who was there,
without any legal formality and without reading any
Sentence against her, ordered that she should be taken to
the place where she was to be burned. When Joan heard this
order given, she began to weep and lament in such a way
that all the people present were themselves moved to tears.
The Bailli immediately ordered that the fire should be
lighted, which was done.
And there she was burned and martyred tragically, an act of
unparalleled cruelty.
And many, both noble and peasant, murmured greatly against
the English.
* * * * *
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