The Life of Joan of Arc Part 117

The Bishop a.s.sembled certain doctors to confer on this subject; and after they had deliberated, he replied to the Usher: "Tell Brother Martin to give her the communion and all that she shall ask."[2542]

[Footnote 2542: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 158.]

Messire Ma.s.sieu returned to the castle to bear this reply to Brother Martin. For a second time Brother Martin heard Jeanne in confession and gave her absolution.[2543]

[Footnote 2543: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 334.]

A cleric, one Pierre, brought the body of Our Lord in an unceremonious fas.h.i.+on, on a paten covered with the cloth used to put over the chalice, without lights or procession, without surplice or stole.[2544]

[Footnote 2544: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 334. De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le proces_, pp. 116, 117.]

This did not please Brother Martin, who sent to fetch a stole and candles.

Then, taking the consecrated host in his fingers and presenting it to Jeanne, he said: "Do you believe this to be the body of Christ?"

"Yes, and it alone is able to deliver me."

And she entreated that it should be given to her.

"Do you still believe in your Voices?" asked the officiating priest.

"I believe in G.o.d alone, and will place no trust in the Voices who have thus deceived me."[2545]

[Footnote 2545: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 482, 483 (information procured after Jeanne's death).]

And shedding many tears she received the body of Our Lord very devoutly. Then to G.o.d, to the Virgin Mary and to the saints she offered prayers beautiful and reverent and gave such signs of repentance that those present were moved to tears.[2546]

[Footnote 2546: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 308, 320; vol. iii, pp. 114, 158, 183, 197.]

Contrite and sorrowful she said to Maitre Pierre Maurice:[2547] "Maitre Pierre, where shall I be this evening?"

[Footnote 2547: For Jeanne's communion see also De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le proces_, pp. 116-117.]

"Do you not trust in the Lord?" asked the canon.

"Yea, G.o.d helping me, I shall be in Paradise."[2548]

[Footnote 2548: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 191.]

Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur exhorted her to correct the error she had caused to grow up among the people.

"To this end you must openly declare that you have been deceived and have deceived the folk and that you humbly ask pardon."

Then, fearing lest she might forget when the time came for her to be publicly judged, she asked Brother Martin to put her in mind of this matter and of others touching her salvation.[2549]

[Footnote 2549: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 485. Maitre N. Taquel would lead us to believe that the interrogatories took place after Jeanne's communion, but this can hardly be admitted.]

Maitre Loiseleur went away giving signs of violent grief. Walking through the streets like a madman, he was howled at by the _G.o.dons_.[2550]

[Footnote 2550: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 320; vol. iii, p. 162.]

It was about nine o'clock in the morning when Brother Martin and Messire Ma.s.sieu took Jeanne out of the prison, wherein she had been in bonds one hundred and seventy-eight days. She was placed in a cart, and, escorted by eighty men-at-arms, was driven along the narrow streets to the Old Market Square, close to the River.[2551] This square was bordered on the east by a wooden market-house, the butcher's market, on the west by the cemetery of Saint-Sauveur, on the edge of which, towards the square, stood the church of Saint-Sauveur.[2552] In this place three scaffolds had been raised, one against the northern gable of the market-house; and in its erection several tiles of the roof had been broken.[2553] On this scaffold Jeanne was to be stationed, there to listen to the sermon. Another and a larger scaffold had been erected adjoining the cemetery. There the judges and the prelates were to sit.[2554] The p.r.o.nouncing of sentence in a religious trial was an act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. For the place of its p.r.o.nouncement the Inquisitor and the Ordinary preferred consecrated territory, holy ground. True it is that a bull of Pope Lucius forbade such sentences to be given in churches and cemeteries; but the judges eluded this rule by recommending the secular arm to modify its sentence. The third scaffold, opposite the second, was of plaster, and stood in the middle of the square, on the spot whereon executions usually took place. On it was piled the wood for the burning. On the stake which surmounted it was a scroll bearing the words:

"Jehanne, who hath caused herself to be called the Maid, a liar, pernicious, deceiver of the people, soothsayer, superst.i.tious, a blasphemer against G.o.d, presumptuous, miscreant, boaster, idolatress, cruel, dissolute, an invoker of devils, apostate, schismatic, and heretic."[2555]

[Footnote 2551: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 369.]

[Footnote 2552: Bouquet, _Rouen aux differentes epoques de son histoire_, pp. 25 _et seq._ A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, pp. 374, 375. De Beaurepaire, _Memoires sur le lieu du supplice de Jeanne d'Arc_, with plan of the Old Market Square of Rouen according to the _Livre de fontaine de 1525_, Rouen, 1867, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 2553: De Beaurepaire, _Note sur la prise du chateau de Rouen, par Ricarville_, Rouen, 1857, in 8vo, p. 5.]

[Footnote 2554: Bouquet, _Jeanne d'Arc au chateau de Rouen_, p. 25. De Beaurepaire, _Memoire sur le lieu du supplice de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 32.

A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, pp. 376 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2555: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 459.]

The square was guarded by one hundred and sixty men-at-arms. A crowd of curious folk pressed behind the guards, the windows were filled and the roofs covered with onlookers. Jeanne was brought on to the scaffold which had its back to the market-house gable. She wore a long gown and hood.[2556] Maitre Nicolas Midi, doctor in theology, came up on to the same platform and began to preach to her.[2557] As the text of his sermon he took the words of the Apostle in the first Epistle to the Corinthians:[2558] "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." Jeanne patiently listened to the sermon.[2559]

[Footnote 2556: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 470; vol. ii, pp. 14, 303, 328; vol. iii, pp. 159, 173.]

[Footnote 2557: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 470; vol. ii, p. 334; vol. iii, pp.

53, 114, 159.]

[Footnote 2558: Chapter xii, 26 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2559: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 194.]

Then my Lord of Beauvais, in his own name and that of the Vice-Inquisitor, p.r.o.nounced the sentence.

He declared Jeanne to be a relapsed heretic.

"We declare that thou, Jeanne, art a corrupt member, and in order that thou mayest not infect the other members, we are resolved to sever thee from the unity of the Church, to tear thee from its body, and to deliver thee to the secular power. And we reject thee, we tear thee out, we abandon thee, beseeching this same secular power, that touching death and the mutilation of the limbs, it may be pleased to moderate its sentence...."[2560]

[Footnote 2560: _Ibid._, p. 159.]

By this formula, the ecclesiastical judge withdrew from any share in the violent death of a fellow creature: _Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine_.[2561] But every one knew how much such an entreaty was worth; and all were aware that if the impossible had happened and the magistrate had granted it, he would have been subject to the same penalties as the heretic. Things had now come to such a pa.s.s that had the city of Rouen belonged to King Charles, he himself could not have saved the Maid from the stake.

[Footnote 2561: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p.

374.]

When the sentence was announced Jeanne breathed heart-rending sighs.

Weeping bitterly, she fell on her knees, commended her soul to G.o.d, to Our Lady, to the blessed saints of Paradise, many of whom she mentioned by name. Very humbly did she ask for mercy from all manner of folk, of whatsoever rank or condition, of her own party and of the enemy's, entreating them to forgive the wrong she had done them and to pray for her. She asked pardon of her judges, of the English, of King Henry, of the English princes of the realm. Addressing all the priests there present she besought each one to say a ma.s.s for the salvation of her soul.[2562]

[Footnote 2562: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 19; vol. iii, p. 177.]

Thus for one half hour did she continue with sighs and tears to give expression to the sentiments of humiliation and contrition with which the clerics had inspired her.[2563]

[Footnote 2563: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 351.]