The Life of Joan of Arc Part 96

[Footnote 2183: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 117, 300.]

Sundry clerks introduced into her prison gave her to believe that they were men-at-arms of the party of Charles of Valois.[2184] In order to deceive her, the Promoter himself, Maitre Jean d'Estivet, disguised himself as a poor prisoner.[2185] One of the canons of Rouen, who was summoned to the trial, by name Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur, would seem to have been especially inventive of devices for the discovery of Jeanne's heresies. A native of Chartres, he was not only a master of arts, but was greatly renowned for astuteness. In 1427 and 1428 he carried through difficult negotiations, which detained him long months in Paris. In 1430 he was one of those deputed by the chapter to go to the Cardinal of Winchester in order to obtain an audience of King Henry and commend to him the church of Rouen. Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur was therefore a _persona grata_ with the Great Council.[2186]

[Footnote 2184: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 362.]

[Footnote 2185: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 63.]

[Footnote 2186: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 72-82. A.

Sorel, _loc. cit._, pp. 243, 247.]

Having concerted with the Bishop of Beauvais and the Earl of Warwick, he entered Jeanne's prison, wearing a short jacket like a layman. The guards had been instructed to withdraw; and Maitre Nicolas, left alone with his prisoner, confided to her that he, like herself, was a native of the Lorraine Marches, a shoemaker by trade, one who held to the French party and had been taken prisoner by the English. From King Charles he brought her tidings which were the fruit of his own imagination. No one was dearer to Jeanne than her King. Thus having won her confidence, the pseudo-shoemaker asked her sundry questions concerning the angels and saints who visited her. She answered him confidingly, speaking as friend to friend, as countryman to countryman. He gave her counsel, advising her not to believe all these churchmen and not to do all that they asked her; "For," he said, "if thou believest in them thou shalt be destroyed."

Many a time, we are told, did Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur act the part of the Lorraine shoemaker. Afterwards he dictated to the registrars all that Jeanne had said, providing thus a valuable source of information of which a memorandum was made to be used during the examination. It would even appear that during certain of these visits the registrars were stationed at a peep-hole in an adjoining room.[2187] If we may believe the rumours current in the town, Maitre Nicolas also disguised himself as Saint Catherine, and by this means brought Jeanne to say all that he wanted.

[Footnote 2187: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 10, 342; vol. iii, pp. 140, 141, 156, 160 _et seq._]

He may not have been proud of such deceptions, but at any rate he made no secret of them.[2188] Many famous masters approved him; others censured him.[2189]

[Footnote 2188: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 181.]

[Footnote 2189: _Ibid._, p. 141.]

The angel of the schools, Thomas de Courcelles, when Nicolas told him of his disguises, counselled him to abandon them.

Afterwards the registrars pretended that it had been extremely repugnant to them thus to overhear in hiding a conversation so craftily contrived. The golden age of inquisitorial justice must have been well over when so strict a doctor as Maitre Thomas was willing thus to criticise the most solemn forms of that justice. Inquisitorial proceedings must indeed have fallen into decay when two notaries of the Church dream of eluding its most common prescriptions. The clerks who disguised themselves as soldiers, the Promoter who took on the semblance of a poor prisoner, were exercising the most regular functions of the judicial system inst.i.tuted by Innocent III.

In acting the shoemaker and Saint Catherine, if he were seeking the salvation and not the destruction of the sinner, if, contrary to public report, far from inciting her to rebellion, he was reducing her to obedience, if, in short, he were but deceiving her for her own temporal and spiritual good, Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur was proceeding in conformity with established rules. In the _Tractatus de Haeresi_ it is written: "Let no man approach the heretic, save from time to time two persons of faith and tact, who may warn him with precaution and as having compa.s.sion upon him, to eschew death by confessing his errors, and who may promise him that by so doing he shall escape death by fire; for the fear of death, and the hope of life may peradventure soften a heart which could be touched in no other wise."[2190]

[Footnote 2190: _Tractatus de haeresi pauperum de Lugduno_, apud Martene, _Thesaurus anecd._, vol. v, col. 1787. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 131, 132.]

The duty of registrars was laid down in the following manner:

"Matters shall be ordained thus, that certain persons shall be stationed in a suitable place so as to surprise the confidences of heretics and to overhear their words."[2191]

[Footnote 2191: Eymeric, _Directorium_, part iii, _Cautelae inquisitorum contra haereticorum cavilationes et fraudes_.]

As for the Bishop of Beauvais, who had ordained and permitted such procedure, he found his justification and approbation in the words of the Apostle Saint Paul to the Corinthians: "I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile." "_Ego vos non gravavi; sed c.u.m essem astutus, dolo vos cepi_" (II Corinthians xii, 16).[2192]

[Footnote 2192: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition en France_, p. 394.]

Meanwhile, when Jeanne saw the Promoter, Jean d'Estivet, in his churchman's habit she did not recognise him. And Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur also often came to her in monkish dress. In this guise he inspired her with great confidence; she confessed to him devoutly and had no other confessor.[2193] She saw him sometimes as a shoemaker and sometimes as a canon and never perceived that he was the same person.

Wherefore we must indeed believe her to have been incredibly simple in certain respects; and these great theologians must have realised that it was not difficult to deceive her.

[Footnote 2193: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 10, 342.]

It was well known to all men versed in science, divine and human, that the Enemy never entered into dealings with a maid without depriving her of her virginity.[2194] At Poitiers the French clerks had thought of it, and when Queen Yolande a.s.sured them that Jeanne was a virgin, they ceased to fear that she was sent by the devil.[2195] The Lord Bishop of Beauvais in a different hope awaited a similar examination.

The d.u.c.h.ess of Bedford herself went to the prison. She was a.s.sisted by Lady Anna Bavon and another matron. It has been said that the Regent was hidden meanwhile in an adjoining room and looking through a hole in the wall.[2196] This is by no means certain, but it is not impossible; he was at Rouen a fortnight after Jeanne had been brought there.[2197] Whether the charge were groundless or well founded he was seriously reproached for this curiosity. If there were many who in his place would have been equally curious, every one must judge for himself; but we must bear in mind that my Lord of Bedford believed Jeanne a witch, and that it was not the custom in those days to treat witches with the respect due to ladies. We must remember also that this was a matter in which Old England was greatly concerned, and the Regent loved his country with all his heart and all his strength.

[Footnote 2194: Vallet de Viriville, _Nouvelles recherches sur Agnes Sorel_, pp. 33 _et seq._ Du Cange, _Glossaire_, at the word _Matrimonium_.]

[Footnote 2195: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 102, 209.]

[Footnote 2196: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 155, 163.]

[Footnote 2197: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 40.]

Upon the examination of the d.u.c.h.ess of Bedford as upon that of the Queen of Sicily Jeanne appeared a virgin. The matrons knew various signs of virginity; but for us a more certain sign is Jeanne's own word. When she was asked wherefore she called herself the Maid, whether she were one in reality, she replied: "I may tell you that such I am."[2198] The judges, as far as we know, set no store by this favourable result of the examination. Did they believe with the wise King Solomon that in such matters all inquiry is vain, and did they reject the matrons' verdict by virtue of the saying: _Virginitatis probatio non minus difficilis quam custodia_? No, they knew well that she was indeed a virgin. They allowed it to be understood when they did not a.s.sert the contrary.[2199] And since they persisted in believing her a witch, it must have been because they imagined her to have given herself to devils who had left her as they found her. The morals of devils abounded in such inconsistencies, which were the despair of the most learned doctors; every day new inconsistencies were being discovered.

[Footnote 2198: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 175.]

[Footnote 2199: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 217, 218.]

On Sat.u.r.day, the 13th of January, the Lord Abbot of Fecamp, the doctors and masters, Nicolas de Venderes, Guillaume Haiton, Nicolas Coppequesne, Jean de la Fontaine, and Nicolas Loiseleur, met in the house of the Lord Bishop. There was read to them the information concerning the Maid gathered in Lorraine and elsewhere. And it was decided that according to this information a certain number of articles should be drawn up in due form; which was done.[2200]

[Footnote 2200: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 27, 28.]

On Tuesday, the 23rd of January, the doctors and masters above named considered the terms of these articles, and, finding them sufficient, they decided that they might be used for the examination. Then they resolved that the Bishop of Beauvais should order a preliminary inquiry as to the deeds and sayings of Jeanne.[2201]

[Footnote 2201: _Ibid._, pp. 28, 29.]

On Tuesday, the 13th of February, Jean d'Estivet, called Benedicite, Promoter, Jean de la Fontaine, Commissioner, Boisguillaume and Manchon, Registrars, and Jean Ma.s.sieu, Usher, took the oath faithfully to discharge their various offices. Then straightway Maitre Jean de la Fontaine, a.s.sisted by two registrars, proceeded to the preliminary inquiry.[2202]

[Footnote 2202: _Ibid._, pp. 29, 31.]

On Monday, the 19th of February, at eight o'clock in the morning, the doctors and masters a.s.sembled, to the number of eleven, in the house of the Bishop of Beauvais; there they heard the reading of the articles and the preliminary information. Whereupon they gave it as their opinion, and, in conformity with this opinion, the Bishop decided that there was matter sufficient to justify the woman called the Maid being cited and charged touching a question of faith.[2203]

[Footnote 2203: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 31-33.]

But now a fresh difficulty arose. In such a trial it was necessary for the accused to appear at once before the Ordinary and before the Inquisitor. The two judges were equally necessary for the validity of the trial. Now the Grand Inquisitor for the realm of France, Brother Jean Graverent, was then at Saint-Lo, prosecuting on a religious charge a citizen of the town, one Jean Le Couvreur.[2204] In the absence of Brother Jean Graverent, the Bishop of Beauvais had invited the Vice-Inquisitor for the diocese of Rouen to proceed against Jeanne conjointly with himself. Meanwhile the Vice-Inquisitor seemed not to understand; he made no response; and the Bishop was left in embarra.s.sment with his lawsuit on his hands.

[Footnote 2204: _Ibid._, p. 32. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, p.

102. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 24-27. Le P. Chapotin, _La guerre de cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les dominicains_, pp. 141-143.

A. Sarrazin, _P. Cauchon_, p. 124.]

This Vice-Inquisitor was Brother Jean Lemaistre, Prior of the Dominicans of Rouen, bachelor of theology, a monk right prudent and scrupulous.[2205] At length in answer to a summons from the Usher, at four o'clock on the 19th of February, 1413, he appeared in the house of the Bishop of Beauvais. He declared himself ready to intervene provided that he had the right to do so, which he doubted. As the reason for his uncertainty he alleged that he was the Inquisitor of Rouen; now the Bishop of Beauvais was exercising his jurisdiction as bishop of the diocese of Beauvais, but on borrowed territory; wherefore was it not rather for the Inquisitor of Beauvais not for the Inquisitor of Rouen, to sit on the judgment seat side by side with the Bishop?[2206] He declared that he would ask the Grand Inquisitor of France for an authorisation which should hold good for the diocese of Beauvais. Meanwhile he consented to act in order to satisfy his own conscience and to prevent the proceedings from lapsing, which, in the opinion of all, must have ensued had the trial been inst.i.tuted without the concurrence of the Holy Inquisition.[2207] All preliminary difficulties were now removed. The Maid was cited to appear on Wednesday, the 21st of February,[2208] 1431.

[Footnote 2205: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 33.]

[Footnote 2206: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 35. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 394. Doinel, _Memoire de la Societe archeologique-historique de l'Orleanais_, 1892, vol. xxiv, p. 403. Le P. Chapotin, _La guerre de cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les dominicains_, p. 141. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 2207: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 35.]

[Footnote 2208: _Ibid._, pp. 40-42.]

On that day, at eight o'clock in the morning, the Bishop of Beauvais, the Vicar of the Inquisitor, and forty-one Councillors and a.s.sessors a.s.sembled in the castle chapel. Fifteen of them were doctors in theology, five doctors in civil and canon law, six bachelors in theology, eleven bachelors in canon law, four licentiates in civil law. The Bishop sat as judge. At his side were the Councillors and a.s.sessors, clothed either in the fine camlet of canons or in the coa.r.s.e cloth of mendicants, expressive, the one of sacerdotal solemnity, the other of evangelical meekness. Some glared fiercely, others cast down their eyes. Brother Jean Lemaistre, Vice-Inquisitor of the faith, was among them, silent, in the black and white livery of poverty and obedience.[2209]

[Footnote 2209: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 38, 39.]

Before bringing in the accused, the usher informed the Bishop that Jeanne, to whom the citation had been delivered, had replied that she would be willing to appear, but she demanded that an equal number of ecclesiastics of the French party should be added to those of the English party. She requested also the permission to hear ma.s.s.[2210]