Thursday, February 22nd, the Castle of Rouen (France).
The Bishop and 48 Assessors Present.
In their presence, We showed that Jean Lemaître, Deputy of the Chief Inquisitor, had been summoned and required by Us to join himself to the present Action . ..
Then the said Jeanne was brought before Us.
"How old were you when you left your father's house?"
"On the subject of my age I cannot vouch."
"In your youth, did you learn any trade?"
"Yes, I learnt to spin and to sew; in sewing and spinning I fear no woman in Rouen. For dread of the Burgundians, I left my father's house and went to the town of Neufchateau in Lorraine, to the house of a woman named La Rousse, where I stayed about fifteen days. When I was at home with my father, I employed myself with the ordinary cares of the house. I did not go to the fields with the sheep and the other animals. Every year I confessed myself to my own confessor, and, when he was prevented, to another Priest with his permission. Sometimes, also, two or three times, I confessed to the Mendicant Friars. At Easter I received the Sacrament of the Eucharist."
“I was thirteen when I had a Voice from God for my help and guidance. The first time that I heard this Voice, I was very much frightened; it was mid-day, in the summer, in my father's garden. I had not fasted the day before.
“I believe it was sent me from God. When I heard it for the third time, I recognized that it was the Voice of an Angel. This Voice has always guarded me well, and I have always understood it; it instructed me to be good and to go often to Church; it told me it was necessary for me to come into France . ... It said to me two or three times a week: 'You must go into France.' My father knew nothing of my going. The Voice said to me: 'Go into France !' I could stay no longer. It said to me: 'Go, raise the siege which is being made before the City of Orleans. Go!' it added, 'to Robert de Baudricourt, Captain of Vaucouleurs: he will furnish you with an escort to accompany you.' And I replied that I was but a poor girl, who knew nothing of riding or fighting. I went to my uncle and said that I wished to stay near him for a time. I remained there eight days. I said to him, 'I must go to Vaucouleurs.' He took me there. When I arrived, I recognized Robert de Baudricourt, although I had never seen him. I knew him, thanks to my Voice, which made me recognize him. I said to Robert, 'I must go into France!' Twice Robert refused to hear me, and repulsed me. The third time, he received me, and furnished me with men; the Voice had told me it would be thus. . . . From Vaucouleurs I departed, dressed as a man, armed with a sword given me by Robert de Baudricourt, but without other arms. I had with me a Knight, a Squire, and four servants, with whom I reached the town of Saint Urbain, where I slept in an Abbey.”
"Who counseled you to take a man's dress?"
To this question she several times refused to answer. "In the end, she said: "With that I charge no one."
Many times she varied in her answers to this question. Then she said:
" It was necessary for me to change my woman's garments for a man's dress. My counsel spoke well on this.
"I sent a letter to the English before Orleans, to make them leave, as may be seen in a copy of my letter which has been read to me in this City of Rouen ;
Here a letter was read from Jeanne to our Lord the King, to the Duke of Bedford, and others, of the following tenor :
"Jhesus Maria."
"King of England; and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself Regent of the Kingdom of France; give satisfaction to the King of Heaven: give up to the Maid, who is sent hither by God, the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good towns in France which you have taken, and broken into. She is come here by the order of God to reclaim the Blood Royal. She is quite ready to make peace, if you are willing to give her satisfaction, by giving and paying back to France what you have taken. And as for you, archers, companions-in-arms, gentlemen and others who are before the town of Orleans, return to your own countries, by God's order; and if this be not done, then hear the message of the Maid, who will shortly come upon you, to your very great hurt. King of England, I am a Chieftain of war and, if this be not done, whereever I find your followers in France, I will make them leave, willingly or unwillingly; if they will not obey, I will have them put to death. I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven, body for body, to drive them all out of the whole of France. And if they will obey, I will have mercy on them. And do not think to yourselves that you will get possession of the realm of France from God the King of Heaven, Son of the Blessed Mary; for King Charles will gain it, the true heir: and God, the King of Heaven, so wills it, and it is revealed to him [the King] by the Maid, and he will enter Paris with a good company. . .. Written this Tuesday in Holy Week, March 22nd, 1428."
"Do you know this letter ?"
"Yes, excepting three words. In place of 'give up to the Maid,' it should be 'give up to the King.' The words 'Chieftain of war' and 'body for body' were not in the letter I sent. None of the Lords ever dictated these letters to me; it was I myself alone who dictated them before sending them. . . . Before seven years are passed, the English will lose a greater wager than they have already done at Orleans; they will lose everything in France. (The English lost Paris in 1436.) The English will have in France a greater loss than they have ever had, and that by a great victory which God will send to the French."
Then, by Our order, she was questioned by Maître Jean Beaupère, a well-known Doctor, as follows:
"In your youth, did you play in the fields with the other children?"
"I certainly went sometimes, I do not know at what age."
"Do the Domremy people side with the Burgundians or with the opposite party?"
"I knew only one Burgundian at Domremy: I should have been quite willing for them to cut off his head - always had it pleased God."
"The Maxey people, were they Burgundians, or opposed to the Burgundians?"
"They were Burgundians. As soon as I knew that my Voices were for the King of France, I loved the Burgundians no more. The Burgundians will have war unless they do what they ought; I know it by my Voice. The English were already in France when my Voices began to come to me. I do not remember being with the children of Domremy when they went to fight against those of Maxey for the French side : but I certainly saw the Domremy children who had fought with those of Maxey coming back many times, wounded and bleeding."
"Had you in your youth any intention of fighting the Burgundians?"
"I had a great will and desire that my King should have his own Kingdom."
"What have you to say about a certain tree which is near to your village ?"
"Not far from Domremy there is a tree that they call 'The Ladies' Tree '-others call it 'The Fairies' Tree'; near by, there is a spring where people sick of the fever come to drink, as I have heard, and to seek water to restore their health. I have seen them myself come thus; but I do not know if they were healed. I have heard that the sick, once cured, come to this tree to walk about. It is a beautiful tree, a beech, from which comes the 'beau may.' It belongs to the Seigneur Pierre de Bourlement, Knight. I have sometimes been to play with the young girls, to make garlands for Our Lady of Domremy. Often I have heard the old folk - they are not of my lineage - say that the fairies haunt this tree. I have also heard one of my Godmothers, named Jeanne, wife of the Marie Aubery of Domremy, say that she has seen fairies there; whether it be true, I do not know. As for me, I never saw them that I know of. I have seen the young girls putting garlands on the branches of this tree, and I myself have sometimes put them there with my companions; sometimes we took these garlands away, sometimes we left them. Since I was grown up, I do not remember to have danced there. I may have danced there formerly, with the other children. I have sung there more than danced. When I came before the King, several people asked me if there were not in my country a wood, called the Oak-wood, because there were prophecies (9)....(Merlin had foretold the coming of a maiden out of an oak-wood from Lorraine.) which said that from the neighborhood of this wood would come a maid who should do marvelous things. I put no faith in that."
"Since last Tuesday, have you had any converse with Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret?"
"Yes, but I do not know at what time."
"What day?"
"Yesterday and today; there is never a day that I do not hear them."
"Do you always see them in the same dress?"
"I see them always under the same form, and their heads are richly crowned. I do not speak of the rest of their clothing: I know nothing of their dresses."
"How do you know whether the object that appears to you is male or female?"
"I know well enough. I recognize them by their voices, as they revealed themselves to me; I know nothing but by the revelation and order of God."
"What part of their heads do you see?"
"The face."
"These saints who show themselves to you, have they any hair?"
"It is well to know they have."
"Is there anything between their crowns and their hair?"
"No."
"Is their hair long and hanging down?"
"I know nothing about it. I do not know if they have arms or other members. They speak very well and in very good language; I hear them very well."
"How do they speak if they have no members?"
"I refer me to God. The voice is beautiful, sweet, and low; it speaks in the French tongue."
"Does not Saint Margaret speak English?''
"Why should she speak English, when she is not on the English side?''
"Did Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret speak to you under the tree of which mention has been made?"
"I know nothing of it."
"Did they speak to you at the spring, which is near the tree?"
"Yes, I have heard them there ; but what they said then, I do not know."
"What have you done with your mandrake?"(4)....(The mandrake was a part of the accepted paraphernalia of a sorcerer.)
"I never have had one. But I have heard that there is one near our home, though I have never seen it. I have heard it is a dangerous and evil thing to keep. I do not know for what it is [used]."
"Where is this mandrake of which you have heard?"
"I have heard that it is in the earth, near the tree of which I spoke before; but I do not know the place. Above this mandrake, there was, it is said, a hazel tree."
"What have you heard said was the use of this mandrake?"
"To make money come: but I do not believe it. My Voice never spoke to me of that."
Monday, March 12th, in the morning; in Jeanne's prison. Present: The Bishop, assisted by Jean Delafontaine, Commissary; Nicholas Midi and Gerard Feuillet; and as their witnesses: Thomas Fiefvet, Pasquier de Vaux, and Nicolas de Houbent.
"Do you think that you did right to go without leave from your father or mother, when you should 'honor your father and mother'?"
"In all things I obeyed them well, except in that of the journey: but afterwards I wrote to them, and they forgave me."
"When you left your father and mother, do you think you sinned?"
"If God commanded, it was right to obey. If God commanded it, had I a hundred fathers and mothers, and had I been a king's daughter, I should have gone."
"Did not your father have dreams about you before your departure?"
"When I was still with my father and mother, my mother told me many times that my father had spoken of having dreamed that I, Jeannette, his daughter, went away with the men-at-arms. My father and mother took great care to keep me safe, and held me much in subjection. I obeyed them in everything, except in the case at Toul - the action for marriage. I have heard my mother say that my father told my brothers 'Truly, if I thought this thing would happen that I have dreamed about my daughter, I would wish you to drown her; and, if you would not do it, I would drown her myself!' He nearly lost his senses when I went to Vaucouleurs."
"Did your Godmother who saw the fairies pass as a wise woman?"
"She was held and considered a good and honest woman, neither divineress nor sorceress."
"Before today, did you believe fairies were evil spirits?"
"I know nothing about it."
"Do you know if Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret hate the English?"
"They love what God loves: they hate what God hates."
"Does God hate the English?"
"Of the love or hate God may have for the English, or of what He will do for their souls, I know nothing; but I know quite well that they will be put out of France, except those who shall die there, and that God will send victory to the French against the English."
"Was God for the English when they were prospering in France?"
"I do not know if God hated the French; but I believe that He wished them to be defeated for their sins, if they were in sin."
[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.] ..
The Accused made herself a diviner; she caused herself to be adored and venerated; she had invoked demons, and evil spirits; consulted them, associated with them, had made and had with them compacts, treaties, and conventions, had made use of them.
"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."
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 had herself said that she learned from several, notably from her godmother, many things touching her visions and the apparitions of fairies..
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.
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. "
Jeanne asked of Robert de Baudricourt to have made for her a man's dress and armor appropriate. These garments and armor made and furnished, Jeanne, rejecting and abandoning women's clothing, her hair cut en-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.
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, such as dressing herself in the garments of a man, short, tight, dissolute, those underneath as well as above. . . . 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 men of good morals, wearing ornaments and garments which only profligate men are accustomed to use, and going so far as to carry arms.”
"What have you to say to this Article?"
"I have not blasphemed God nor His Saints."
"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."
She had 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?"
As to the women's work of which you speak, there are plenty of other women to do it."
In contempt of the orders of God and the Saints, Jeanne, in her presumption and pride, had gone so far as to take command over men; she had made herself commander-in-chief and had under her orders nearly 16,000 men, among whom were Princes, Barons, and a number of Gentlemen: she had 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."
Then, in the presence of all the aforenamed, in presence of an immense number of people and Clergy, she did make and utter her recantation and abjuration, following a formula written in French:
“I confess that I have most grievously sinned, in pretending untruthfully to have had revelations and apparitions from God, from the Angels, and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret; in seducing others; in believing foolishly and lightly; in making superstitious divinations; in blaspheming God and His Saints; in breaking the Divine Law, Holy Scripture, and the lawful Canons; in wearing a dissolute habit, misshapen and immodest and against the propriety of nature, and hair clipped 'en ronde' in the style of a man, against all the modesty of the feminine sex; also, in bearing arms in great presumption; in cruelly desiring the effusion of human blood; in saying that all these things I did by the command of God, the Angels, and the aforesaid Saints; in making seditions; and in being idolatrous, by adoring evil spirits and invoking them. . . . . And upon all these things aforesaid I submit to the correction, disposal, amendment, and entire decision of our Holy Mother Church and of your good justice.
"And in sign of this, I have signed this schedule with my signature. (Signed thus): Jehanne +."
After her revocation and her abjuration had been, as has just been said, received by us, the Judges, We, the Bishop, did finally deliver our sentence in these terms:
“Because you have sinned rashly against God and Holy Church, We condemn thee, finally, definitely and for salutary penance, saving Our grace and moderation, to perpetual imprisonment, with the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction, in order that you may bewail your faults, and that you may no more commit [these acts] which you shalt have to bewail hereafter.”
Monday, May 28th, the day following Trinity Sunday.
And because Jeanne was dressed in the dress of a man - that is to say, a short mantle, a hood, a doublet and other effects used by men-although, by our orders, she had, several days before, consented to give up these garments, we asked her when and for what reason she had resumed this dress.
And as We, the Judges, heard from several persons that she had returned to her old illusions on the subject of her pretended revelations, We put to her this question:
"Since last Thursday [the day of her abjuration] have you heard your Voices at all?"
"Yes, I have heard them."
"What did they say to you?"
"They said to me. 'God had sent me word by St. Catherine and St. Margaret of the great pity it is, this treason to which I have consented, to abjure and recant in order to save my life! I have damned myself to save my life!' …. If I said that God had not sent me, I should damn myself, for it is true that God has sent me; my Voices have said to me since Thursday: 'You have done a great evil in declaring that what you have done was wrong.' All I said and revoked, I said for fear of the fire."
I would rather do penance once for all - that is die - than endure any longer the suffering of a prison. I have done nothing against God or the Faith. What was in the schedule of abjuration I did not understand. I did not intend to revoke anything except according to God's good pleasure. If the Judges wish, I will resume a woman's dress; for the rest, I can do no more."
After hearing this, We left her, to act and proceed later according to law and reason.
She was placed upon a scaffold or platform.
We, Pierre, by the Divine Mercy, Bishop of Beauvais, and We, Brother Jean Lemaitre, Deputy of the renowned Doctor, Jean Graverend, Inquisitor of the Evil of Heresy,. . . after mature deliberation and counsel of a great number of Doctors, We have at last proceeded to the Final Sentence in these terms:
“O, shame! -that, as the dog returns again to his vomit, so have you returned to your errors and crimes; and it had been proved to us in a most certain manner that you have renounced thy guilty inventions and thy errors only in a lying manner, not in a sincere and faithful spirit. For these causes, declaring you fallen again into your old errors, and under the sentence of excommunication which you have formerly incurred, WE DECREE THAT YOU ART A RELAPSED HERETIC, by our present sentence which, seated in tribunal, we utter and pronounce in this writing; we denounce thee as a rotten member, and that you may not vitiate others, as cast out from the unity of the Church, separate from her Body, abandoned to the secular power as, indeed, by these presents, we do cast thee off, separate and abandon thee; - praying this same secular power, so far as concerns death and the mutilation of the limbs, to moderate its judgment towards thee, and, if true signs of penitence should appear in thee, [to permit] that the Sacrament of Penance be administered to thee.
Here follows the Sentence of Excommunication
FROM TRIAL OF REHABILITATION
After Jeanne had confessed and partaken of the Sacrament of the Altar, sentence was given against her, and she was declared heretic and excommunicate.
I saw and clearly perceived, because I was there all the time, helping at the whole deduction and conclusion of the Case, that the secular Judge did not condemn her, either to death or to burning; and although the lay and secular Judge had appeared and was present in the same place where she was last preached to and given over to the secular authority, she was, entirely without judgment or conclusion of the said Judge, delivered into the hands of the executioner, and burnt it being said to the executioner, simply and without other sentence: "Do thy duty."
Jeanne had, at the end, so great contrition and such beautiful penitence that it was a thing to be admired, saying such pitiful, devout, and Catholic words, that those who saw her in great numbers wept, and that the Cardinal of England and many other English were forced to weep and to feel compassion.
As I was near her at the end, the poor woman besought and humbly begged me to go into the Church near by and bring her the Cross, to hold it upright on high before her eyes until the moment of death, so that the Cross on which God was hanging might be in life continually before her eyes.
Being in the flames, she ceased not to call in a loud voice the Holy Name of Jesus, imploring and invoking without ceasing the aid of the Saints in Paradise; again, what is more, in giving up the ghost and bending her head, she uttered the Name of Jesus as a sign that she was fervent in the Faith of God, just as we read of Saint Ignatius and of many other Martyrs.
Immediately after the execution, the executioner came to me and to my companion, Brother Martin Ladvenu, stricken and moved with a marvelous repentance and terrible contrition, quite desperate and fearing never to obtain pardon and indulgence from God for what he had done to this holy woman. And the executioner said and affirmed that, notwithstanding the oil, the sulfur, and the charcoal which he had applied to the entrails and heart of the said Jeanne, in no way had he been able to burn them up, nor reduce to cinders either the entrails or the heart, at which he was much astonished, as a most evident miracle.
Many of those who appeared in the Court did so more from love of the English and the favor they bore them than on account of true zeal for justice and the Catholic Faith. In the extreme prejudice of Messire Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, there were, I assert, two proofs of ill-feeling: the first, when the Bishop, acting as Judge, commanded Jeanne to be kept in the secular prison and in the hands of her mortal enemies; and although he might easily have had her detained and guarded in an ecclesiastical prison, yet he allowed her, from the beginning of the trial to the end, to be tormented and cruelly treated in a secular prison. Moreover, at the first session or meeting, the Bishop aforesaid asked and required the opinion of all present, as to whether it was more suitable to detain her in the secular ward or in the prisons of the Church. It was decided as more correct that she be kept in ecclesiastical prisons rather than in the secular ; but this the Bishop said he would not do for fear of displeasing the English. The second proof was that on the day when the Bishop and several others declared her a heretic, relapsed, and returned to her evil deeds, because, in prison, she had resumed a man's dress, the Bishop, coming out of the prison, met the Earl of Warwick and a great many English with him, to whom he said, laughing, in a loud and clear voice: "Farewell! farewell! it is done; be of good cheer," or such-like words.
The Maid revealed to me that, after her abjuration and recantation, she was violently treated in the prison, molested, beaten, and ill-used; and that an English lord had insulted her. She also said, publicly, that on this account she had resumed a man's dress; and, towards the end, she said to the Bishop of Beauvais: "Alas! I die through you, for had you given me over to be kept in the prisons of the Church, I should not have been here!"