Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France: Being the Story of Her Life, Her Achievements, and Her Death, as Attested on Oath and Set Forth in the Original Documents
History
Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France: Being the Story of Her Life, Her Achievements, and Her Death, as Attested on Oath and Set Forth in the Original Documents
Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431 -- Trials, litigation, etc.
I was at the final sermon in the Old Market Place, at Rouen; I went as
Bailly, for whom I was then acting as deputy. The sentence by which
Jeanne was handed over to the civil authorities was read; and, as soon
as it was pronounced,—at once, without any interval of handing her over
to the Bailly, without more ado, and before either the Bailly or myself,
whose office it was, had given sentence,—the executioner seized her and
took her to the place where the stake was already prepared: and she was
burned. And this I hold was not a right proceeding: for soon after, a
malefactor named George Folenfont was in like manner handed over, by
sentence, from the ecclesiastical to the civil authorities; and, after
the sentence, the said George was conducted to the Cohue,[207] and there
condemned by the secular justice, instead of being immediately conducted
to execution.
I think Jeanne died as a Catholic, for, in dying, she cried on the name
of the Lord Jesus. She was very devout, and nearly all present were
moved to tears. After she was dead, the ashes that remained were
collected by the executioner and thrown into the Seine.
JEAN RICQUIER, _Priest, Chaplain in the Cathedral of Rouen, and Curé of
the Church at Hendicourt_.
I first saw Jeanne at the sermon at Saint Ouen, and again at the Old
Market. I was then about twenty.
At the time when Jeanne was brought to Rouen, I was in the choir of the
Cathedral, and sometimes heard of the Trial from the Clergy of the
Cathedral.
I was present at the sermon in the Old Market, on the day Jeanne died. I
know she was handed over by the ecclesiastical authorities. I saw the
English followers and soldiers seize her, and lead her immediately to
the place of execution; nor did I see any sentence read by the secular
authorities.
On that morning, before the sermon, Maître Pierre Maurice came to visit
her; to whom she said, “Maître Pierre, where shall I be this evening?”
Maître Pierre replied, “Have you not a good hope in God?” She answered
that she had; and that, God willing, she would be in Paradise. This I
heard from the aforesaid Maître Pierre. When Jeanne saw that they were
setting fire to the pile, she began to say, with a loud voice, “Jesus!”
and constantly, to the end, she cried, “Jesus!”
And after she was dead, because the English feared that people would say
she had escaped, they ordered the executioner to part the flames a
little, in order that those present might see she was dead. I was near
to Maître Jean Alépée, at that time Canon of Rouen, and heard him say
these words, weeping greatly: “God grant that my soul may be in the
place where I believe this woman’s to be!”
JEAN MOREAU, _Visitor in the city of Rouen_.
I live at Rouen; but I came from Viville, in Bassigny,—not far from
Domremy, where Jeanne was born.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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