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.
_Meeting at the Bishop’s House of several Doctors._
Sunday, March 4th, and the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of the same month, We, the Bishop,
assembled in Our dwelling, many grave Doctors-and Masters-in-law, sacred
and civil, who were charged by Us to collect all that has been confessed
or answered by Jeanne in these Enquiries, and to extract therefrom the
points on which she answered in an incomplete manner, and which seem to
these Doctors susceptible of further examination. This double work
having been effected by them, We, the said Bishop, by the advice of the
said Doctors, decide that there is occasion to proceed to further
enquiries. But because Our numerous occupations do not permit Us to
attend ourselves,[60] we appoint, to proceed therein, the venerable and
discreet person, Jean Delafontaine, Master of Arts and Licentiate in
Canon Law, who will interrogate the said Jeanne in Our name. We have for
this appointed the 9th March, in presence of the Doctors and Masters,
Jean Beaupère, Jacques de Touraine, Nicolas Midi, Pierre Maurice, Thomas
de Courcelles, Nicolas Loyseleur, and Guillaume Manchon.
Saturday, March 10th, We, the Bishop, repaired to the part of the Castle
of Rouen given to Jeanne as a prison, where, being assisted by Maître
Jean Delafontaine, the Commissary appointed by Us, and by the venerable
Doctors and Masters in Theology, Nicolas Midi, and Gerard Feuillet
(witnesses, Jean Fécard, Advocate; and Maître Jean Massieu, Priest), We
summoned Jeanne to make and take oath to speak the truth on what should
be asked of her. She replied:
“I promise to speak truth on what touches your Case; but the more you
constrain me to swear, the later will I tell you.”
Afterwards, the examination of Jeanne by Maître Jean Delafontaine took
place as follows:
“On the faith of the oath you have just taken, from whence had you
started when you went the last time to Compiègne?”
“From Crespy, in Valois.”
“When you were at Compiègne, were you several days before you made your
sally or attack?”
“I arrived there secretly early in the morning,[61] and entered the town
without the enemy knowing anything of it; and that same day, in the
evening, I made the sally in which I was taken.”
“When you made your sally, did they ring the bells?”
“If they did ring them it was not by my order or knowledge; I do not
think it was so, and I do not remember to have said they rang.”
“Did you make this sally by command of your Voice?”
“During the Easter week of last year, being in the trenches of Melun, it
was told me by my Voices—that is to say, by Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret—‘Thou wilt be taken before Saint John’s Day; and so it must be:
do not torment thyself about it: be resigned; God will help thee.’”
“Before this occasion at Melun, had not your Voices ever told you that
you would be taken?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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