J.--'In my home I was called Jeannette. Since I came to France I was
called Joan. I have no surname.'
C.--'Where were you born?'
J.--'At Domremy, near Greux. The principal church is at Greux.'
C.--'What are your parents' names?'
J.--'My father's name is James d'Arc; my mother's, Isabella.'
C.--'Where were you baptized?'
J.--'At Domremy.'
Cauchon then asked her the names of her god-parents, who baptized her,
her age (she was about nineteen), and what her education amounted to.
'I have learnt,' Joan said, in answer to the last question, 'from my
mother the Paternoster, the Ave Maria, and the Belief. All that I know
has been taught me by my mother.'
Cauchon then called upon her to repeat the Lord's Prayer.
In trials for heresy the prisoners had to repeat this prayer before
the judges. At the commencement of Joan of Arc's trial the crime of
magic was brought against her, but as Cauchon completely failed to
find any evidence for such a charge against his prisoner, he altered
the charge of magic into one of heresy. It was probably supposed that
a heretic would be unable to repeat the prayer and the creed, being
under diabolic influence.
Joan of Arc then asked whether she might make her confession before
the tribunal. Cauchon refused this request, but told her that he would
send some one to whom she might confess. He then warned her that if
she were to leave her prison she would be condemned as a heretic.
Considering the way she was chained to her cell, it sounds strange
that Cauchon should fear her flight.
'I have never,' the Maid said, 'given my promise not to attempt to
escape if I can.'
'Have you anything to complain about?' asked the Bishop; and Joan then
said how cruelly she was fastened by chains round her body and her
feet. Probably, had she then promised not to escape from prison, this
severity would have been relaxed, but Joan of Arc had not the spirit
to stoop to her persecutors; she would not give her word not to get
free if she could. 'The hope of escape is allowed to every prisoner,'
she bravely said.
At the close of the sitting, John Gris, the English knight who had the
chief charge over the prisoner, with the two soldiers Berwoit and
Talbot, were called, and took an oath not to allow the prisoner to see
any one without Cauchon's permission, and to strictly guard the
prisoner. And with that the first day's trial ended.
Manchon, in his minutes on the day's proceedings, says that shouts and
interruptions interfered with the reporters and their notes, and that
Joan of Arc was repeatedly interrupted. Cauchon had placed some of his
clerks behind the tapestry in the depth of a window of the chapel,
whose duty it was to make a garbled copy of Joan of Arc's answers to
suit the Bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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