To Maître Jean's specific exhortations, touching upon her submission to
the Church, her dress, her visions, and revelations, she gave her old
answers.
"I will say no more," she answered briefly with some impatience, when
they urged her further, and threatened her with the sentence of fire.
"And if I saw the fire, I should say all that I am saying to you, and
naught else."
A week later she was led forth from her cell again, but this time she was
taken to the torture chamber of the great tower, where she found nine of
her judges awaiting her, and was once more adjured to speak the truth,
with the threat of torture if she remained obdurate. But with the rack
and screws before her, and the executioner ready for his work, she said:
"Truly, if you were to tear me limb from limb, and separate soul from
body, I will tell you nothing more; and if I were to say anything else, I
should always declare that you had compelled me to do it by force."
She told them that she had asked her Voices if, hard pressed as she was,
she should submit to the Church.
"If you would have God come to your aid, wait on Him for all your
doings," was their answer.
"Shall I burn?" she had asked them.
"Wait on our Lord. He will help you."
Torture was spared that day, as being likely to profit her little,
"considering her hardness of heart," and she was returned to her cell.
Cauchon afterward put the question of torture to fourteen of his
assessors. Two voted for it: Courcelles, and the spy, Loyseleur, who held
that it might be "a salutary medicine for her soul." The majority,
however, were in favor of mercy, considering that there was enough for
her condemnation without it.
A few days later the decision of the University of Paris, to whom the
twelve articles had been sent, arrived. After an explanation of the
consideration which had been given to each article, that learned tribunal
gave its verdict upon each indictment; concluding with:
"If the beforesaid woman, charitably exhorted and admonished by competent
judges, does not return spontaneously to the Catholic faith, publicly
abjure her errors, and give full satisfaction to her judges, she is
hereby given up to the secular judge to receive the reward of her
deeds."
In accordance with this decision the final session of the court was held
on the twenty-third of May in a small room near Jeanne's cell to hear
Maître Pierre Maurice deliver their final admonition to the captive.
Jeanne listened as always with courtesy to the preacher, though he was
expounding to her all her faults. All this to a girl who had lived with
but one motive: the service of God, and the deliverance of her country.
When he had finished she was again questioned personally. Her answer was
clear and undaunted:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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