And Manchon, the clerk, wrote on the margin of his record: "Responsio
mortifera." "The answer that caused her death."
"Do you believe that your Voices are St. Margaret and St. Catherine?"
"Yes, I do believe it," she cried gladly. "And I believe that they come
from God. I would rather do penance once for all; that is to say, in
dying, than endure any longer the misery of a prison. I have done nothing
against God and the faith, in spite of all they have made me revoke. What
was in the schedule of abjuration I did not understand. I did not intend
to revoke anything except according to our Lord's pleasure. If the judges
will have me do so, I will resume woman's dress; for the rest, I can do
no more."
It was enough. She had relapsed, and the will of her enemies could now be
accomplished. The next day Cauchon assembled his assessors in the chapel
of his house, the palace of the Archbishop of Rouen. They all agreed that
Jeanne must be handed over to the secular arm of the Church, praying that
it "might deal gently with her." If she showed signs of sincere
penitence, she was to be allowed to receive the sacrament of confession
so long denied to her. Then the Maid was cited to appear the next morning
at eight o'clock in the Old Market Place, "in order that she may be
declared relapsed, excommunicate, and heretic, and that it may be done to
her as is customary in such cases."
Very early on Wednesday morning, May the thirtieth, Brother Martin
Ladvenu went to the cell to tell the Maid of her approaching death, and
"to lead her to true contrition and repentance, and also to hear her
confession."
Terrified and trembling, Jeanne received the announcement with bitter
weeping; her heart failing before the imminence of the stake. She was
but a girl, and it was a terrible ordeal that lay before her. What wonder
that she wept?
"Alas!" she cried, "will they treat me so horribly and cruelly, and must
my body, which has never been corrupted, be burned to ashes to-day! Ah! I
would far rather be beheaded seven times than burned. Had I been in the
prison of the Church, to which I submitted, and been guarded by
church-folk, and not by my enemies and adversaries, this would never have
befallen me. Oh, I appeal before God, the great Judge, against these
wrongs that they do me."
In the midst of the girl's outburst, Cauchon entered the cell. She turned
upon him quickly.
"Bishop, I die through you."
"Ah, Jeanne, be patient. You die because you have not kept your promise,
but have returned to errors."
"If you had put me in the Church's prison, and given me women for
keepers, this would not have happened. For this I summon you before
God."
"Now then, Jeanne, did not your Voices promise you deliverance?"
"Yes;" she admitted sadly.
"Then you must perceive that they are evil and come not from God. Had
this not been true they would not have deceived you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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