Chapter xii

, 26 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2559: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 194.]

Then my Lord of Beauvais, in his own name and that of the Vice-Inquisitor, pronounced the sentence.

He declared Jeanne to be a relapsed heretic.

"We declare that thou, Jeanne, art a corrupt member, and in order that thou mayest not infect the other members, we are resolved to sever thee from the unity of the Church, to tear thee from its body, and to deliver thee to the secular power. And we reject thee, we tear thee out, we abandon thee, beseeching this same secular power, that touching death and the mutilation of the limbs, it may be pleased to moderate its sentence...."[2560]

[Footnote 2560: _Ibid._, p. 159.]

By this formula, the ecclesiastical judge withdrew from any share in the violent death of a fellow creature: _Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine_.[2561] But every one knew how much such an entreaty was worth; and all were aware that if the impossible had happened and the magistrate had granted it, he would have been subject to the same penalties as the heretic. Things had now come to such a pass that had the city of Rouen belonged to King Charles, he himself could not have saved the Maid from the stake.

[Footnote 2561: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p. 374.]

When the sentence was announced Jeanne breathed heart-rending sighs. Weeping bitterly, she fell on her knees, commended her soul to God, to Our Lady, to the blessed saints of Paradise, many of whom she mentioned by name. Very humbly did she ask for mercy from all manner of folk, of whatsoever rank or condition, of her own party and of the enemy's, entreating them to forgive the wrong she had done them and to pray for her. She asked pardon of her judges, of the English, of King Henry, of the English princes of the realm. Addressing all the priests there present she besought each one to say a mass for the salvation of her soul.[2562]

[Footnote 2562: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 19; vol. iii, p. 177.]

Thus for one half hour did she continue with sighs and tears to give expression to the sentiments of humiliation and contrition with which the clerics had inspired her.[2563]

[Footnote 2563: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 351.]

And even now she did not neglect to defend the honour of the fair Dauphin, whom she had so greatly loved.

She was heard to say: "It was never my King who induced me to do anything I have done, either good or evil."[2564]

[Footnote 2564: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 56.]

Many of the bystanders wept. A few English laughed. Certain of the captains, who could make nothing of the edifying ceremonial of ecclesiastical justice, grew impatient. Seeing Messire Massieu in the pulpit and hearing him exhort Jeanne to make a good end, they cried:

"What now, priest! Art thou going to keep us here to dinner?"[2565]

[Footnote 2565: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 6, 20; vol. iii, pp. 53, 177, 186.]

At Rouen, when a heretic was given up to the secular arm, it was customary to take him to the town hall, where the town council made known unto him his sentence.[2566] In Jeanne's case these forms were not observed. The Bailie, Messire le Bouteiller, who was present, waved his hand and said: "Take her, take her."[2567] Straightway, two of the King's sergeants dragged her to the base of the scaffold and placed her in a cart which was waiting. On her head was set a great fool's cap made of paper, on which were written the words: "_Heretique, relapse, apostate, idolatre_"; and she was handed over to the executioner.[2568]

[Footnote 2566: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 188. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 386. Guedon and Ladvenu added to their evidence that not long afterwards a certain Georges Folenfant was also given up to the secular arm. But the Archbishop and the Inquisitor sent Ladvenu to the Bailie "in order to warn him that the said Georges was not to be treated like the Maid who was burned without the pronouncement of any definite and final sentence." _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2567: _Ibid._, p. 344.]

[Footnote 2568: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 459. Yet Martin Ladvenu says "until the last hour," etc., which is obviously false.]

A bystander heard her saying: "Ah! Rouen, sorely do I fear that thou mayest have to suffer for my death."[2569]

[Footnote 2569: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 53.]

She evidently still regarded herself as the messenger from Heaven, the angel of the realm of France. Possibly the illusion, so cruelly reft from her, returned at last to enfold her in its beneficent veil. At any rate, she appears to have been crushed; all that remained to her was an infinite horror of death and a childlike piety.

The ecclesiastical judges had barely time to descend and flee from a spectacle which they could not have witnessed without violating the laws of clerical procedure. They were all weeping: the Lord Bishop of Therouanne, Chancellor of England, had his eyes full of tears. The Cardinal of Winchester, who was said never to enter a church save to pray for the death of an enemy,[2570] had pity on this damsel so woeful and so contrite. Brother Pierre Maurice, the canon who was a reader of the AEneid, could not keep back his tears. All the priests who had delivered her to the executioner were edified to see her make so holy an end. That is what Maitre Jean Alespee meant when he sighed: "I would that my soul were where I believe the soul of that woman to be."[2571] To himself and the hapless sufferer he applied the following lines from the _Dies irae_:

_Qui Mariam absolvisti, Mihi quoque spem dedisti._[2572]

[Footnote 2570: Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 1, act i, scene 1.]

[Footnote 2571: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 6; vol. iii, pp. 53, 191, 375.]

[Footnote 2572: _Missel Romain, Office des morts._ Cf. Le P. C. Clair, _Le Dies irae, histoire, traduction et commentaire_, Paris, in 8vo, 1881, pp. 38-142.]

But none the less he must have believed that by her heresies and her obstinacy she had brought death on herself.

The two young friars preachers and the Usher Massieu accompanied Jeanne to the stake.

She asked for a cross. An Englishman made a tiny one out of two pieces of wood, and gave it to her. She took it devoutly and put it in her bosom, on her breast. Then she besought Brother Isambart to go to the neighbouring church to fetch a cross, to bring it to her and hold it before her, so that as long as she lived, the cross on which God was crucified should be ever in her sight.

Massieu asked a priest of Saint-Sauveur for one, and it was brought. Jeanne weeping kissed it long and tenderly, and her hands held it while they were free.[2573]

[Footnote 2573: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 6, 20.]

As she was being bound to the stake she invoked the aid of Saint Michael; and now at length no examiner was present to ask her whether it were really he she saw in her father's garden. She prayed also to Saint Catherine.[2574]

[Footnote 2574: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 170.]

When she saw a light put to the stake, she cried loudly, "Jesus!" This name she repeated six times.[2575] She was also heard asking for holy water.[2576]

[Footnote 2575: _Ibid._, p. 186.]

[Footnote 2576: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 8; vol. iii, pp. 169, 194.]

It was usual for the executioner, in order to cut short the sufferings of the victim, to stifle him in dense smoke before the flames had had time to ascend; but the Rouen executioner was too terrified of the prodigies worked by the Maid to do thus; and besides he would have found it difficult to reach her, because the Bailie had had the plaster scaffold made unusually high. Wherefore the executioner himself, hardened man that he was, judged her death to have been a terribly cruel one.[2577]

[Footnote 2577: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 7.]

Once again Jeanne uttered the name of Jesus; then she bowed her head and gave up her spirit.[2578]

[Footnote 2578: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 186.]

As soon as she was dead the Bailie commanded the executioner to scatter the flames in order to see that the prophetess of the Armagnacs had not escaped with the aid of the devil or in some other manner.[2579] Then, after the poor blackened body had been shown to the people, the executioner, in order to reduce it to ashes, threw on to the fire coal, oil and sulphur.

[Footnote 2579: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 191. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 269, 270.]

In such an execution the combustion of the corpse was rarely complete.[2580] Among the ashes, when the fire was extinguished, the heart and entrails were found intact. For fear lest Jeanne's remains should be taken and used for witchcraft or other evil practices,[2581] the Bailie had them thrown into the Seine.[2582]

[Footnote 2580: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p. 478.]

[Footnote 2581: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 507 verso. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 269.]

[Footnote 2582: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 159, 160, 185; vol. iv, p. 518. Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p. 83. Th. Cochard, _Existe-t-il des reliques de Jeanne d'Arc?_ Orleans, 1891, in 8vo.]

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