THE TRIAL OF JEANNE D'ARC
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN AND FRENCH DOCUMENTS
BY W. P. BARRETT
(from Medieval Sourcebook)
I Wednesday, March 28th
On this Wednesday there were present the reverend fathers, lords
and lawyers: Gilles, abbot of Fécamp; Pierre, prior of
Longueville; Jean Beaupère, Jacques de Touraine, Erard
Emengart, Maurice du Quesnay, Nicolas Midi, Pierre Maurice, Guillaume
Le Boucher, Jean de Nibat, Jean Le Fèvre, Jean de
Châtillon, Jacques Guesdon, and Gérard Feuillet,
doctors of sacred theology; Raoul Roussel, doctor of canon and
civil law; Robert Le Barbier, licentiate in canon law; William Haiton,
Nicolas Couppequesne, bachelors of sacred theology; Jean Guerin,
Denis Gastinel, Jean Le Doulx, bachelors of canon and civil law;
Jean Pinchon, Jean Basset, Jean de La Fontaine, Jean Colombel, Jean
Duchemin, bachelors of canon law; André Marguerie,
archdeacon of Petit-Caux; Jean Alespée, Nicolas Caval,
Geoffroy du Crotay, licentiates in civil law; Guillaume Desjardins,
Jean Tiphaine, doctors, and Guillaume de La Chambre, licentiate of
medicine, William Brolbster and John Hampton, priests.
Here follows word for word the tenor of the articles of the
accusation, and of the answers made by Jeanne, with the other
answers which she made elsewhere, to which she refers
"In your presence, venerable father in Christ and in Our Lord,
Pierre, by divine mercy bishop of Beauvais, now Ordinary Judge
and possessing territory in the city and diocese of Rouen;
and of the religious brother Jean Le Maistre, of the order of
Preaching brothers, bachelor of sacred theology, vicar in this
town and diocese and in this trial especially appointed by master
Jean Graverent, distinguished doctor of sacred theology, of the
same order, Inquisitor of Heretical Error in the kingdom of
France by the Holy See; before you, competent judges, to the end
that the woman commonly called Jeanne the Maid, found, taken, and
detained in the limits of your territory, venerable father, and
the boundaries of your diocese of Beauvais, surrendered,
entrusted, delivered, and restored to you, her ecclesiastical and
ordinary judge by Our Lord Christian King of France and England, to be
dealt with by the law and corrected, as one vehemently suspected,
denounced, and defamed by honest and sober people; to the end
that she should be denounced and declared by you her said judges as
a witch, enchantress, false prophet, a caller-up of evil spirits,
as superstitious, implicated in and given to magic arts, thinking
evil in our Catholic faith, schismatic in the article Unam
Sanctam, etc., and in many other articles of our faith skeptic
and devious, sacrilegious, idolatrous, apostate of the faith,
accursed and working evil, blasphemous towards God and His
saints, scandalous, seditious, perturbing and obstructing the
peace, inciting to war, cruelly thirsting for human blood, encouraging
it to be shed, having utterly and shamelessly abandoned the
modesty befitting her sex, and indecently put on the ill-fitting
dress and state of men-at-arms; and for that and other things
abominable to God and man, contrary to laws both divine and natural,
and to ecclesiastical discipline, misleading princes and people;
having to the scorn of God permitted and allowed herself to be
adored and venerated, giving her hands to be kissed; heretical or
at the least vehemently suspected of heresy; that according to
the divine and canonical
sanctions she should be punished and corrected canonically and
lawfully, as befitted these and all other proper ends: Jean
d'Estivet, canon of the churches of Bayeux and Beauvais, Promoter
or Procurator of your office, appointed therein by you and
specially deputed agent and prosecutor in the name of that
office, says, proposes, and intends to prove and duly inform your
minds against the said Jeanne, accused or denounced; nevertheless
the said Promoter protests that it is not his intention to endeavor to
prove what is superfluous, but only what will and must suffice to
this end, wholly or in part, with all other protestations
customary in such matters, and reservations of the right to add,
correct, alter, interpret, in law and in fact."
I
"Firstly, according to divine as well as canon and civil law it
is meet and proper for you, the one as ordinary judge, the other
as Inquisitor of the faith, to drive out, destroy and utterly
uproot from your diocese and from the whole kingdom of France the
heresies, sacrileges, superstitions, and other crimes declared above;
to punish, correct and restore heretics, those who propose,
speak, and utter things contrary to our Catholic faith, or act
against it in any way, and all evil doers, criminals or their
accomplices who shall be apprehended in the said diocese and
jurisdiction, even if part or all of their misdeeds shall have
been committed elsewhere, as other competent judges in their own
dioceses, limits, and jurisdictions are empowered and bound to do. And
therein, even in respect of a lay person of whatever estate, sex,
quality, or preëminence, you must be held, esteemed and
reputed competent judges."
To this first article Jeanne replies that she is well aware that
Our Holy Father the Pope of Rome and the bishops and other clergy
exist for the protection of the Christian faith and the
punishment of those who fall from it; but for her part
she will in respect of her acts submit only to the Church in
Heaven, that is to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the
Saints of Paradise. She firmly believes that she has not failed in our
faith and would not fail therein.
II
"The said accused, not only in the present year, but from the
time of her childhood, not only in your diocese and jurisdiction,
but also in the neighboring and other parts of this kingdom, has
performed, composed, mingled in and commanded many charms and
superstitions; she has been deified and permitted herself to be adored
and venerated; she has called up demons and evil spirits, has
consulted and frequented them, has had, made, and entered into
pacts and treaties with them; she has similarly given counsel,
aid and favor to others doing the same things, and has induced
them to do the same or like things, saying, believing,
maintaining, affirming, that so to do, to believe in them, to use
such charms, divinations and superstitious proceedings was neither a
sin nor a forbidden thing; but she has rather assured them that it is
lawful, praiseworthy and opportune, enticing into these evil ways
and errors many people of different estate and of either sex, in
whose heart she imprinted these and like things. And in the
accomplishment and perpetration of these crimes the said Jeanne
has been taken and captured in the boundaries and limits of your
diocese of Beauvais."
To this second article Jeanne answers that she denies the charms,
superstitions, and divinations; and as for the adoration, if
certain people have kissed her hands or garments it is not
because of her or at her will; she kept herself from that as far as it
was within her power. The rest of the article she denies.
III
"The accused is fallen into many divers errors of the worst kind,
infected with heretical evil: she has said, uttered, voiced,
affirmed, published, graven on the hearts of simple people
certain false and lying propositions, infected with heresy and
actually heretical, without and contrary to our Catholic faith,
against the statutes made and approved by the General Councils, as well
as divine, canon and civil laws: propositions scandalous,
sacrilegious, contrary to good customs and offensive to pious
ears; she has lent aid, counsel and favor to those who have said,
uttered, affirmed and promulgated these propositions."
This third article Jeanne denies and declares that as far as in
her lies she has upheld the Church.
IV
"And the better and more particularly to inform you, my ford
judges, of the offenses, excesses, crimes, and misdemeanors
committed by the accused, as has been reported, in many parts of
the realm, in this diocese and elsewhere, it is true that the
accused was and is a native of the village of Greux, that she has for
father Jacques d'Arc and for mother Isabelle, his wife; that she
was brought up in her youth, until the age of 18 or thereabouts,
in the village of Domrémy on the Meuse, in the diocese of Toul,
in the Bailly of Chaumont-en-Bassigny, in the provosty of
Monteclaire and Andelot. Which Jeanne in her youth was not taught
or instructed in the belief and principles of the faith, but was
lessoned and initiated by certain old women in the use of spells,
divinations, and other superstitious works or magic arts. Many
inhabitants of these villages are known from olden times to have
practiced these evil arts, and from certain of them, and
especially from her godmother, Jeanne declares she has often
heard talk of visions or apparitions of fairies or fairy spirits,
and from others also she has been taught and filled with these
evil and pernicious errors about the spirits, so much so that she
confessed to you, in judgment, that until this day she knew not
whether these fairies were evil spirits."
To this article Jeanne replied that she allowed the first part,
namely, about her father and mother and the place of
her birth; but as for fairies, she did not understand. As for her
instruction, she learned to believe and was well and duly taught
how to behave as a good child should. For her godmother she
referred to what she had stated elsewhere.
Asked about saying her Credo, she answers: "Ask the confessor to
whom I said it."
V
"Near the village of Domrémy stands a certain large and
ancient tree, commonly called ''l'arbre charmine faée de
Bourlemont," and near the tree is a fountain. It is said that
round about live evil spirits, called fairies, with whom those who
practice spells are wont to dance at night, wandering about the
tree and the fountain."
To this fifth article, touching the tree and the fountain, Jeanne
refers to another answer she has given: the rest she denies.
On Saturday the 24th day of February, she answered that not far
from Domrémy there is a tree called the Ladies' Tree which
some call the Fairies' Tree, and near it is a fountain. She has
heard that the sick drink of this fountain (she herself has drunk of
it) and seek from its waters the restoration of their health; but
she does not know whether they are cured or not.
On Thursday, March 1st asked if St. Catherine and St. Margaret
spoke to her under the tree, she answered: "I do not know." And
asked once more if the saints spoke to her at the fountain, she
answered that they did, that she heard them there; but what they
said to her then, she no longer knew. Asked, on the same day, what the
saints promised her, there or elsewhere, she replied that they
made no promise to her, but by God's permission.
On Saturday, March 17th, asked if her godmother who saw the
fairies is accounted a wise woman, she answered that she is
held and accounted a good honest woman, and not a witch or
sorceress.
The same day, asked if she had not heretofore believed the
fairies to be evil spirits, she answered that she did not know.
And the same day, when asked if she knew anything of those who
consort with the fairies, she answered that she never went and never
knew aught of that, but she had heard that some went on
Thursdays. She does not believe in it, and holds it to be
witchcraft.
VI
"The said Jeanne was wont to frequent the fountain and the tree,
mostly at night, sometimes during the day; particularly, so as to
be alone, at hours when in church the divine office was being
celebrated. When dancing she would turn around the tree and the
fountain, then would hang on the boughs garlands of different herbs and
flowers, made by her own hand, dancing and singing the while,
before and after, certain songs and verses and invocations,
spells and evil arts. And the next morning the chaplets of flowers
would no longer be found there."
To this sixth article, on this 27th day of March, she answers
that she refers to another reply that she has made. The remainder
of the article she denies.
On Saturday, the 24th of February, she said that she heard how
that the sick, when they can get up, go to the tree to walk
about; it is a huge tree, a beech, from which "le beau may"
comes; and it belonged, so it was said, to Pierre de Bourlemont.
Sometimes she went playing with the other girls, in summer, and
made garlands for Our Lady of Domrémy there. Often she had
heard old people tell, not those of her family, that the fairies
frequented it. She has heard Jeanne, the wife of mayor Aubrey of
Domrémy, her godmother, say that she had seen
the fairies, but she herself does not know if it is true. She
never, as far as she knew, saw the fairies, and she does not know
if she saw any elsewhere. She has seen the maidens putting chaplets of
flowers on the boughs of the tree, and she herself has hung them
with the others, sometimes carrying them away, sometimes leaving
them there. She adds that ever since she knew she must come to France
she had taken little part in games or dancing, as little as possible.
She does not know whether she has danced near the tree since she
had grown to understanding; and though on occasions she may well
have danced there with the children, she more often sang than
danced there. There is also a wood, called the Oak wood, which can be
seen from her father's door, not more than half a league away.
She does not know, nor has she ever heard, that the fairies
repair there, but she has heard from her brothers that after she
had left the country it was said that she received her message at the
Fairies' Tree. She says she did not and she told her brother so.
Further, she says that when she came to her king, several people
asked her if there was not in her part of the country a wood
called the Oak wood; for there were prophecies saying that out of
the Oak wood should come a maid who should work miracles; but she
said she put no faith therein.
. . .
VIII
"Jeanne, when she was about [fifteen], of her own will and
without the leave of her said father and mother, went to the town
of Neufchâteau in Lorraine and there for some time served
in the house of a woman, an innkeeper named La Rousse, where many
young unguarded women stayed, and the lodgers were for the most
part soldiers. Thus, dwelling at this inn, she would sometimes
stay with the said women, sometimes would drive the sheep to the
fields, and occasionally lead the horses to drink, or to the meadow, or
pasture; and there she learned to ride and became acquainted with
the profession of arms."
To this eighth article Jeanne answered that she referred to her
other replies, and denied the remainder.
Now on February 22nd she confessed that out of dread of the
Burgundians she left her father's house and went to the town of
Neufchâteau in Lorraine, to the house of a certain woman
named La Rousse, where she stayed about a fortnight,, undertaking the
common duties of the house; but she did not go into the fields.
On Saturday the twenty-sixth of the same month, when asked if she
took the beasts to the fields, she, said she had already replied;
she also added that, since she was grown up and had reached
understanding, she did not commonly
look after the cattle, but helped to take them to the meadows and
to a castle called the Island, for fear of the soldiers, but she
does not remember whether or not she tended them in her youth.
IX
"Jeanne, when in this service, summoned a certain youth for
breach of promise before the magistrate of Toul, and in the
pursuit of this case, she went frequently to Toul, and spent
almost everything she had. This young man, knowing she had lived with
the said women, refused to wed her, and died, pendente lite. For
this reason, out of spite, Jeanne left the said service."
To this ninth article Jeanne answers that she has replied
elsewhere, and that she refers to that reply. She denies the
remainder.
Now on Monday, the 12th of March, in answer to the question who
had persuaded her to summon a man from Toul for breach of
promise, she said: "I did not have him summoned, it was he who
summoned me, and I swore before the judge to tell the truth."
Lastly she swore that she had made no promise to this man. And
she added that her voices assured her she would win her case.
X
"After leaving the service of La Rousse, the said Jeanne claims
to have had for five years, and still be having, visions and
apparitions of St. Michael, of St. Catherine, and of St.
Margaret, and that they had privately revealed to her that she should
raise the siege of Orleans and have Charles, whom she calls her
king, crowned, and should drive out all the adversaries of the
kingdom of France; against the wishes of her father and mother, she
left them, and of her own initiative
and will, went to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of Vaucouleurs,
to inform him, according to the command of St. Michael, and of
St. Catherine and St. Margaret, of the visions and revelations made
to her by God, as she claims, and to ask the said Robert to help
her to accomplish the said revelations. And, twice refused by the
said Robert, and being returned home, she received once more by
revelation the command to return to him, and the third time she was
welcomed and received by the said Robert."
To this tenth article she answers that she will abide by her
other replies on this matter.
Now on Thursday, February And, she stated that, when she was
about thirteen years, she had a voice from God to help her and
guide her. The first time she was much afraid: it came towards
noon on a summer's day, in her father's garden, when she was not
fasting, and had not fasted on the previous day. She heard the
voice on her right, towards the church, and she seldom heard it
without a light. This light came from the same side as the voice,
and generally there was a great light. When she came to France she
often heard a great voice; and, for the first time, there was a
light. She added that if she was in a wood she heard the voices
well; and it seemed to her a worthy voice, and she believed it was
sent to her from God. After she had heard it three times she knew
it was the voice of an angel. She said too that the voice always
protected her well, and that she understood it well. Asked what
instruction this voice gave her for the salvation of her soul, she
answered it taught her to be good and to go to church often, and
that she must come to France. And she added that the examiner
would not learn from her, this time, in what form the voice
appeared to her. Further, the voice told her, two or three times a
week, to leave and come to France, and her father was to know
nothing of her leaving. The
voice told her to come, and she could no longer stay where she
was; it told her she would raise the siege of Orleans. When she
reached Vaucouleurs she recognized Robert de Baudricourt, although
she had never seen him; she told him that through her voices it
had been revealed to her that she must come to France; she
recognized the said Robert through her voice which told her it
was he. Now he twice repulsed her, the third time he received her, and
gave her an escort as her voice had foretold.
On Saturday, February 24th, asked at what time on the preceding
day she had heard the voice, she answered that she had heard it
then, and on that 24th of February, three times in all. First in
the morning, next at Vespers, and lastly when the Ave Maria was rung;
she often heard it more frequently than she said. And the morning
before, whilst she was asleep, the voice woke her without
touching her, but by speaking to her; she did not know if the
voice was in the room, but she was certain it was in the castle; she
confessed that when the voice came to her for the first time she
was in or about her thirteenth year.
. . .
On Thursday, March 1st asked if since the preceding Tuesday day
she had not spoken with St. Catherine and St. Margaret, she
answered yes, both on that and on the previous day, but she did
not know at what hour, but there is not a day but she hears them.
On Monday, March 12th, asked if she inquired of her voices
whether she should tell her father and mother of her leaving, she
answered that, regarding her father and mother, her voices would
have been glad for her to tell them, had it not been for the
difficulties they would have raised if she had done so. For her
part, she would not have told them for anything; the voices left
it to her to reveal her going to her parents, or be silent. Asked
about the dreams her father had of her going away, she answered that
her mother told her several times that whilst she was still at
home her father said he had dreamt of Jeanne's going away with
soldiers; and they took great care to keep her safely, and held
her in great subjection; she obeyed them in all things, except in the
incident at Toul, in the action for marriage. She had heard her mother
tell how her father said to her brothers: "If I thought what I
dreamed was going to happen, I should want you to drown her, and
if you would not, I would do it myself." Her father and mother
almost lost their senses when she left for Vaucouleurs. Asked
whether these thoughts came to her father after she had had her
visions and her voices, she answered yes, more than two years
after she first heard the voices."
. . .
XII
"And, the better and more easily to accomplish her plan, the said
Jeanne required the said Captain to have a male costume made for
her, with arms to match; which he did, reluctantly, and with
great repugnance, finally consenting to her demand. When these
garments and these arms were made, fitted and completed, the said
Jeanne put off and entirely abandoned woman's clothes; with her
hair cropped short and round like a young fop's, she wore shirt,
breeches, doublet, with hose joined together and fastened to the
said doublet by 20 points, long leggings laced on the outside, a short
mantle reaching to the knees, or thereabouts, a close-cut cap,
tightfitting boots and buskins, long spurs, sword, dagger,
breastplate, lance and other arms in the style of a man-at-arms,
with which she performed actions of war and affirmed that she was
fulfilling the commands of God as they had been revealed to her."
To this twelfth article Jeanne answers that she refers to her
other replies on this matter. In consequence, asked whether she
took this dress and these arms and other uniform of war by God's
command, she answers: "I refer as formerly to what I have already
said in reply to this."
Now on Thursday, February 22nd, she declared that her voice had
told her to go to Robert, captain of Vaucouleurs, and he would
give her men-at-arms; to which she answered that she was a poor
maid who could neither ride nor fight. She declared that she had
told an uncle that she had to go to Vaucouleurs, so he took her
there. Further, that when she went to her king, she wore man's
dress. Also that before she went to her lord the king the Duke of
Lorraine sent for her; she went, and told him she wanted to go to
France. The Duke questioned her about recovering his health, but
she told him she knew nothing of that, and spoke to him little of
her journey.
She told the Duke to give her his son and his men to take her to
France, and she would pray for his health. She journeyed to the
Duke by safe conduct, and returned to Vaucouleurs. On leaving
Vaucouleurs she wore man's dress, carried a sword which the said
Robert gave her, but no other arms, and was accompanied by a knight, a
squire, and four servants. She went to the town of St. Urbain,
and slept in the abbey. During this journey she passed through
Auxerre where she heard Mass in the great church, and frequently
had her voices with her. Further, the said Robert made those who
were escorting her swear to lead her safely and surely, and when she
left he
said to her: "Go, go, and come what may." She said also that she
had to change to man's costume since she believed her counsel in
that respect was good: that she went without hindrance to her
king to whom she sent letters for the first time when she was yet at
Ste. Catherine de Fierbois.
On Tuesday, February 27th, asked if her voice instructed her to
wear the habit of a man, she answered that the dress is but a
little thing, the least of all; but she did not wear man's dress
at anybody's counsel, she wore it, and did everything, only at
the command of Our Lord and His angels. She did not wear this
dress at Robert's bidding. Asked if she had done well to wear
this dress, she answered that to her mind everything she did at
God's bidding was well done, and she expects good warrant and help for
it. She said, too, that she had a sword which she took at
Vaucouleurs.
On the 12th of March, asked if it was at Robert's request that
she wore man's dress, and if the voice had given her any command
in connection with Robert, she answered as before. Of the voice
she said that everything good which she had done had been at the
instance of her voices; and, in respect of the dress, she would answer
another time, for at present she was not advised, but would reply
on the next day.
On Saturday, March 17th, asked what warrant or aid she expects
from Our Lord from the fact that she wears man's dress, she
answers that in this as in other respects she wanted no other
recompense than the salvation of her soul.
XIII
"The said Jeanne attributes to God, to His angels and to His
Saints instructions that are contrary to the honesty of
womankind, forbidden by divine law, abominable to God and man,
and prohibited under penalty of anathema by ecclesiastical decrees,
such as the wearing of short, tight, and dissolute male
habits, those underneath the tunic and breeches as well as the
rest; and, according to their bidding, she often dressed in rich
and sumptuous habits, precious stuffs and cloth of gold and furs;
and not only did she wear short tunics, but she dressed herself in
tabards and garments open at the sides, whilst it is notorious that
when she was captured she was wearing a loose cloak of cloth of
gold, a cap on her head and her hair cropped round in man's
style. And in general, having cast aside all womanly decency, not only
to the scorn of feminine modesty, but also of well-instructed
men, she had worn the apparel and garments of most dissolute men,
and in addition, had borne weapons of offense. To attribute this
to the bidding of God, His holy angels and virgin saints, is blasphemy
of Our Lord and His saints, setting at nought the divine decrees,
infringement of canon law, the scandal of her sex and womanly
decency, the perversion of all modesty of outward bearing, the
approbation and encouragement of most reprobate examples of conduct."
To this thirteenth article, Jeanne answers: "I have not
blasphemed God or His saints."
On Tuesday, February 27th, asked if she thought the instruction
to wear man's dress was lawful, she answered that everything she
did was at God's command; and that, if He had bidden her wear a
different dress, she would have done so, for it was God's bidding.
Asked whether she thought that in this particular instance she
had done well, she replied that she did not wear it without God's
command, and that no single action of hers was otherwise than at His
command.
On Saturday, the 3rd, asked whether when she went to her king for
the first time, he inquired if she had changed her dress after
revelation, she answered: "I replied to this before," and
"nevertheless, I do not recall that I was asked that." She added
it is written at Poitiers. On the same day, asked if she
believed that she would err or commit mortal sin by returning to
woman's clothes, she answered she would do better to obey and
serve her sovereign Lord, namely God.
XIV
"The said Jeanne affirms that it was right so to wear garments
and habits of dissolute men; and will persist therein, saying
that she must not abandon them, except with express permission by
revelation from God, to the injury of God, of His angels and His
saints."
To this fourteenth article Jeanne answers: "I do not do ill to
serve God; to-morrow you shall have a reply." The same day, asked
by one of the assessors if she had received instruction or
revelation to wear man's dress, she answers that her reply has
been given, and she leaves it at that: then says that she will send
answer the next day. She adds that she knows well who made her wear
man's dress, but she does not know how she ought to reveal it.
On Saturday, February 24th, asked if she desired a woman's habit,
she answered: "If you will give me permission, send me one. I
will take it and go: otherwise I do not want one. I am content
with this, since it is God's will that I should wear it."
On Monday, March 12th, asked whether she did not think she was
doing wrong to wear man's dress, she answered no; and even at
that moment, if she were back with her own party, it seemed to
her that it would be to the great good of France for her to do as
she did before her capture.
On Saturday, March 17th, asked why, since she declares her
wearing of male attire to be at God's command, she asks for a
woman's shift in the event of her death, she answered it were
enough for her if it were long.
XV
"The said Jeanne having repeatedly asked permission to hear Mass,
was admonished to put off man's dress and return to woman's
dress; her judges gave her hope that she would be allowed to hear
Mass and receive Communion if she would finally put off man's
dress and wear female attire, as befits her sex. She would not agree,
and preferred not to take Communion and the holy offices, rather
than abandon this dress, pretending that by so doing she would
displease God, so revealing her obstinacy, her stubbornness in evil,
her want of charity, her disobedience to the Church, and the
scorn she has of the holy sacraments."
To this fifteenth article, on this Tuesday the 27th of March,
Jeanne answers that she would much rather die than turn back on
Our Lord's command.
On this same day, asked if she will put off man's dress and hear
Mass, she replies that she will not yet put it off, and that it
is not on her that the day depends when she may do so. '
She says that if the judges refuse to let her hear Mass, it is in
God's power to let her hear Mass when it pleases Him, without
them.
As for the remainder of the article, she answers that she
confesses she has been admonished to wear woman's dress; but she
denies the irreverence and the succeeding charges.
On Thursday, March 15th, asked which she would prefer, to wear
woman's dress and hear Mass or keep to male costume and not hear
Mass, she answered: "Promise me I shall hear Mass if I am in
woman's dress, and I will answer you." Whereupon the examiner
said he would promise, and Jeanne then answered: "What do you say if I
have sworn and promised to our king not to put off this dress?
Yet I answer you: Have a long dress, reaching down to the ground,
with no train, made for me, and give it to me to go to Mass; and then
on
my return I will put on once more the dress I have." Asked once
and for all whether she would wear a woman's dress and go to hear
Mass, she answered: "I will have counsel on it, and then I will
answer you." And in honor of God and of Our Lady she urged she would
be allowed to hear Mass in this good town. Whereupon she was told
to take a woman's dress, simply and absolutely. She replied:
"Give me a dress such as the daughters of a burgess wear, a
houppelande, and also a woman's hood; and I will wear it to go and
hear Mass." Moreover she said, as urgently as she could, that she
besought us to permit her to hear Mass in the dress she wore,
without any change.
On Saturday, March 17th, questioned on the subject of the woman's
dress offered to her so that she could hear Mass, she answered
that she would not put it on till it should please Our Lord; and
if it be that she must be brought to judgment and stripped, she
asks the lords of the Church to grant her the mercy of a woman's
shift and a hood for her head; for she would rather die than turn
back from her Lord's command. She firmly believes God will not permit
her to be brought so low, or be without His aid, or miracle. Asked
whether her saying she would take a woman's dress if they would
let her go would please God, she answered that if she were given
permission to go in woman's dress she would immediately put on
man's dress and do what Our Lord bade her, and that nothing in the
world would induce her to swear not to take up arms or wear man's
dress, to accomplish Our Lord's will and pleasure.
XVI
"The said Jeanne, after her capture, at the castle of Beaurevoir
and at Arras, was repeatedly and charitably admonished by noble
and eminent persons of both sexes to abandon man's dress
and to wear habits decently fitting her sex. This she absolutely
refused, and still obstinately persists in her refusal to do, as
well as the other duties fitting to her sex; in all things she
behaves more like a man than a woman."
To this sixteenth article Jeanne confesses that she was
admonished at Arras and at Beaurevoir to wear woman's dress, and
that she refused and still refuses. As for the other womanly
duties, she says there are enough other women to do them.
On Saturday, March 3rd, asked if she recalls whether the clerks
of her own party who examined her, some for the space of a month,
others for three weeks, did not question her about the changing
of her dress, she replied that she did not remember: that,
however, they did ask her where she assumed her male costume, and
she told them it was at Vaucouleurs. Asked if they inquired of
her if she assumed it because of her voices, she said: "That is
not in your case." Further asked if she was not asked to change
her habit at Beaurevoir, she answered: "Yes, truly"; and she said she
would not without God's leave. The Demoiselle of Luxembourg asked
Jean de Luxembourg not to deliver her to the English, and with
the Lady of Beaurevoir offered her a woman's dress, and told her
to wear it. She replied that she had not God's permission, and it was
not yet time. She added that Messire Jean de Pressy and others at
Arras did not offer her a woman's dress; others asked her to
change her dress. Moreover, she said that if she had had to do it
she would rather have done so at the request of these two ladies than
of any other ladies in France, save her queen. Asked also whether
when God revealed to her that she should change to man's dress,
it was by the voice of St. Michael, or by the voice of St.
Catherine or St. Margaret, she answered: "You will learn no more for
the present."
XVII
"When the said Jeanne came, thus clothed and armed, into the.
presence of the said Charles, she made amongst others three
promises to him: the first that she would raise the siege of
Orleans; the second that she would get him crowned at Reims; the third
she would take vengeance of his enemies, that she would kill them
all by her magic art, drive them out of the kingdom, both the
English and the Burgundians. She boasted publicly of these promises
many times in different places; and to increase faith in her acts and
sayings, she then and thenceforth made use of spells, and showed
up the habits, life, and secret actions of people coming into her
presence whom she had never seen or known, and boasted that her
knowledge came by revelation."
To this seventeenth article Jeanne replied that she bore to her
king news from God saying that Our Lord would restore his
kingdom, would have him crowned at Reims, and would expel his
enemies. She was God's messenger to that effect; and told him to set
her boldly to work, and she would raise the siege of Orleans. She
spoke, she said, of the whole kingdom, and if the Lord Duke of
Burgundy and other subjects of the realm did not come to
obedience, her king would compel them by force. She said, with regard
to the end of the article of recognizing Robert and her king: "I
hold to what I said before."
On Thursday, February 22nd, she confessed that when she came to
Vaucouleurs she recognized Robert de Baudricourt although she had
never seen him, because her voice told her it was he. She said
that she found her king at Chinon, where she arrived towards
noon, and lodged at an inn; and after dinner, she went to her
king at his castle, and she recognized him from the others, when
she entered the chamber, by her voices;
and she told the king she wanted to fight the English
On March 13th, asked about a certain married priest and a lost
cup, she answered she knew nothing of that, and had never heard
of it.
XVIII
"The said Jeanne, as long as she remained with the said Charles,
dissuaded him and his men with all her power from negotiating any
treaty of peace with his enemies, continually incited her party
to murder and shed human blood, affirming that there could be no
peace but by the sword and the lance's point: that it was so ordained
of God, since the king's enemies would not otherwise yield what
they held of the realm, and therefore to make war on them was to
her mind of the greatest benefit to all Christendom."
To this eighteenth article Jeanne answers that she summoned the
Duke of Burgundy both by letter and ambassadors to make peace
with her king. As for the English, the only peace with them is by
their return to their own country, to England. On the rest of the
'article she has made other replies, to which she refers.
On Tuesday, February 27th, asked why she did not conclude a
treaty with the captain of Jargeau, she answered that the lords
of her party replied to the English that they would not get the
delay of a fortnight for which they asked, but must go off, with their
horses, immediately. For her own part she said they could retire
with their doublets, and their life safe, if they wished;
otherwise they would be taken by assault. Asked if she had any
conversation with her counsel, or voices, to find out whether or not to
grant the delay, she answered that she had no recollection.
XIX
"The said Jeanne, by consulting demons and employing spells, sent
for a certain sword hidden in the church of Ste. Catherine de
Fierbois, which she had maliciously and deceitfully hid or had
hidden in this church, so that by misleading princes, nobles,
clergy, and common folk, she might more easily induce them to believe
that it was by revelation that she knew the sword was there, and they
might more readily put absolute faith in her sayings."
To this nineteenth article on this Tuesday the 27th of March, she
answers that she refers to her earlier answers in this
connection: the rest of the article she denies.
On Tuesday, February 27th, asked if she had been to Ste.
Catherine de Fierbois, she answered yes; that she had heard Mass
there three times on the same day, and then went on to Chinon.
The same Tuesday she said she had a sword from the church of Ste.
Catherine de Fierbois that she sent for when at Tours or Chinon;
it was in the earth behind the altar, and immediately afterwards
the sword was found, all rusted. Asked how she knew the sword was
there, she replied it was in the ground, rusted over, with five crosses
upon it; she knew through her voices, and said she had never seen
the man she sent to fetch it. She wrote to the clergy asking if
it was their pleasure she should have this sword, and they sent
it to her. She thought it was not buried deep behind the altar; she did
not know exactly whether it was in front or behind the altar, yet
she thought she wrote it was behind. As soon as the sword was
found, she added, the priests rubbed it and the rust fell off at
once without effort. An armorer of Tours fetched it. The priests of
Ste. Catherine and also of Tours gave her a scabbard; there were
two, one of crimson velvet, the other of cloth of gold. She
herself had another made of very strong leather, and added that when
she was captured she had not this
sword with her, though she wore it continually until she reached
St. Denis. Asked how it was blessed, whether she said or asked
any benediction over the sword, she answered she had never asked
blessing for it or known how to. She loved the sword, since it
had been found in the church of St. Catherine whom she loved.