Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/376

 360 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE. had been delivered to the Church, not to the secular authorities ; she was entitled to be kept in an ecclesiastical prison, but the Eng- lish had paid for her and would listen to no reclamations. War- wick had charge of her and would trust her to no one.* Pierre Cauchon still was in no haste to commence the iniqui- tous work which he had undertaken. After a month had passed, Paris grew excited at the delay. The city, so ardently Anglicized, had a special grudge against Joan, not only on account of believ- ing that she had promised her soldiers on the day of assault to al- low them to sack the city and put the inhabitants to the sword, but because they were exposed to the greatest privations by the virtual blockade resulting from the extension of the royal domina- tion caused by her successes. This feeling found expression in the University, which from the first pursued her with unrelenting fe- rocity. Xot content with having intervened to procure her sur- render to the English, it addressed letters, November 21, to Pierre Cauchon, reproaching him with his tardiness in commencing the process, and to the King of England, asking that the trial be held in Paris, where there are so many learned and excellent doctors. Still Cauchon hesitated. Doubtless when he came to consider the evidence on which he would have to act he recognized, as irre- sponsible partisans could not, how flimsy it was, and he was busy in obtaining information as to all the points in her career — for the interrogatories showed a marvellous familiarity with everything that could possibly be wrested against her. Besides, there were indispensable preliminaries to be observed. His jurisdiction arose from her capture in his diocese, but he was an exile from it, and was expected to try her not only in another diocese, but in an- other province. The archbishopric of Rouen was vacant, and he adopted the expedient of requesting of the chapter permission to hold an ecclesiastical court within their jurisdiction. The request was granted, and he selected an assembly of experts to sit with him as assessors. A number came willingly from the University, whose expenses were paid by the English government, but it was more difficult to find accomplices among the local prelates and doctors. In one of the early sessions, Nicholas de Houppeland 489. — Le Bran de Charmettes, Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, III. 183-3.
 * Monstrelet, II. 86.— Chronique, p. 462.— Proces, pp. 478, 480-1, 486, 487,488,