Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/377

 JOAN OF ARC. 361 plainly told Cauchon that neither he nor the rest, belonging to the party hostile to Joan, could sit as judges, especially as she had already been examined by the Archbishop of Keims, who was the metropolitan of Beauvais. For this Nicholas was imprisoned in the Castle of Kouen, and was threatened with banishment to Eng- land and with drowning, but his friends eventually procured his liberation. Undoubtedly every man who sat on the tribunal had the conviction that any leaning to the accused would expose him to English vengeance, and it was found necessary to impose a fine on any one who should absent himself from a single session. Eventually a respectable body of fifty or sixty theologians and jurists was got together, including such men as the Abbots of Fecamp, Jumieges, Ste. Catharine, Cormeilles, and Preaux, the Prior of Longueville, the archdeacon and treasurer of Eouen, and other men of recognized position. On January 3, 1431, royal let- ters-patent were issued ordering Joan to be delivered to Pierre Cauchon whenever she was wanted for examination, and all offi- cials to aid him when called upon. As though she were already convicted, the letters recited the heresies and evil deeds of the culprit, and significantly concluded with a clause that if she was acquitted she was not to be liberated, but to be returned to the custody of the king. Yet it was not until the 9th that Cauchon assembled his experts, at that time eight in number, and laid be- fore them what had been already done. They decided that the informations were insufficient and that a further inquest was nec- essary, and they also protested ineffectually against Joan's deten- tion in a state prison. Measures were at once taken to make the investigations required. Nicholas Bailly was despatched to ob- tain the details of Joan's childhood, and as he brought back only favorable details Cauchon suppressed his report and refused to re- imburse his expenses. The inquisitorial method of making the accused betray herself was adopted. One of the assessors, Nicho- las l'Oyseleur, disguised himself as a layman and was introduced into her cell, pretending to be a Lorrainer imprisoned for his loy- alty. He gained her confidence, and she grew into the habit of talking to him without reserve. Then Warwick and Cauchon with two notaries ensconced themselves in an adjoining cell of which the partition wall had been pierced, while l'Oyseleur led her on to talk about her visions ; but the scheme failed, for one of