Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/382

 366 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE. fine the impossible, it was to abandon doing what the Lord had commanded, and to revoke what she had asserted as to the truth of her visions. This she would submit only to God.* The examinations up to March 27 had been merely preparatory. On that day the formal trial commenced by reading to Joan a long series of articles of accusation based upon the information obtained. A lively debate ensued among the experts, but at last it was de- cided that she must answer them seriatim and on the spot, which she did with her wonted clearness and intrepidity, declining the offer of counsel, which Cauchon proposed to select for her. Sun- dry further interrogatories followed ; then her sickness delayed the proceedings, and on May 12, twelve members of the tribunal assem- bled in Pierre Cauchon's house to determine whether she should be subjected to torture. Fortunately for the reputation of her judges this infamy was spared her. One of them voted in favor of tort- ure to see whether she could be forced to submit to the Church ; another, the spy, Nicholas TOyseleur, humanely urged it as a use- ful medicine for her; nine were of opinion either that it was not yet required, or that the case was clear enough without it ; Cauchon himself apparently did not vote. Meanwhile a secret When, in 1456, the memory of Joan was rehabilitated, and the sentence con- demning her was pronounced null and void, it was of course necessary to show that she had not refused to submit to the Church. Evidence was furnished to prove that Nicholas l'Oyseleur, in whom she continued to have confidence, se- cretly advised her that she was lost if she submitted herself to the Church ; but that Jean de la Fontaine, another of the assessors, visited her in prison with two Dominicans, Isambard de la Pierre and Martin l'Advenu, and explained to her that at the Council of Basle, then sitting, there were as many of her friends as of enemies, and at the next hearing, on March 30, Frere Isambard de la Pierre openly repeated the suggestion, in consequence of which she offered to submit to it, and also demanded to be taken to the pope, all of which Cauchon forbade to be inserted in the record, and but for the active intervention of Jean le Maitre, the inquisitor, all three would have incurred grave peril of death (I/Averdy, pp. 476-7.— Le Brun de Charmettes, IV. 8-13.— Buchon, pp. 518-19). The rehabili- tation proceedings are quite as suspect as those of the trial; every one then was anxious to make a record for himself and to prove that Joan had been foully dealt with. As late as the nineteenth interrogatory, on March 27, 1431, Jean de la Fon- taine was one of those who voted in favor of the most rigorous dealings with Joan (Proces, p. 495).
 * Proces, pp. 489, 491, 494, 495, 499, 500, 501.