Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/394

 378 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE. In 1452 another effort was made by Archbishop cTEstouteville of Rouen, but though he was a cardinal and a papal legate, and though he adjoined in the matter Jean Brehal, Inquisitor of France, he could do nothing beyond taking some testimony. The papal in- tervention was held to be necessary for the revision of a case of heresy decided by the Inquisition, and to obtain this the mother and the two brothers of Joan appealed to Rome as sufferers from the sentence. At length, in 1455, Calixtus III. appointed as com- missioners to hear and judge their complaints the Archbishop of Rouen, the Bishops of Paris and Coutances, and the Inquisitor Jean Brehal. Isabelle Dare and her sons appeared as plaintiffs against Cauchon and le Maitre, and the proceedings were carried on at their expense. Cauchon was dead and le Maitre in hiding — concealed probably by his Dominican brethren, for no trace of him could be found. Although the University of Paris does not appear in the case, every precaution was taken to preserve its honor by emphasizing at every stage the fraudulent character of the twelve articles submitted to its decision, and in the final judg- ment special care was taken to characterize them as false and to order them to be judicially torn to pieces, though it may well be doubted whether they were any more deceptive than innumerable reports made habitually by inquisitors to their assemblies of ex- perts. Finally, on July 7, 1456, judgment was rendered in favor of the complainants, who were declared to have incurred no in- famy ; the whole process was pronounced to be null and void ; the decision was ordered to be published in Rouen and all other cities of the kingdom ; solemn processions were to be made to the place of her abjuration and that of her execution, and on the latter a cross was to be erected in perpetual memory of her martyrdom. In its restored form it still remains there as a memorial of the utility of the Inquisition as an instrument of statecraft.*
 * Le Brun de Charmettes, Liv. xv.