Authors: George Bataille

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Trial of Gilles De Rais (37 page)

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And then, after the said confession in arraignment, given freely and voluntarily, he exhorted the people there, and principally the ecclesiastics, there in considerably larger numbers, to always venerate our Holy Mother Church, and to honor her greatly and never to separate from her, adding expressly that if he himself, the accused, had not directed his heart and his affection toward that same Church, he never would have escaped the devil’s malice and intention; moreover, he believed that had he not, because of the enormity of his villainies and crimes the devil would have long since destroyed his body and carried off his soul; exhorting, moreover, the fathers of families to watch that their children be not too finely dressed, and to tolerate no laziness, noting and asserting that many ills are born of laziness and of the excesses of eating and drinking, and declaring more expressly still that with him laziness, an insatiable desire for delicacies, and the frequent consumption of mulled wine, more than anything else, kept him in a state of excitement that led to the perpetration of so many sins and crimes.

On the subject of which crimes and offenses perpetrated by him, Gilles de Rais, the accused, humbly and tearfully implored the mercy and pardon of His Creator and most blessed Redeemer, as well as that of the parents and friends of the children so cruelly massacred, as well as that of everyone whom he could have injured in regard to whom he was effectively guilty, whether they were present there or elsewhere, and he asked all Christ’s faithful and worshipers for the assistance of their devout prayers.

And this is why the aforesaid Master Guillaume Chapeillon, prosecutor, in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, considering the voluntary confession of the said accused, and other proofs lawfully brought against him, requested instantly that a timely day and term be appointed to the accused in order to conclude — and at the same time, on the other hand, to see concluded — the sentence and definitive sentences by the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the said Inquisitor, and by each of them, or by those whom they would charge with this responsibility, sentences to be written and promulgated in the case and the cases of this order, unless the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, could give any valid reason this should not be done. Thereupon the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the Inquisitor assigned the following Tuesday to the prosecutor and Gilles de Rais, the accused, who did not object, in order to proceed as by law, as was necessary in the case and the cases of this order.

(Gilles de Raisʹ ʺin-court confession.ʺ)

Of which things the aforesaid prosecutor asked us, the undersigned notaries public and scribes, to make one and several public instruments.

In the aforesaid place in the presence of the Reverend Father in God, Milord Jean Prégent, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, Masters Pierre de L’Hôpital, President of Britanny, Robert de La Rivière and Milord Robert d’Épinay, aforesaid knight, and nobleman Yvon de Rocerf, including the honorable Masters Yvon Coyer, dean, Jean Morelli, chorister, Gatien Ruytz, Guillaume Groyguet, licensed in both courts of law, Jean de Châteaugiron, Pierre Avril, Robert Viger, Geoffroy de Chevigny, licensed in law, the mayors of Nantes, Geoffroi Piperier, treasurer,
⁹⁵Pierre Hamon, Jean Guérin, Jean Vaedi and Jean Symon, canons from Notre-Dame-de-Nantes and Saint-Brieuc, Hervé Lévy, seneschal of Quimper, and Master Guillaume de La Lohérie, licensed in law, attorney to the secular court of Nantes, with many other witnesses assembled in the same place in large numbers, specifically called and requested.

[Signed:]
Delaunay, J. Petit, G. Lesné
.

Tuesday, October 25, 1440.

1. Official statement of the rendering of sentences.

The Tuesday following Saint Luke the Evangelist’s Day, October 25, 1440, arraigned before the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, and Reverend Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, sitting on the bench to administer the law in the aforesaid great upper hall of La Tour Neuve, in the morning at the hour of Terce, the aforesaid Master Guillaume Chapeillon, prosecutor, for himself, on the one hand, and the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, also for himself, on the other, appeared in person.

Which prosecutor, fulfilling the appointed term in the case and the cases of this order, asked earnestly, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, hearing, understanding, and not contradicting, that this suit and the cases be concluded and held as concluded by the aforesaid Lords Bishop and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, and insofar as it depended on him, he had concluded in these same cases. And then the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, the said Vice-Inquisitor, in response to the prosecutor who had concluded and asked that it be concluded with him, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, not contradicting, but consenting to this, concluded and held it for conclusion and desired that it be held for conclusion in these same cases.

Which conclusion accordingly made, the aforesaid prosecutor asked earnestly that the sentence and definitive sentences in the case and the cases of this order be immediately passed and promulgated in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, hearing and understanding, in favor of the same prosecutor and against the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, by the same Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, following the conclusion and the conclusions of the published articles, and that these latter be passed and promulgated by these same Lords Bishop and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, or by whomever it pleased of the two, or by yet another delegated to that effect.

(1. Official statement of the rendering of sentences.)

Thus the same Lord Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, the same Vicar of the Inquisitor, sitting on the bench, as above, to administer the law, in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, hearing, understanding, and not contradicting — considering, in the first place, all bills and speeches for the defense, all letters and documents, all developments and all confessions by the said Gilles, the accused, diligently examined by them; considering all depositions of witnesses and all other instruments and guarantees in the case and the cases of this order, held, exhibited, and produced, and each of these same things having been duly recorded with diligence and circumspection; considering the slow and careful deliberation on all these same things by the reverend fathers, lords bishops, doctors, jurists, theologians, illustrious practitioners and other honest men to whom the Lord Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor, presented a complete and faithful relation of the legal grounds of the case and the cases of this order; considering the counsel and agreement of these same lords bishops, doctors, jurists, theologians, practitioners and other honest men; therefore, the Lord Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, proceeded and deemed it appropriate to proceed with their sentence and to all their definitive sentences which need be promulgated and passed in the case and the cases of this order, regarding the former and the latter, according to the things that by the bills, the speeches for the defense, the developments and the other instruments and guarantees, they examined and investigated, and that they now examine and understand; sentences that by means of the venerable and circumspect man, Milord Jacques de Pencoëtdic, practitioner in both courts of law and an official of Nantes, they passed and promulgated respectively and successively, the content of which is integrally contained below, conforming to certain memoranda that the aforesaid Pencoëtdic had delivered into his hands, which in the same place the Lords Bishop of Nantes and the Vice-Inquisitor had the aforesaid Milord Jacques, aforesaid doctor and official, read aloud in a clear voice. This promulgation of sentences being thus read, for his part and for that of the aforesaid Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, the Lord Bishop of Nantes interrogated the aforesaid Gilles, the accused, to know whether he wanted to be reincorporated with the Church, our Mother, and to return to her, on account of the aforesaid errors, invocation of evil spirits, and other deviations from the Catholic faith. Which accused responded and said that he had never known what heresy was, that he did not know that he had lapsed into and committed it; however, ever since the Church judged that the acts he had committed smacked of heresy, as much by reason of his confession as by other proofs, in consequence of this judgment he devoutly supplicated to her on his knees — and did so while sighing and moaning — to be reincorporated by the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor. To which reincorporation the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the said Inquisitor, received and admitted the aforesaid Gilles, the accused, who solicited it humbly; and they reincorporated him. Which Gilles, thus reincorporated, humbly and on his knees, with continued sighing and moaning, supplicated to be absolved of the sentences of excommunication brought against him in the aforesaid promulgation of definitive sentences and of all others that he could have incurred; as much for the aforesaid offenses by him committed and perpetrated in an iniquitous fashion as for the violation of immunity of the said parochial church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte with that of all other churches, or for the detention and imprisonment of the said Jean Le Ferron, cleric, or for the insults preferred by him respecting the same Lords Bishop of Nantes, Vicar of the Inquisitor, and other ecclesiastics, and for the offenses to God and his Church; imploring them to grant him pardon. Which lords accorded it to him for the love of God, and thereupon the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, was absolved, in writing and in customary Church form, of the sentence of excommunication passed by the aforesaid Lord Bishop of Nantes, and restored to participation in the sacraments and to the unity of the faithful in Christ and his Church. Finally, at the earnest request of the said Gilles, the accused, the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, charged the male religious, Friar Jean Jouvenel, of the Carmelite Order of Ploermel, in the Saint-Malo diocese, to hear the secret confession of the accused, to absolve him of his sins previously confessed or needing to be confessed, and to impose and enjoin on him for all his sins a salutary penance in proportion to his faults, as much for those he had judicially confessed as for those he would confess at the tribunal of his conscience, and to absolve him of every other sentence of excommunication brought against him by the aforesaid judges in their lawful authority, conjointly as well as separately.

Of which things the said Master Guillaume Chapeillon, prosecutor, requested us, aforesaid notaries public and scribes, to make one and several public instruments.

In the aforesaid place in the presence of the Reverend Fathers, Milords Jean Prégent, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, and Denis de La Lohérie, Bishop of Laodicée, and Guillaume de Malestroit, elect of the church of Mans, as well as the aforesaid honorable and noblemen Master Pierre de L’Hôpital, President of Brittany, Robert de La Rivière, and Milord Robert d’Épinay, knight, Yvon de Rocerf, and the aforesaid Masters Jean de Châteaugiron, Olivier Solidé, canon of Nantes, and Milord Robert Mercier, canon of the church of Saint-Brieuc, Guillaume Ausquier, rector of the church parish of Sainte-Croix-de-Machecoul, in the aforesaid Nantes diocese, Jean Guiolé, Guillaume de La Lohérie, licensed in law, Olivier and Guillaume Les Grimaux, attorneys for the secular court of Nantes, and many other witnesses assembled in the same place in large numbers, particularly called and requested.

[Signed:]
Delaunay, J. Petit, G. Lesné.

2. Sentence brought against Gilles de Rais, guilty of heresy.

In the name of Christ,
⁹⁶

We, Jean, Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, bachelor of Holy Writ, of the Dominican Order in Nantes, Vicar of the said Inquisitor into Heresy for the city and diocese of Nantes, sitting on the bench and with our minds set on naught but God alone, considering the counsel and agreement of the reverend fathers, lords bishop, jurists, doctors, and masters of theology, by this true definitive sentence that we place in these instruments, considering the depositions of witnesses summoned by us and by our prosecutor, on this side delegated by us in a case of the faith, against you, Gilles de Rais, our subject and justiciable, on that side produced and diligently interrogated, and the faithfully drafted depositions of those same witnesses, considering your confession given voluntarily before us, and other items and matters considered on that side that justly roused our souls, we decree and declare that you, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, present before us in trial, are found guilty of perfidious apostasy as well as of the dreadful invocation of demons, which you maliciously perpetrated, and that for this you have incurred the sentence of excommunication and other lawful punishments, in order to punish and salutarily correct you and in order that you are punished and corrected as the law demands and canonical sanctions decree.

[Signed:]
Delaunay, J. Petit, G. Lesné.