Trial of Condemnation: the Sentence

From Murray, pp. 132-134

The Sentence

After her revocation and her abjuration had been, as has just been said, received by us, the Judges, We, the Bishop, did finally deliver our sentence in these terms :

[Biographher note: The sentence then follows as given above up to the words " thy Trial," and then proceeds :]

... all that therein occurred, principally thine answers, thine avowals, and thine affirmations ; after having seen the most renowned decision of the faculties of Theology and Decrees of the University of Paris ; after having also seen the decision of the entire University and the numerous Resolutions of so many Prelates, Doctors, and other Masters, who at Rouen or elsewhere have sent in such great numbers their assertions as to thy sayings and deeds ; after having had, upon this, advice and mature deliberation of so many Doctors zealous for the Christian Faith ; after having weighed and considered all that there is to weigh and consider of what is in the nature of enlightenment ; having before our eyes Christ and the honour of the Orthodox Faith, so that our judgment may emanate even from the face of Our Lord : we, the Judges, say and decree : that thou, Jeanne, hast deeply sinned in pretending untruthfully that thy revelations and apparitions are of God ; in seducing others ; in believing lightly and rashly ; in making superstitious divinations ; in blaspheming God and the Saints ; in prevaricating as to the law, Holy Scripture, and the Canonical sanctions ; in despising God in His Sacraments ; in fomenting seditions and revolts ; in apostatizing ; in encouraging the crime of heresy ; in erring on numerous points in the Catholic Faith.

But because that, after being many times charitably admonished and long waited for, thou hast at last, with the help of God, returned into the bosom of the Church, thy Holy Mother, with contrite heart, and hast openly revoked thy errors ; because, having solemnly and publicly cast these far from thee, thou hast abjured them by the words of thine own mouth, together with the heresy with which thou wast charged : We declare thee set free by these presents, according to the form appointed by Ecclesiastical sanction, from the bonds of excommunications which held thee enchained, charging thee to return to the Church with a true heart and sincere faith, and to observe what hath been already enjoined thee and what shall yet be enjoined thee by us.

But because thou hast sinned rashly against God and Holy Church, We condemn thee, finally, definitely and for salutary penance, saving Our grace and moderation, to perpetual imprisonment, with the bread of sorrow and the water of affliction, in order that thou mayest bewail thy faults, and that thou mayest no more commit [acts] which thou shalt have to bewail hereafter.

Exhortation made to Jeanne by the Deputy Inquisitor, in Prison.

And the same day, Thursday, May 2^th, in the afternoon, We, Brother Jean Lemaître, the aforesaid Deputy, assisted by the Lords and Masters N. Midi, N. Loyseleur, Thomas de Courcelles, Brother Ysambard de la Pierre, and several others,

We did repair to the place in the prison where Jeanne was to be found.

We, and the persons assisting us, did set forth before her how God had on this day had mercy on her, and how the Clergy had shewn themselves merciful in receiving her to the Grace and pardon of Holy Mother Church. In return, it was right that she, Jeanne, should obey with humility the sentence and orders of the Judges and the Ecclesiastics ; that she should wholly give up her errors and all her inventions, never to return to them : because, in case she should return to them, the Church could no longer admit her to pardon, and must abandon her altogether. We told her to leave off her man's dress and to take a woman's garments, as the Church had ordered her.

In all our observations Jeanne did reply that she

• would willingly take woman's garments, and that in all things she would obey the Church.

Woman's garments having been offered to her, she at once dressed herself in them, after having taken off the

♦ man's dress she was wearing ; and her hair, which up to this time had been cut " en ronde " above her ears, she desired and permitted them to shave and take away.

[Biographer note:] Here ends the First Part of the Trial, called " The Lapse."