Information given after the Execution on many things said by Jeanne, at the end of her life and in articulo mortis.
Thursday, 7th day of June, 1431, We, the Judges, did ex-officio take information Upon certain things which the late Jeanne had said before persons worthy of credit when she was still in prison and before being brought to judgment.
The venerable and circumspect MAÎTRE NICOLAS DE VENDERÉS, licentiate in Canon Law, Archdeacon of Eu, had declared upon oath as follows:
Wednesday, 30th day of May, Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, Jeanne, being still in the prison of the Castle of Rouen where she was detained, did say that considering the voices which came to her had promised she should be delivered from prison, and that she now saw the contrary, she realized and knew she had been, and still was, deceived by them. Jeanne did, besides, say and confess that she had seen with her own eyes and heard with her own ears the apparitions and Voices mentioned in the Case.
At this were present, you, the Judges aforesaid. and besides Maître Pierre Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles, Nicolas Loyseleur, Brother Martin Ladvenu, Jean Toutmouille, Jacques Lecamus, and several others.
BROTHER MARTIN LADVENU, Priest of the Order of Saint Dominic, did say and depose, upon oath, as follows: On the morning of the day on which sentence was delivered and before she was brought to judgment, Jeanne, in presence of Maitre Pierre Maurice, Nicolas Loyseleur, and Brother Jean Toutmouille, who were with me, did say and confess that she knew and recognized that the Voices and apparitions which had come to her, mentioned in the Case, had deceived her, because they had promised she should be delivered and freed from prison; and that she certainly now saw clearly the contrary.
Asked by the Bishop: Who induced Jeanne so to speak?
Replied: Pierre Maurice, Nicolas Loyseleur, and I exhorted her to save her soul, and asked her if it were true that she had these Voices and apparitions? She replied that it was indeed true, and she continued so to tell us up to the end, but without stating decidedly, at least, so far as I understood, under what form the apparitions came to her. All I remember is that she said they came to her in great multitude and in the smallest size [in magna multitudine et quantitate minima]. Besides, I did at this time hear Jeanne say and confess that, inasmuch as the Clergy held and believed that if they were spirits who came to her they proceeded from evil spirits, she also held and believed as did the Clergy, and would no longer put faith in these spirits. And as it appeared to me, Jeanne was then of a sound mind.
Brother Martin Ladvenu did add this: The same day I heard Jeanne say that, although she had stated in her avowals and confessions, and had affirmed above in the course of the Case, that an Angel from God had brought a crown to him whom she called her King, with all other details connected with this fact in the interrogatories, nevertheless, of her free-will and without being constrained thereto, she did this day confess as follows: that in spite of all she had affirmed on the subject of this Angel, no Angel had brought the crown; it was she, Jeanne, who had been the Angel, and who said and promised to him whom she called her King, that, if he would set her to the work, she would have him crowned at Reims. There was no other crown sent from God, in spite of all she might have affirmed in the course of the Case on the subject of the crown and the sign given to him whom she called her King.
The venerable and discreet MAÎTRE PIERRE MAURICE, Professor in Theology, Canon of Rouen, deposed, upon oath, as follows:
The day of the sentence, Jeanne being still in the prison, I repaired to her in the morning to exhort her to save her soul. In so exhorting her, I asked her what was the Angel mentioned in the Trial, who, as she stated, had brought a crown to him whom she called her King?
She replied that she herself was the Angel.
Having questioned her afterwards on the subject of the crown which she had promised to her King, of the multitude of Angels who at that time accompanied her, she replied that it was true that Angels appeared to her under the form of very minute things. Finally, I asked her if this apparition were real ? "Yes," she replied, "the spirits did really appear to me - be they good or be they evil spirits - they did appear to me." She also said that she had in particular heard her Voices at the hour of Compline, when the bells rang, and in the morning also, when the bells rang. And when I told her that they were evil spirits - in this, that they had promised her deliverance and had deceived her - " It is true," she replied, "they have deceived me." I also heard her declare that, to know whether they were good or evil spirits, she referred to the Clergy. When she thus spoke, Jeanne, so far as it seemed to me, was sound in mind and understanding.
BROTHER JEAN TOUTMOUILLE, Priest, of the Order of Saint Dominic, did say and declare upon oath as follows: The day that sentence was given upon Jeanne, Wednesday, Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I accompanied Brother Martin Ladvenu, who, early in the morning, repaired to her to exhort her to save her soul. I first heard Maitre Pierre Maurice, who had gone earlier to her, declare she had confessed that all which concerned the crown was fiction: that it was she who was the Angel. The said Master reported all this to us in Latin. Afterwards, Jeanne was questioned on the subject of the Voices and apparitions which had come to her. She replied that she had really heard voices, chiefly when the bells rang Compline or Matins; and she persisted in saying this, although Maitre Pierre Maurice told her that, sometimes when the bells rang, one thought one could hear and catch the sounds of human voices. Jeanne did also say and confess that she had had apparitions which came to her in great multitude and in minute size - that is to say, under small forms; - she did not perfectly explain the form, or kind, of her apparitions. The same day, after you, the Bishop, had come in with the Lord Deputy Inquisitor into the room where she was detained, you said to Jeanne in French, "Attend, Jeanne, you always told us that your Voices assured you that you would be delivered: you see now how they have deceived you; tell us therefore the truth." "Truly," Jeanne replied to you, "I see indeed that they have deceived me !" I did not hear her say more, save only that, early in the same day, before you were come to the prison, Jeanne, being asked if her Voices and apparitions proceeded from good or evil spirits, did reply: " I know not - I wait on my Mother, the Church," or "I wait on you, who are of the Church." And, so far as it seemed to me, Jeanne was at this time of sound mind; I heard Jeanne herself then declare that she was of sound mind.
MESSIRE JACQUES LECAMUS, Priest, Canon of Reims, did say and declare upon oath as follows:
Wednesday, Eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I went with you, the Bishop, into the room of the Castle of Rouen where Jeanne was detained, and there I heard Jeanne say and confess, publicly and in a voice loud enough to be heard by all those present, that she had had apparitions and had also heard Voices; that these apparitions and Voices had promised her that she should be delivered from prison; but now she saw in truth that they had deceived her, and, for having thus deceived her, she believed they could not be good Voices nor good things. A little while after, she confessed her sins to Brother Martin, of the Order of Saint Dominic. After the Sacrament of Confession and Penitence, when the same Brother was about to administer the Sacrament of the Eucharist to her, and already held in his hands the Consecrated Host, "Do you believe," he asked her, "that this is the Body of Christ?" "Yes," she replied, "and I believe that He alone can deliver me; I ask that It may be administered to me." After the Communion, the same Brother said to her: " Do you still believe in your Voices?" "I believe in God only," she answered, "and will no more put faith in my Voices, for having deceived me on this point."
MAÎTRE THOMAS DE COURCELLES, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Theology, did say and depose, upon oath, as follows:
Wednesday, Vigil of the Feast of Corpus Christi, being in the presence of you, the Bishop, in the room of the Castle of Rouen where Jeanne was detained, I heard and understood that you asked Jeanne if it were not true that her Voices had promised to deliver her? She replied that her Voices had truly promised this, and had told her to keep a good countenance; and, "as it appears to me," she added, "I see truly that I have been deceived." And then you, the Bishop, said to Jeanne, that now she could certainly see her Voices to be only evil spirits and that they did not come from God; for, had they been of such a nature, they would never have said a false thing and thus have lied.
MAÎTRE NICOLAS LOYSELEUR, Master of Arts, Canon of Rouen and Chartres, said and declared, upon oath, as follows:
Wednesday, the Vigil of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I repaired in the morning with the venerable Maitre Pierre Maurice, to the place where Jeanne, commonly called the Maid, was detained, to exhort and admonish her on the subject of the salvation of her soul. She was besought to speak truth on the subject of that Angel who, she had declared, had brought to him she called her King a crown, very precious, and of the purest gold: she was pledged not to hide the truth, inasmuch as nothing more remained to her but to think of her own salvation. Then I heard her declare that it was she herself who had brought him she called her King the crown in question; that it was she who was the Angel of whom she had spoken; and that there had been no other Angel but herself. Asked if she had really sent a crown to him whom she called her King, she replied that he had no other crown but the promise of his coronation - a promise she had made in giving to her King the assurance that he would be crowned. In the presence of Maitre Pierre Maurice, of the two Dominicans, of you, the Bishop, and of several others, I heard her many times declare that "she had really had revelations and apparitions of spirits; that these revelations had deceived her; that she recognized it in this, that they had promised her deliverance, and that she now saw the contrary; that she was willing to refer to the Clergy to know if these spirits were good or evil; that she did not put, and would no more put, faith in them." I exhorted her, to destroy the error that she had sown among the people, to declare publicly that she had herself been deceived, and that through her fault she had deceived the people by putting faith in these revelations and in counseling the people to believe in them; and I told her it was necessary that she should humbly ask pardon. She told me she would do it willingly, but that she did not think she would be able to remember, when the proper moment came - that is to say, when she found herself in the presence of the people; she prayed her Confessor to remind her of this point and of all else which might tend to her salvation. From all this, and from many other indications, I conclude that Jeanne was then of sound mind. She showed great penitence and great contrition for her crimes. I heard her, in the prison, in presence of a great number of witnesses, and subsequently after sentence, ask, with much contrition of heart, pardon of the English and Burgundians for having caused to be slain, beaten, and damned, a great number of them, as she recognized.
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