Here are samples of the very same accounts which Kenneth's favorite authors are using to claim that the English allegedly "refused" to execute her and therefore played no role in her trial or execution. The reader can see how ironic and dishonest such a claim is in relation to the actual testimony:
From the first preliminary deposition of Friar Isambart de la
Pierre, who had taken part in Joan's trial as one of the assessors:
"...and although the secular lay judge was present at the same
location in which she was preached to for the last time and
given up to secular justice,
nevertheless she had been given into the executioner's hands and
burned without any judgement or verdict from the aforesaid
judge, merely saying to the executioner 'Do your duty', without
any other judicial sentence."
From the deposition of Jean Riquier, priest of Rouen:
"She was given up by the clergy, and I immediately saw
that the sergeants and English soldiers took her and brought her
straight to the place of execution, and I didn't see any sentence
handed down by the secular judge."
From the first preliminary deposition of Friar Martin Ladvenu, another
assessor:
"When she was preached to for the last time in the Old Market
and abandoned to secular justice, despite the fact that the secular judges were
seated on a platform [i.e., in the place of execution] nevertheless
she was never sentenced by
any of these judges, but rather she was forced to descend from the
platform by two sergeants without being condemned, and brought
by the aforesaid sergeants to the place where she was to be burned,
and given into the hands of the executioner by these men."
And from his third deposition:
"... after she was abandoned by the Church, she was taken by
English soldiers, being present there in large numbers, and without
any sentence from the secular judges although the Bailiff of Rouen
and the council of the secular court were in attendance there."
From the first preliminary deposition of Jean Massieu, the bailiff:
"... I was greatly pressed by the English, and especially by
some of their commanders, to give her into their hands in order to
send her to her death more quickly; saying to me - who was comforting
her as best I could on the scaffold - "What, priest, will
you have us dine here?" And immediately, without any formal procedure
or reading of the sentence, they sent her to the fire, saying to the
executioner: 'Do your duty'".
These are a sample of the eyewitness accounts which mention the lack of a secular sentence: the reader can see that they clearly describe an English-dominated trial, presided over by English officials and soldiers, in which the very same secular judge who failed to hand down a final sentence was himself among those presiding over the execution rather than being "opposed" to it as Kenneth and his authors claim.
Translations copyright © 2003, Allen Williamson All rights reserved.