Chapter X: To the Flames!

The scene changes. After the last interrogatory of Joan the priests proceed to Bishop Cauchon in order to inform him of the issue of their visit to the prisoner--a result that the prelate expects, so much so that he has convoked a sufficient number of judges to meet in the chapel of the Archbishop's palace at Rouen in order to proceed with the final sentence of the relapsed sinner. All the summoned prelates are assembled and in their seats in the chapel. Bishop Cauchon, seated in the center of the choir, presides, and orders silence with a gesture.

BISHOP CAUCHON--"My very dear brothers, Joan has fallen back into her damnable errors, and in contempt of her solemn abjuration, pronounced in the face of God and His Holy Writ, not only has she resumed her male attire, but she again stubbornly maintains that all that she has done and said was said and done by divine inspiration! I now call for your views, in the order of precedence, upon the fate of the said Joan who is now charged with having relapsed, reserving to myself the right of convoking you again, should I deem it necessary."

ARCHDEACON NICOLAS OF VENDERESSE--"The said Joan should be given over to the secular arm, to be burned alive as a relapsed sinner."

ABBOT AGIDIE--"Joan is a relapsed heretic, no doubt about it. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that a second abjuration should be proposed to her, under pain of being delivered to the secular arm."

CANON JOHN PINCHON--"Joan has relapsed; I shall adhere to whatever plan of punishment my very dear brothers may decide upon."

CANON WILLIAM ERARD--"I pronounce the said Joan a relapsed sinner and deserving of the pyre."

CHAPLAIN ROBERT GILBERT--"Joan should be burned as a relapsed sinner and heretic."

ABBOT OF ST. AUDOIN--"The woman is a relapsed sinner. Let her abjure a second time or be condemned."

ARCHDEACON JOHN OF CASTILLONE--"Let the relapsed sinner be delivered to the secular arm."

CANON ERMANGARD--"I demand the exemplary death of Joan."

DEACON BOUCHER--"Joan should be sentenced as a relapsed one."

PRIOR OF LONGUEVILLE--"That is my opinion. She should be burned alive."

FATHER GIFFARD--"I think the relapsed sinner should be sentenced without delay."

FATHER HAITON--"I pronounce the said Joan a relapsed sinner. I am for her speedy punishment, provided, however, she refuses to abjure a second time."

CANON MARGUERIE--"Joan is a relapsed sinner. Let her be delivered up to secular justice."

CANON JOHN OF L'EPEE--"I am of my brother's opinion. She should be burned to death."

CANON GARIN--"I think so, too."

CANON GASTINEL--"Let us give up the relapsed sinner to the pyre."

CANON PASCAL--"That is my opinion. Let her be burned to death."

FATHER HOUDENC--"The ridiculous explanations of the woman are to me an ample proof that she has always been an idolatress and a heretic. Besides that, she is a relapsed sinner. I demand that she be delivered to the secular arm without delay."

MASTER JOHN OF NIBAT--"The said Joan is impenitent and a relapsed sinner. Let her undergo her punishment."

FATHER FABRE--"A heretic by habit, hardened in her errors, a rebel to the Church, the body of the said Joan should be delivered to the flames, and her ashes cast to the winds."

ABBOT OF MONTEMART--"I hold as my brother. Only I am of the opinion that she should be given a second chance to abjure."

FATHER GUELON--"That is my opinion."

CANON COUPEQUESNE--"Mine also."

CANON GUILLAUME--"Let the said Joan be offered a second chance to retract. If she refuses, then death."

CANON MAURICE--"I favor such a second summons, although I do not expect good results from it."

DOCTOR WILLIAM OF BANDIBOSC--"I side with my very dear brother."

DEACON NICOLAS CAVAL--"The relapsed sinner should be treated without pity, according to her deserts. She should be burned to death."

CANON LOYSELEUR--"The said Joan should be delivered to the temporal flames."

THOMAS OF COURCELLES--"The woman is a heretic and relapsed sinner. She may be summoned a second time, and told that if she persists in her errors, she has nothing to expect in this world."

FATHER JOHN LEDOUX--"Although such a second attempt seems to me idle, it might be tried so as to demonstrate the inexhaustible kindness of our mother the Church."

MASTER JOHN TIPHAINE--"I favor this second, though idle, attempt."

DEACON COLOMBELLE--"I am of the same opinion."

ISAMBARD OF LA PIERRE--"Secular justice will take its course if the said Joan refuses to abjure a second time."

From these opinions it transpires that some of the judges demand immediate death, while others, and these are a small majority, favor a second abjuration, although the opinion is general that the attempt is vain. The judges have learned from their accomplices that the heroine is now determined to seek in death the expiation of the confessions which only fear drew from her. More straightforward and frank in his projects, moreover, convinced of the success of his plan, the Bishop sums up the deliberation and absolutely opposes the idea of attempting a second abjuration. Do not most of those who favor the measure consider it idle? Why, then, try it? And even if it were certain that the relapsed sinner would abjure again, the performance would have a deplorable effect. Did not the soldiers and the people, exasperated at the clemency of the Church, cry "Treason!" and seem ready to riot at the time of the first abjuration? Is it wise to incur and provoke a terrible turmoil in the town? Has not the Church given evidence of her maternal charity by admitting Joan to penitence, despite her perverse heresy? How was this act of benevolence rewarded by her? It was rewarded with renewed and redoubled boastfulness, audacity and impiety! Bishop Cauchon closes, conjuring his very dear brothers in the name of the dignity of the Church, in the name of the peace of the town, in the name of their conscience, to declare without superfluous verbiage that the said Joan is a relapsed sinner, and, as such, is given over to the secular arm, in order to be led to death the next day, after being publicly excommunicated by the Church. The judges yield to the views of the prelate. The registrar enters the sentence of death, and the session rises.

Peter Cauchon is the first to leave the chapel. Outside he meets several English captains who are waiting for the issue of the deliberations. One of them, the Earl of Warwick, says to the prelate:

"Well, what has been decided shall be done with the witch?"

"_Farewell!_ It is done!" answers the Bishop with glee.

"The Maid--".

"Shall be burned to-morrow--burned to death in public," interrupts Bishop Cauchon.