Then, at the said prosecutor’s insistence, the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, interrogated the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, to know whether he intended to speak or object against the said articles and positions, verbally or in writing, adding that another suitable term would be assigned to speak against the same positions and articles. Then the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, said and responded that he did not intend to say anything against the said positions and articles.
Upon which, at the insistence and request of the prosecutor, the said Lords Bishop and Vicar of the Inquisitor summoned, requested, and called upon the said Gilles, the accused, and also exhorted him one, two, three, and four times, upon threat of excommunication, to respond to the said positions and articles exposed, read, and recited to him, as reported, in French. Which Gilles, the accused, refused to respond to them, attesting that he was as familiar with the Catholic faith as they were who had given and proposed the said articles against him, and that he was as good a Christian and true a Catholic as they themselves, avowing and saying that if he had committed the charges given and proposed against him, as declared and designated in the said articles, he himself would have committed a crime directly against the Catholic faith, and would have deviated from it, and that he would not pretend ignorance in this matter. And he said that he did not want to enjoy any ecclesiastical privilege and that he was shocked that the said Master Pierre de L’Hôpital, President of Brittany, would allow the said ecclesiastical lords knowledge of such crimes thus proposed against him and, moreover, that they could accuse him of such abominable acts.
And at the request of the prosecutor, the aforesaid Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and the aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor declared that the said Gilles, the accused — canonically exhorted, but refusing to respond to the same propositions and articles — be held in manifest contempt of court; next they excommunicated him by writing, then pronounced and published the excommunication, decreeing nonetheless, at the said prosecutor’s entreaty, that Gilles de Rais be duly proceeded against in the case and the cases of this order.
From which decree and from the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, the said Gilles, the accused, simply, orally, and without writing, appealed. With which appeal, pointless as it was, on account of the nature of the case and the cases of this order, and also on account of the monstrous and enormous crimes brought against the same Gilles, the accused, which crimes being, so they said, incapable of appeal, the Lords Bishops and Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor did not intend to comply, affirming that they ought not, nor were constrained to do so by law; and so that the said Gilles would be allowed by the said Lords Bishop and Vicar of the Inquisitor to examine the said articles and said positions; so that the said prosecutor would be allowed to produce his witnesses, should he desire, in the case and the cases of this order; and so that the said Gilles, the accused, would be allowed to see them produced, received, and sworn in, but that in return he would be allowed to speak orally or in writing against the said articles and positions; so that he could finally be proceeded against afterwards, as by law, they fixed and assigned to the said Gilles, the accused, and the said prosecutor a term of the following Saturday.
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(The accusation put forward, the bill of indictment having been read by the authority of the justices, the accused, having refused to respond and having insulted his judges, is held in contempt of court and excommunicated; his request for appeal is denied.)
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Then the said Friar Jean Blouyn, said Vicar of the Inquisitor, exhibited and produced by authority of justice certain licensed letters belonging to the aforesaid male religious, Friar Guillaume Mérici, of the Dominican Order, professor of theologry, Inquisitor into Heresy in the realm of France, deputed by apostolic authority; which letters were affixed with his own seal of red wax on a pendant label of the parchment; which letters in the presence of the said Gilles were read publicly by the said Lords Bishop and Vicar. Then, after the production and exhibition of the said letters, the Reverend Father, Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, interrogated the aforesaid Gilles de Rais to know whether he had anything to say or object against these same letters, orally or in writing; which Gilles said and responded haughtily that he intended to say nothing against them. The writing, the signature, the seal, and the subscription having been attested by faithful witnesses in the presence of the said Gilles, the accused, these letters were declared sufficient by the said Lords Bishop and Vicar of the Inquisitor.
Of which the said prosecutor requires that we, notaries public and scribes, make one and several public instruments.
In the presence of the Reverend Father in God, Lord Jean Prégent, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, Master Pierre de L’Hôpital, President of Brittany, Robert de La Rivière, as well as the said nobleman Guillaume de Grantbois, squire, Jean Chauvin, licensed attorney, cleric in the Rennes diocese, Guillaume de Montigné, lawyer of the secular court of Nantes, and many other witnesses particularly requested and required.
[Signed:] Jean Delaunay, Jean Petit, Guillaume Lesné.
Documents read on October 13, 1440.
The transcript provides the following text as a herading for the articles: “The content of the said articles and positions, and of the letters of authority of the said Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the said Inquisitor, in the case and the cases of this order, exhibited and produced as mentioned above, are as follows”:
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1. Bill of Indictment.
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Positions and articles that before you, Reverend Father in God, Lord Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, and male religious, Friar Jean Blouyn, bachelor of Holy Writ, of the Dominican Order and convent of Nantes, Vicar to the male religious, illustrious and excellent Friar Guillaume Mérici of the same order, professor of theology, Inquisitor into Heresy in the French realm, deputed by apostolic authority, and this same Vicar by the same Friar Inquisitor Guillaume, specially deputed, instituted, and ordained to the city and diocese of Nantes, honorable Master Guillaume Chapeillon, priest, and rector of the church parish of Saint-Nicolas-de-Nantes, prosecutor in the case and the cases of this order, specially deputed by you, puts on, gives and exhibits in trial, as plaintiff, against Lord Gilles de Rais, knight, lord, and baron of the said region of Rais, your subject and justiciable in this case and in your jurisdiction, delinquent and accused. And to the content of these same articles and depositions, also provided in a narrative style, in order, altogether or separately, or as you wish, the same prosecutor requests that the said Gilles, the accused and defendant, respond article by article, in a satisfactory manner, under oath; and if these same articles be denied, he asks your permission to make their proof; which he offers to do lawfully, with the exception of superfluous proofs against which he expressly protests.
I. In the first place, the said prosecutor affirms and, if necessary, intends to prove that ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety and one hundred years ago, more or less, and for so long even that there is no record to contradict it, in the province of Tours and in the city of Nantes, there was and is still a certain solemn and notable church cathedral, commonly called the church cathedral of Nantes, having at its head a bishop, and for members a dean and several prebendal canons who form a chapter, and several attributes compose a church cathedral and designate it as such publicly and famously; that it must be thus, and that this is true.
II. Item, that for and during this time, the said bishopric of Nantes had and has still precise boundaries and limits with other bishoprics of the said province of Tours, distinguishing and separating them one from the other, as with those of other neighboring provinces; and that there were from one end to the other of the said diocese many church parishes and a people spiritually entrusted, subject to it, and under its jurisdiction; thus it transpired, and that this is a public
and notorious truth.
III. Item, that for the last twenty years, if not more, the aforesaid Reverend Father was and is Bishop of Nantes, having and exercising for the spiritual cure of souls the government and administration of the said bishopric inasmuch as he is its titular, and that, by every evidence, he is regarded and held as Bishop of Nantes, commonly, publicly, and famously; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
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(1. Bill of Indictment.)
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IV. Item, that for and during the aforesaid early period the correction, punishment, and reformation, regarding criminal offenses as well as sin, of each and every one of the offenders in the said city and diocese of Nantes, as well as their instruction and the decision of punishable and criminal cases, belonged to the then-existing Bishop of Nantes as it belongs lawfully to the aforesaid Reverend Father, present Bishop of Nantes; that the same existing Lord Bishop of Nantes, or aforesaid Reverend Father, present Bishop of Nantes, was and is regularly qualified to punish, correct, or reform every subject guilty of villainous and shameful acts, as with every criminal, whencesoever they came and whatsoever their place of origin, provided that they committed an offense in the said city or said diocese of Nantes, and the right being reserved to him in the aforesaid cases to bring and promulgate against them sentences, censures, and excommunications, inflict other penalties on them, condemn them and enjoin them to salutary penances, and deliver them over to the secular arm according to the urgency of the cases and the enormity of the excesses, offenses, and crimes; thus it transpired, and this is a public, notorious, and manifest truth.
V Item, that recently the said Friar Guillaume Mérici, Inquisitor of the faith and of heresy in the realm of France and in the province of Tours, was deputed by apostolic authority, constituted, and ordained the power of substituting in his place another friar or other friars of the same order, with this qualification or these qualifications; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
VI. Item, that the aforesaid Guillaume Mérici, before the said apostolic letters were dated, was and is still forty years old, a professor of Holy Writ, of the aforesaid order, and commonly reputed capable of exercising an office of this kind; so be it, and this is a true rendering.
VII. Item, that as much by law as by custom, usage, mores, and observance in the city and diocese of Nantes, lawfully prescribed since the aforesaid times and strictly observed up to the present, the instruction, decision, and punishment of heresy, sorcery, apostasy, idolatry, divination, and superstition, and principally the heresy, apostasy, and idolatry perpetrated by learned persons in the city and diocese of Nantes, every time that the case occurs, belonged according to this custom and continues to belong to the Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and to the Inquisitor into Heresy delegated to the said city and diocese of Nantes, as much separately as conjointly; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
VIII. Item, that as much by law as by usage, mores, observance, and custom in the said French realm, and principally in the said city and diocese of Nantes, practiced since the aforesaid period and commonly observed up to the present time by virtue of the privilege conceded by the aforesaid apostolic authority to the said Order of Dominicans, the aforesaid Friar Guillamne Mérici, Inquisitor into Heresy, was empowered to substitute in his place and to depute and ordain to this office another friar or other friars of the same order; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
IX. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, was and is a parishioner of the parish of Sainte-Trinité, of Machecoul, in the said diocese of Nantes, and that he is held and reputed commonly, publicly, and famously as such.
X. Item, that the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, has been since the period of his youth and adolescence, and is still, subject and justiciable of the said Lord Bishop of Nantes and the Inquisitor, but above all of the Lord Bishop, for the aforesaid crimes; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XI. Item, that, since the aforesaid time and presently, within the limits of the said diocese of Nantes were regularly and are still found the castle or fortress of the said place as well as the church parishes of Saint-Trinité, of Machecoul, and Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte; and that the parishioners of these same church parishes are subjects and justiciables of the same Lord Bishop regarding things of the spirit, as they are also of the aforesaid Inquisitor for the crimes mentioned above and below; that they are publicly and notoriously; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XII. Item, that the said Friar Guillaume Mérici, already Inquisitor, in Nantes, July 26, 1426, instituted in his place, deputed and ordained as his vicar, capable of exercising his office in the aforesaid city and diocese of Nantes, Friar Jean Blouyn, of the aforesaid convent and order, by letters destined to that effect, to the content of which the same prosecutor refers, which he will produce when it is exposed more fully later following the articles and depositions; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XIII. Item, that the said Friar Jean Blouyn, forty years old, before the granting of the said letters establishing him in that office was and did belong to the aforesaid Dominican Order and monastery in Nantes, that he is a priest, belongs to the fellowship of the faithful, and is otherwise capable of exercising the office of the said vicariate; and that he is held and reputed commonly, publicly, and famously as such; and that this is a true rendering.
XIV. Item, that all the abovenoted has long been common knowledge.
XV. Item, considering what was reported at first by public rumor, then by the secret inquiry led by the said Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, in his city and diocese, at the same time as by his commissioners, deputed by apostolic authority, in the course of their pastoral visit, as well as by that led by the aforesaid prosecutor of the ecclesiastical court of Nantes, by the authority of the said father, on the cases expounded below, crimes and offenses concerning ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and considering also the preceding denunciations reiterated grievously and tearfully, with lamentations, by many persons of both sexes as much in the aforesaid city as in the aforesaid diocese of Nantes, bemoaning the loss and murder of their children, boys and girls, stating positively that these same boys and girls were taken by the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet Griart, Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, André Buchet, Jean Rossignol, Robin Romulart, a man by the name of Spadine, and Hicquet de Brémont, familiars and frequent guests of the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, and that by them these children had had their throats cut inhumanly, had been killed and finally dismembered and burned, and in other respects shamefully tormented; that the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, had sacrificed the bodies of these children to demons in a damnable fashion; that according to many other reports the said Gilles de Rais had evoked demons and evil spirits and sacrificed to them, and that with the said children, as many boys as girls, sometimes while they were alive, sometimes after they were dead, sometimes as they were dying, Gilles had horribly and ignobly committed the sin of sodomy and exercised his lust on the one and the other, disdaining the girls’ natural vessel: the aforesaid prosecutor declares and intends to prove, if necessary, that by all evidence, for the past forty years, every year, every month, every day, every night and every hour of these forty years, under the governments of Lords Martin, Pope, the fifth of that name, of blessed memory, and Eugène, by divine Providence, Pope, the fourth of that name, and of Most Reverend Father in God, Lord Philippe, Archbishop of Tours, and of Reverend Father in God, Lord Jean, aforesaid Bishop of Nantes, as well as of the very illustrious Prince and Lord Jean, Duke of Brittany, and whatever the offices and titles of those who reigned respectively and successively then, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, imbued with evil spirit and forgetting his salvation, took, killed, cut the throats of many children, boys and girls; that these were taken, killed, butchered, as much by him as by the aforesaid Gilles de Sillé, Henriet Griart, and
Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, and that he caused and ordered the bodies of these children to burned, reduced or converted to ashes, and their ashes thrown into secret and out-of-the-way places; that on these same children he committed the said unnatural sin of sodomy and abused them ignominiously; and that he committed and perpetrated in many and various places, and in the residences designated below, all that is set forth above and following.
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(1. Bill of Indictment.)
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XVI. Item, that in order to shed light on the disclosures of the preceding article, the same prosecutor declares and intends to prove that it is permitted to Christ’s worshipers who desire to be united with the angelic society neither to delight in lust, consecrated as they are to God once and for all by baptism and by the engagement and profession of the Catholic faith, nor to turn their eyes or their minds toward this world’s vanities and follies, but that it is, rather, more suitable for them to place their hope in Our Lord God and in contemplating His features, with all their heart and mind, and to impregnate their sight, as the prophet David witnesses, saying: “Blessed is the man who puts his hope in the Lord and does not loiter in the vanities and the follies of the world!” and once again the same David shouting and exhorting: “Sons of men, up to what point will the hardness of your heart go, cherishing vanity and searching after falsehood?”; but the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, who had received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation as a true Christian, and who, in receiving them, had renounced the devil, his ceremonies, and his work, relapsed into that which he had renounced. And more or less five years ago in a lower hall of the castle at Tiffauges, belonging to his wife, in the diocese of Maillezais, he had several signs, figures, and characters traced by certain masters like François Prelati, of Italian descent, self-styled expert in the forbidden art of geomancy; and in a wood close by the castle at Tiffauges he had these same signs traced in the earth by Jean de La Rivière, and Antoine de Palerne, a Lombard, as well as by a man named Louis, and other magicians and conjurors of demons, and had them conjure and divine, and he invoked and had them invoke evil spirits answering to the names of Barron, Oriens, Beelzebub and Belial, by means of fire, incense, myrrh, aloes and other aromatics, the windows and openings of the said lower hall being fully opened, while they genuflected to obtain responses from these same evil spirits, ready to offer and sacrifice to them and to adore them; the said Gilles, the accused, wanted to conclude a pact with them in order to obtain and recover knowledge, power, and riches with the assistance of these evil spirits; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
Trial of Gilles De Rais Page 23
