XLTV. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, committed and perpetrated the sin of sodomy unnaturally, and the other aforesaid crimes, sins, and villainies, in each of the aforesaid places and their vicinities, as abovesaid; and thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLV. Item, that the common opinion of men, the belief and assertion of the people, the true report, the common memory, the public voice and rumor, as much in the aforesaid parishes of Saint-Trinité, Machecoul, Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte, Saint-Cyr-en-Rais, in the Nantes diocese, as in the greatest portion of the Breton duchy and in other adjoining regions, in which the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, was and is known, is that he was and is a heretic, a relapsed heretic, a magician, a sodomite, a conjuror of evil spirits, a seer, a cutter of the throats of innocents, an apostate, an idolater, having deviated from the faith and being hostile to it, a diviner, and a sorcerer. Thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, commonly said, held, believed, presumed, seen, heard, reputed, public, notorious, and manifest.
XLVI. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, had and has the habit of committing and perpetrating the said crimes and offenses for which he is publicly and notoriously defamed by honest and serious people and of which he is vehemently accused in each and every one of the aforesaid places; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLVII. Item, that the aforesaid things in general and in particular are clearly detrimental to our Catholic faith and our Holy Mother Church as well as to the public as a whole, inasmuch as they are a pernicious example unto many, and as they contribute to the peril of the said Gilles’ soul; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLVIII. Item, that each of these things and all of them were and are notorious and manifest in the said places to the extent that they could not be hidden by subterfuge or denied by retraction; on the subject of which there are public rumblings and rumors. And all these aforesaid things the said Gilles, the accused, acknowledges, and acknowledges as true.76
XLIX. Item, that considering the aforesaid crimes, excesses, and misdemeanors committed and wickedly perpetrated, the said Gilles de Rais incurred the aforesaid authorities’ sentence of excommunication and other punishments expected to be promulgated against like presumptuous people as are diviners, sorcerers, conjurors and summoners of evil spirits, abettors, adepts, believers in and partisans of evil spirits, magicians, and all those who have recourse to the illicit and forbidden arts; that, moreover, he lapsed and relapsed into and continues in heresy, that he offended Divine majesty, that he committed the crime of Divine high treason, against the Ten Commandments, against the rites and observances of our Holy Mother Church, that he damnably sowed the most flagrant of errors, which are noxious to Christian believers, and that on the other hand, he gravely and shamefully violated the jurisdiction of said Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, notorious, and public.
Conclusion. This is why the said prosecutor requests that you, Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and you, Friar Jean Blouyn, aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor into Heresy — or whomever of you it so pleases — by your definitive sentence, decree and declare that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, is a heretic and perfidious apostate; declare that he committed and maliciously perpetrated the dreadful invocation of demons; that he has incurred by this the sentence of excommunication and other lawful punishments; and as a heretic, an apostate, and a conjuror of demons, that he ought to be punished and corrected as the law demands and canonical sanctions stipulate. Moreover, that you, Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and by your definitive sentence, decree and declare that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, committed the crime and practiced the unnatural vice of sodomy on the aforesaid boys and children; that he maliciously perpetrated sacrilege, namely the violation of ecclesiastical immunity, and has incurred for this the sentence of excommunication and other lawful punishments; and that he ought to he punished and salubriously corrected, as the law and canonical sanctions demand; the said prosecutor humbly implores your gracious office to duly see to the swift fulfillment of justice in all of the aforesaid and every one of them.
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(1. Bill of Indictment.)
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And the said prosecutor gives, speaks, and establishes the proof of each and every one of the aforesaid things by the best means possible and proper, and he requests your permission to establish that proof, which he offers to do, with the exception of all superfluous proofs, as noted, which he expressly affirms; and with the exception of the right to correct, add, change, diminish, interpret, ameliorate, reiterate, and prove, if necessary, at a reasonable time and place.
[Signed:] J. Delaunay, J. Petit, G. Lesné.
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2. Letters, dated July 26, 1426, from the Inquisitor into Heresy in the French realm; Friar Jean Blouyn commissioned as Vicar of the Inquisitor.
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Friar Guillaume Merici, of the Dominican Order, professor of theology, Inquisitor into Heresy in the French realm, delegated by apostolic authority, to our beloved brother in Christ, Jean Blouyn, of the convent of the same order in Nantes, greetings in the author of the faith, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since according to the Apostle the evil of heresy spreads like a canker and insidiously destroys simple souls if not extirpated in time by the diligent hoe of the Inquisition, it is appropriate to proceed advantageously with all the solicitude and circumspection of the office of the Inquisition against heretics and their defenders, and also against those accused or suspected of heresy and against hinderers and disturbers of the faith. Also, putting complete trust in the Lord as to your ability and your aptitude for exercising the work of the Lord in this domain, by virtue of the counsel provided us by several discreet friars of the same order, we have made, instituted, and created by the terms of the present letters, and make, institute, create, and ordain you, the best we could do in every manner and form of law, our vicar in the city and diocese of Nantes, giving and conceding to you the power to inquire of, cite, accuse, pursue, seize, detain, and proceed against, by all available opportune and judicial means, to a definitive sentence inclusively, all and every one of whatsoever heretics and aforesaid others there may be, but also to do all other things relevant, as much customarily as lawfully, to the said office of the Inquisition; to which charges in our place as much as possible we commit you by the present letters, as much by virtue of the common law as by that of the aforesaid Inquisition’s special privileges. In witness whereof we have affixed our seal to the present letters.
Given in Nantes, July 26, 1426.
Thus signed: G. Mérici.
Saturday, October 15, 1440.
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Gilles de Raisʹ submission and first confessions. Swearing-in of the accused and production of the first witnesses.
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On Saturday, October 15th, arraigned before the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor, sitting on the bench to administer the law in the great upper hall of La Tour Neuve, in the morning at the hour of Terce, the said Milord Guillaume Chapellion, prosecutor and plaintiff, on the one hand, and Gilles de Rais, knight and baron, the aforesaid accused, on the other, personally appeared.
At the said prosecutor’s request, the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vice-Inquisitor, told the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, that even though elsewhere he chose not to speak or object against anything in the said articles and positions, nonetheless they would permit him, to the extent that they permitted him earlier, to speak or object to anything. Which Gilles responded that he did not intend to speak or object against anything in the said articles, and at the said prosecutor’s request, the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vice-Inquisitor, interrogated the said Gilles, the accused, to see whether he intended to say or propose anything and contest that Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vic
ar, were his judges in the case and the cases of this order. Which accused then said no; moreover, he intended and intends to concede that the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar, had been and were his competent judges in the case and the cases; furthermore he intended and intends to acknowledge that the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, Guillaume Mérici, had been and were in the case and the cases of this order his competent judges, confirming and approving their jurisdiction, as he asserted; and he consented to recognize them and whatever judge among them that they wanted; and he voluntarily averred that he had maliciously committed and perpetrated the expressed crimes and offenses within their jurisdiction; and he solicited humbly, devoutly, and tearfully the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar, and all other ecclesiastics about whom he had spoken badly and indiscreetly, to pardon him for the insults and offensive things that he had addressed to them, and he admitted his shame for having pronounced them. Which Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the Inquisitor pardoned this same Gilles, the accused, for the said insults, and did so for the love of God.
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(Gilles de Raisʹ submission and first confessions. Swearing-in of the accused and production of the first witnesses.)
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Then, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, hearing and understanding and expressly consenting to this, the said prosecutor and plaintiff earnestly solicited the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the Inquisitor for permission to establish the proof of the aforesaid articles; which Lords Bishop and Vicar, at the said prosecutor’s request, declared the said articles and positions admissible to this effect. Consequently the aforesaid prosecutor requested the said Gilles, the accused, to respond to the aforesaid articles and positions. Which Gilles, under oath, acknowledged spontaneously and declared to be true the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Fourteenth Articles set forth in order and in French by the Reverend Father, Lord Jean Prégent, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, by mandate of said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor; and acknowledged and declared more particularly that there had existed and existed still a church cathedral in Nantes, and that according to the content of the Thirteenth Article, the said Reverend Father, Lord Jean de Malestroit, was the true bishop of that same church; that so far as concerns the spirit he himself was that same Lord Bishop’s subject and justiciable; in addition, that the Machecoul and Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte castles stood within the limits of the said diocese of Nantes. Item, he avowed voluntarily that he had received the sacrament of baptism and renounced the Devil and his ceremonies, but that he had never invoked, nor caused others to summon evil spirits, or offered or caused to be offered anything whatsoever in sacrifice to these spirits; that he had received from a certain Angevin knight, now imprisoned for heresy, a certain book on the art of alchemy and on the invocation of demons, which he read, and caused to be read several times publicly in a certain room at Angers before several listeners; that he had spoken with the said knight now in prison about practicing the said art of alchemy and the invocation of demons; which book he claimed to have returned to the said knight and not to have held for very long. Moreover, the said Gilles, de Rais, the accused, confessed to having practiced the said art of alchemy for a certain period of time and to having had it practiced by certain Lombards named Antoine77 and Francois,78 and by a certain Parisian goldsmith,79 that in practicing this kind of art and experimenting in it he had frozen mercury and had it frozen, which he affirms to be quicksilver; and that he would have carried out many other experiments in this art, which he had believed and believes led to results in the said art, if it had not been for the Lord Viennese Dauphin’s arrival at Tiffauges castle, where he had constructed and prepared furnaces for practicing the said art, which furnaces were demolished upon the Lord Viennese Dauphin’s arrival. As for other deeds contained and narrated in the said promulgated articles, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, denied their veracity; he denied also the invocations of evil spirits mentioned in the published articles, claiming and attesting that in the event that it were proved by witnesses whom the said prosecutor would produce against him in the cases, and in the depositions wherein he wanted to believe and maintain as above or elsewhere that the accused had invoked demons; or had them invoked, or entered into contracts with them; or sacrificed to them or caused others to sacrifice to them, or made oblations to them; then in that event, he would voluntarily undergo the test of fire. Moreover, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, voluntarily requested that the said prosecutor produce against him in the case or the cases of this order witnesses to the deeds expressed in the articles by the prosecutor; that there was a broader declaration of the things contained in the prescribed articles and other things not expressed in those articles; and that their depositions had value; which the same Gilles also consented to believe. Whereupon the said prosecutor requested of the Reverend Father in God, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Vicar of the said Inquisitor, in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, hearing and understanding, that they be allowed to swear not to resort to calumny. Thereupon the said Lords Bishop and Vicar, judging that the said prosecutor and Gilles, the accused, ought to be allowed to take the said oath seeing as both of them asked for it, allowed them to do so. And immediately, at the request of the said Lords Bishop and Vicar, touching the Holy Writ, and upon the Holy Gospels which were in the hands of these same lords, they took according to usage, each of them successively, an oath to abstain from calumny and to tell the truth by all and every one of the clauses in the oath, as much regarding the promulgated articles as all the case and the cases of this order. Which oath thus taken, the said prosecutor, fulfilling the assignment of the term, and in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, who consented to this, produced in the capacity of witnesses Henriet Griart,80 Étienne Corrillaut,81 also known as Poitou, Francois Prelati82 of Monte-Catini, Milord Eustache Blanchet, priest,83 Triphaine, the widow of the deceased Robin Branchu, and Perrine Martian,84 peremptorily summoned by the said Robin Guillaumet, cleric, by mandate of the said Lords Bishop and the aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor, according as the same Robin reported verbally to have summoned them in the capacity of witnesses in this same trial, before the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar and before us, aforesaid notaries public and scribes, immediately to bear witness to the truth in the case and the cases.
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(Gilles de Raisʹ submission and first confessions. Swearing-in of the accused and production of the first witnesses.)
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Which witnesses thus produced, the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, in the presence of Gilles de Rais, the accused, judged that they should be admitted and allowed them to take an oath, and consented to absolve them under surety since they had to depose in the case and the cases of this order. All of which witnesses thus admitted, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, swore on the Holy Gospels to tell, and depose, and attest to, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, insofar as they knew it, on the subject of the articles put forward and expressed by the said prosecutor in the case and the cases of this order, and also on the subject of the things in general and in specific not expressed in the articles, on which they were soon to be examined and interrogated: to which the said Gilles, the accused, then consented; entreaty, love, fear, favor, rancor, hatred, mercy, friendship, or enmity being set aside and ceasing totally among the parties. The said Gilles, the accused, for his own part, consented to believe in the depositions of the said witnesses and also in those of no matter what other witnesses the said prosecutor would have to produce; he also agreed to adhere to things not covered in the articles, and declared that he did not intend to speak, object to, or allege anything against the allegations or characters of the witnesses. Of which witnesses and of any others that
the prosecutor would have to produce for his part in the case and the cases of this order, the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the Inquisitor charged us, aforesaid notaries public and scribes, to proceed faithfully with the examination.
This being done, the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, at the said prosecutor’s request, asked the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, whether he himself intended to interrogate the witnesses as to what they would present that merited examination and questioning, in expectation of which case they fixed and assigned for Gilles, the accused, the same day and all the following day to do so. Which Gilles responded then to the Lord Bishop and Friar Jean Blouyn, aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor, that he did not intend to interrogate anyone in the case and the cases, relying on the said witnesses’ conscience for that. And things being arranged in the aforesaid manner, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, falling to his knees and expressing contrition by great sighs, grievously and tearfully, begged humbly to be absolved in writing of the sentence of excommunication brought against him, as has been recorded above, by the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and the aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor on account of the fact that the same Gilles, the accused, although requested and exhorted canonically, had refused to respond to the said depositions and said articles. To which accused the said Lord Bishop of Nantes, in his name, the Vicar of the Inquisitor consenting to this, absolved the same accused in writing and restored him to participation in the sacraments and to the unity of the faithful in Christ and our Holy Mother Church, in due form of law and according to the customs of the Church, a salutary penance corresponding to the fault being ordained by the aforesaid Lord Bishop of Nantes for the same Gilles, the accused; whereupon he had the absolution everywhere publicly announced.
Trial of Gilles De Rais Page 25
