Item, the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, stated and confessed that at one of the three invocations he attended, the said François related to the said accused how he himself had seen the demon named Barron, who had shown him a large quantity of gold, and among other things a gold ingot; but the said accused declared that he did not see the devil or the ingot but only a sort of foil in the form of a sheet or sheets of gold, which he did not touch.
Item, the accused stated and confessed that the last time he was at Josselin, in the Saint-Malo diocese, close to the Illustrious Prince and Lord Duke of Brittany, the same accused had several children killed who had been procured for him by the aforesaid Henriet; and that he committed and exercised on them the vice and sin of sodomy in the aforesaid manner.
Item, the same accused stated and confessed that the said François, by his order and in his absence, performed many invocations of the devil at Josselin, which nothing came of or appeared at.
Item, he said that before leaving for Bourges he sent the said François to Tiffauges, entreating him to conjure in his absence and to notify him of what he did and knew, and to write to him in guarded terms94 that his work was going well; which François wrote to him and sent a sort of unguent in a silver tube, placed in a purse and a box made of silver also, writing to him that this here was a precious thing and that he ought to guard it carefully; and he, trusting the said François’ affirmation, hung the said purse about his neck for several days; but shortly thereafter he threw it away, discovering that it was not doing him any good.
Item, the same accused stated and confessed that the said François once told him that the said Barron had ordered him to give a dinner to three poor people in his name on three important feasts of the year; which he, the accused, did only once, on All Saints’ Day.
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(Gilles de Raisʹ ʺin-court confession.ʺ)
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Interrogated as to the motive that made him keep the said François close to him and among his family, he responded that the said François was exceptionally gifted and agreeable to converse with, speaking Latin eloquently and learnedly, and that he applied himself zealously to the affairs of the said Gilles, the accused.
Item, the same accused stated and confessed that after last Saint John the Baptist’s Day a beautiful young man who was living with a certain Rodigo, at Bourgneuf-en-Rais, where the accused himself was then staying, was brought to him one certain evening by the said Henriet and Corrillaut, and during the night he practiced the said unnatural and sodomitic vice with him in the aforesaid manner, then killed him and had him transported to Machecoul to be burned.
Item, he stated and confessed that having been alerted that the men of the castle at Palluau were planning to lay hands on the captain of the castle at Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte, and for this reason indignant with them, one morning, what day he cannot remember, he left on horseback with his men-at-arms intending to surprise the men of the castle at Palluau, make them prisoners, and punish them; and at the outset of the expedition, the said François, being among his company, told him that he would not find them; and in fact, the said accused did not find them and his project was frustrated.
Item, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, stated and confessed that he had killed two young pages, one of Guillaume Daussy’s, and another of Pierre Jacquet’s, called Prince, on whom he committed and exercised the said unnatural lust.
Item, the same accused stated and confessed that when he last went to Vannes, last July, André Buchet delivered a young boy to him, at his lodgings in the house of a man named Lemoine, with whom he committed the unnatural vice, as abovenoted. And having killed him, Gilles had him thrown by the said Poitou into the latrines of an inn owned by a man named Boetden, near the aforesaid Lemoine’s house; the said friends of the accused lodging in Boetden’s inn or house, near the marketplace of Vannes; which Poitou descended into the latrines, in order to sink the cadaver and cover it, so that no one might discover it.
Item, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, stated and confessed likewise that before the said François’ arrival, he had employed other conjurors, namely a trumpeter named Dumesnil, Master Jean de La Rivière, a man named Louis, Master Antoine de Palerne, and another whose name he does not remember. Which conjurors by his command performed many invocations, some of which he attended, as much at Machecoul as at other places; and, in particular, to see drawn in the soil a circle or figure in the form of a circle, which is necessary in that sort of invocation where the intention is to see the devil and to speak and make a pact with him. But the said accused said that he was never able to see the devil or speak with him, although he did everything he could, to the point that it was not his fault if he could not see the devil or speak with him.
Item, the same Gilles de Rais, oft-named, stated and confessed that the aforesaid Dumesnil, conjuror, told him once that the devil, in order to do and accomplish what the said accused intended to solicit and obtain from this same devil, expected to see done and to receive from him a note signed in the hand of the accused himself with blood from his finger, by which the latter promised to give the said devil, when he appeared at his invocation, certain things which he did not remember; and for that reason and to that end he signed his name, Gilles, to the said note with blood from his little finger. As to what was written in the said note he did not remember, except that he promised the devil what was mentioned there, on condition that the devil give to him and procure knowledge, power, and riches. But he is absolutely certain that as he has affirmed, whatever he might have promised the devil he had always retained his soul and life, and he said that the aforesaid note was not delivered, the devil not appearing to him and not having responded to that same invocation.
Item, the said accused confessed that at an invocation by the aforesaid Master de La Rivière, in a wood not far from the garrison or the city of Pouzauges, the said La Rivière armed himself beforehand with weapons and gear, and then entered the aforesaid wood to perform the said invocation; and that he, the accused, with his servants and especially Eustache Blanchet, Henri, and Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, upon entering the wood, discovered the said La Rivière returning, who told him that he had seen the Devil in the guise of a leopard coming toward him, which passed by him without saying a word; and he, the accused, was frightened and terrified by what he said. And the accused added to his narration that the said La Rivière, to whom he had paid the sum of twenty gold royals, promised to return, which he did not do.
Item, the same accused stated and confessed that at another invocation of demons practiced by him and a conjuror whose name he does not remember, with Gilles de Sillé as well, in a room of the aforesaid Tiffauges castle, while he was in the said room, the said Sillé did not dare to enter the circle to perform the invocation, but retired to a window with the intention of throwing himself out of it if he perceived something fearful approaching, and he held in his arms an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the said accused himself was afraid in the circle, because the invoker had forbidden him to cross himself, because if he did, they would all be in great danger; but he remembered a prayer to Our Lady that begins with Alma, and at once the conjuror ordered him to leave the circle, which he immediately did while crossing himself; and he left the room promptly, leaving the invoker and locking the door behind him; then he discovered the said Gilles de Sillé, who told him that someone was beating and striking the invoker left alone in the room, which sounded as if someone were beating a featherbed; which he, the accused, did not hear, and he had the door of the room opened and at its entrance he saw the conjuror wounded in the face and in other parts of his body, and among other things, having a bump on his forehead so large he could barely stand up; and for fear that he might die in consequence of the said wounds, Gilles wanted him to be confessed and have the sacraments administered; but the conjuror did not die, and recovered from his wounds.
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(Gilles de Rais’ “in-court confession.
”)
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Item, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, stated and confessed that he sent the said Gilles de Sillé into a region farther north, to find conjurors of demons or evil spirits. Which Gilles de Sillé, having returned, told him that he had found a woman who busied herself with like invocations: which woman had said to Sillé that if Gilles de Rais did not turn his soul away from the Church and his chapel, he would never accomplish what he desired; and that Sillé had met in the same region another woman who told him that if the said accused did not abandon a work begun by him or that he intended to pursue, or have it stopped, nothing good would ever come to him.
Item, that the said Gilles de Sillé had found in the same region an invoker whom he proposed sending to the said accused, which conjuror, who was preparing to join the said accused, drowned while crossing a river or stream.
Item, the said Gilles, the accused, stated and confessed that the said Sillé brought him another conjuror who also died immediately. And because of these unlucky deaths and the difficulties counterpoised to his guilty intentions in the aforesaid invocations or the like he said he believed that divine clemency and the intercession of the Church, from which his heart and his belief have never strayed, had mercifully arrived and prevented him from succumbing to so many tests and perils; and for this reason he intended to renounce his evil life, and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the sepulcher of Our Lord and other places included in the Passion of his Redeemer and to do all that he could to obtain forgiveness for his sins, through the mercy of his Redeemer.
And then, after the said confession in arraignment, given freely and voluntarily, he exhorted the people there, and principally the ecclesiastics, there in considerably larger numbers, to always venerate our Holy Mother Church, and to honor her greatly and never to separate from her, adding expressly that if he himself, the accused, had not directed his heart and his affection toward that same Church, he never would have escaped the devil’s malice and intention; moreover, he believed that had he not, because of the enormity of his villainies and crimes the devil would have long since destroyed his body and carried off his soul; exhorting, moreover, the fathers of families to watch that their children be not too finely dressed, and to tolerate no laziness, noting and asserting that many ills are born of laziness and of the excesses of eating and drinking, and declaring more expressly still that with him laziness, an insatiable desire for delicacies, and the frequent consumption of mulled wine, more than anything else, kept him in a state of excitement that led to the perpetration of so many sins and crimes.
On the subject of which crimes and offenses perpetrated by him, Gilles de Rais, the accused, humbly and tearfully implored the mercy and pardon of His Creator and most blessed Redeemer, as well as that of the parents and friends of the children so cruelly massacred, as well as that of everyone whom he could have injured in regard to whom he was effectively guilty, whether they were present there or elsewhere, and he asked all Christ’s faithful and worshipers for the assistance of their devout prayers.
And this is why the aforesaid Master Guillaume Chapeillon, prosecutor, in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, considering the voluntary confession of the said accused, and other proofs lawfully brought against him, requested instantly that a timely day and term be appointed to the accused in order to conclude — and at the same time, on the other hand, to see concluded — the sentence and definitive sentences by the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the said Inquisitor, and by each of them, or by those whom they would charge with this responsibility, sentences to be written and promulgated in the case and the cases of this order, unless the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, could give any valid reason this should not be done. Thereupon the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Vicar of the Inquisitor assigned the following Tuesday to the prosecutor and Gilles de Rais, the accused, who did not object, in order to proceed as by law, as was necessary in the case and the cases of this order.
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(Gilles de Raisʹ ʺin-court confession.ʺ)
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Of which things the aforesaid prosecutor asked us, the undersigned notaries public and scribes, to make one and several public instruments.
In the aforesaid place in the presence of the Reverend Father in God, Milord Jean Prégent, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, Masters Pierre de L’Hôpital, President of Britanny, Robert de La Rivière and Milord Robert d’Épinay, aforesaid knight, and nobleman Yvon de Rocerf, including the honorable Masters Yvon Coyer, dean, Jean Morelli, chorister, Gatien Ruytz, Guillaume Groyguet, licensed in both courts of law, Jean de Châteaugiron, Pierre Avril, Robert Viger, Geoffroy de Chevigny, licensed in law, the mayors of Nantes, Geoffroi Piperier, treasurer,95 Pierre Hamon, Jean Guérin, Jean Vaedi and Jean Symon, canons from Notre-Dame-de-Nantes and Saint-Brieuc, Hervé Lévy, seneschal of Quimper, and Master Guillaume de La Lohérie, licensed in law, attorney to the secular court of Nantes, with many other witnesses assembled in the same place in large numbers, specifically called and requested.
[Signed:] Delaunay, J. Petit, G. Lesné.
Tuesday, October 25, 1440.
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1. Official statement of the rendering of sentences.
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The Tuesday following Saint Luke the Evangelist’s Day, October 25, 1440, arraigned before the said Reverend Father in God, Lord Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, and Reverend Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, sitting on the bench to administer the law in the aforesaid great upper hall of La Tour Neuve, in the morning at the hour of Terce, the aforesaid Master Guillaume Chapeillon, prosecutor, for himself, on the one hand, and the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, also for himself, on the other, appeared in person.
Which prosecutor, fulfilling the appointed term in the case and the cases of this order, asked earnestly, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, hearing, understanding, and not contradicting, that this suit and the cases be concluded and held as concluded by the aforesaid Lords Bishop and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, and insofar as it depended on him, he had concluded in these same cases. And then the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, the said Vice-Inquisitor, in response to the prosecutor who had concluded and asked that it be concluded with him, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, not contradicting, but consenting to this, concluded and held it for conclusion and desired that it be held for conclusion in these same cases.
Which conclusion accordingly made, the aforesaid prosecutor asked earnestly that the sentence and definitive sentences in the case and the cases of this order be immediately passed and promulgated in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, hearing and understanding, in favor of the same prosecutor and against the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, by the same Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, following the conclusion and the conclusions of the published articles, and that these latter be passed and promulgated by these same Lords Bishop and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, or by whomever it pleased of the two, or by yet another delegated to that effect.
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(1. Official statement of the rendering of sentences.)
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Thus the same Lord Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, the same Vicar of the Inquisitor, sitting on the bench, as above, to administer the law, in the presence of the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, hearing, understanding, and not contradicting — considering, in the first place, all bills and speeches for the defense, all letters and documents, all developments and all confessions by the said Gilles, the accused, diligently examined by them; considering all depositions of witnesses and all other instruments and guarantees in the case and the cases of this order, held, exhibited, and produced, and each of these same things having been duly recorded with diligence and circumspection; considering the slow and careful deliberation on all t
hese same things by the reverend fathers, lords bishops, doctors, jurists, theologians, illustrious practitioners and other honest men to whom the Lord Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, aforesaid Vice-Inquisitor, presented a complete and faithful relation of the legal grounds of the case and the cases of this order; considering the counsel and agreement of these same lords bishops, doctors, jurists, theologians, practitioners and other honest men; therefore, the Lord Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, proceeded and deemed it appropriate to proceed with their sentence and to all their definitive sentences which need be promulgated and passed in the case and the cases of this order, regarding the former and the latter, according to the things that by the bills, the speeches for the defense, the developments and the other instruments and guarantees, they examined and investigated, and that they now examine and understand; sentences that by means of the venerable and circumspect man, Milord Jacques de Pencoëtdic, practitioner in both courts of law and an official of Nantes, they passed and promulgated respectively and successively, the content of which is integrally contained below, conforming to certain memoranda that the aforesaid Pencoëtdic had delivered into his hands, which in the same place the Lords Bishop of Nantes and the Vice-Inquisitor had the aforesaid Milord Jacques, aforesaid doctor and official, read aloud in a clear voice. This promulgation of sentences being thus read, for his part and for that of the aforesaid Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, the Lord Bishop of Nantes interrogated the aforesaid Gilles, the accused, to know whether he wanted to be reincorporated with the Church, our Mother, and to return to her, on account of the aforesaid errors, invocation of evil spirits, and other deviations from the Catholic faith. Which accused responded and said that he had never known what heresy was, that he did not know that he had lapsed into and committed it; however, ever since the Church judged that the acts he had committed smacked of heresy, as much by reason of his confession as by other proofs, in consequence of this judgment he devoutly supplicated to her on his knees — and did so while sighing and moaning — to be reincorporated by the said Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor. To which reincorporation the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the said Inquisitor, received and admitted the aforesaid Gilles, the accused, who solicited it humbly; and they reincorporated him. Which Gilles, thus reincorporated, humbly and on his knees, with continued sighing and moaning, supplicated to be absolved of the sentences of excommunication brought against him in the aforesaid promulgation of definitive sentences and of all others that he could have incurred; as much for the aforesaid offenses by him committed and perpetrated in an iniquitous fashion as for the violation of immunity of the said parochial church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte with that of all other churches, or for the detention and imprisonment of the said Jean Le Ferron, cleric, or for the insults preferred by him respecting the same Lords Bishop of Nantes, Vicar of the Inquisitor, and other ecclesiastics, and for the offenses to God and his Church; imploring them to grant him pardon. Which lords accorded it to him for the love of God, and thereupon the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, was absolved, in writing and in customary Church form, of the sentence of excommunication passed by the aforesaid Lord Bishop of Nantes, and restored to participation in the sacraments and to the unity of the faithful in Christ and his Church. Finally, at the earnest request of the said Gilles, the accused, the aforesaid Lords Bishop of Nantes and Friar Jean Blouyn, Vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, charged the male religious, Friar Jean Jouvenel, of the Carmelite Order of Ploermel, in the Saint-Malo diocese, to hear the secret confession of the accused, to absolve him of his sins previously confessed or needing to be confessed, and to impose and enjoin on him for all his sins a salutary penance in proportion to his faults, as much for those he had judicially confessed as for those he would confess at the tribunal of his conscience, and to absolve him of every other sentence of excommunication brought against him by the aforesaid judges in their lawful authority, conjointly as well as separately.
Trial of Gilles De Rais Page 28
