CHAPTER V

GILLES’S TRIAL BEFORE THE ECCLESIASTICAL TRIBUNAL

_The Ecclesiastical Tribunal--Record in the Archives of Loire-Inférieure--The Trial--His Confession--Judgment and Sentence._

The ecclesiastical trial Against Gilles de Retz was of course conducted by the Bishop. He was the representative of the Church in the diocese, and he alone had the authority to act. His name was Jean de Malestroit. He was originally Bishop at St. Brieuc, but had been Bishop of Nantes since 1419. He called, as his assistants in the trial, to aid by their counsel and advice, the Bishops of Mans, of St. Brieuc, and of Saint Lo, one of the officials of the Church at Nantes, and with them Pierre de l’Hospital, President of the High Court of Brittany, and whose aid was asked to represent the civil law and to direct the charges, the witnesses, and the debates in such manner that they should come within the civil law. Three of the notaries of Nantes were made clerks, with a foreign assistant. Robert Guillaumet was the executive officer, that is to say, the sheriff or bailiff of the court. The prosecuting officer appointed by the Bishop was William Chapeillon, the Curé of St. Nicholas at Nantes.

It has been said that the Bishop, for a considerable length of time, had been receiving and hearing complaints and charges against Gilles de Retz, and that especially during the last month he had been investigating their truth. In this he was aided by the aforesaid William Chapeillon, who would thus have been entirely familiar with the charges against Gilles de Retz. It was, therefore, eminently proper that he should be appointed prosecutor. Whether the Bishop had the full power under either the civil law or the ecclesiastical law, to make the foregoing appointments of colleagues on his own motion and according to his own will, is not here determined, nor does it appear, in making these appointments, whether the accused was consulted or whether he gave his consent, nor does it appear that he either took or had the right to take exception to them or any of them and by such exception deprive them of the right to act in his case. As to one aid to the Bishop, Gilles’s consent was asked and obtained before he was allowed to sit, that was Brother Jean Blouyn, of the Order of _Frères-Prêcheurs_ at the Convent at Nantes. He had been appointed as Vice-Inquisitor for the diocese of Nantes by the authority of the Grand Inquisitor of France, B. N. Medici, who had been appointed to that office by the Pope. Great stress is laid, throughout the process wherever this appointment came in question, on the fact that Gilles de Retz had consented to it before the priest took his seat on the bench. Jean Blouyn was a man of about forty years of age, who seemed to have commended himself for his moderation in making a decision, and for his firmness in adhering to it. Abbé Boussard classes him as _digne de tout éloge et apprécié de tout le monde_.

Another tribunal represented the civil law, and it was by this that the secular sentence of execution was passed.

In France, as in all countries under the civil or Roman law, and in some of the countries under the common law, there has been a separate jurisdiction of certain offences for the ecclesiastical court. As a matter of course, and necessary for the continuance and good administration of justice, there would be some controversies of which these two courts would have concurrent jurisdiction. It is quite impossible in such a work as the present to go into this question. Those who are interested in the subject are respectfully referred, for France, to the _Histoire du droit criminel en France_ (pp. 74 and 85) by Du Boys; to Faustin-Helie’s _Traité de l’instruction criminelle_; Fornier’s _Les officialités au moyen âge_; Esmien’s _Histoire de la procédure criminelle en France, et spécialment de la procédure inquisitoriale depuis le XIII^{me} siècle jusqu’à nos jours_ (Paris, 1882); and for the general criminal procedure and jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical tribunal, to Beiner’s _Beitrage zu der Geschichte der Inquisition, prozesses_ (pp. 16–78). For a general history of these subjects as applied to England, one should consult the great work on the _History of Common Law_, by Sir Henry Maine.

The record of the process against Gilles de Retz in the archives of the Department of Loire-Inférieure has been adverted to. We now come to a point where it is almost the entire evidence. It consists of the records of the two courts, one the ecclesiastical court, kept by the clerks before-mentioned, and to which the names of some one or all of three are signed for each day, either Jean Delaunay, Jean Petit, Guillaume Lesne, or Nicholas Giraud. This record, made each day, apparently was supervised and made official by the prosecutor, William Chapeillon, and it seems that more than one copy was made of it at that time. This was in Latin, though French was interjected occasionally. The other record was of the civil tribunal, the record of the day’s proceedings being reduced to writing and signed by Touscheronde as Commissioner of the civil court, or by one of his aids, or, as they call them, _assesseurs_, who signed, alternating with Touscheronde. Their names were, Nicholas Chatau, Michael Eveillard, and Jean Coppegorge. This record was kept in French, the vulgar tongue, and very bad French and a very vulgar tongue it was. It would be interesting to philologists to note the changes during the last five hundred and fifty years in the spelling and, doubtless, pronunciation of the words of the French language.

These two records of the trial, the ecclesiastical and the civil, are treated as one, and their originals are filed together in the archives of the Department of Loire-Inférieure in the locality designated as Coté E, 189. Four copies of this record have been made, two in the year 1530, one of which was at the request of Gilles de Laval, the other for the Sire de la Tremoille. The copy given to the family of Laval has disappeared and no trace of it is known; the other for Tremoille was placed in the château of Thouars which, it is to be remembered, was the family name of the wife of Gilles de Retz.

This copy has taken its name from this château and is known in history as the Manuscrit de Thouars. It was left in this château until its existence was forgotten. When the château was bought by the State and became part of the national domain, all papers and documents belonging to the family were transported to the château of Serrant in Anjou, of which one of the ladies of the family of Tremoille was mistress. This copy of the record was in a pile of documents, tossed pell-mell and without order, and here Monsieur Marchegay, the archivist of the Department of Maine-et-Loire, discovered it. The Duke de la Tremoille immediately took steps for its preservation. This record was on parchment like the original, and comprises four hundred and twenty pages, of which three hundred and three, in Latin, are the record of the ecclesiastical trial; the last hundred and eight pages constitute the record of the civil tribunal, and are in French.

Two other copies have been made in modern times, one for the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, made under the Second Empire, and one for the Public Library at Carpentras, both of which have been certified as true. The author procured a photograph of an open page from the original ecclesiastical record in the archives at Nantes. It was made on his personal application while he was Consul of the United States at Nantes. These records will be explained in this work, and upon their foundation rests the entire history of Gilles de Retz. Without this record or its copies, the true story of Bluebeard could not be written.

Michelet (_Histoire de France_, vol. v., pp. 208 _et seq._), in his description of the arrest and trial of Gilles de Retz, depends on two manuscript copies which he mentions in a note; one in the Bibliothèque Royale (No. 493 F)--the other communicated to him by M. Louis Du Bois.

The warrant of arrest of Gilles de Retz was signed by the Bishop on the 13th of September, 1440, it was executed the next day, the 14th, and on that day Gilles was thrown in prison. On the 19th, five days after, he was brought before the Bishop in the great hall of the _Tour Neuve_, in the château of Nantes. No information had been prepared, and no indictment filed. The prosecutor informed Gilles that he was charged with the crime of heresy and asked if he was willing to be tried before the ecclesiastical court, to which he consented, and added, with a defiant air full of assurance, that he would recognise in advance any other ecclesiastical judges, as he had great desire to clear himself of such accusation in the presence of any inquisitor, _n’ importe lequel_. It was on this occasion that the Bishop of Nantes called to his aid as an auxiliary judge, Jean Blouyn of the Order of _Frères-Prêcheurs_, the Vice-Inquisitor of the faith for the diocese of Nantes, and then, this business having been brought to a close, the session of the court was adjourned until the 28th of September, when the witnesses would be heard.

The record of this session is rendered in Latin, a translation of which is here given:

(Translation)[3] “Monday, September 19, 1440.

_“Proces-verbal, appearance in court of Gilles de Retz and his submission to the jurisdiction of the Court._

“On aforesaid Monday after aforesaid feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, there appeared personally in court before the afore-mentioned reverend Father the Lord Bishop of Nantes, in the great hall of the new tower of the castle of Nantes, to give hearing before the tribunal holding session there, the honourable Guillermus Chapiellon, promoter of cases of office of the aforesaid court, reproducing in fact the letters of citation enclosed above, together with the enclosed execution of them,--there appeared this Chapeillon on the one hand, and on the other the aforesaid M. Egidius, soldier and baron, the accused. And this M. Egidius [Gilles], soldier and baron, after he in his wisdom had perceived that the promoter accused him of heresy, said that he wished to appear before the aforesaid reverend Father the Lord Bishop of Nantes, and some other ecclesiastical judges, also before the inquisitor for heretical wickedness, and to purge himself of the crimes laid against him. Then the aforesaid reverend Father appointed for the aforesaid Monsieur soldier and baron, who agreed in this, the 28th day of the aforesaid month to legitimately appear before the religious, the brother Jean Blouyn, the vicar of the inquisitor of cases of heretical wickedness, in the afor-mentioned place, to answer to the crimes and charges to be urged against him by the aforesaid promoter, ... to be tried in things pertaining to faith, as is lawful and proper....

“In the presence of the distinguished men Master Oliverio Solidi de Beauveron, and M. Johannis Durandi of Blain, rector of the parochial churches, of the diocese of Nantes, called as witness to the foregoing.”

[3] The entire ecclesiastical record was written in Latin with an occasional interjection of French.

The commission of Jean Blouyn as Vice-Inquisitor was written in Latin on parchment, to which was attached the great seal in red wax, which hung dangling by two silken cords. It was as follows:

“William Merici, of the order of Friars Preachers, professor of Sacred Theology, by the apostolic authority Grand Inquisitor of Heresy in the Kingdom of France, to our well-beloved brother in Jesus Christ, Jean Blouyn of the convent of our order in the city of Nantes, salvation by the author of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ:

“Heresy, says the Apostle, is an evil that, if not cut up by the roots by the iron of the Inquisition, will propagate itself as a cancer in secret, and in darkness bring death to the most simple soul. Thus, in order to proceed in the interest of their own salvation against heretics, their aiders and abettors, and the evil men, because of heresy or suspected of the crime, against those who oppose the Inquisition, or who restrict its free agency, it is necessary to proceed with great caution and rare prudence. We have fullest confidence in the Lord that you are endowed with a capacity, jurisdiction, and good will to exercise this high charge. For this reason, by the counsel of several of our brothers of which the wisdom is recognised by all, we have made, established, and created to-day, and by these presents we do make, establish, and create you in all forms and with all the conditions required by the law and the best authority which are in our hands, as our vicar in the city and diocese of Nantes.

“By these letters, then, and by this concession, power is given to you against heretics and against the culpable persons above designated which may be there or otherwise. Also requests, citations, interviews, interrogations, you can take against all; you can cause them to be retained prisoners and proceed against them in justice in any manner that you may judge convenient, even including a definite sentence. You will have finally all that by custom or by law belong to the charge of Inquisitors; for in all this, as well as by the force of the common law as by the grace of spiritual privileges enjoyed by the Inquisition, we give to you, as much as it is in all our power.

“In testimony of which, we have set our hand and seal to these letters patent.

(Signed) “G. MERICI.

“Done at NANTES July 25, 1426.”

This letter was read to Gilles, and he was asked if he recognised it. He declared “No!” It was submitted to, and proved by, the court, and was recognised as authentic and genuine, and under its authority Brother Jean Blouyn was admitted to a seat upon the bench as representative of the Holy Inquisition and as judge in the case, aid to the Bishop.

The session of October 11th was ended, and Gilles led back to prison.

On Wednesday the judges met, not in the great audience chamber, but in the hall below, _aula bassa_. It was, and is, the custom in the prosecution of criminal cases to have the investigation of the witnesses before either the court or some high officer of justice prior to the public or official trial. In this investigation the procedure corresponds in some degree to that of our grand jury, or more properly before the prosecuting attorney as well as the presiding judge. The inquests made by the Bishop of Nantes, and with him his present prosecuting attorney, William Chapeillon, during the summer preceding, had been secret, the witnesses having been called up separately and examined privately; but on this occasion the session was open, at least to all witnesses, and, as Michelet describes them,

“a cloud of witnesses, poor people, came up single file, crying and sobbing while they recounted the details of the abduction of their children. Their cries and tears added to the horror of the crimes which they recounted and showed the great sorrow and grief to which they had been subjected, and the terrors through which they had passed.”

The following is a record of this session, and the depositions of the witnesses heard:

“Wednesday, September 28, 1440.

“_Procès-verbal de réception des plaintes._

“The register in the case and cases of faith, in the presence of the Reverend Father in Christ, lord Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, and of brother Jean Blouyn, vicar of Father Guillermus Merici, the inquisitor mentioned below, against M. Egidius (Gilles) de Rays, soldier, lord, and baron of the same place, under accusation.

“In the name of the Lord, Amen.

“In the year of the Lord 1440, on Wednesday, September 28, in the third indiction, in the tenth year of the pontificate of our most holy Father in Christ and Lord Eugenius IV., Pope by divine providence, and during the session of the council of Basle, there appeared before ... the lord bishop Johannes de Malestroit, ... and brother Johannes de Blouyn, ... vicar of Guillermus Merici, the inquisitor in matters of heretical wickedness, ... and before their scribes, ... the persons to be mentioned below, who, ... in tears and sorrows complained of the loss of their children and grandchildren and of others mentioned below, asserting that these children and others had, by the aforesaid Egidius de Rays and certain other accomplices of his and his abettors, been treacherously carried off and inhumanly strangled, and that he had committed upon them sins against nature, ... that he had often invoked evil spirits and offered homage to them, and had committed very many other enormous and unheard-of crimes of which the ecclesiastical court takes cognizance....

“Of whom the first complainant is Agatha the wife of Denys de la Mignon, of the parish of Holy Mary of Nantes, stating that a certain Colin her grandchild, the son of Guillermus Apvrill, about 20 years of age, small of stature and white of face, having on one ear a birth-mark, in the year 1439 in the month of August or thereabouts, on a Monday morning early went to the house commonly called la Suze in the city of Nantes (belonging to and occupied by Baron de Rays).... And afterwards she did not see the aforesaid Colin nor did she hear anything about him until a certain Perrina Martini _alias la Meffraye_, was arrested and shut up in the prisons of the secular court of Nantes. After this arrest she says that she heard it said by many that very many boys and innocent children had been carried off and killed by M. de Rays, she does not know to what purpose.

“Likewise the widow of Reginald Donété of the parish of Holy Mary of Nantes, also complained that Jean her son and son of aforesaid Donété used to frequent the house de la Suze in the city of Nantes; and since the feast of St. John the Baptist of the year 1438 she heard nothing about him until the aforesaid Perrina Martin, _alias la Meffraye_, was arrested and imprisoned and confessed that she had given him over to the aforesaid de Rays and his companions.

“Johanna, the wife of Guibeleti Delit, of the Parish of St. Denys of Nantes, likewise complained that her son Guillermus used to visit the house de la Suze, and went there during the first week of last Lent; and she had heard M. Jean Briant say that he had seen him in the aforesaid house on seven or eight successive days; that she had never afterwards seen her son, and that she suspected that he had been put to death in that house.

“Johannes Hubert and his wife, parishioners of St. Vincent of Nantes, complained that a certain son of theirs Jean by name, about 14 years of age, went to the house la Suze two years before the feast of the Nativity of St. John of last year, and then returning to the house of his parents, told his mother that he had cleansed the room of the aforesaid de Rays in the house de la Suze and had therefor bread in the aforesaid house, which bread he brought home and gave to his mother; to whom he also said that he was in favour with M. de Rays, and that the lord had given him white wine to drink; consequently he immediately returned to the house of Suze and was never again seen by his parents.

“Johanna, the wife of Johannes Darel, of the parish of St. Similien near Nantes, complained that on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul of the year before last, she was going home from the church of Nantes in the evening, and a child of hers aged seven or eight years was following her. When she had reached the church of St. Saturnine of Nantes, or was near it, she looked around to see her son, whom she thought to be following her, but she saw him neither then nor ever after.

“The wife of Yvon Kyeguen, stonecutter, of the parish of the Holy Cross of Nantes, complained that she had given to a certain Poitou, a servant of M. de Rays, one of her sons (this she did between the feasts of Easter and Ascension) to be a servant to him, as the aforesaid Poitou asserted; the son was about 15 years of age; and afterwards she never saw him again.

“Theophania, the wife of Eonette le Charpentier, butcher, of the parish of St. Clement near Nantes, complained that Peter the son of Eonet le Dagaye, the grandchild of the complainant, ten years old or thereabouts, was lost two years ago, and from that time nothing was heard of him until the aforesaid Perrina Martin, _alias_ la Peliszonne, nicknamed _la Meffraye_, confessed, as is said, that she had given him to the followers of M. de Rays.

“The wife of Peter Coupperie likewise complained that she had lost her two sons, one eight and the other nine years old.

“Johannes Magnet complained that he had lost a son. Wherefore the said complainants said that they suspected that the aforesaid M. de Rays and his accomplices were culpable and conscious of the loss and death of the aforesaid children.”

The judges and those present and in authority were much moved by these scenes, and they declared that such crimes should not go unpunished, however high the rank of the accused, and they directed the bailiff to notify Gilles to appear before their tribunal the 8th of October to respond in their presence to the accusations against him. On that day more witnesses were introduced, but their depositions were not written out, or at least are not in the record.

The court was opened in the great audience chamber in due form and solemnity, at about nine o’clock in the morning. The audience was public, and the hall was crowded. Gilles was brought to the bar as a criminal, and required to plead. He carried a high head, looking around him disdainfully, as in the days of his power and strength. The bailiff recited that in accordance with the orders given to him, he had the possession of the body of Gilles de Retz, which he now presented before the court. Immediately the prosecutor arose, and proceeded verbally with the arraignment of the prisoner. It is to be remembered that the methods of procedure in the courts of that country are now, and were then, quite different from that of the common law courts.

After the oral statement of the crimes of which he was accused, the prosecutor called upon Gilles to plead, to which Gilles (also orally) declared his refusal, and demanded an appeal from the Bishop of Nantes and the Vice-Inquisitor,--supposed to be an appeal to the Archbishop at Tours or to the Pope himself. His appeal was refused immediately, and his plea demanded. Michelet (_Histoire de France_, vol. v., p. 210) justifies Gilles in his refusal to plead and his demand for an appeal. “For,” he says, “one cannot deny that the judges before whom Gilles was to be tried were his enemies.” Gilles seems, in making these demands, to have intended to use the law’s delay more than to have had any special hope of being sustained by the higher courts.

It is remarkable, though, to consider the value attached by the court to Gilles’s plea. It was evident that when he did plead, it would be a plea of “not guilty”; but this seemed to have had no effect upon the judges or upon their course of procedure. They appeared quite willing to permit the plea of “not guilty,” but were determined to have a plea of some kind entered. It would be curious to trace the causes of this solicitude on the part of the judges. The filing of the plea may have been required for some purpose deeper than the appearance would indicate; possibly it stood in the stead of the present rule of law that requires the criminal to be arrested and brought before the court in order to give it jurisdiction. True, the party can, in France, be tried in his absence and convicted _in contumacion_; but this can only be done after the party shall have been arrested and filed his plea. In murder trials, no conviction can be had in the court of any civilised country until the proof shall be made of the _corpus delicti_. It would appear as though the importance of this plea was that it should be an evidence of the presence of the prisoner before the court. It may have been, in the eye of the law, a synecdoche, wherein a part stood for the whole,--a plea standing for the evidence of arrest and presence of the prisoner before the court,--which was necessary to give it jurisdiction over the case. However this may have been, the court manifested great determination to obtain the plea from Gilles. They gave him some days to consider the matter, but he replied at once that

“none of the articles which you have presented against me are true except two things therein charged; the baptism that I have received, and the renunciation which I have sworn against the demon, his pomp and his works. I am now, and always have been, a true Christian.”

Upon the receipt of this answer and defiance, the prosecutor became indignant. He offered his oath to support each and every one of the articles he had presented. Turning to Gilles, he demanded that he make the same oath, and in the same manner, that is, between the hands of the Bishop and the Vice-Inquisitor (“_entre les mains de l’évêque et du Vice-inquisiteur_”). This was demanded of him four different times--he was begged, pleaded with, implored, threatened, menaced with excommunication, but he remained strong in his refusal. What a strange thing is human nature! This man had committed the most fearful, inhuman, and base crimes,--crimes against the innocent and defenceless,--and yet, when brought to the bar of trial, he insisted he was a true Christian, and whatever else he might do or have done, he stood firm in his resolve not to take a false oath. He could commit murder times without number, and he seemed to consider the punishment for this relating only to the body. A false oath taken before God seemed to him to carry its punishment into the next world and to imperil his soul through eternity. He was willing to commit murder, but he was afraid to commit perjury.

The hearing was postponed until the 11th of October, to give the prosecutor time to prepare the information which should serve as an indictment and which had not yet been formally presented nor made a matter of record.

In the meantime, public attention must have been greatly attracted to the proceedings as they were progressing, and invitations went out to all persons who had lost children by abduction within the specified time and who had reason to suppose that the crime could be laid to Gilles, or his accomplices, to present themselves before the court and make their complaints.

Lemire relates (p. 39) this incident:

“On the 10th of October, a herald-at-arms of the Duke of Brittany, bearing his livery, sounded the trumpet three times before the château and then, in a loud voice, demanded that any person having knowledge of the affair of Gilles de Retz was summoned to appear before the court and tell what he knew under pain of fine and imprisonment. No person responded to this appeal.”

So great was the number appearing the next day in response to this notification that the court was unable to proceed with the trial, and consumed the 11th and 12th in its inquest, hearing and recording complaints of the many witnesses. As we have seen, these witnesses were presented before the judges, interrogated, and their statements taken down in the form of depositions, to the end that they might be included in the information against the prisoner. On October 13th, having finished this work, the court had the prisoner brought before it. The session of the court was held in public; the bench appears to have been filled with ecclesiastical dignitaries, many of them bishops from the neighbouring dioceses, with judges and lawyers; while below, an immense pressing, pushing, exasperated crowd of bereaved parents and friends, filled with emotion, added much to the excitement by their declarations of the losses they had sustained by the abduction of their dear children, and who filled the room with their cries against the perpetrator of the crimes by which they had been robbed of their loved ones.

The hour for opening was, as usual, nine o’clock. The first business was a return to the question of the plea to be filed by the accused. Gilles refused with greater hauteur than before, and pushed his refusal disdainfully, ending by becoming abusive of the judges and officers of the court, and conducting himself in a highly improper and insulting manner. The following extracts are from _Procès-verbal_ of the audience (translated):

“Thursday, October 13, 1440.

“On the above-mentioned Thursday, the 13th day of October, there appeared in the court before the Lord Bishop of Nantes, etc., etc....

“Then the same Lord Bishop and the Vice-inquisitor and the aforesaid promoter, asked the aforesaid Egidius [Gilles], the accused, whether he wished to reply to the positions and articles against him, or whether he wished to say anything against them or to take any exception to them. He answered with pride and haughtiness that he wished to give no answer to the positions and articles, asserting that the aforesaid lords, the Bishop and Vice-inquisitor, were not his judges, and that he appealed from them, speaking irreverently and improperly.

“Moreover, the aforesaid Egidius, accused, then said that the aforesaid lords, the Bishop of Nantes and brother Jean Blouyn the vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, and all other ecclesiastical men were guilty of simony and were ribalds, and that he would rather be hanged by the neck than to answer before such ecclesiastics and judges, feeling it a grievance to have to appear before them, ... and finally addressing the lord Bishop, he said in the vernacular, ‘_Je ne feroye rien pour vous comme évesque de Nantes_.’ ... Then under pain of excommunication he was asked to reply to the charges made against him, but he refused, saying that he wondered how it was that Petrus de l’Hospital, the President of Brittany, could have permitted that the ecclesiastics should be present at the accusation of such crimes against him, stating that he was a Christian and a Catholic, and that he was aware that such crimes would have been against faith.

“Then he was formally excommunicated, and it was decided to proceed with the trial, paying no attention to his declaration that he had appealed, since such appellation was merely in verbal declaration and not in writing, and since the enormity of the crimes of which he was accused demanded immediate attention.”

No progress was made during the day, and the court was adjourned until the morrow, when the information would be completed and formally lodged against the accused.

The criminal proceedings in France, while different from those under the common law, yet still have some analogy therewith. There is no grand jury, but in its stead is an officer now called _juge d’instruction_. In this court no such special officer seems to have existed, but the duty of examining the witnesses, as done by the grand jury in the United States, was performed by the court itself, aided by the prosecutor. Instead of an indictment charging the crime as under the common law, an information is filed. The information is signed and presented in court by the prosecutor, and while being prepared is entirely within his control. He has, under the law, the power of our grand jury of charging, or refusing to charge, crimes; therefore the indictment is his. This information, instead of simply charging the crime directly, and in legal language, sets forth the history of the case, the jurisdiction of the court, the attending circumstances of the crime charged, and ends with the usual prayers for conviction and punishment.

The information against Gilles de Retz contained forty-nine articles, and charged him with three distinct crimes: (1) the crimes of abduction, violation, and murder of the infants named; (2) the crimes of magic and sorcery; (3) sacrilege in having violated the ecclesiastic immunity of the chapel of Saint Étienne-de-Mer-Morte. The information was divided into three parts. The first fourteen of the forty-nine articles were occupied with stating the jurisdiction of the court, that is to say, that Jean de Malestroit was the Bishop of Nantes, that he was properly and legally appointed as such, that he was under his superior, the archbishop, whose ecclesiastical province or cathedral was located at Tours; then followed the power, authority, and right to sit, of Jean Blouyn, the Vice-Inquisitor; then the declaration of the nativity of Gilles de Retz, his residence in the diocese of, and duty owed to, the Bishop of Nantes; a declaration of the ecclesiastical authority of the Bishop within his diocese over the château of Machecoul and the chapel of Saint Étienne-de-Mer-Morte and, in fine, a complete statement of all necessary authority over the accused, and this part finished with the declaration that all things herein set forth were true, notorious, manifest, and within the knowledge of all and every person.

The second part of the information comprised articles fifteen to forty-one. Article fifteen was a general statement of all the crimes charged against Gilles and his accomplices. The names of the accused were first stated: Gilles de Retz, Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet Griart, Étienne Corrillaud, _alias_ Poitou, Andrea Bouchet, Jean Rossignol, Robin Romulart, called Spadin, Huguet de Bremont, and the crimes charged were the murder of infants, killed, dismembered, burned, treated in an inhuman manner. Then there were the immolation damnable of the bodies of these infants offered to the demon as a sacrifice; consultation with the demon, odious conduct, frightful abomination, brutal debauches, and, taken together, a catalogue of crimes, a luxury of offences that exhausted the prosecutor to qualify in proper terms, and which, before a mixed assembly, could only be pronounced decently in Latin and not in vulgar language.

He told of the excitement, dread, fear, of the people; the public clamour that had sprung up from one end of the country to the other; how it at last settled around the château of Machecoul, and that every time an abduction took place some one of the accomplices of Gilles had been discovered in the neighbourhood. In making this part of his accusation, the prosecutor became filled with emotion, excited in his address, and eloquent in his words. He described the conduct and feelings of the people, and especially of the stricken parents, of their cries (_clamosa_, for his first presentation and reading of the information was in Latin), the loud lamentations (_lamentabile_), the immense sorrow (_plurimum dolorosa_), the accusing insinuations of the people; he showed the innumerable persons of both sexes and all conditions, both in the cities and in the diocese of Nantes, (_præcedentibus vocibus quam plurimarum personarum utriusque sexus_), who, bowed down by the weight of their grief and fright, had appealed to justice and to heaven with howls and cries (_ululantium_), and had presented their complaints together before the seat of justice, their visages bathed in tears (_conquerentium et plangentium_), for the loss of their sons and daughters, bringing to the Bishop, the commissioners, and the prosecutors the authority of their tears and their griefs in support of this accusation.

Article sixteen commenced with the charge of the crime of conjuration and invocation of demons. Over this the prosecutor also became eloquent. His accusation was of an infraction of ecclesiastical law, and he dealt largely with the law of the Church; his charges abounded in quotations from the Bible (Fourth and Thirty-ninth Psalms), adjurations from holy men, and was filled with many brave and eloquent words in description and denunciation of the abominable crime of black magic, conjuration, and sorcery. He takes up the Italian priests from their respective places in their native country, and brings them along until they are joined to Gilles in Brittany. In the articles alleging crimes against infants, in article twenty-seven, the accusation says, “and the number of victims is upward of one hundred and forty, and possibly more. The articles of the accusation following set forth the details of all these horrors; the action, conduct, and aid of the familiars of Gilles and his accomplices; when, where, for whom, and by whom the infants were taken, and their respective fates. These were all set forth in great detail and with great particularity, and article forty-one closes with the words: “These are the crimes which make Gilles de Retz infamous, a heretic, an apostate, an idolate, and a _relaps_.”

Articles forty-two to forty-seven were occupied with a recapitulation of the crimes committed by Gilles and his accomplices, and in article forty-nine he concludes with the assurance that by such crimes and by such offences the accused had incurred the sentence of excommunication and all other pains which follow the punishment to be assessed against such culpable of being _auruspex et ariolus_, the doers of evil deeds, the conjurors of evil spirits, their aiders and abettors, their friends, their dependants, and, finally, all those who have delivered themselves over to magic and the prohibited art. That the accused had fallen into heresy, that they were guilty of _relaps_, that they had offended the majesty of God, which was infinitely worse than the offence against the priests; they had incurred, consequently, the penalties for crimes against His Majesty Divine; they had broken the commands of the Decalogue, the laws of the Church; they had sown among the faithful Christians the most dangerous errors; finally, that they were rendered culpable of crimes as enormous as they were hideous, all of which were in the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Nantes. And in the closing sentences the prosecutor demands that he shall be admitted now to make proof of what he has advanced, and this he will do, so he promises, without further superfluity, reserving only the right to add, to correct, to change, to diminish, to interpret, and to put in order and produce any new matters if they shall be necessary at the time and place convenient; and he demands the application of the punishment due for this crime. The prosecutor admitted that certain of the crimes set forth in the information were not within the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court, and that they would have to be remitted to the secular court if punishment was expected.

Gilles de Retz interrupted the reading of the information many times, making denials in favour of himself, blaming his judges, and denouncing the prosecutors. Everybody seems to have preserved his temper except Gilles, and at the close of the reading of the information, the judges turned to him and demanded his formal plea to the various accusations against him. Gilles remained obstinate and refused to plead, and demanded an appeal to the higher court. His conduct during the reading was such as to destroy any sympathy the judges may have had. Bishops and judges are but men, and it was too much to expect that the human side of the court would hear, unmoved, this abuse and contumely heaped upon it.

Gilles’s continued refusal to plead gave the prosecutor and court an opportunity to exercise their legal power, and the prosecutor demanded a decree of excommunication against Gilles for his contempt in this behalf committed. This was an interlocutory order, intended to correct the faults of Gilles during the trial. It was useless to imprison him, for he was already a prisoner; it was useless to threaten him with any other pains or penalties applied to his physical body; therefore, the court, using the only other power it had as an ecclesiastical body, issued its decree of excommunication, the only thunder it could fulminate against him.

It is a curious commentary upon human nature, and throws a side light, not simply upon the ecclesiastical courts, but also upon the human nature of that day, that Gilles, who had committed all the crimes in the calendar, and deserved death a thousand times if he had had that many lives; who seemed to have no fear of any punishment inflicting physical pain or discomfort in this world, yet was so filled with dread of punishment in the next world, arising from the decree of excommunication which he believed and feared would deprive him of the solace of his religion and the benefit of the vicarious intercession of his holy Mother Church that, as we shall see, it produced the greatest effect upon him and was of the greatest efficacy in changing his course.

The decree of excommunication having been passed upon Gilles de Retz, a postponement was ordered until the Saturday following, October 15th.

At the next sitting Gilles had had two or three days in which to think over his condition. Brought to the bar, the Court put to him the original question, “Do you recognise us as your legitimate judges?” To which question, to the suprise of everyone who heard him, Gilles, who had heretofore been so proud and disdainful in all his refusals to respond affirmatively to this question, spoke out, “Yes; I recognise the Court as at present constituted. I have committed crimes, and they have been within the limits of this diocese.” With words of humility and regret, his voice broken with emotion, with tears in his eyes, he demanded pardon of the Bishop and Vice-Inquisitor for the words he had spoken so harshly against them.

The Bishop, who had heretofore been dignified, reserved, severe, as became a judge in the trial of a case, on hearing these words of submission and request for pardon, turned the other side of his character towards the repentant. He then became the priest whose duty was to pardon, comfort, and console erring and sinful men; and when Gilles prayed that his decree of excommunication be revoked, that he should be re-admitted to the fold of the Church and again be given the comforts of his religion, the Bishop granted the prayers, and received him again into the Church, giving him words of comfort and good cheer.

When this scene was finished, the prosecutor asked for the progress of the trial in the usual way. Gilles raised no objection, and expressed his willingness to enter his plea and take oath to speak the truth in all things whereof he was accused. The information was read to him at length in the Latin language, and explained, section by section, in the common French. Gilles responded to the first fourteen articles, admitting in succession the powers of the Bishop and of the Vice-Inquisitor, the lawful constitution of the court, and that he was a member of the Church, and that the _venue_, as laid, was within the jurisdiction. Being further interrogated, he, however, denied all dealings with the Evil One, all performances of magic, all attempts at sorcery, or that he had ever, either by himself or by another, sought to have communication with the Evil One, or to invoke his power in any way in order to obtain riches, power, or long life. He admitted that he had once possessed a book that treated of alchemy and of the invocation of demons; that he had obtained it from a soldier who had been thrown in prison at Angers; that he had talked with the soldier upon that subject, but had done nothing more--he had returned the book.

The record recounts how, at this period in the trial, the prosecutor demanded of Gilles that they two, in order to be on equal terms, should take the oath to speak the truth. They advanced together, the prosecutor and the defendant, and putting their left hands between the hands of the Bishop and of the Vice-Inquisitor, their right hands bearing upon the Holy Evangel, they took together the oath “To speak the truth and nothing but the truth,” as to the matter before the court.

This ceremony over, the formal plea of “not guilty” was entered by Gilles. Then came the introduction of witnesses, who were, Henri Griard, Étienne Corrillaud, _alias_ Poitou, François Prelati, Demontie Cativo, Eustache Blanchet, Étienne of St. Malo, Steophanie Etiennette, widow of Robert Branchee, and Perrina Martin, surnamed _la Meffraye_. They were all brought to the bar by Robert Guillaumet, the bailiff, and appeared on the side of the prosecutor and against the defendant. The oath which the witnesses took is given in substance in the record. They were sworn between the hands of the Bishop and the Vice-Inquisitor, as Gilles and the prosecutor had been, and their oath was that neither favour, nor resentment, nor fear, nor hate, nor friendship, nor relationship, should have any part in their words; and they put aside every spirit of party and all personal affection, having regard only for truth and justice.

The judges announced to Gilles the privileges of cross-examination, putting the questions himself if he desired to do so, for, be it understood, usually in criminal trials under the civil law, especially in France, the questions, whether they be by the prosecutor or by the accused, have to be handed up, and are put by the presiding justice. But as it is usual for the witnesses to proceed and tell their story without interrogation, Gilles declared his willingness to have the regular course pursued, and that he would leave the matter to the conscience of the Court. This being done, the witnesses were removed; for, be it understood, by no court practice in France are the witnesses who have not testified permitted to remain while others are giving testimony. The presence of Gilles’s accomplices as witnesses against him must have given him an awful shock. As soon as the witnesses had left the court-room, it seems that the condition of affairs presented themselves to Gilles in their true light, and showed him his serious and compromising situation. He was moved to great emotion, whether of remorse or fear cannot now be said. He demanded, in supplicating tones, that the revocation of the decree of excommunication should be in writing, not simply by oral decree.

It would appear from such of the history of this great criminal as we have, that the only thing which produced any emotion in him and caused him to exhibit fear or dread of his position was this decree of excommunication. The Bishop was in his forgiving mood, he had resumed his _rôle_ of priest, and, very properly, he consented to do in writing what he had already done verbally, and the decree of excommunication was revoked.

The court adjourned until the Monday thereafter, the 17th of October, when it was expected that the introduction of evidence would begin. The examination was taken either orally (_viva voce_), before the court, or by the clerks, or _greffiers_, who acted as examiners, or notaries, and reduced the testimony to writing, reporting it or its substance to the court. De Alneto, Jo. Parvi, and G. Lesne were _greffiers_, and took most of the testimony for the ecclesiastical court; while de Touscheronde did the same for the civil court, and it was reported under their respective certificates.

October 17th was occupied with witnesses proving the crime of sacrilege committed on the chapel of Saint Étienne-de-Mer-Morte. On the 19th the witnesses were examined touching the crime of abduction of infants. This interests us more than the other, and therefore we follow it with the names of the witnesses: Professor Jean de Pencortic, Jean Andilanrech, André Seguin, Pierre Vimain, Jean Orienst, Jean Brient, Jean Le Veill, Jean Picard, Guillaume Michel, Pierre Drouet, Eutrope Chardavoine, Robert Guillaumet (Doctor), Robin Riou, Jacques Tennecy, and Jean Letournours. All of these were sworn, as before, to tell the truth without consideration of prayers, or recompense, or fear, or favour, or hate, or resentment, or friendship, or acquaintance’s sake. Gilles again declined to cross-examine the witnesses; he declared his willingness to abide by their conscientious declarations.

On the 20th of October the court was convened for the purpose of hearing the depositions, and Gilles was asked, with many questions, what response he had to make. He continually said he had none: nothing to say, nothing to ask of the witnesses, and no witnesses of his own to introduce. Practically, he made no controversy over the testimony against him.

The ecclesiastical court was equal to a court of the Inquisition. Two hundred or more years of practice by the Inquisition in prosecution of heresy had served to formulate rules of practice. And here is introduced one of the curiosities of human nature manifested in trials of justice when they are started in a given direction. Recurring to remarks concerning the legal necessity of obtaining a plea to the indictment or information, in order, possibly, to show the presence of the accused, and speculating upon that as the origin of the theory of the common law requiring the personal presence of the accused in order to give the court jurisdiction to try the case, and the proof of the _corpus delicti_ in order to convict, it seems proper that a similar course of procedure and reasoning should prevail in cases of heresy, an offence which dealt so largely with matters of belief; therefore, the ecclesiastical court, or the Inquisitor, whether established as a court or not, deemed it necessary to appeal to the inner consciousness and the private knowledge of the accused in regard to his belief, and to that end put questions that demanded an answer.

As a matter of course, the prisoner, if a heretic, would refuse to answer because he would not convict himself, and hence grew up (this is only a suggestion of the author) a system which seems horrible and revolting to all lawyers; that is, the application of torture to compel the prisoner to make the necessary answer. No other punishment could be provided, for the accused was already a prisoner, and being punished as such. As nothing in the way of legal punishment further than imprisonment would be visited upon him, the Inquisition fell upon torture as a means of extorting a confession, and thus it forced from the unwilling lips of the accused a declaration of his belief. This would soon extend to include all his knowledge concerning matters at issue; and when he should declare himself innocent, however true it might be, the torture could be applied again and again, harder and greater, until the power of resistance on the part of the accused was overcome, and he would give up because of his inability to resist further.

So it appeared in the case of Gilles. The witnesses had testified to everything necessary to be proved; Gilles had admitted the jurisdiction and the _corpus delicti_, had practically admitted his immediate and direct connivance and assistance in the various abductions, as well as the sacrilege; still, on his refusal to proceed further, the prosecutor demanded the application of torture.

It was, according to our ideas, a lamentable condition of the course of justice when the application of the torture should have been so common a proceeding that, on demand of the prosecutor, it would be allowed by the court, even when the guilt of the prisoner was beyond dispute. This seems to have been the course of the court in the case of Gilles, and the petition for torture, as made by the prosecutor, was allowed by the court, and the next day set for its application.

“Et tunc idem promotor dixit quod, attenta confessione dicti Egidii, rei, productionibus testium et eorum dictis depositionibus satis constabat de intencione sua in causa et hujusmodi, sed nichilominus, ad veritatem lacius elucidandam et perscrutandam, torturam seu questionem dicto Egidio, reo, per eosdem dominos episcopum Nannetensem et Fratrem Johannem Blouyn, judices, et ipsum questionari debere, instanter postulavit.

“Qui quidem domini episcopus et vicarius dicti inquisitoris, prius habito per eos super his omnibus consilio cum peritis, premissis consideratis, decreverunt questionem sive torturam dicto Egidio _de Rays_, et eum torturam pati, ipsumque Egidium, reum, torturis sive questionibus subici debere.”

It was said that the instrument of torture had already been put in place, and for the convenience of all parties the prosecutor had chosen the hall adjoining that occupied by Gilles, to the end that the torture could be applied with as little trouble as possible, and whatever might be the result of it that Gilles could be properly attended to in case of need. On this demand of the prosecutor for torture, and its allowance by the judges, Gilles’s courage left him; he became frightened, turned pale and trembled. So full of fear and terror was he, as scarcely to be able to speak intelligently. He threw himself at the feet of his judges and, in broken accents, with cries and sobs, besought and supplicated them not to put him to this test, making all kinds of promises as to what he would do in order to escape torture.

He prayed for leave to make confession of his crimes, and to have the Bishop of Saint-Brieuc assigned for that purpose.

It was agreed that the judge, Pierre l’Hospital, the President of Brittany, should sit with the Bishop to hear the proposed confession, and that the session should be held at two o’clock that afternoon. Gilles agreed to this, as he would have agreed to anything else, and he promised to make a clean breast of the whole affair. But as an evidence of the terror with which he contemplated the torture, he demanded (this seems to have been his only condition) that his examination and confession should be taken in a hall as distant as possible from that of the torture. The court agreed to this proposition at once, and the two officials named were assigned the duty. The secretaries, or clerks of the court, acting respectively for these high functionaries, were Jean Parvi for the ecclesiastical court, and Jean de Touscheronde for the civil court.

It is said that Gilles’s confession before these two representatives of the ecclesiastical and civil powers was made in public, where everybody who desired could enter and hear. This confession of the same day is headed, in the records (archives), _extra-judiciare_, for what reason is unknown; but, as there was a fuller, and apparently a judicial, confession made by him the next day, which will be given at length, the confession _extra-judiciare_ is omitted, the incident only being mentioned.

The President of Brittany, Pierre l’Hospital, undertook the interrogation of Gilles. He took up first the crimes against the infants, their abduction and murder, and went through that with great minutiæ, pushing it to all details; then the same with regard to sorcery and the invocation of demons; the bloody sacrifices that had been offered to the Evil One, as had been in evidence so many days. Pressed to tell where this commenced, Gilles said it was at the château of Champtocé, that the time was so long ago that he had forgotten and was unable to identify it, except that it was in the year in which his grandfather, Jean de Craon, had died. “Who gave to you, and how did you get, the idea of committing these crimes?” “No one; my own imagination drove me to do so. The thought was my own, and I have nothing to which to attribute it except my own desire for knowledge of evil.”

It appears, from the report of the case, that the President of Brittany did not believe these statements of Gilles’s to be possible. He was so much astonished to hear this declaration that he pushed the examination with great detail, and insisted upon fuller and more specific answers. He approached Gilles sometimes from the legal side, sometimes from the ecclesiastical; sometimes he threatened him with the punishment of the secular arm, at other times he pleaded with him and held out the offers of pardon from the Lord Jesus Christ; and by virtue of all these, he besought Gilles to go back over the words which he had spoken, to make a truthful and honest avowal of the causes which had led him to the commission of these frightful crimes.

There were three languages employed in these proceedings; probably all three were spoken by the higher orders: the Latin by the ecclesiastical authorities, and that language was employed by the ecclesiastical court; then the French language, which was foreign to Brittany, but which probably Gilles and all those concerned in the trial understood; while as for the common people, doubtless their knowledge was confined to the Breton language. The confession of Gilles, reduced to writing by the clerk’s secretary, not verbatim, nor pretending to be so, but to have been written out only in substance, as is done in the case of testimony before an examiner or notary who employs longhand.

While the President was pushing this investigation and cross-examination so far, to the visible annoyance and great trouble of Gilles, he cried out in French: “Alas, Monseigneur, you torment yourself and me also, both of us, unnecessarily!” “No,” replied the President of Brittany, “I do not torment myself; but I am astonished at what you have said, and I am scarcely content with it. My only desire is to have you tell the truth concerning the causes which I have so oftentimes asked you.” Responded Gilles: “There is no other cause; I have told you the truth and everything as it happened; _Je vous ay dit de plus grans choses que n’est cest cy, et assez pour faire mourir dix milles hommes_ (I have said to you all things as they are, and enough to kill ten thousand men).” Then the President gave over interrogating him, and accepted his declaration as true. He was sent back to his chamber, and his accomplice, François Prelati, the Italian priest, chemist, and alchemist, was brought out.

_Transcription of opposite page, being sample (photograph by the author) of a Latin manuscript of the Record in the process against Gilles de Retz, from the Archives of Loire-Inférieure, Nantes, a page of his (extra-judicial) confession._

“hoc facere illo anno quo defunctus avunculus suus dominus _de la Suze_ decessit.

“Item, interrogatus per ipsum dominum presidentem quis eundem reum advisavit, consuluit vel instruxit ad predicta facinora facienda, respondit quod hec de se ipso imaginatus fuit, cogitavit, fecit, et perpetravit, nemine consulente seu advertente aut ipsum ad hoc introducente, sed ex proprio suo sensu et capite ac pro complicencia et delectacione suis libidinosis explendis, et non pro quacumque alia intencione seu fine, predicta peccata, scelera et delicta fecerat et commiserat. Et, cum dictus dominus presidens, admirans, ut dicebat, qualiter ipse reus hec premissa scelera et delicta de se ipso et nemine instigante fecisset, ipsum reum iterum summasset ut ex quo motivo seu intencione et ad quem finem dictorum puerorum occisionem, cum eis commixtionem seu pollucionem, et ipsorum cadaverum combustionem, et reliqua scelera et peccata predicta fecisset, vellet ipse reus, ad sue consciencie, ipsum verissimiliter accusantis, exonerationem, et pro venia clementissimi Redemptoris inde super commissis facilius obtinenda, plenius declarare: tune idem reus, quasi quodammodo indignatus super tam sollicita et exacta inquiscione dicti domini presidentis, dixit eidem verba que secuntur gallice: _‘Helas, Monseigneur, vous vous tourmentez et moy avecques’_: cui reo dicenti dominus presidens ita dixit gallice: _‘Je ne me tourmente point, mais je suis moult esmerveillé de ce que vous me dites et ne m’en puis bonnement contenter. Ainczois, je desire et vouldroye par vous en savoir la pure verité pour les causes que je vous ay ja souventes foiz dictes.’_ Cui domino presidenti ipse reus tunc respondit, hec dicens gallice: _‘Vrayement, il n’y avoit autre cause, fin, ne intencion que ce que je vous ay dit: je vous ay dit de plus grans choses que n’est cest cy, et assez pour faire mourir dix mille hommes.’_ Qui quidem dominis presidens tunc omisit ipsum reum.”

Prelati had already confessed to the invocation of evil spirits, and that he had made offerings of the blood and of the members of an infant. Being interrogated, he made his formal confession, also reduced to writing, but it turned out that this was only a repetition of an informal confession, so excited no great surprise. The interrogators seemed more interested in the invocation of demons than in the abduction and murder of the infants. Gilles and François were brought together before the judges and the Bishop, and upon the conclusion of the séance they were sent back to their respective prisons. On parting, Gilles turned towards François, and sobbing, embraced him with sorrow, and addressed to him his last words: “Adieu, François, my friend. Never again will we see each other in this world. I pray that you may have good patience and hope in God, and that we will see each other in the great joy of Paradise. Pray to God for me and I will pray for you.”

They tenderly embraced each other and then separated, never to see each other again. This scene happened, and these two confessions were made, before the two officers in private audience, in chambers, as it were.

On the next day, Saturday, October 22d, the _judicial_ confession of Gilles was made, and presented before the court. It is herewith given in the _procès-verbal_ of the session:

TRANSLATION OF THE CONFESSION OF GILLES DE RETZ.

“On Saturday, the 22d of the aforesaid month of October, the aforesaid master Guillermus Champeillon, promoter, prosecutor, on the one hand, and the aforesaid Gilles de Retz, defendant, on the other, personally repaired to the trial before the before-mentioned lords, the reverend Father, the Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Brother John Blouyn, vicar of the said Inquisitor, who had taken their seats in the tribunal there in the aforesaid place at the vesper hour for the rendition of justice. And acting in accordance with the assignment of the day of trial on the motion of the said prosecutor, the afore-mentioned lords, the Bishop of Nantes and Brother John Blouyn, vicar of the aforesaid Inquisitor, asked the aforesaid Gilles, defendant, whether he wished to say anything or make any opposition or objection to (the evidence or charges) produced or maintained in this case and similar cases. The defendant, indeed, said and replied that he did not wish to say anything, and fully and of his own accord, and with great compunction and bitterness of heart, as was evident at first sight, and with copious shedding of tears, confessed that the already recorded [charges], elsewhere, as [mentioned] above, extra-judicially confessed to, [namely] in his room in presence of the aforesaid reverend Father, the Lord Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, of master Pierre de l’Hospital, the President, of John de Touscheronde and of John Parvi, as well as all and everything contained and described in the articles inserted above, will be and are true. And adding to his extra-judicial confession already inserted and not receding from it, which the same accused wished right here [to be considered] as repeated and declared, and as he stated, rectifying the defects if perchance he had omitted anything in it, and moreover more fully declaring and enlarging, he freely confessed some things contained in a summary form in certain of the afore-mentioned articles, and said, to wit, that he had committed and perpetrated very many other greater and more enormous crimes and sins against God and His commandments than are contained in the articles already inserted, from the beginning of his iniquitous youth against God and His writings, and that he had offended our Saviour Himself by the evil training he had had in his boyhood in which he had endeavoured to perform whatever pleased him with unbridled rein and had given himself to everything illicit; and imploring those present who had children, that they have their sons brought up and trained in their youth and boyhood in religious instruction and virtue.

“After this confession, as it is already stated, judicially given and made by the aforesaid Gilles de Retz, the accused, of the contents in the aforesaid articles, and, [after] that extra-judicial [confession] repeated and declared, the same accused moreover made another confession of the following tenor, separate and apart, in the presence of the reverend Father in Christ, Lord John Prigencii, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc and the nobleman Pierre de l’Hospital, the above-mentioned President of Brittany, and of John Abbatis, the shield-bearer, and of me, John Parvi, notary public and general examiner of the ecclesiastical court of Nantes, a second of the secretaries of [this] cause and of similar causes, and of John de Touscheronde, also secretary of the civil court of the same place, concerning the afore-mentioned perpetrations, crimes, and sins, embracing the vices and sins mentioned ... [all] iniquitously committed by him: not only as much as is perhaps contained in the aforewritten articles already freely confessed to, by Gilles himself, the accused, and in order that said secret confession be more widely published, the same Gilles, defendant, thought it proper that, without departing from the said extra-judicial confession made by him concerning the said charges, but rather to strengthen and corroborate it, the confession itself be published in the vernacular for the benefit of the people and all then and there assisting, of whom the greater part knew no Latin; that, however, an introductory remark be added informing those present that the culprit submitted to this general revelation of his guilt in order by the shame this publication and confession of such crimes committed by him would cause him, the more easily to obtain from God pardon and remission for his sins and to have wiped away the transgression committed by him. [He wished the public to know] that during his youth he had always been tenderly reared, had committed as much as in him lay and with nothing to check his inclination, all the evil deeds he could, had centred all his hope, intention, and work upon the commission of illicit and shameful deeds and had employed [his hope, intention, and work] in unlawful acts by perpetrating said crimes--most earnestly beseeching and exhorting the fathers, mothers, friends, and relatives of all youths to guide their charges along the paths of honesty by setting them a good example and instilling into them sound doctrine, and to chastise every fault against good morals to save them from the snares into which he himself had fallen. By this secret confession which was examined and publicly read in court in the presence of the said Gilles, defendant, and approved by Gilles himself, the defendant, the said Gilles de Retz, the defendant, manifested of his own accord before all present and confessed that he, led by passion and the delight he took in satisfying his carnal appetite--of which mention will be made later on--had stolen or caused to be stolen very many boys--the number he could not remember; that he had put these boys to death and caused them to be killed and that with them he had committed crimes and sins ... [that he had killed] these boys, sometimes himself with his own hand, and sometimes through the agency of others and especially the above-mentioned Gilles de Sillé, the Lord Roger Briqueville, soldier, Henriet et Poitou, Rossignol and Little Robin, by various kinds and modes of torture, some by the amputation and separation of their heads from their bodies using daggers or poniards and knives; others, however, with sticks or other implements for striking by beating them on the head with violent blows; others again by tying them with cords and fastening them to some door or iron hook ... in his own room that they might be strangled and languish. [He continued] that with these boys even whilst languishing ... and after their death he took delight in kissing, in gazing intently at those who had the more beautifully formed heads and in cruelly opening or causing to be opened their bodies that he might see their interior, and that frequently, whilst these boys were dying, he would sit on their stomachs and take great pleasure in seeing them thus dying, and that he used to laugh heartily at the sight with the said Corrillaud and Henriet. The corpses he caused afterwards to be burned and reduced to ashes by the same Corrillaud and Henriet and others.

“Interrogated concerning the places where he had perpetrated the afore-mentioned crimes and at what time he had begun to do these things and concerning the number of those killed after this manner, he answered and said that [first he had done so] in the Château de Champtocé and from that year on in which lived the lord de la Suze, the maternal uncle of said defendant; that in this place he had killed and caused to be killed very many boys--the number he could not remember-- ... the aforesaid Gilles de la Sillé alone knowing of the matter at that time; but that afterwards the aforesaid Roger de Briqueville and then Henriet, Stephen Corrillaud (_alias_ Poitou), Rossignol, and Robin became successively his accomplices and sharers in these crimes. And he said that the bones both of the heads and the bodies of the boys killed in the aforesaid Château de Champtocé, as has been stated, which had been thrown into the lower apartment of a certain tower of that castle, he himself, defendant, produced from that spot, placed in coffins or chests, and transported by water to the place and castle of Machecoul aforesaid, burned there and caused to be reduced to ashes; that also, in the same place of Machecoul, he himself, defendant, seized, killed, and caused to be stolen and killed many other boys in large numbers--how many he could not recollect; and that, again, in the manor called la Suze, of Nantes, which he, Gilles, defendant, then owned, he had similarly killed and caused to be killed, burned, and reduced to ashes many other boys of whom he could not remember the numbers.... The same Gilles de Retz, defendant, narrated and confessed that all misdeeds, crimes, and transgressions above mentioned he committed and criminally perpetrated of his own free will and accord alone, for the purpose of satisfying his evil and iniquitous complacency and pleasure and not out of any other motive or intention, with no one to urge or advise him, defendant, or even to call to his attention such thoughts.

“Furthermore, he declared and confessed that, after the expiration of a year and a half, the Lord Eustace Blanchet aforesaid summoned the aforesaid François Prelati from the country of Florence in Lombardy and invited him to the same Gilles, defendant, for the purpose of invoking demons according to the intention of the defendant, and that François, summoned to the same defendant, informed him that he, François, had discovered in the country whence he had come means of conjuring up a certain spirit by the aid of incantations, which spirit had promised him, François, that he would cause a certain demon called _Barron_ to come to him, François, as often as the same François might desire.

“Likewise, the same Gilles de Retz declared and confessed that the same François made several invocations of demons in compliance with a command of himself, defendant, both during his absence and sometimes when he was present, and that he himself, defendant, was in person present at three such invocations of François who made them: One in the Château Tiffauges, another in Bourgneuf de Retz, aforesaid, and that concerning the third aforesaid invocation he did not recall in which place it was made. And he added that the said Lord Eustace knew that the said François was making such invocations, but that the same Lord Eustace was not present at these invocations, since neither the defendant himself nor François would permit him to be present at the incantations, as the same Lord Eustace had an indirect, evil, and restless tongue.

“Besides, the selfsame defendant declared and confessed that during these invocations there were traced as characters on the ground figures of a circle and a cross, and that the same François possessed a book which he had carried about his person, as he used to say, which contained many names of demons and formulæ for the making of such conjurations and invocations of demons, which names and formulæ he, defendant, could not remember; that the said François held and read this book for about two hours during and for each invocation; but that at none of his own conjurations or invocations the defendant saw or noticed any devil, and that none spoke to him, at which he, defendant, was much displeased and vexed.

“Afterwards the same defendant declared and confessed that after a certain invocation made by the said François during the absence of the said defendant, the same François on his return from that very invocation informed the said defendant that he, François, had seen and addressed the said _Barron_, who had told him, François, that he, _Barron_, did not appear to the said defendant because the defendant had deceived _Barron_ regarding some promises read by the said defendant to the said _Barron_ and because he had not fulfilled his promise. Hearing this, the said defendant bade François ask the same devil what he wished to receive from the said defendant and that whatever the same _Barron_ might wish to receive and ask of the said defendant, he, the defendant, would give him--except his soul and life and provided the devil would give and grant him, defendant, whatsoever he would ask. The defendant added then that it had been and was his intention to ask and acquire from the same devil knowledge, riches, and power, by the possession and aid of which he, defendant, would be enabled to return to his former state of dominion and power; and that, afterward, the same François told the said defendant that he had conversed with the devil and that the said devil, among other things, required and wished that the defendant present to him, the devil, a limb or limbs of some infant. That the defendant, later, delivered to the said François the hand, heart, and eyes of an infant to be offered and given to the same devil by the said François, on the part of the said defendant.

“Again, the said Gilles de Retz, defendant, declared and confessed that before he, defendant, took part in the second of the three aforesaid invocations at which he assisted in person as is stated above, he [defendant] wrote and signed with his own hand a grant ... to the bottom of which he appended his name in the vernacular, videlicet ‘Gilles,’ the contents of which, however, he does not remember; which grant he composed and signed with the intention of handing it over to the devil if and while he came, conjured or summoned by the said François, and this he did acting upon the advice of the said François, who previously had told the defendant that he, the defendant, must hand over that grant to the devil as soon as the spirit should come or approach: and that during this invocation the defendant continually held that grant in his hand waiting to hear the promise and agreement concerning which François and the devil should come to terms regarding the matters which the said defendant was to promise and to do for the devil, who did not appear or speak with them so that, accordingly, the defendant did not ever hand over the mentioned grant.

“Again, said defendant declared and confessed that he himself sent the aforesaid Stephen Corrillaud, _alias_ Poitou, along with the said François, as François was one night going out to make one of the aforesaid invocations. These two on their return, drenched by a heavy rainstorm, stated to the said defendant that during the invocation nothing had come to them.

“Again, the said defendant declared and confessed that wishing to assist at a certain invocation which François proposed to make, the latter expressed his dissatisfaction that Gilles should then be present at the invocation. Returning from the invocation, he told the said defendant that, if he had been present at the invocation, he would have run great risk, for at that invocation there came and appeared a serpent to the same François which filled him with great fear: hearing this the said defendant after taking and causing to be carried near him a particle of the True Cross in his possession, expressed a longing to go to the spot of the said invocation where the said François claimed to have seen the reptile. This, however, he did not in deference to François’s prohibition.

“Again, the same Gilles de Retz, defendant, declared and confessed that at one of the three aforesaid invocations at which he assisted, as is stated above, the said François informed him that he, François, had seen the said _Barron_ who showed him a large quantity of gold and, among other things, an ingot of gold; but the said defendant said he had seen neither the devil nor the said ingot but only a sort of gold-leaf [_auripelli aurum-pellis_ (?)] under the form of a leaf of gold which he, defendant, did not touch.

“Again, the said defendant declared and confessed subsequently that when he was recently at the court of the most illustrious Lord and Prince, the Lord of Brittany, in the Canton Jocelin, of the diocese of Maclovia he, defendant, caused to be killed several boys furnished him by the aforesaid Henriet, ... in the above stated manner.

“Again, the same defendant declared and confessed that the said François, acting on the instigation and during the absence of the defendant, performed there, viz. at Jocelin, an invocation of the demons, at which he learned that nothing took place.

“Again, the said defendant, setting out from Bituris, dismissed the said François at the same Château de Tiffauges, asking him meanwhile and during the absence of the said defendant to attend and devote himself diligently to such incantations, and to repeat to the defendant whatsoever he would learn, do, and think in that regard; and that François wrote to him, the absent defendant, as has been stated, in cipher, called in French _par paroles couvertes_, that his transactions went on satisfactorily and that at this time the same François sent him, the defendant, a certain object after the manner of an ointment lodged in a silver capsule and purse (_bursa_) also made of silver, the said François writing at the same time to the aforesaid defendant that this was an entirely precious object and advising the said defendant furthermore in his letter to guard the object solicitously. The defendant, giving credence to this admonition of the said François, hung the object with the above-mentioned _bursa_ about his neck and wore it for several days thus suspended; afterwards, however, the defendant removed the object from his neck and threw it away, as he discovered that it would not in the least benefit him.

“Again, the same defendant declared and confessed that the said François once told him that the aforesaid _Barron_ bade the defendant feed, in the name of the said _Barron_, three poor men on three great feasts, which the defendant did on a certain All Saints’ Day, and only once.

“Interrogated why he thus kept in his house and about his person the afore-mentioned François, he made answer that François was clever, valuable to him, and pleasant company because he spoke Latin beautifully and charmingly, and because, furthermore, he showed himself anxious concerning the proper administration of his affairs.

“Again, the said defendant declared and confessed that, after the last festival of St. John the Baptist, a certain handsome youth who stayed with a man named Rodigus dwelling in the aforesaid Place Bourgneuf de Retz, was one night brought to him, defendant, as he dwelt in the same place, by the said Henriet and Stephen Corrillaud, _alias_ Poitou, and that during that night the defendant ... caused him to be killed and to be burned near Machecoul.

“Again, the said defendant declared and confessed that, news having reached him that the soldiers of the municipal fortress of Paluau strove to put to death the captain of the fortress, St. Stephen de Mala, when, indignant at this, he, defendant, set out with his men and rode on a certain day, which he did not remember, from daybreak intending to attack the soldiery of the fortress of Paluau, seize them, and punish them if he could meet them, the said François, who rode among the others in the retinue of the said defendant, foretold from the start of this expedition that the defendant would not find on that day the said soldiery of the fortress of Paluau, and that in fact he did not meet them, so that the intention of the defendant was frustrated.

“Again, the same Gilles de Retz declared and confessed that he had detained in his power and caused to be killed two apprentices, one of Guillemain Sanxaye and the other of Petri Jaquet, named Princzay or Princé....

“Again, the said defendant declared and confessed in court that, at the time of his last stay at Vienne (_Veneti_) in the month of last July, Andrew Buschet handed over and delivered up to the said Gilles, defendant, in the dwelling house of a certain John Lemoyne at which the said Gilles, defendant, was at that time enjoying hospitality, a certain boy, ... and that he himself afterwards caused the said Poitou to throw the killed lad into the privy of a residence belonging to a certain Boetdan, close by the residence of the said Lemoyne, in which residence or house of Boetdan the horses of said defendant had been sheltered (_apud marchiliam_) near the market-place of said Vienne, and that Poitou for this purpose flooded the privy so as to submerge and cover the corpse of said boy, lest it be discovered.

“Again, the said Gilles similarly declared and confessed that before the arrival of the aforesaid François he had had other conjurors of demons, that is to say, a certain trumpeter called de Mesnill, master John Ripparia, a certain Louis, master Anthony de Palermo, and another whose name he could not remember; that these conjurors at the instigation of said Gilles, defendant, made several incantations of spirits, at some of which the said Gilles, defendant, was present in person, both near the aforesaid Château de Machecoul and elsewhere [and that he attended], principally to see the circle or outline or sign of a circle drawn on the ground prior to the incantation, with the intention of seeing the devil, of speaking with him, and making bargains with him. But the same defendant declared that he never could see nor converse with the said devil, though for this purpose he had taken all the pains he could, so that indeed it was not the fault of the said defendant that he did not see the devil nor converse with him.

“Again, the frequently mentioned Gilles declared and confessed that the aforesaid de Mesnill, wizard, informed the defendant once that the devil, in order to do and fulfil the things which the said defendant intended to ask and obtain from the said devil, desired to receive from the said defendant a grant, written, made by him, defendant, with his own hand, and signed with the blood of one of his fingers, in which grant the aforesaid defendant should promise to give to the said devil whenever he appeared during the invocation of the said defendant, certain things which he, defendant, could not remember; and that the same defendant, for this purpose and end, signed the said grant with his own hand, with blood drawn from his little finger, and subjoined his own name to the said grant, i. e., _Gilles_ [see p. 22]. That he could not accurately remember the other statements contained in this grant, except that he promised by the honour of said grant to deliver up to said devil the articles mentioned in the grant, provided that the devil would give or grant the same Gilles knowledge, power, and riches. But the defendant is quite certain, as he says, that whatsoever he may have promised the devil by this or other grants, he always and decidedly made exception of and reserved his soul and his life: and he says that this grant was not handed to the devil at this time, since he did not appear to the said Gilles, defendant, at or during said incantation.

“Furthermore, the said defendant likewise declared and confessed that once the said master John Ripparia made one of his invocations in a wood or grove situated near the Château de Pouzauges, and that this Ripparia, before going to make this invocation, armed himself with weapons and implements of protection to his body, and thus armed he approached the said grove intending to make the invocation;--and that, when the said defendant, accompanied by his servants and, especially, by Eustace, Henriet, and Stephen Corrillaud, _alias_ Poitou, aforesaid, started after a little while towards the said grove and met the said de Ripparia returning from that grove, then the said de Ripparia told the said Gilles, defendant, that he had seen the devil coming to him in the guise of a leopard that passed in front of him and told something to him, de Ripparia, which, as he said, infused great fear into the said de Ripparia. And the defendant added in his narration, that the said de Ripparia, to whom the defendant had given the sum of twenty louis d’or (_regalium auri_), took his departure after this invocation, promising to return later to the said defendant, which he did not do.

“Similarly, the same accused said and confessed that when another invocation of the demons which the accused and a certain one of the above-mentioned invocators, whose name is not mentioned, and who was an associate of Gilles de la Sillé, made in a certain room of the above-mentioned Château Tiffauges, de la Sillé himself did not attempt to enter the circle or circular sign made in the said room for the invocation, nay, rather, he withdrew to a window of that room with the intention of jumping out if he should feel anything terrible approach, there holding in his arms an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and the said accused standing within the circular sign, feared very much, and especially as the said invocator forbade him to make the sign of the cross, as otherwise they, the accused and the invocator, would be in great danger, nor did the accused for this reason attempt to make that sign, but then remembering a certain prayer of the Blessed Virgin Mary which begins ‘_Alma_,’[4] said invocator ordered the said accused to go out of the circle, and withdrawing quickly and going out of the room, the invocator being left remaining there, and the door of the room being closed by the above-said invocator, he went to the aforesaid Gilles de la Sillé, who forthwith said to the accused that the invocator thus left in the room was beaten and struck to such an extent as if the striking was done by kicking. And when the accused heard this, he opened the room right away, and in the entrance of the room said accused saw said invocator [lying] on his face, grievously wounded and weakened in other parts of his body, among other strokes and blows then sustained by said invocator, ... in the forehead and otherwise wounded so that the invocator could not support himself, wherefore said accused, fearing that said invocator by reason of that beating would die, wanted and made said invocator receive the sacrament of confession; he, however, did not die, but got well after that same trouncing.

[4] _Alma Redemptoris Mater_, an anthem chanted during Advent.

“The said Gilles de Retz, accused, also said and confessed that he commissioned the aforesaid Gilles de la Sillé [to go] to the upper country to look for and bring to said Gilles, accused, invocators of demons or malignant spirits. And that this Gilles de la Sillé, thus commissioned and then having returned, related to the same Gilles, accused, how he, de Sillé, had found a woman who occupied herself with such invocations, and that she said to the same de Sillé that unless Gilles de Retz would remove his heart from the Church and his chapel, he could never fulfil his intention; and that the said de Sillé found in those parts another woman who had said to the same de Sillé that unless the said accused would desist and cease from a certain work on which he was intent and which he desired to follow out, he would never have a day’s luck. Also, said de Sillé had found in these parts an invocator whom the said de Sillé proposed and began, as he said, to conduct to the said accused, but that on the way, the invocator, being disposed to come to the said accused, as he was crossing a river or stream, accidentally fell in. Also said Gilles, accused, said and confessed that de Sillé brought another invocator to said accused and that he died without delay; in and from the obsequies of such unfortunate deceased and from other previous difficulties, which interfering he could not come to the aforesaid invocations and his other damnable intentions; he said that he believed the Divine clemency and intercessory prayers of the Church, from which his heart and hope never deviated, mercifully preserved him from perishing in such risks and dangers, and for this reason he proposed to desist from his bad life for the future and to visit the [holy] places in Jerusalem and to visit abroad the principal places of the life and Passion of his Redeemer, and to perform other [penances] by which he might mercifully obtain from his Redeemer the pardon of his sins. Wherefore, after he had said and confessed freely and of his own accord the aforesaid things at the trial, as recorded, he exhorted the people there present, and especially the ecclesiastics who were present in the majority, that they always hold in reverence and in the highest esteem holy Mother Church and never depart from it, especially adding that had he, the accused, not directed and attached his heart and mind to the Church, he could never have escaped the malice and schemes of the devil, nay, rather he believed that the devil would long since have strangled him and almost have carried off his soul by reason of his enormous crimes and sins; and he, moreover, exhorted every head of a family to avoid permitting their children’s being clothed in soft raiment and living in idleness, hinting and asserting that from idleness and excess at table many evils spring, more expressly declaring in his own case that idleness and the too frequent and too choice partaking of delicate meats and blood-stirring wines were the chief sources of his having committed so many sins and crimes.

“For which sins and crimes committed by him, as stated, he, Gilles de Retz, accused, humbly and in tears begged mercy and pardon of his Creator and Most Holy Redeemer, as well as of the parents and friends of the aforesaid children cruelly murdered, and of all others whom he had sinned against, or injured, both those there present or elsewhere, and the help of the devout prayers of all Christ’s faithful and Christ’s worshippers, both present and absent.

“Wherefore the aforesaid master, Guillermus Chapeillon, promoter in case of said Gilles de Retz, accused, having the free confession of the matter and the other facts legitimately proved against same accused, immediately asked that a certain day and suitable closing day of trial for same Gilles de Retz, accused, be preferred and assigned for bringing [trial] to an end, and seeing to its being brought to an end as well as for judgment and definite sentence [being pronounced] by said reverend Father in Christ, the Lord Bishop of Nantes, and Brother John Blouyn, vicar of said Inquisition, and by every one of them or of those, and by those assigned and deputed to this [trial], and made in writing and promulgated in [this] trial and trials of this kind: or that said Gilles de Retz, accused, should state cause, if he had a reasonable one, why this should not be done. Whereupon the lords, the Bishop, and the vicar of the aforesaid Inquisition said that Tuesday next was fixed, determined on, and assigned for the prosecutor and for Gilles de Retz, accused, he not opposing it, to proceed to justice, as it might seem necessary in this and similar trials.

“Of the aforesaid [things], said prosecutor asked that one and several documents be made and drawn up for him by us, the subscribed notaries and scribes. There were present in aforesaid place [of trial] reverend Father in Christ, Lord Jean Prigencii, Bishop of St. Brieuc, master Pierre de l’Hospital, President of Brittany, Robert de Ripparia and Lord Robert d’Espinay, aforesaid soldier, and the nobleman Yvone de Rocerff, as well as the honourable men, masters Yvon Coyer, dean, John Morelli, chanter, Graciano Ruitz, Guillermo Groygueti, licentiate of laws, Jean de Castrogironis, Peter Aprilis, Robert Vigerii, Gauffredo de Chevigneyo, licentiate of laws, the seigniors of Nantes, Gauffredo Piperarii, capicerio, Peter Hamonis, John Guerrine, John Vaedie, and John Symonis, the canons of the Church of the Blessed Mary of Nantes and St. Brieuc, Herveo Levy, Seneschal Corisopitensi, and master Guillermo de la Loherie, licentiate of laws, advocate of the secular court of Nantes, as well as several other witnesses gathered in [that] great crowd, being specially summoned and called for the aforesaid things.

(Signed) “DE ALNETO. } “JO. PARVI. } Notaries.” “G. LESNE. }

By this time all hope seemed to have departed from Gilles. He had none of the bravado that sustained him at the beginning of the trial. He apparently had recognised his condition and had thrown himself upon the mercy of God. One can easily understand how he was thus affected while under the influence of the saintly churchmen by whom he was surrounded, with their prayers and beseechings that if his body was to be condemned for the deeds done, he should at least save his soul from the fires of hell. When Gilles was interrogated before the court as to the genuineness of this confession, and asked if he desired to make any retraction or explanation, he seemed to add to, rather than detract from, it; and believing, as was probably the truth, that he could only save his soul by making a surrender of all his thoughts and a confession of all his sins, he seemed to insist on having the record of his crimes made fuller and in greater detail, so that none of them, even with all their horror, should be omitted. It was during this session that he used the remarkable words partially quoted in the early part of this book, page 7:

“If I have so much offended against God, I owe it, alas, to the evil direction that I received in my youth. I went, at that time, the reins upon my neck, free to pursue all my pleasures, and did not restrain myself from anything evil.”

And addressing himself to the parents in the crowd, he said:

“O you, who have sons and daughters, I pray you to instruct them in good doctrine in their infancy and their youth, and to lead them with care in the paths of virtue.”

The relief produced on his mind by his confession, casting off the great load he had been carrying, caused his spirits to rise to a contemplation of the situation, which produced a calm, if not a joy, in the assurance that he had made his peace with God and secured a place in Paradise. Apparently stimulated by this feeling, he grew eloquent, and though some of the words may have been put into his mouth by those who reported him, yet one can easily see that he was filled with emotion, and that the thoughts crowded thick upon him because of his belief that in this way his soul had escaped hell fire:

“Judged by the declaration that I have made here, of the faults of which I am culpable, by the shame which appears in my face, I hope to obtain more easily the Grace of God and the remission of my sins. I think they will be easier forgotten in His mercy. My entire youth was passed in the delicacies of the table, I was subject to my caprices, nothing to me was sacred, all the evils that I could do have been accomplished. In this I put all my hope, all my thought, all my care. Everything that was prohibited, everything that was dishonest, attracted me, and in order to obtain it there was no means, however shameful and disgraceful, that I was not ready to employ.”

Addressing himself this time to the public present, he said:

“Fathers and mothers who hear me, and you all, friends, relatives, and guardians of the young whom you love, whoever you may be, I pray you be watchful over them, form for them good manners, set for them a good example, teach them healthy doctrine, nourish them in your hearts, but above all, do not fear to correct their faults, for, as I myself have been, so is it possible for them to become, and so likewise, they may fall into the same abyss.”

As he sat down amidst the silence of that awful hour, a visible shudder ran over the audience; judges and priests, accustomed, one to condemn, the other to console, both hearing these terrible confessions of evil deeds, were visibly affected. Before any word or business could be spoken, Gilles arose again to say another word:

“Whatever may be the perils of my soul, I am still not drowned or lost--I am redeemable, and I believe that the clemencies of God and the suffrages of the holy Church, in which I have always put my hope and my heart, have succoured me with such mercy. To all who hear me, clerks and priests of the Church, I would say: love always our holy Mother Church, revere her, give to her always the greatest respect. If I had not had this reverence and respect for her in my heart and in my affliction, I never would have been able to escape the hands of the demon. The nature of my crimes is such, that without the protection of the Church, the demon would have strangled me and carried me, soul and body, to the depths.”

It is reported that, addressing for a third time the fathers of families, he said:

“Guard you well, I pray you, to lift your infants above the delicacies of life and the fatal sweetness of idleness, for the excesses of appetite and the habits of idleness give rise to the greatest evils. Idleness, the delicacies of the table, the frequent use of wine, drinking, appetite, drunkenness, these things are the causes of my faults and my crimes. O God, my Creator and my well-beloved Redeemer, I ask mercy and pardon! And you, parents and friends of the infants that I have so cruelly put to death, you against whom I have sinned and whom I have so nearly destroyed, present or absent, in whatever place you may be, as Christians and faithfuls of Jesus Christ, I pray you on my knees and with tears, to accord to me, oh, to give to me, the succour and aid of your pious prayers.”

The effect of these words can be better understood than described. Amid the impressive silence of such a spectacle, nothing was to be said. The court adjourned until the next day, Tuesday, October 25th, and the crowd poured silently and sorrowfully into the streets on their way to their homes, each heart filled with the most profound emotions, and each person cherishing the remembrance of the most solemn scene he had ever witnessed and the gravest advice he had ever heard.

The session of the next day was to hear the sentence of the court. It had been reduced to writing, and was read by the clerk, Jacques Pencoetdic, an official of the church of Nantes:

“In the holy name of Christ, we, Jean, Bishop of Nantes, and Brother Jean Blouyn, Bachelor of Holy Scripture of the order of Friars Preachers and the Delegate for the Inquisitor for heresy for the city and diocese of Nantes, in session as attributed, and having nothing before our eyes but God alone, the advice and consent of our Lord Bishop, the Jurisconsuls, the doctors, professors of Holy Scripture here present; after having examined all the depositions of the witnesses in charge called in our own name and in the name of the prosecutor deputised by us, against Gilles de Retz, our subject, and under our jurisdiction, after having reduced to writing and digested the depositions, after having heard his own proper confession made spontaneously in our presence, and after having weighed and considered these and all other reasons which can affect our determination, we pronounce, we decide, we declare, that thou, Gilles de Retz, cited before our tribunal, art shamefully culpable of heresy, apostacy, invocation of demons; that for these crimes, thou hast incurred the sentence of excommunication and all the other punishments determined by right and by law; and, finally, thou oughtest to be punished and corrected according to the will of the law and the exigencies of the holy canons, as an heretic, apostate, and invocator of demons.”

The second sentence was in similar language, concluding, however, as follows:

“Thou, Gilles de Retz, hast shamefully committed crimes with infants of one or the other sex; thou hast committed sacrilege; hast violated the immunities of the Church; by these crimes, thou hast incurred the sentence of excommunication and all other punishments fixed by law; and thou art, by consequence, to be punished and corrected according to thy salvation and the will and exigencies of law and the holy canons.”

All Gilles’s fears returned when he realised that he was to be convicted of heresy and condemned to excommunication. Falling on his knees, tears in his eyes, trembling, he humbly pleaded and begged the judges to lift from his life, now so near ended and so worthless, this excommunication. After consultation together, it was determined by the Bishop and the Vice-Inquisitor to grant this prayer, and the decree of excommunication was annulled in the usual form. Gilles was admitted to the administration of the Holy Sacraments, and permission given him to commune with the faithful. Gilles immediately demanded the appointment of a priest to hear him in confession, that he might profess his penitence and receive absolution from his sins, and the Frère Jean Juvenal, a Carmelite of Plouarmel, was designated for that purpose.

So terminated the ecclesiastical trial of Gilles de Retz. It commenced on the 17th of September and lasted one month and eight days. It ended in his conviction of the only crimes of which the ecclesiastical court had jurisdiction, to wit, heresy, apostacy, and invocation of demons. The sentence was excommunication, which, we have seen, was lifted, and the final outcome of this trial was the repentance of Gilles de Retz.

Now we turn to the process instituted by the civil tribunal for the trial of Gilles upon other charges than those of which he was convicted by the ecclesiastical court. The usual close of the sentence of an ecclesiastical court, wherein the accused was charged with other crimes than those with which the court had jurisdiction, would be: “Go in peace, the Church can no longer defend thee, she delivers thee to the secular arm” (_bras séculier_). But this declaration was not made; it was useless, for it was well known to the judges that the civil court had already been organised and had taken cognisance and jurisdiction of the various crimes of Gilles, such as had been charged and so well proved before the ecclesiastical court.