Cauchon then again ordered Joan to tell them of her revelations, and asked her if she had again sought counsel from her voices.

She had, answered Joan.

‘And have they,’ asked the Bishop, ‘foretold what will now happen?’

‘I asked them,’ answered Joan of Arc, ’if I should be burnt, and they answered:  “Abide by your Lord and He will aid you."’

There is little more than the above recorded of what took place, but it is probable that Joan, who had as yet hardly recovered from her illness, was, from fear of her dying under the torture, not subjected to it.  At any rate, that additional horror was not to be laid on the consciences of the already heavily burthened judges of the Maid.

It appears, however, that these men had not altogether given up the idea of carrying out this barbarity, so congenial to such a man as Cauchon and to his friend the Inquisitor; for a meeting was summoned by Cauchon at his house three days after Joan had been brought face to face with the torture apparatus, at which the question was discussed as to whether it should not after all be used.

Thirteen judges met the Bishop and the Inquisitor to discuss the question.  Of these the following were against applying torture:  Maitres Roussel, Venderes, Marguerie, Erard, Barbier, Gastinel, Coppequesne, Ledoux, De la Pierre, Haiton, and Lemaistre.  One of these, Erard, remarked that it was unnecessary to torture the prisoner seeing that, as he expressed it, ’they had already sufficient evidence to condemn her to death without putting her to torment.’  But Morel de Courcelles, and Loiseleur were in favour that it should be made use of.  Surely the names of these men deserve to be held in execration, and placed by the side of Cauchon’s in the historic pillory of everlasting infamy.

[Illustration:  St. OUEN—­ROUEN.]

Meanwhile the University of Paris were deliberating upon their answer to the twelve articles.  This body met on the 29th of April, within the convent of Saint Bernard.  The ancient building, in which the University held many notable conclaves when even Popes were judged by the doctors of Paris, still exists, but it has been transformed into an oil warehouse.  John de Troyes, senior of the Faculty of Theology, was the spokesman, and read the decisions of the faculty on each of the twelve articles.  It is unnecessary to go through the long verbiage of abuse and blasphemy with which these theologians thought it their duty to bespatter Joan of Arc.

On every head these reverend seigneurs condemned her.  After De Troyes had finished his reading of the opinions and the judgment, Guerold de Boissel read the deliberations of the Faculty of Decrees upon the six points of accusation.  ‘If this woman,’ so ran the rede, ’was in her right mind when she made affirmation of the propositions contained in the twelve articles, one may say in the manner of counsel and of doctrine, and to speak charitably, first, that she is schismatic