If anything is needed to prove what an important case the English and those allied to them in France considered that of Joan of Arc, the great number of prelates and doctors assembled to judge her is sufficient to show.  The doctors who had been summoned to attend the trial, and who had come to Rouen from Paris, were well paid by Winchester.  Some of the receipts are still in existence.  The Inquisition and Cauchon also received pay from the English Government.

Besides money, as we have said, Cauchon expected also to receive the Archbishopric of Rouen for his zeal in bringing Joan of Arc to the stake.  Cupidity, lust of place and power, and fear of the enemies of the French were the principal motives which influenced these men, whose names should for ever be execrated.  In truth, a vulgar greed induced them to destroy one of the noblest creatures that had ever honoured humanity.

The proces-verbal and the minutes of the trial were written in Latin, and translated by Thomas de Courcelles; only a portion of the original translation has been preserved.  There were three reporters who took notes during the trial—­Manchon, Colles, and Taquel.  The notes in Latin, written as the trial proceeded, were collected in the evenings, and translated into French by Manchon.

One difficult question arises—­namely, are these notes to be relied on?  Manchon appears to have been honest in his writing, but Cauchon was not to be trifled with in what he wished noted, as the following instance will show.  A sheriff’s officer, named Massieu, was overheard to say that Joan of Arc had done nothing worthy of the death sentence.  It was repeated to Cauchon, who threatened to have Massieu drowned.  When Isambert de la Pierre advised Joan to submit herself to the Council then holding meetings at Bale, to which she assented, Cauchon shouted out, ‘In the devil’s name hold your peace!’ On being asked by Manchon whether the prisoner’s wish to submit her case to the Council at Bale should be placed on the minutes of the trial, Cauchon roughly refused.  Joan of Arc overhearing this, said, ’You write down what is against my interest, but not what is in my favour.’  But we think the truth comes out, on the whole, pretty clearly; and we have in the answers of Joan to her judges, however much these answers may have been altered to suit Cauchon’s views and ultimate object, a splendid proof of her presence of mind and courage.  This she maintained day after day in the face of that crowd of enemies who left no stone unturned, no subtlety of law or superstition disused, to bring a charge of guilt against her.

No victory of arms that Joan of Arc might have accomplished, had her career continued one bright and unclouded success, could have shown in a grander way the greatness of her character than her answers and her bearing during the entire course of her examinations before her implacable enemies, her judicial murderers.

After holding some preliminary and private meetings, in which Cauchon, with some of the prelates, drew up a series of articles of indictment against the prisoner, the first public sitting of the tribunal took place in the chapel of the castle, in the same building in which Joan was imprisoned.