Saint Joan · Scene VI (2/2) (1/4)
The Page Pertly. I suppose your lordship is aware that we have no business here. This is an ecclesiastical court; and we are only the secular arm.
Warwick I am aware of that fact. Will it please your impudence to find the Bishop of Beauvais for me, and give him a hint that he can have a word with me here before the trial, if he wishes?
The Page Going. Yes, my lord.
Warwick And mind you behave yourself. Do not address him as Pious Peter.
The Page No, my lord. I shall be kind to him, because, when The Maid is brought in, Pious Peter will have to pick a peck of pickled pepper.
Cauchon* enters through the same door with a Dominican monk and a canon*, the latter carrying a brief.
The Page The Right Reverend his lordship the Bishop of Beauvais. And two other reverend gentlemen.
Warwick Get out; and see that we are not interrupted.
The Page Right, my lord He vanishes airily.
Cauchon I wish your lordship good-morrow.
Warwick Good-morrow to your lordship. Have I had the pleasure of meeting your friends before? I think not.
Cauchon Introducing the monk, who is on his right. This, my lord, is Brother John Lemaître, of the order of St. Dominic. He is acting as deputy for the Chief Inquisitor into the evil of heresy in France. Brother John: the Earl of Warwick.
Warwick Your Reverence is most welcome. We have no Inquisitor in England, unfortunately; though we miss him greatly, especially on occasions like the present.
The Inquisitor smiles patiently, and bows. He is a mild elderly gentleman, but has evident reserves of authority and firmness.
Cauchon Introducing the Canon, who is on his left. This gentleman is Canon John D’Estivet, of the Chapter of Bayeux. He is acting as Promoter.
Warwick Promoter?
Cauchon Prosecutor, you would call him in civil law.
Warwick Ah! prosecutor. Quite, quite. I am very glad to make your acquaintance, Canon D’Estivet.
D’estivet Bows. ! He is on the young side of middle age, well mannered, but vulpine beneath his veneer.
Warwick May I ask what stage the proceedings have reached? It is now more than nine months since The Maid was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundians. It is fully four months since I bought her from the Burgundians for a very handsome sum, solely that she might be brought to justice. It is very nearly three months since I delivered her up to you, my Lord Bishop, as a person suspected of heresy. May I suggest that you are taking a rather unconscionable time to make up your minds about a very plain case? Is this trial never going to end?
The Inquisitor Smiling. It has not yet begun, my lord.
Warwick Not yet begun! Why, you have been at it eleven weeks!
Cauchon We have not been idle, my lord. We have held fifteen examinations of The Maid: six public and nine private.
The Inquisitor Always patiently smiling. You see, my lord, I have been present at only two of these examinations. They were proceedings of the Bishop’s court solely, and not of the Holy Office. I have only just decided to associate myself⁠—that is, to associate the Holy Inquisition⁠—with the Bishop’s court. I did not at first think that this was a case of heresy at all. I regarded it as a political case, and The Maid as a prisoner of war. But having now been present at two of the examinations, I must admit that this seems to be one of the gravest cases of heresy within my experience. Therefore everything is now in order; and we proceed to trial this morning. He moves towards the judicial chairs.
Cauchon This moment, if your lordship’s convenience allows.
Warwick Graciously. Well, that is good news, gentlemen. I will not attempt to conceal from you that our patience was becoming strained.
Cauchon So I gathered from the threats of your soldiers to drown those of our people who favor The Maid.
Warwick Dear me! At all events their intentions were friendly to you, my lord.
Cauchon Sternly. I hope not. I am determined that the woman shall have a fair hearing. The justice of the Church is not a mockery, my lord.
The Inquisitor Returning. Never has there been a fairer examination within my experience, my lord. The Maid needs no lawyers to take her part: she will be tried by her most faithful friends, all ardently desirous to save her soul from perdition.
D’estivet Sir: I am the Promoter; and it has been my painful duty to present the case against the girl; but believe me, I would throw up my case today and hasten to her defence if I did not know that men far my superiors in learning and piety, in eloquence and persuasiveness, have been sent to reason with her, to explain to her the danger she is running, and the ease with which she may avoid it. Suddenly bursting into forensic eloquence, to the disgust of Cauchon and the Inquisitor, who have listened to him so far with patronizing approval. Men have dared to say that we are acting from hate; but God is our witness that they lie. Have we tortured her? No. Have we ceased to exhort her; to implore her to have pity on herself; to come to the bosom of her Church as an erring but beloved child? Have we⁠—
Cauchon Interrupting drily. Take care, Canon. All that you say is true; but if you make his lordship believe it I will not answer for your life, and hardly for my own.
Warwick Deprecating, but by no means denying. Oh, my lord, you are very hard on us poor English. But we certainly do not share your pious desire to save The Maid: in fact I tell you now plainly that her death is a political necessity which I regret but cannot help. If the Church lets her go⁠—
Cauchon With fierce and menacing pride. If the Church lets her go, woe to the man, were he the Emperor himself, who dares lay a finger on her! The Church is not subject to political necessity, my lord!
The Inquisitor Interposing smoothly. You need have no anxiety about the result, my lord. You have an invincible ally in the matter: one who is far more determined than you that she shall burn.
Warwick And who is this very convenient partisan, may I ask?
The Inquisitor The Maid herself. Unless you put a gag in her mouth you cannot prevent her from convicting herself ten times over every time she opens it.
D’estivet That is perfectly true, my lord. My hair bristles on my head when I hear so young a creature utter such blasphemies.
Warwick Well, by all means do your best for her if you are quite sure it will be of no avail. Looking hard at Cauchon. I should be sorry to have to act without the blessing of the Church.
Cauchon With a mixture of cynical admiration and contempt. And yet they say Englishmen are hypocrites! You play for your side, my lord, even at the peril of your soul. I cannot but admire such devotion; but I dare not go so far myself. I fear damnation.
Warwick If we feared anything we could never govern England, my lord. Shall I send your people in to you?
Cauchon Yes: it will be very good of your lordship to withdraw and allow the court to assemble.
Warwick* turns on his heel, and goes out through the courtyard. Cauchon takes one of the judicial seats; and D’Estivet* sits at the scribes’ table, studying his brief.
Cauchon Casually, as he makes himself comfortable. What scoundrels these English nobles are!
The Inquisitor Taking the other judicial chair on Cauchon’s left. All secular power makes men scoundrels. They are not trained for the work; and they have not the Apostolic Succession. Our own nobles are just as bad.
The Bishop’s assessors hurry into the hall, headed by Chaplain de Stogumber and Canon de Courcelles, a young priest of 30. The scribes sit at the table, leaving a chair vacant opposite D’Estivet. Some of the assessors take their seats: others stand chatting, waiting for the proceedings to begin formally. De Stogumber, aggrieved and obstinate will not take his seat: neither will the Canon, who stands on his right.
Cauchon Good morning, Master de Stogumber. To the Inquisitor. Chaplain to the Cardinal of England.
The Chaplain Correcting him. Of Winchester, my lord. I have to make a protest, my lord.
Cauchon You make a great many.
The Chaplain I am not without support, my lord. Here is Master de Courcelles, Canon of Paris, who associates himself with me in my protest.
Cauchon Well, what is the matter?
The Chaplain Sulkily. Speak you, Master de Courcelles, since I do not seem to enjoy his lordship’s confidence. He sits down in dudgeon next to Cauchon, on his right.
Courcelles My lord: we have been at great pains to draw up an indictment of The Maid on sixty-four counts. We are now told that they have been reduced, without consulting us.
The Inquisitor Master de Courcelles: I am the culprit. I am overwhelmed with admiration for the zeal displayed in your sixty-four counts; but in accusing a heretic, as in other things, enough is enough. Also you must remember that all the members of the court are not so subtle and profound as you, and that some of your very great learning might appear to them to be very great nonsense. Therefore I have thought it well to have your sixty-four articles cut down to twelve⁠—
Courcelles Thunderstruck. Twelve!!!
The Inquisitor Twelve will, believe me, be quite enough for your purpose.
The Chaplain But some of the most important points have been reduced almost to nothing. For instance, The Maid has actually declared that the blessed saints Margaret and Catherine, and the holy Archangel Michael, spoke to her in French. That is a vital point.
The Inquisitor You think, doubtless, that they should have spoken in Latin?
Cauchon No: he thinks they should have spoken in English.
The Chaplain Naturally, my lord.
The Inquisitor Well, as we are all here agreed, I think, that these voices of The Maid are the voices of evil spirits tempting her to her damnation, it would not be very courteous to you, Master de Stogumber, or to the King of England, to assume that English is the devil’s native language. So let it pass. The matter is not wholly omitted from the twelve articles. Pray take your places, gentlemen; and let us proceed to business.
All who have not taken their seats, do so.
The Chaplain Well, I protest. That is all.
Courcelles I think it hard that all our work should go for nothing. It is only another example of the diabolical influence which this woman exercises over the court. He takes his chair, which is on the Chaplain’s right.
Cauchon Do you suggest that I am under diabolical influence?
Courcelles I suggest nothing, my lord. But it seems to me that there is a conspiracy here to hush up the fact that The Maid stole the Bishop of Senlis’s horse.
Cauchon Keeping his temper with difficulty. This is not a police court. Are we to waste our time on such rubbish?
Courcelles Rising, shocked. My lord: do you call the Bishop’s horse rubbish?
The Inquisitor Blandly. Master de Courcelles: The Maid alleges that she paid handsomely for the Bishop’s horse, and that if he did not get the money the fault was not hers. As that may be true, the point is one on which The Maid may well be acquitted.
Courcelles Yes, if it were an ordinary horse. But the Bishop’s horse! how can she be acquitted for that? He sits down again, bewildered and discouraged.
The Inquisitor I submit to you, with great respect, that if we persist in trying The Maid on trumpery issues on which we may have to declare her innocent, she may escape us on the great main issue of heresy, on which she seems so far to insist on her own guilt. I will ask you, therefore, to say nothing, when The Maid is brought before us, of these stealings of horses, and dancings round fairy trees with the village children, and prayings at haunted wells, and a dozen other things which you were diligently inquiring into until my arrival. There is not a village girl in France against whom you could not prove such things: they all dance round haunted trees, and pray at magic wells. Some of them would steal the Pope’s horse if they got the chance. Heresy, gentlemen, heresy is the charge we have to try. The detection and suppression of heresy is my peculiar business: I am here as an inquisitor, not as an ordinary magistrate. Stick to the heresy, gentlemen; and leave the other matters alone.
Cauchon I may say that we have sent to the girl’s village to make inquiries about her; and there is practically nothing serious against her.
Rising and clamoring together.
The Chaplain Nothing serious, my lord⁠—
Courcelles What! The fairy tree not⁠—
Cauchon Out of patience. Be silent, gentlemen; or speak one at a time.
Courcelles collapses into his chair, intimidated.
The Chaplain Sulkily resuming his seat. That is what The Maid said to us last Friday.
Cauchon I wish you had followed her counsel, sir. When I say nothing serious, I mean nothing that men of sufficiently large mind to conduct an inquiry like this would consider serious. I agree with my colleague the Inquisitor that it is on the count of heresy that we must proceed.
Ladvenu A young but ascetically fine-drawn Dominican who is sitting next Courcelles, on his right. But is there any great harm in the girl’s heresy? Is it not merely her simplicity? Many saints have said as much as Joan.