Chapter V: Gilles’s Trial Before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal (2)

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.