Trial of Gilles De Rais (31 page)
Read Trial of Gilles De Rais Online
Authors: George Bataille
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #Cultural Anthropology, #Psychology, #True Crime, #European History, #France, #Social History, #v.5, #Literary Studies, #Medieval History, #Amazon.com, #Criminology, #Retail, #History
(1. Bill of Indictment.)
XVI. Item, that in order to shed light on the disclosures of the preceding article, the same prosecutor declares and intends to prove that it is permitted to Christ’s worshipers who desire to be united with the angelic society neither to delight in lust, consecrated as they are to God once and for all by baptism and by the engagement and profession of the Catholic faith, nor to turn their eyes or their minds toward this world’s vanities and follies, but that it is, rather, more suitable for them to place their hope in Our Lord God and in contemplating His features, with all their heart and mind, and to impregnate their sight, as the prophet David witnesses, saying: “Blessed is the man who puts his hope in the Lord and does not loiter in the vanities and the follies of the world!” and once again the same David shouting and exhorting: “Sons of men, up to what point will the hardness of your heart go, cherishing vanity and searching after falsehood?”; but the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, who had received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation as a true Christian, and who, in receiving them, had renounced the devil, his ceremonies, and his work, relapsed into that which he had renounced. And more or less five years ago in a lower hall of the castle at Tiffauges, belonging to his wife, in the diocese of Maillezais, he had several signs, figures, and characters traced by certain masters like François Prelati, of Italian descent, self-styled expert in the forbidden art of geomancy; and in a wood close by the castle at Tiffauges he had these same signs traced in the earth by Jean de La Rivière, and Antoine de Palerne, a Lombard, as well as by a man named Louis, and other magicians and conjurors of demons, and had them conjure and divine, and he invoked and had them invoke evil spirits answering to the names of Barron, Oriens, Beelzebub and Belial, by means of fire, incense, myrrh, aloes and other aromatics, the windows and openings of the said lower hall being fully opened, while they genuflected to obtain responses from these same evil spirits, ready to offer and sacrifice to them and to adore them; the said Gilles, the accused, wanted to conclude a pact with them in order to obtain and recover knowledge, power, and riches with the assistance of these evil spirits; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XVII. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, made a pact with the aforesaid evil spirits, by virtue of which he would do their will; and that by this pact the said accused secured that the same evil spirits would provide him with knowledge, riches and power; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XVIII. Item, that once, around the same period, the aforesaid François
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— whom a certain Milord Eustache Blanchet, a priest from the diocese of Saint-Malo, had sent for from Italy and introduced to Gilles, the accused, in order to initiate this latter into the art of conjuring evil spirits — in a field one quarter of a league outside the castle of Tiffauges, using fire and having traced a circle in the same place, summoned certain evil spirits in the company of the said Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, specially charged by the said Gilles de Rais to assist the said François; and that previously the same accused had delivered unto these same François and Étienne
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a note written in his own hand, destined for the evil spirit called Barron in the event that the latter responded to the said invocation and said conjuration, and to be exhibited and offered in the said Gilles name, which note said that the same Gilles, the accused, would give Barron everything he asked for with the exception of his soul and the curtailment of his life, provided he procured knowledge, power, and riches for Gilles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
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— whom a certain Milord Eustache Blanchet, a priest from the diocese of Saint-Malo, had sent for from Italy and introduced to Gilles, the accused, in order to initiate this latter into the art of conjuring evil spirits — in a field one quarter of a league outside the castle of Tiffauges, using fire and having traced a circle in the same place, summoned certain evil spirits in the company of the said Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, specially charged by the said Gilles de Rais to assist the said François; and that previously the same accused had delivered unto these same François and Étienne
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a note written in his own hand, destined for the evil spirit called Barron in the event that the latter responded to the said invocation and said conjuration, and to be exhibited and offered in the said Gilles name, which note said that the same Gilles, the accused, would give Barron everything he asked for with the exception of his soul and the curtailment of his life, provided he procured knowledge, power, and riches for Gilles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XIX. Item, that on another occasion around the same time, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais and François Prelati, in a certain field near the castle and town of Josselin, that side of the suburbs adjoining the said castle and said town, summoned evil spirits and performed other superstitions there also; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XX. Item, that again around the same time, namely one year ago more or less, when he went to see the aforesaid Duke of Brittany for the last time, the said Gilles, the accused, finding himself in Bourgneuf, in the diocese of Nantes, in the house of the Frères Mineurs, in the company of the said François, had this latter invoke and conjure evil spirits several times, and summoned them himself in the hope of and intending for the same Lord Duke to take the said Gilles into his good graces; thus it transpired, and this is a true account.
(1. Bill of Indictment.)
XXI. Item, that at approximately the same time the aforesaid André Buchet, of Vannes, led the son of Jean Lavary, a young boy of about ten, from the marketplace in Vannes to where the said Gilles de Rais was staying, at the house of a man named Jean Lemoine, close to the episcopal palace of Vannes, outside and close to the walls of the city; which said young boy the said accused sodomized sinfully before putting him to death and while watching him die, abused him shamefully and disreputably, then cruelly killed him in the house of a neighbor named Boetden, and after having severed and retained the head, he had the body of this young boy thus massacred thrown into the latrines belonging to the said Boetden’s house; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXII. Item, that the said Gilles, the accused, wrote notes in his own hand, concluding a well-established pact with the aforenamed evil spirit Barron and proposing such things as are mentioned above; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXIII. Item, that each and every one of these things is common knowledge.
XXIV. Item, that during the said forty years or thereabouts, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, sent the aforesaid Gilles de Sillé, then his director, accomplice, abettor, instigator, and support, into many and various parts of the world and into various regions and various places, to seek after and see if he could locate and bring back to Gilles male or female diviners, invokers, and conjurors, who could secure him money, reveal to him and discover hidden treasures, initiate him into other magical arts, procure for him great honors, and permit him to take and hold castles and cities; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXV. Item, that in the same period the said Gilles, the accused, sent also the aforenamed Eustache Blanchet into Italy and Florence to locate invokers, conjurors, and diviners, which Eustache, having then found the aforesaid François Prelati in Florence, brought him to the same Gilles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXVI. Item, that the said Gilles, the accused, more or less around the same time, as much in the city of Nantes in his house of La Suze as in Orléans in the house and under the sign of the Croix d‘Or, where he was staying, and in the said castles of Machecoul and Tiffauges, made many and various invocations and conjurations of evil spirits; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXVII. Item, that during the said forty years approximately, Gilles de Rais, the accused, as much in the castles at Champtocé, in the Angevin diocese, and Machecoul and Tiffauges, as in the house of the said Lemoine, at Vannes, in the upper chamber of the same house where he was staying at that time, and in the said house called La Suze, situated in the Notre-Dame parish of Nantes; that is, in a certain upper chamber where from time to time and often he would retire and pass the night, killed treacherously, cruelly, and inhumanly one hundred and forty, or more, children, boys and girls, or had them killed by the said Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet, Étienne,
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André
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and aforementioned others, respectively and successively; showing himself horribly and inhumanly guilty, since, according to what Hermogène says: “Each time a man usurps the office of the Creator by abolishing His creatures, the celestial Virtues will not cease crying before the divine Judge, until vengeance be exacted on the murderer who shall burn in eternal flames” — more especially as the said Gilles de Rais immolated the members of the said innocents as sacrifices to evil spirits; with which innocents, before and after their death and also during, he committed the abominable sin of sodomy, which defiles heaven, and which he abused contrary to nature in order to satisfy his carnal, illicit, and damnable concupiscence; and then burned and had the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet Griart, and Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, burn in these same places respectively the bodies of these boy and girl innocents, and had them throw the ashes into the pits as well as into the
moats
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of the said castles and into the sinks of the house of La Suze, so named of old after Lord Jean de Craon, his grandfather, the said Gilles de Rais’ mother’s father, who was during his lifetime Lord of the domain of La Suze and of the house where he lived and died. Into the hiding places of this same house of La Suze were thrown fifteen out of about one hundred and forty of the said innocents killed by order of the said Gilles, the accused, as much by himself as by the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet, and Étienne, successively and respectively, in the same way as was done in other secret, out-of-the-way places in the aforesaid cities and castles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
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André
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and aforementioned others, respectively and successively; showing himself horribly and inhumanly guilty, since, according to what Hermogène says: “Each time a man usurps the office of the Creator by abolishing His creatures, the celestial Virtues will not cease crying before the divine Judge, until vengeance be exacted on the murderer who shall burn in eternal flames” — more especially as the said Gilles de Rais immolated the members of the said innocents as sacrifices to evil spirits; with which innocents, before and after their death and also during, he committed the abominable sin of sodomy, which defiles heaven, and which he abused contrary to nature in order to satisfy his carnal, illicit, and damnable concupiscence; and then burned and had the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet Griart, and Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, burn in these same places respectively the bodies of these boy and girl innocents, and had them throw the ashes into the pits as well as into the
moats
73
of the said castles and into the sinks of the house of La Suze, so named of old after Lord Jean de Craon, his grandfather, the said Gilles de Rais’ mother’s father, who was during his lifetime Lord of the domain of La Suze and of the house where he lived and died. Into the hiding places of this same house of La Suze were thrown fifteen out of about one hundred and forty of the said innocents killed by order of the said Gilles, the accused, as much by himself as by the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet, and Étienne, successively and respectively, in the same way as was done in other secret, out-of-the-way places in the aforesaid cities and castles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXVIII. Item, during the period of these said forty years or thereabouts, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, and, in his name and by his order, the said Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet, Étienne, and André Buchet, requested procurers, procuresses and old female go-betweens whom they charged — under the pretext of certain services that the said children might render the said Gilles, who himself would prove of service to these same children, their parents, and their friends — with procuring children, as many boys as girls, to nab them and bring them to him, so that Gilles de Rais, the accused, could perform the sin of sodomy on them, cut their throats and kill them, or have their throats cut and have them killed; which procurers and female go-betweens damnably procured the said innocents for Gilles de Rais and for his aforesaid accomplices; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXIX. Item, that less than a year ago, by order of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, then staying in the said place of Bourgneuf, in the house of the Frères Mineurs, the aforesaid Henriet and Étienne procured for and delivered to him a boy fifteen years old or thereabouts, so that the accused could commit on him the oft-mentioned sin of sodomy; the said Henriet. and Étienne took this adolescent, originally from Lower Brittany, who was living in the house of a man named Rodigo, an inhabitant of Bourgneuf, and brought him to the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, in a room of the said convent, where the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, was lodged and regularly stayed, and he exercised the oft-mentioned detestable vice of sodomy on him, in the same way as on the aforesaid others, in damnable fashion, and then he killed him on the spot and had his body carried to the castle at Machecoul to be burned; this was done by the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, and by the said Henriet and Étienne; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, notorious and public.
(1. Bill of Indictment.)
XXX. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, ate delicacies and drank fine wines, hippocras, claret, and other sorts of alcoholic drinks for the purpose of working himself up to the said sin of sodomy and practicing it unnaturally on the said boys and girls with greater abundance, case, and pleasure, often and often again, in an excessive and unusual manner; and that he abused his eating and drinking habits daily; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXI. Item, that in his room in the castle at Tiffauges, the said Gilles, the accused, placed the hand, eyes, heart, and blood of one of the said children in a glass to offer it in homage and as tribute to the aforesaid demon Barron, and that he had this oblation offered in his name by the said François Prelati; the same François being designated for this and knowing how to conjure evil spirits, as abovenoted; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXII. Item, that for about five years, more or less, the said Gilles de Rais had celebrated, on many solemn feasts and in particular on last All Saints’ Day, a certain very conspicuous solemnity to honor the evil spirits, and in keeping with the pact concluded between him and the said evil spirits, as has been reported above; during which feasts, by virtue of the abovesaid pact, in the name of these same evil spirits and for their exaltation, he offered and caused to be offered alms to the poor; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXIII. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, set his purposes, his hopes, and his belief in the invocation of evil spirits, divination, the murder of the said innocent children, the sin of sodomy, and unnatural lust; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXIV. Item, that more or less during the aforesaid forty years the said Gilles, the accused, conversed with diviners and heretics; that he repeatedly solicited their assistance for what he intended to perpetrate; that he communicated and collaborated with them, that he accepted their dogmas and studied and read their books touching on the interdicted arts; that he brought all his attention, hope, and mind to and fixed on these detestable dogmas to discover the ways and means proper to summoning evil spirits; and that he made a dogma of the conclusions and errors of diviners and conjurors; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
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