Trial of Gilles De Rais (40 page)

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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

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Item, he said that the common rumor was that several old women detained in the prisons of the Lord Duke of Brittany, in Nantes, whose names he did not know, led children to Machecoul and delivered them to the aforesaid Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, and Henriet Griart, who killed them.
Item, he attested to having several times heard it said by the said Gilles, the accused, that he did not believe it possible for a man to make the devil appear and that he knew a man who attempted it, but could not succeed. And the witness believed that the said Gilles, the accused, was speaking of himself, with reference to the abovenoted and attested.
Interrogated as to the people present at the time when the preceding words were spoken, he responded that he did not remember.
Interrogated as to the place where they were spoken and the reason behind, and the intention for, speaking them by the said Gilles, the accused, the witness responded as far as the place was concerned, that it was in the castle at Tiffauges, because the witness, coming and going through Bourgogne and Savoy, to and from the court of Rome, reported to the said Gilles that in these countries there were many heresies, which were growing rapidly. And he, the witness, saw and heard that many old women had been hanged there for the said heresies. And above all for summoning demons.
Item, he attested to having heard Alain de Mazères say many times that the latter had heard the said Gilles, the accused, say similar things.
Item, he said that recently, last Easter Sunday, as the aforesaid Gilles was leading the witness and Milord Gilles de Valois, priest, into his study or writing room in the castle at Machecoul, the said Gilles showed them a book that he was writing on the ceremonies of his school at Machecoul, and he, the witness, saw among the archives of the said Gilles, the accused, five or six leaves of paper with large borders, on which there were crosses, red signs, and red writing in the hand of the said Gilles, the accused; which writing he, the witness, presumed and suspected had been done with human blood, considering what he had heard previously: that the said Gilles, the accused, had children killed for their blood, to write books with.
Item, he attested that last Easter Sunday he saw the said Gilles, the accused, and a certain Milord Olivier des Ferrières, priest, go together behind the altar of Our Lady in the Sainte-Trinité church at Machecoul, and he believes that the said Olivier heard the confession of the said accused. Because immediately after this the said accused received the Eucharist, at the same time as did the parishioners of little means, in the same place and in their company; which laymen of little means, seeing such a great lord approach, wanted to leave, but the said accused had no desire to let them leave and, moreover, commanded them to remain with him and partake in Communion as usual. And a certain Milord Simon Loisel, then officiating minister of the said church, dispensed the Eucharist.
Item, he attested that the children of Master Jean Briand, principally Perrinet, the youngest, and another one named Pierre, of the aforesaid Gilles’ music school, constantly remained in the room of the said accused, and that the said Perrinet was his favorite.
Item, interrogated as to the ejaculation of sperm on the children by the said Gilles, the accused, he said that he had known nothing about it until he heard talk about it.
Item, the witness stated that he had heard it said by Mathieu Fouquet, speaking with him about the said children’s deaths, and being shocked, as this was not new and as many people were speaking about it and had for a long time, and it had already been some time since they found the bones of the dead children in the castle at Champtocé.
Moreover, so far as concerns the invocations of demons and the murders of children, as to whether he assisted in them, he said that he was putting and puts his trust in the relation, confession, depositions and attestations of those accused: François,
104
the Marquis,
105
Poitou and Henriet; and that he wanted and wants to believe on that score, thereupon trusting their consciences, as he had already trusted them and would again.
Interrogated as to whether he went to Florence on his own initiative, to go about his own business, or was solicited by the said Gilles, the accused, to go there and seek conjurors of demons, he responded that he went there on his own business, which he explained to the said Gilles, who requested that in the said regions he seek a man skilled in the art of alchemy and learned in the invocation of demons, and that he send such a man, for which Gilles would compensate the witness. That is why he, the witness, upon arrival, remembered what the said Gilles had told him and sought very diligently for a man practicing the said arts; finally, through the agency of Master Guillaume de Montepulciano, he met François, the preceding witness; he associated with him and offered him abundant wine and food in order to do business with him, and to that end he explained many things to him, without concerning himself with what the other expounded to him, provided that he was able to bring the same François to the said Gilles, the accused; and thus, through his agency, as abovesaid, the same François arrived in this land at the castle of the said Gilles.
Item, interrogated as to whether, before bringing the said François, he knew that he was familiar with the highly criminal art of invoking demons and performing invocations, he responded yes, the said François having assured him of it in answer to his question.
Item, interrogated as to whether, by order of the said Gilles, the accused, he had sought other conjurors or had them sent to him, he responded yes, namely Master Jean de La Rivière, doctor, who knew how to perform the said invocations, as he asserted. He sent the said La Rivière, by order and at the request of the said Gilles, from Poitiers to Pouzauges, where subsequently he performed invocations on behalf of the said Gilles. One night, clad in white armor, with a sword and other weapons, he arrived in a wood situated near the said place of Pouzauges; and the said accused, the men named Étienne Corrillaut, Henriet, and himself, the witness, accompanied him as far as the wood; and the said La Rivière left the aforenamed behind at the entrance to the wood and entered it alone to work the said invocations, thus he himself asserted, and he, the witness, and the others waited; and to the best of his belief, he, the witness, heard the said La Rivière striking his sword against the said armor that he was wearing, or in some fashion striking it with terrible might, making noises as if he were in combat. Then the said La Rivière left the wood and came toward the place where he had left the said Gilles, the accused, and the others; and the said Gilles immediately asked him what he had seen, and whether it were of any consequence: and the said La Rivière, as if frightened and troubled, said he had seen a demon in the appearance of a leopard, which passed close by him while disdaining his presence and refusing to speak with him or tell him anything whatever: why, this same La Rivière did not indicate to Gilles, the accused.
Then the said Gilles, La Rivière, and the others went to Pouzauges, where they gave themselves over to merry-making and where they slept, and, on the following day, the said La Rivière claimed to need certain things necessary for the said invocations, and the said Gilles, the accused, gave him twenty gold crowns or royals, and told him to procure what was needed and return without delay, which he promised to do. And he left and never returned again to the said Gilles, insofar as the witness could tell or had heard.
Interrogated as to whether he, the witness, had been at any one of the invocations practiced by the said François or others, he responded no, but he did assist in making the circle and characters in the said hall of the castle at Tiffauges, and, likewise, in transporting coal, fire, and other things necessary for the invocations performed by the said François. All that, before the said François began the said invocations, by order of Gilles, the accused, immediately after having witnessed these preparations: he, Gilles de Sillé, Étienne Corrillaut, and Henriet betook themselves to the room of this latter where others were sleeping, and they slept; and the said accused men and François remained alone, performing the said invocations as they intended; and, as he warranted, he does not know if there were any apparitions.
Item, he stated that some time before he’d heard the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, say several times that he intended to amend his wicked life and make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem, in order to ask forgiveness for his sins; and that was as often at Machecoul as at Bourgneuf-en-Rais.
Item, he stated and deposed that once, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, being at Angers, and lodging at the Lion d’Argent, he, the witness, by express mandate of the said Gilles, found and sent him a goldsmith who professed to be familiar with the art of alchemy, to have practiced it before, and to know how to practice it. To which goldsmith the said Gilles gave a silver mark to perform. Which the said goldsmith promised to do, but shut himself in a room where he got drunk and slept. Which Gilles found him asleep and, indignant, treated him like a drunkard, telling him that he no longer expected what he had looked for from him. Which goldsmith left with the said silver mark, which the accused had wasted.
And such was his deposition, and he knew no more, except the public uproar, which, according to him, agrees with what he has deposed.
Item, he stated and deposed that one day, exactly when he could not say, when he was in the city of Tiffauges, outside the castle of that place, but not when he was staying there — and as he attested, he often went to the castle to meet with clerics and on other business — the said Gilles sent for him to come immediately. And he, the witness, came as requested; and he found the said Gilles in a gallery of the castle, overcome with grief and sadness. Immediately upon his arrival, the said accused told him that he believed François was dead, that he had heard him shouting loudly in his room in the castle, and that he had heard the sound of blows, as if someone were beating a featherbed, but he did not dare to approach or enter the said room; and he begged the witness to go see what had happened. But the witness responded that he did not dare to go in either. However, to please the said Gilles, the witness approached the said room, which he did not enter, but, as the said room had an opening near the top, he called the said François through this aperture, who did not respond; the witness, nonetheless, heard him groaning painfully like a man seriously injured; which he reported to the said Gilles, whom it greatly afflicted. Then the said François, extremely pale, came out, and went to the said Gilles’ room; and he recounted how the devil had beaten him horribly in the said room; as a result of which beating, the said François contracted a fever and was ill for seven or eight days. And the said Gilles, the accused, devoted himself wholly to the said François during the said illness, permitting no one else to nurse him; and he had François confessed, and the said François recovered from his illness.
Item, interrogated as to whether he had known or had heard talk of the cause of that beating, he said that he had heard the said François say that it was because, having previously spoken with the present witness about the invocations of evil spirits that he himself was performing, the present witness had asserted that the said evil spirits were of a vulgar nature and powerless; which, indignant with the said François — and also because the said François was keeping his secrets from the present witness — they had beaten him, so he said. The present witness had heard François say that the said spirits were begotten from material nobler than the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And such was his deposition.
And he was ordered formally not to reveal his deposition to anyone.
3. Étienne Corrillaut, called Poitou. October 17, 1440.
 
ÉTIENNE CORRILLAUT, also known as Poitou, as he warrants, originally from Pouzauges, in the diocese of Luçon, aged about twenty-two to the best of his belief, a witness already produced in the case, admitted to swear to tell the truth, and excused upon surety, on the aforesaid day and in the year of the aforesaid pontificate and council, submitted to investigation and interrogated on everything contained in the promulgated articles, deposed by order and said that after René de Rais, Lord de La Suze, full brother of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, had taken the castle at Champtocé, in the diocese of Angers, which formerly belonged to the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, the same René, Lord de La Suze, came to Machecoul, in the diocese of Nantes, and also took the castle of that place, two years ago.
Now after the taking of the said castle of Machecoul, the witness heard Milord Charles du Léon, knight, who was with the aforesaid Lord de La Suze in the same castle at Machecoul, say that they had discovered the bodies and bones of two children in the lower part of the tower of the said castle. And the said Milord Charles asked the witness whether he knew anything about this: which witness responded no, and really he did not know anything about it at that time, as he attested, because the said Gilles de Rais had not yet revealed any of his secrets to him, regarding the abduction, lecherous abuses, and murders of the said children, which he revealed to him later, in the manner noted below.
Item, he stated and deposed that, when the said Gilles de Rais had recovered the castle of Champtocé from the said Lord de La Suze, and he went there to hand it and its possession over to the Lord Duke of Brittany, to whom he had already transferred the lordship of the same place, then, for the first time, he had the witness swear not to reveal the secrets he intended to show him, and he commanded Gilles de Sillé, Henriet Griart, Hicquet de Brémont, Robin Romulart, and him, the witness, all of whom were servants of the said Gilles, the accused, to go to the tower of the castle at Champtocé, where the bodies and bones of many dead children were, to take them and put them in a coffer, and bring them to Machecoul, as secretly as possible; and in the said tower they found the bones of thirty-six or forty-six children, which bones were already desiccated, and he said he could not remember their number in any case, and the coffer where they were deposited was bound with cords lest it open and the scandal and iniquity of so egregious a crime should come out.

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