ndy had sent him on an embassy to the
Council of Constance to defend the doctrines of Jean Petit;[2058] then
he had appointed him Master of Requests in 1418, and finally raised
him to the episcopal see of Beauvais.[2059] Standing equally high in
the favour of the English, Messire Pierre was Councillor of King Henry
VI, Almoner of France and Chancellor to the Queen of England. Since
1423, his usual residence had been at Rouen. By their submission to
King Charles the people of Beauvais had deprived him of his episcopal
revenue.[2060] And, as the English said and believed that the army of
the King of France was at that time commanded by Friar Richard and the
Maid, Messire Pierre Cauchon, the impoverished Bishop of Beauvais, had
a personal grievance against Jeanne. It would have been better for his
own reputation that he should have abstained from avenging the
Church's honour on a damsel who was possibly an idolatress, a
soothsayer and the invoker of devils, but who had certainly incurred
his personal ill-will. He was in the Regent's pay;[2061] and the Regent
was filled with bitter hatred of the Maid.[2062] Again for his
reputation's sake, my Lord Bishop of Beauvais should have reflected
that in prosecuting Jeanne for a matter of faith he was serving his
master's wrath and furthering the temporal interests of the great of
this world. On these things he did not reflect; on the contrary, this
case at once temporal and spiritual, as ambiguous as his own position,
excited his worst passions. He flung himself into it with all the
thoughtlessness of the violent. A maiden to be denounced, a heretic
and an Armagnac to boot, what a feast for the prelate, the Councillor
of King Henry! After having concerted with the doctors and masters of
the University of Paris, on the 14th of July, he presented himself
before the camp of Compiegne and demanded the Maid as subject to his
jurisdiction.[2063]

[Footnote 2056: This point was not called in question at the time; but
what might be discussed is whether the Bishop of Beauvais could
exercise ordinary jurisdiction over the Maid. On this subject see:
Abbe Ph. H. Dunand, _Histoire complete de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1899,
vol. ii, pp. 412, 413.]

[Footnote 2057: Robillard de Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges et
assesseurs du proces de Jeanne d'Arc_, Rouen, 1890, p. 12. Douet
d'Arcq, _Choix de pieces inedites relatives au regne de Charles VI_,
vol. i, pp. 356, 357. Chanoine Cerf, _Pierre Cauchon