es, they had come to find them everywhere. These females, as
they called them, they were sending to the stake every day, and
receiving nothing but thanks for it. They believed as firmly as Jeanne
in the possibility of the apparitions which she said had been
vouchsafed to her, only they were persuaded either that she lied or
that she saw devils. The Bishop, the Vice-Inquisitor and the
assessors, to the number of forty and upwards, were unanimous in
declaring her heretical and devilish. There were doubtless many who
imagined that by passing sentence against her they were maintaining
Catholic orthodoxy and unity of obedience against the abettors of
schism and heresy; they wished to judge wisely. And even the boldest
and the most unscrupulous, the Bishop and the Promoter, would not have
dared too openly to infringe the rules of ecclesiastical justice in
order to please the English. They were priests, and they preserved
priestly pride and respect for formality. Here was their weak point;
in this respect for formality they might have been struck. Had the
other side instituted vigorous legal proceedings, theirs might
possibly have been thwarted, arrested, and the fatal sentence
prevented. If the metropolitan of the Bishop of Beauvais, the
Archbishop of Reims, had intervened in the trial, if he had suspended
his suffragan for abuse of authority, or some other reason, Pierre
Cauchon would have been greatly embarrassed; if, as he decided to do
later, King Charles VII had brought about the intervention of the
mother and brothers of the Maid; if Jacques d'Arc and la Romee had
protested in due form against an action so manifestly one-sided; if
the register of Poitiers[107] had been sent for inclusion among the
documents of the trial; if the high prelates subject to King Charles
VII had asked for a safe conduct in order to come and give evidence in
Jeanne's favour at Rouen; finally, if the King, his Council, and the
whole Church of France had demanded an appeal to the Pope, as they
were legally entitled to do, then the trial might have had a different
issue.

[Footnote 106: Even when the canons who took part in the trial are
severally considered. _Cf._ Ch. de Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le
proces de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, Rouen, 1869, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 107: Or at least the conclusions of the doctors which have
been preserved. As for the register itself it could not have contained
anything of great importance. From their