nal has been preserved, just as it issued from his pen:

"I, Gervais Mechin, curate-in-charge of the Church of Saint-Pierre in the
Market Place at Loudun, certify by these presents, signed by my hand, to
relieve my conscience as to a certain report which is being spread
abroad, that I had said in support of an accusation brought by Gilles
Robert, archpriest, against Urbain Grandier, priest-in-charge of
Saint-Pierre, that I had found the said Grandier lying with women and
girls in the church of Saint Pierre, the doors being closed.

"ITEM, that on several different occasions, at unsuitable hours both day
and night, I had seen women and girls disturb the said Grandier by going
into his bedroom, and that some of the said women remained with him from
one o'clock in the after noon till three o'clock the next morning, their
maids bringing them their suppers and going away again at once.

"ITEM, that I had seen the said Grandier in the church, the doors being
open, but that as soon as some women entered he closed them.

"As I earnestly desire that such reports should cease, I declare by these
presents that I have never seen the said Grandier with women or girls in
the church, the doors being closed; that I have never found him there
alone with women or girls; that when he spoke to either someone else was
always present, and the doors were open; and as to their posture, I think
I made it sufficiently clear when in the witness-box that Grandier was
seated and the women scattered over the church; furthermore, I have never
seen either women or girls enter Grandier's bedroom either by day or
night, although it is true that I have heard people in the corridor
coming and going late in the evening, who they were I cannot say, but a
brother of the said Grandier sleeps close by; neither have I any
knowledge that either women or girls, had their suppers brought to the
said room. I have also never said that he neglected the reading of his
breviary, because that would be contrary to the truth, seeing that on
several occasions he borrowed mine and read his hours in it. I also
declare that I have never seen him close the doors of the church, and
that whenever I have seen him speaking to women I have never noticed any
impropriety; I have not ever seen him touch them in any way, they have
only spoken together; and if anything is found in my deposition contrary
to the above, it is without my knowledge, and was never read to me, for I
would