Quicherat,
in his moderate and able remarks on this subject, selects for special
mention three men who took a very important part in it, Guillame Erard,
Nicole Midi, and Tomas de Courcelles. They were all men who held a high
place in the respect of their generation. Erard was a friend of Machet,
the confessor of Charles VII., who had been a member of the tribunal
at Poitiers which first pronounced upon the pretensions of Jeanne; yet
after the trial of the Maid Machet still describes him as a man of the
highest virtue and heavenly wisdom. Nicole Midi continued to hold an
honourable place in his University for many years, and was the man
chosen to congratulate Charles when Paris finally became again the
residence of the King. Courcelles was considered the first theologian of
the age. "He was an austere and eloquent young man," says Quicherat,
"of a lucid mind, though nourished on abstractions. He was the first of
theologians long before he had attained the age at which he could assume
the rank of doctor, and even before he had finished his studies he was
considered as the successor of Gerson. He was the light of the council
of Bale. Eneas Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.) speaks with admiration of his
capacity and his modesty. In him we recognise the father of the freedom
of the Gallican Church. His disinterestedness is shown by the simple
position with which he contented himself. He died with no higher rank
than that of Dean of the Chapter of Paris."

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? Was this the man to be used for
their vile ends by a savage English party thirsting for the blood of an
innocent victim, and by the vile priest who was its tool? It does not
seem so to our eyes across the long level of the centuries which clear
away so many mists. And no more dreadful accusation can be brought
against France than the suggestion that men like these, her best and
most carefully trained, were willing to act as blood-hounds for
the advantage and the pay of the invader. But there are many French
historians to whom the mere fact of a black gown or at least an
ecclesiastical robe, confounds every testimony, and to whom even the
name of Frenchman does not make it appear possible that a priest should
retain a shred of honour or of honesty. We should have said by the light
of nature and probability that had every guarantee been required for the
impartiality and justice of such a tribunal, they could not have
been better secured than by t