ceedings on this occasion were either intended to beguile the
impatience of the English authorities, eager to be done with the whole
business, or to add a quite gratuitous pang to the sufferings of the
heroic girl. As the men were not devils, though probably possessed by
this time, the more cruel among them, by the horrible curiosity, innate
alas! in human nature, of seeing how far a suffering soul could go, it
is probable that the first motive was the true one. The English, Warwick
especially, whose every movement was restrained by this long-pending
affair, were exceedingly impatient, and tempted at times to take the
matter into their own hands, and spoil the perfectness of this well
constructed work of art, conducted according to all the rules, the
beautiful trial which was dear to the Bishop's heart--and destined to
be, though perhaps in a sense somewhat different to that which he hoped,
his chief title to fame.

Ten days after, the decision of the University of Paris arrived, and a
great assembly of counsellors, fifty-one in all, besides the permanent
presidents, collected together in the chapel of the Archbishop's
house, to hear that document read, along with many other documents, the
individual opinions of a host of doctors and eminent authorities.
After an explanation of the solemn care given by the University to the
consideration of every one of the twelve articles of the indictment,
that learned tribunal pronounced its verdict upon each. The length of
the proceedings makes it impossible to reproduce these. First as to the
early revelations given to Jeanne, described in the first and second
articles, they are denounced as "murderous, seductive, and pernicious
fictions," the apparitions those of "malignant spirits and devils,
Belial, Satan, and Behemoth." The third article, which concerned her
recognition of the saints, was described more mildly as containing
errors in faith; the fourth, as to her knowledge of future events, was
characterised as "superstitious and presumptuous divination." The fifth,
concerning her dress, declared her to be "blasphemous and contemptuous
of God in His Sacraments." The sixth, by which she was accused of loving
bloodshed, because she made war against those who did not obey the
summons in her letters bearing the name Jhesus Maria, was declared to
prove that she was cruel, "seeking the shedding of blood, seditious,
and a blasphemer of God." The tenor is the same to the end: Blasphemy,