esiastical advocates and as
many canons.[2165] When it was a question of a very notable personage
who had set a highly pernicious example, of a king's advocate, for
instance like Master Jean Segueut, who that very year, in Normandy,
had spoken against the temporal power of the Church, a large assembly
of doctors and prelates, English and French, were convoked, and the
doctors and masters of the University of Paris were consulted in
writing.[2166] Now it was fitting that the Maid of the Armagnacs should
be yet more elaborately and more solemnly tried, with a yet greater
concourse of doctors and of prelates; and thus it was ordained by the
Lord Bishop of Beauvais. As councillors and assessors he summoned the
canons of Rouen in as great a number as possible. Among those who
answered his summons we may mention Raoul Roussel, treasurer of the
chapter; Gilles Deschamps, who had been chaplain to the late King, Charles
VI, in 1415; Pierre Maurice, doctor in theology, rector of the University
of Paris in 1428; Jean Alespee, one of the sixteen who during the siege of
1418 had gone robed in black and with cheerful countenance to place at the
feet of King Henry V the life and honour of the city; Pasquier de Vaux,
apostolic notary at the Council of Constance, President of the Norman
_Chambre des Comptes_; Nicolas de Venderes, whose candidature for the
vacant see of Rouen was being advocated by a powerful party; and, lastly,
Nicolas Loiseleur. For the same purpose, the Lord Bishop summoned the
abbots of the great Norman abbeys, Mont Saint-Michel-au-Peril-de-la-Mer,
Fecamp, Jumieges, Preaux, Mortemer, Saint-Georges de Boscherville, la
Trinite-du-mont-Sainte-Catherine, Saint-Ouen, Bec, Cormeilles, the
priors of Saint-Lo, of Rouen, of Sigy, of Longueville, and the abbot
of Saint Corneille of Compiegne. He summoned twelve ecclesiastical
advocates; likewise famous doctors and masters of the University of
Paris, Jean Beaupere, rector in 1412; Thomas Fiefve, rector in 1427;
Guillaume Erart, Nicolas Midi,[2167] and that young doctor, abounding
in knowledge and in modesty, the brightest star in the Christian
firmament of the day, Thomas de Courcelles.[2168] The Lord Bishop is
bent upon turning the tribunal, which is to try Jeanne, into a
veritable synod; it is indeed a provincial council, before which she
is cited. Moreover, in effect, it is not only Jeanne the Maid, but
Charles of Valois, calling himself King of France, and lawful
successor o