44. A RELUCTANT ALDERMAN (1415).

An unwillingness to hold the offices which are now coveted is often met with in medieval England. Members of parliament and aldermen, besides receiving no salary, were at considerable cost and trouble when serving their constituents. The sources of social dignity were rank, wealth and the tenure of positions within the gift of the crown, rather than mere popular election. A bishop designate, repeating the formula nolo episcopari, might be accused of insincerity: not so a knight of the shire or a burgess who refused to represent his county or ward. Gradually town councillors saw that there was some profit in holding office, when they could thereby exempt their property from taxation; but if a man acted uprightly he gained no fame or prestige which could compensate him for the loss of his time. The records of London supply this curious and amusing case of refusal to serve till pressure was applied.

SOURCE.-Memorials of London. Ed. H. T. Riley. London, 1868. P. 601.

Forasmuch as a laudable custom which has hitherto prevailed in the City of London, has so prescribed and ordained, that the inhabitants of each of the Wards of the said city are at liberty to elect an Alderman whensoever they need one, to rule them in their own Ward; provided always, that the person so elected is presented to the Mayor and Aldermen, for the time being, and by them is deemed worthy to be admitted and approved.And whereas, on the third day of January, in the second year of the reign of King Henry, etc., one Ralph Lobenham, late Alderman of the Ward of Farringdon Without, having voluntarily resigned the rule of that Ward, the inhabitants of the Ward thereupon, according to the usual custom, met together at the usual place within the Ward, for the purpose of electing an Alderman thereof, and there unanimously chose one John Gedeney, citizen and draper, to hold the office of Alderman of the Ward aforesaid, and presented such choice to Thomas Fauconer, the then Mayor, and the Aldermen, in the Chamber of the Guildhall; the said Mayor and Aldermen, holding such election to be good and ratified, confirmed the same, and admitted the said John to the office, and approved of him as

sufficient unto the same, and deserving thereof, as well as to worldly goods as to the requisite discreetness. After which, the said Mayor and Aldermen commanded John Pickard, Common serjeant-at-arms of the said city, whose especial office it is, according to custom, to attend to the performance of duties and services of that nature, to warn the said John Gedeney to appear before the Mayor and Aldermen on the seventeenth day of January then next ensuing, to take the oath, and to do such other things as upon him on behalf of the Court should then be enjoined.

By virtue of which warning, the said John Gedeney appeared before the Mayor and Aldermen, in the Chamber aforesaid, and after the reason for his being so summoned had been first stated to him, precept was given to him forthwith to take his seat there in Court, that he might take the oath that pertains unto the office and rank of Alderman. Whereupon, the same John Gedeney, after first setting forth his excuses on the ground of his inability, and his insufficiency for the office, wholly refused to accept it upon which, he was informed by the Court that he could not refuse this office, to which, as being a fit person, he was admitted by the Court, without breach of his freedom, and of the oath which by him, when he was admitted to the freedom of the City, had been made; and this the more especially, as every freeman is bound to be a partaker in Lot, which is liability to hold office, and in Scot, which means contribution to taxes and other charges, by reason of such oath.

But all and singular the matters before stated notwithstanding, he altogether refused to accept the office, like a person who was utterly obdurate. And hereupon, the matter having been considered by the Mayor and Aldermen, because that it appeared to them that if any one, when elected to such office, should be at liberty at his own will and pleasure to refuse the post, and pass it by, not improbably the City before long would be left destitute, as it were, of all rule and governance whatsoever; the same John Gedeney was by the said Mayor and Aldermen committed to prison, there to remain until the Court should be better advised what to do as to the matters aforesaid. And in the meantime, precept was given to the Sheriffs of London to shut up the shops and houses of the same John Gedeney, and to sequestrate his goods and chattels, until the Court should be better advised thereon.

And afterwards, on the eighteenth day, through the mediation of many reputable men of the said city, who intervened, word being brought that the same John Gedeney was willing,

if the Court should think proper, to undertake the duties of the office aforesaid; he was therefore brought here on that day before the Mayor and Aldermen, and, having first obtained dispensation for breach of his oath made by him when he was admitted to the freedom of the City, he was admitted and sworn, as the usage is.

45. JOAN OF ARC'S TRIAL (1431).

Joan of Arc is the most phenomenal and attractive personage of the Hundred Years' War on either side. Those whom she led to victory, believed that she was inspired of God, and the English, not denying her inspiration, believed that it was of the devil. A full and authentic report of her trial remains, and from it is extracted the passage in which she answers questions relative to her Voices. She maintained that she raised the siege of Orleans in obedience to the divine call, and that all her important acts were prompted by a voice from heaven. Her trial for witchcraft at Rouen was conducted by Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, to whom she had been handed over by the English for that purpose. She was little more than nineteen years old at the date of her execution.

SOURCE.-Procès de Condamnation et de Réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc. Ed. Jules Quicherat. Paris, 1841. Vol. i., Sessio Secunda. Trans. C. W. Colby.

We1 next required and admonished Joan, appearing before us in the said place, to take, under penalty of law, the oath which she had taken the day before; and that she should swear simply and absolutely to tell the truth in answer to what was asked her in the matter concerning which the charge had been brought and which was generally known. To this she answered that she had sworn yesterday and that was enough.

Again we required that she should swear; for every one, though he be a prince, when required to take the oath on a point of faith cannot refuse. And she answered again: "I took the oath for you yesterday; that should suffice you quite well. You burden me too much." Finally she swore to tell the truth in whatever related to faith.

1 Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais.

H

Then a distinguished professor of sacred theology, Master John Beaupère, acting by our order and behest, questioned Joan on the points which follow.

And first he urged her to answer his questions truly, just as she had sworn to do. Whereupon she replied: "You might very well ask me one sort of question which I would answer truly, and another sort which I would not answer". And she added: "If you were well informed about me, you should wish that I were out of your hands. I have done nothing save by revelation."

Next asked about her age when she left home: she said that she did not know.

Asked whether in her girlhood she had learned any art: she said yes, that she had learned to sew linen cloth and to knit ; and that she did not fear any woman in Rouen when it came to knitting and sewing. She further confessed that, through fear of the Burgundians, she left home and went to the town of Neufchâteau1 in Lorraine to live with a woman named La Rousse, where she stayed a fortnight; adding furthermore that when she was at home she was exempt from household work nor went with the sheep and other animals to pasture.

Again asked whether she confessed her sins each year: she answered yes, to her own curé; and when the curé was hindered she with his permission confessed to another priest. Sometimes also, twice or thrice as she believed, she confessed to the friars. And this was in the said town of Neufchâteau. And she had been in the habit of receiving the Eucharist at Easter.

Asked whether she had been in the habit of receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist at any other feasts save Easter: she told her questioner to pass on. She further confessed that when she was thirteen years old she had a voice from God to aid her in self-discipline. And the first time she was greatly afraid. And this voice came about noon in summer in her father's garden, and she had fasted the day before. And she heard the voice on her right hand toward the church, and she seldom heard it without a light. Which light comes from the same side as the voice, but is usually great. And when she came to France she often heard this voice. Asked how she saw the light which she said was there present when it was on one side; to this she answered nothing, but passed to other things. She moreover said that if she were in a grove she distinctly heard

1 A walled town seven miles south of Joan's birthplace, Domremy.

voices coming to her. She also said that the voice seemed to her worthy, and she believes that it was sent by God; and after she had heard it three times she knew that it was the voice of an angel. She also said that it always guarded her well, and that she knew it well.

Asked about the teaching which her voice gave her respecting the salvation of her soul, she said that it taught her to govern herself well, to go often to church, and that it said she must go to France. And Joan added that the questioner would not this time learn from her in what guise the voice had appeared to her. She furthermore confessed that the voice told her twice or thrice a week that she must leave home and go to France;1 and that her father knew nothing of her departure. She also said that the voice told her to go to France, and that she could no longer remain where she was, and that the voice told her that she should raise the siege of Orleans. She further said that her voice had told her that she should go to Robert de Baudricourt, Captain of the fortress of Vaucouleurs,2 and he would give her attendants; and she then answered that she was a poor girl who knew not how to ride a horse nor head a campaign. She also said that she went to her uncle and told him that she wished to stay with him for a little while; and she stayed there about eight days; and she then told her uncle that she must go to the fortress of Vaucouleurs; and he conducted her.

She also said that when she came to Vaucouleurs she recognised Robert de Baudricourt, although she had never seen him before; and she recognised him by the aid of her voice, for the voice told her that it was he; and she told Robert that she must go into France. Twice he denied and withstood her, and the third time he took her and gave her attendants; and so it happened even as her voice had said3 . . . Moreover she confessed that in leaving Vaucouleurs she put on men's dress, wearing a sword which Robert de Baudricourt had given her and no other arms. Accompanied by a knight, a shield-bearer and four servants, she reached the town of St. Urbain, and there passed a night in the abbey.

She also said that in this journey she passed through the town of Auxerre and there heard mass in the cathedral, and at

1 Such was the effect of feudal sub-division, that to a native of Domremy-situated on the confines of Champagne and LorraineFrance seemed a foreign country.

2 The one town in Eastern France which at this time acknowledged Charles VII.

3 Joan's visit to the sick Duke of Lorraine, who had sent for her because he thought that she might cure him, is omitted.