49-Item Bill of Indictment Against Lord Gilles de Rais (Read in Nantes on October 13, 1440)
Source: Georges Bataile. The Trial of Gilles de Rais (Amok Books, 2004)(pp. 169-180)(Translation by Richard Robinson).
I. In the first place, the said prosecutor affirms and, if necessary, intends to prove that ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, Sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety and one hundred years ago, more or less, and for so long even that there is no record to contradict it, in the province of Tours and In the city of Nantes, there was and is still a certain solemn and notable church cathedral, commonly called the church cathedral of Nantes, having at its head a bishop, and for members a dean and several prebendal canons who form a chapter, and several attributes compose a church cathedral and designate it as such publicly and famously; that it must be thus, and that this is true.
Il. Item, that for and during this time, the said bishopric of Nantes had and has still precise boundaries and limits with other bishoprics of the said province of Tours, distinguishing and separating them one from the other, as with those of other neighboring provinces; and that there were from one end to the other of the said diocese many church parishes and a people spiritually entrusted, subject to it, and under its jurisdiction; thus it transpired, and that this is a public and notorious truth.
Ill. Item, that for the last twenty years, if not more, the aforesaid Reverend Father was and is Bishop of Nantes, having and exercising for the spiritual cure of souls the government and administration of the said bishopric inasmuch as he is its titular, and that, by every evidence, he is regarded and held as Bishop of Nantes, commonly, publicly, and famously; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
IV. Item, that for and during the aforesaid early period the correction, punishment, and reformation, regarding criminal offenses as well as sin, of each and every one of the offenders in the said city and diocese of Nantes, as well as their instruction and the decision of punishable and criminal cases, belonged to the then-existing Bishop of Nantes as it belongs lawfully to the aforesaid Reverend Father, present Bishop of Nantes; that the same existing Lord Bishop of Nantes, or aforesaid Reverend Father, present Bishop of Nantes, was and is regularly qualified to punish, correct, or reform every subject guilty of villainous and shameful acts, as with every criminal, whencesoever they came and whatsoever their place of origrn, provided that they committed an offense in the said city or said diocese of Nantes, and the right being reserved to him in the aforesaid cases to bring and promulgate against them sentences, censures, and excommumcations, inflict other penalties on them, condemn them and enjoin them to salutary penances, and deliver them over to the secular arm according to the urgency of the cases and the enormity of the excesses, offenses, and crimes; thus it transpired, and this is a public, notorrous, and manifest ü-uth.
V. Item, that recently the said Friar Guillaume Mérici, Inquisitor of the faith and of heresy in the realm of France and in the province of Tours, was deputed by apostolic authority, constituted, and ordained the power of substituting in his place another friar or other friars of the same order, with this qualification or these qualifications; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
VI. Item, that the aforesaid Guillaume Mérici, before the said apostolic letters were dated, was and is still forty years old, a professor of Holy Writ, of the aforesaid order, and commonly reputed capable of exercising an office of this kind; so be it, and this is a true rendering.
VII. Item, that as much by law as by custom, usage, mores, and observance In the city and diocese of Nantes, lawfully prescribed since the aforesaid times and strictly observed up to the present, the instruction, decision, and punishment of heresy, sorcery, apostasy, idolatry, divination, and superstition, and principally the heresy, apostasy, and idolatry perpetrated by learned persons in the city and diocese of Nantes, every time that the case occurs, belonged according to this custom and continues to belong to the Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and to the Inquisitor Into Heresy delegated to the said city and diocese of Nantes, as much separately as conjointly; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
VIII. Item, that as much by law as by usage, mores, observance, and custom in the said French realm, and principally in the said city and diocese of Nantes, practiced since the aforesaid period and commonly observed up to the present time by virtue of the privilege conceded by the aforesaid apostolic authority to the said Order of Dominicans, the aforesaid Friar Guillaume Mérici, Inquisitor Into Heresy, was empowered to substitute in his place and to depute and ordain to this office another friar or other friars of the same order; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
IX. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, was and is a parishioner of the parish of Sainte-Trinité, of Machecoul, in the said diocese of Nantes, and that he is held and reputed commonly, publicly, and famously as such.
X. Item, that the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, has been since the period of his youth and adolescence, and is still, subject and justiciable of the said Lord Bishop of Nantes and the Inquisitor, but above all of the Lord Bishop, for the aforesaid crimes; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XI. Item, that, since the aforesaid time and presently, within the limits of the said diocese of Nantes were regularly and are still found the castle or fortress of the said place as well as the church parishes of Saint-Trinité, of Machecoul, and Saint-Étienne-de-Mermorte; and that the parishioners of these same church parishes are subjects and justiciables of the same Lord Bishop regarding things of the spirit, as they are also of the aforesaid Inquisitor for the crimes mentioned above and below; that they are publicly and notoriously; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XII. Item, that the said Friar Guillaume Mérici, already Inquisitor, in Nantes, July 26, 1426, instituted in his place, deputed and ordained as his vicar, capable of exercising his office in the aforesaid city and diocese of Nantes, Friar Jean Blouyn, of the aforesaid convent and order, by letters destined to that effect, to the content of which the same prosecutor refers, which he will produce when it is exposed more fully later following the articles and depositions; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XIII. Item, that the said Friar Jean Blouyn, forty years old, before the granting of the said letters establishing him in that office was and did belong to the aforesaid Dominican Order and monastery in Nantes, that he is a priest, belongs to the fellowship of the faithful, and is otherwise capable of exercising the office of the said vicariate; and that he is held and reputed commonly, publicly, and famously as such; and that this is a true rendering.
XIV. Item, that all the above-noted has long been common knowledge.
XV. Item, considering what was reported at first by public rumor, then by the secret inquiry led by the said Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, in his city and diocese, at the same time as by his commissioners, deputed by apostolic authority, in the course of their pastoral visit, as well as by that led by the aforesaid prosecutor of the ecclesiastical court of Nantes, by the authority of the said father, on the cases expounded below, crimes and offenses concerning ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and considering also the preceding denunciations reiterated grievously and tearfully, with lamentations, by many persons of both sexes as much in the aforesaid city as in the aforesaid diocese of Nantes, bemoaning the loss and murder of their children, boys and girls, stating positively that these same boys and girls were taken by the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet Griart, Etienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, André Buchet, Jean Rossignol, Robin Romulart, a man by the name of Spadine, and Hicquet de Brémont, familiars and frequent guests of the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, and that by them these children had had their throats cut inhumanly, had been killed and finally dismembered and burned, and in other respects shamefully tormented; that the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, had sacrificed the bodies of these children to demons in a damnable fashion; that according to many other reports the said Gilles de Rais had evoked demons and evil spirits and sacrificed to them, and that with the said children, as many boys as girls, sometimes while they were alive, sometimes after they were dead, sometimes as they were dying, Gilles had horribly and ignobly committed the sin of sodomy and exercised his lust on the one and the other, disdaining the girls' natural vessel: the aforesaid prosecutor declares and intends to prove, if necessary, that by all evidence, for the past forty years, every year, every month, every day, every night and every hour of these forty years, under the governments of Lords Martin, Pope, the fifth of that name, of blessed memory, and Eugene, by divine Providence, Pope, the fourth of that name, and of Most Reverend Father in God, Lord Philippe, Archbishop of Tours, and of Reverend Father in God, Lord Jean, aforesaid Bishop of Nantes, as well as of the very illustrious Prince and Lord Jean, Duke of Brittany, and whatever the offices and titles of those who reigned respectively and successively then, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, Imbued with evil spirit and forgetting his salvation, took, killed, cut the throats of many children, boys and girls; that these were taken, killed, butchered, as much by him as by the aforesaid Gilles de Sillé, Henriet Griart, and Etienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, and that he caused and ordered the bodies of these children to burned, reduced or converted to ashes, and their ashes thrown into secret and out-of-the-way places; that on these same children he committed the said unnatural sin of sodomy and abused them ignominiously; and that he committed and perpetrated in many and various places, and in the residences designated below, all that is set forth above and following.
XVI. Item, that in order to shed light on the disclosures of the preceding article, the same prosecutor declares and intends to prove that it is permitted to Christ's worshipers who desire to be united with the angelic society neither to delight in lust, consecrated as they are to God once and for all by baptism and by the engagement and profession of the Catholic faith, nor to turn their eyes or their minds toward this world's vanities and follies, but that it IS, rather, more suitable for them to place their hope in Our Lord God and in contemplating His features, with all their heart and mind, and to impregnate their sight, as the prophet David witnesses, saying: "Blessed is the man who puts his hope in the Lord and does not loiter In the vanities and the follies of the world!" and once again the same David shouting and exhorting: "Sons of men, up to what point will the hardness of your heart go, cherishing vanity and searching after falsehood?"; but the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, who had received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation as a true Christian, and who, m receiving them, had renounced the devil, his ceremonies, and his work, relapsed into that which he had renounced. And more or less five years ago In a lower hall of the castle at Tiffauges, belonging to his wife, in the diocese of Maillezais, he had several signs, figures, and characters traced by certain masters like Francois Prelati, of Italian descent, self-styled expert in the forbidden art of geomancy; and in a wood close by the castle at Tiffauges he had these same signs traced in the earth by Jean de La and Antoine de Palerne, a Lombard, as well as by a man named Louis, and other magicians and conjurors of demons, and had them conjure and divine, and he invoked and had them invoke evil spirits answering to the names of Barron, Oriens, Beelzebub and Belial, by means of fire, incense, myrrh, aloes and other aromatics, the windows and openings of the said lower hall being fully opened, while they genuflected to obtain responses from these same evil spirits, ready to offer and sacrifice to them and to adore them; the said Gilles, the accused, wanted to conclude a pact with them in order to obtain and recover knowledge, power, and riches with the assistance of these evil spirits; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XVII. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, made a pact with the aforesaid evil spirits, by virtue of which he would do their will; and that by this pact the said accused secured that the same evil spirits would provide him with knowledge, riches and power; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XVIII. Item, that once, around the same period, the aforesaid Francois whom a certain Milord Eustache Blanchet, a priest from the diocese of Saint Malo, had sent for from Italy and Introduced to Gilles, the accused, in order to initiate this latter into the art of conjuring evil spirits — in a field one quarter of a league outside the castle of Tiffauges, using fire and having traced a circle in the same place, summoned certain evil spirits in the company of the said Etienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, specially charged by the said Gilles de Rais to assist the said Francois; and that previously the same accused had delivered unto these same Francois and Etienne a note written in his own hand, destined for the evil spirit called Barron in the event that the latter responded to the said invocation and said conjuration, and to be exhibited and offered in the said Gilles' name, which note said that the same Gilles, the accused, would give Barron everything he asked for with the exception of his soul and the curtailment of his life, provided he procured knowledge, power, and riches for Gilles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XIX. Item, that on another occasion around the same time, the aforesaid Gilles de Rais and Francois Prelati, in a certain field near the castle and town of Josselin, that side of the suburbs adjoining the said castle and said town, summoned evil spirits and performed other superstitions there also; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XX. Item, that again around the same time, namely one year ago more or less, when he went to see the aforesaid Duke of Brittany for the last time, the said Gilles, the accused, finding himself in Bourgneuf, in the diocese house of the Fréres Mineurs, in the company of the said Francois, had this latter Invoke and conjure evil spirits several times, and summoned them himself in the hope of and intending for the same Lord Duke to take the said Gilles into his good graces; thus it transpired, and this is a true account.
XXI. Item, that at approximately the same time the aforesaid André Buchet, of Vannes, led the son of Jean Lavary, a young boy of about ten, from the marketplace in Vannes to where the said Gilles de Rais was staying, at the house of a man named Jean Lemome, close to the episcopal palace of Vannes, outside and close to the walls of the city; which said young boy the said accused sodomized sinfully before putting him to death and while watching him die, abused him shamefully and disreputably, then cruelly killed him in the house of a neighbor named Boetden, and after having severed and retained the head, he had the body of this young boy thus massacred thrown into the latrines belonging to the said Boetden's house; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXII. Item, that the said Gilles, the accused, wrote notes in his own hand, concluding a well-established pact with the aforenamed evil spirit Barron and proposing such things as are mentioned above; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXIII. Item, that each and every one of these things is common knowledge.
XXIV. Item, that during the said forty years or thereabouts, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, sent the aforesaid Gilles de Sillé, then his director, accomplice, abettor, instigator, and support, into many and various parts of the world and into various regions and various places, to seek after and see if he could locate and bring back to Gilles male or female diviners, invokers, and conjurors, who could secure him money, reveal to him and discover hidden treasures, Initiate him into other magical arts, procure for him great honors, and permit him to take and hold castles and cities; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXV. Item, that in the same period the said Gilles, the accused, sent also the aforenamed Eustache Blanchet into Italy and Florence to locate Invokers, conjurors, and diviners, which Eustache, having then found the aforesaid Francois Prelad in Florence, brought him to the same Gilles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXVI. Item, that the said Gilles, the accused, more or less around the same time, as much in the city of Nantes in his house of La Suze as in Orléans in the house and under the sign of the Croix d'Or, where he was staying, and in the said castles of Machecoul and Tiffauges, made many and various invocations and conjurations of evil spirits; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXVII. Item, that during the said forty years approximately, Gilles de Rais, the accused, as much in the castles at Champtocé, m the Angevin diocese, and Machecoul and Tiffauges, as in the house of the said Lemoine, at Vannes, in the upper chamber of the same house where he was staylng at that time, and in the said house called La Suze, situated in the Notre-Dame parish of Nantes; that is, in a certam upper chamber where from time to time and often he would retire and pass the night, killed treacherously, cruelly, and inhumanly one hundred and forty, or more, children, boys and girls, or had them killed by the said Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet, Etienne, André and aforementioned others, respectively and successively; showing himself horribly and inhumanly guilty, since, according to what Hermogene says: "Each time a man usurps the office of the Creator by abolishing His creatures, the celestial Virtues will not cease crying before the divine Judge, until vengeance be exacted on the murderer who shall burn in eternal flames" — more especially as the said Gilles de Rais immolated the members of the said Innocents as sacrifices to evil spirits; with which innocents, before and after their death and also during, he committed the abominable sin of sodomy, which defiles heaven, and which he abused contrary to nature in order to satisfy his carnal, illicit, and damnable concupiscence; and then burned and had the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet Griart, and Etienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, burn in these same places respectively the bodies of these boy and girl innocents, and had them throw the ashes into the pits as well as into the moats of the said castles and into the sinks of the house of La Suze, so named of old after Lord Jean de Craon, his grandfather, the said Gilles de Rais' mother's father, who was during his lifetime Lord of the domain of La Suze and of the house where he lived and died. Into the hiding places of this same house of La Suze were thrown fifteen out of about one hundred and forty of the said innocents killed by order of the said Gilles, the accused, as much by himself as by the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet, and Etienne, successively and respectively, in the same way as was done in other secret, out-of-the-way places in the aforesaid cities and castles; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXVIII. Item, during the period of these said forty years or thereabouts, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, and, in his name and by his order, the said Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, Henriet, Etienne, and André Buchet, requested procurers, procuresses and old female go-betweens whom they charged — under the pretext of certain services that the said children might render the said Gilles, who himself would prove of service to these same children, their parents, and their friends — with procuring children, as many boys as girls, to nab them and bring them to him, so that Gilles de Rais, the accused, could perform the sin of sodomy on them, cut their throats and kill them, or have their throats cut and have them killed; which procurers and female go-betweens damnably procured the said innocents for Gilles de Rais and for his aforesaid accomplices; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXIX. Item, that less than a year ago, by order of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, then staying in the said place of Bourgneuf, in the house of the Mineurs, the aforesaid Henriet and Etienne procured for and delivered to him a boy fifteen years old or thereabouts, so that the accused could commit on him the oft-mentioned sin of sodomy; the said Henriet and Etienne took this adolescent, originally from Lower Brittany, who was living in the house of a man named Rodigo, an inhabitant of Bourgneuf, and brought him to the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, in a room of the said convent, where the same Gilles de Rais, the accused, was lodged and regularly stayed, and he exercised the oft-mentioned detestable vice of sodomy on him, in the same way as on the aforesaid others, in damnable fashion, and then he killed him on the spot and had his body carried to the castle at Machecoul to be burned; this was done by the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, and by the said Henriet and Etienne; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, notorious and public.
XXX. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, ate delicacies and drank fine wines, hippocras, claret, and other sorts of alcoholic drinks for the purpose of working himself up to the said sin of sodomy and practicing it unnaturally on the said boys and girls with greater abundance, ease, and pleasure, often and often again, in an excessive and unusual manner; and that he abused his eating and drinking habits daily; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXI. Item, that in his room In the castle at Tiffauges, the said Gilles, the accused, placed the hand, eyes, heart, and blood of one of the said children in a glass to offer it in homage and as tribute to the aforesaid demon Barron, and that he had this oblation offered in his name by the said Francois Prelati; the same Francois being designated for this and knowing how to conjure evil spirits, as above-noted; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXII. Item, that for about five years, more or less, the said Gilles de Rais had celebrated, on many solemn feasts and in particular on last All Saints' Day, a certain very conspicuous solemnity to honor the evil spirits, and in keeping with the pact concluded between him and the said evil spirits, as has been reported above; during which feasts, by virtue of the abovesaid pact, in the name of these same evil spirits and for their exaltation, he offered and caused to be offered alms to the poor; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
X)OCIII. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, set his purposes, his hopes, and his belief in the invocation of evil spirits, divination, the murder of the said Innocent children, the sin of sodomy, and unnatural lust; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXIV. Item, that more or less during the aforesaid forty years the said Gilles, the accused, conversed with diviners and heretics; that he repeatedly solicited their assistance for what he intended to perpetrate; that he communicated and collaborated with them, that he accepted their dogmas and studied and read their books touching on the interdicted arts; that he brought all his attention, hope, and mind to and fixed on these detestable dogmas to discover the ways and means proper to summoning evil spirits; and that he made a dogma of the conclusions and errors of diviners and conjurors; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXV. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, more or less during these forty years frequented the Invokers and conjurors of evil spirits, diviners and sorcerers, and that he received, favored, and protected them; that he believed them; that he learned, practiced, and held as dogma the magic arts of geomancy and necromancy forbidden by divine, canonical, and civil law; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXVI. Item, that five years ago, more or less, when the aforesaid Lord Duke of Brittany attacked the castle of Champtocé, and before the siege of the said castle, which the aforesaid Gilles de Rais, the accused, then possessed, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused — for fear that the Lord Duke, his men, his officers, and other persons might discover them — had the said Gilles de Sillé, Henriet, and Etienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, remove and place in coffers, to be transported by them to the castle at Machecoul in order to be burned, forty-five heads, with the bones of innocents inhumanly killed by the said Gilles, the accused, on which children he had detestably committed the sin of sodomy and other crimes agamst nature; and at the said castle of Machecoul these heads and bones were burned by the aforesaid Henri Griart, Gilles de Sillé and Etienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, by order of the said Gilles, the accused; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XXXVII. Item, that Gilles de Rais, the accused, Henriet Griart, Etienne Corrillaut, Gilles de Sillé, Jean Rossignol, Spadine, Roger de Briqueville, André Buchet, and aforesaid others, as for each and every one of the crimes, offenses, and villaimes, lent mutual assistance, counsel, and support, and were consenting agents and accomplices, each one among them respectively; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, public, notorious, and manifest.
XXXVIII. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, two years ago, more or less, examining in himself the great number of villainies, to wit, perfidious apostasy of the faith, offenses, and accursed crimes and sins designated above and others that he had detestably perpetrated which his conscience was oppressing him with, swore, vowed, and promised by God and by His saints that never again from there on out would he perpetrate or commit similar horrors and abominations, that he would abstain immediately and absolutely, and that for this purpose he would go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he would visit the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XIL. Item, that notwithstanding these aforesaid oaths, vows, and promises, the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, since then, as a dog returns to its vomit, inhumanly killed children and caused them to be killed, and cut their throats and caused their throats to be cut, both boys and girls, in the aforesaid places; and that he committed the said sin of sodomy, in which he wallowed, and that he continued, as abovesaid, in his accursed, unnatural lust; but it is because of the said unnatural sin of lust, according to the disposition of justice, that tremors, famines and pestilences occur here on earth; and that he invoked and conjured evil spirits and caused others to do so, and that for these reasons the said Gilles, the accused, relapsed into and persisted in the aforesaid crimes; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, public, notorious, and manifest.
XL. Item, that regarding each and every one of these crimes, there were and are public rumblings and clamor.
XLI. Item, that for the aforesaid reasons the abovenamed Gilles de Rais, the accused, should be taxed with infamy; that he has committed the sin of sodomy, and that he has lapsed and relapsed into heresy, idolatry, and apostasy of the faith; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLII. Item, that two years ago the said Gilles de Rais, acting in a sacrilegious manner notwithstanding a fear of God, with several of his fellow accomplices furiously and recklessly dared to enter the said parochial church of Saint-Etiennede-Mermorte, in the diocese of Nantes, with offensive arms; and that in a foolish display of violence he laid and caused others to lay hands on a certain Jean Le Ferron, cleric, originally of Nantes; and he had Le Ferron violently and forcibly chased and expelled from the said church by a certain Lenano, Marquis de Ceva, ll a Lombard, and by his other associates; then he had him imprisoned for days and months as much in the said castle at Saint-Etienne-de-Mermorte as m the aforesaid castle at Tiffauges, where he was detained, irons on his feet and hands; and that the said Gilles, the accused, violating the immunity of the Church, inasmuch as he violated it himself and also caused others to violate it, has incurred the sentence of excommunication, in accordance as much with the law as with the authority of the Council of Tours and the synodal statutes of the Church of Nantes; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, public, notorious, and manifest.
XLIII. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, in many and various places and before many honorable persons said, divulged, and publicized the aforesaid crimes done and perpetrated by himself; and that he considered them as so much dogma; and that he had practiced and practiced often the said magic arts, the said invocations and divinations, and other superstitions, with the purpose of increasing his honor, knowledge, and power; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, notorious and public.
XLIV. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, committed and perpetrated the sin of sodomy unnaturally, and the other aforesaid crimes, sins, and villainies, in each of the aforesaid places and their vicinities, as abovesaid; and thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLV. Item, that the common oplnlon of men, the belief and assertion of the people, the true report, the common memory, the public voice and rumor, as much in the aforesaid parishes of Saint-Trinité, Machecoul, Saint-Etienne-de-Mermorte, Saint-Cyr-en-Rais, in the Nantes diocese, as in the greatest portion of the Breton duchy and in other adjoining regions, in which the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, was and is known, is that he was and is a heretic, a relapsed heretic, a magician, a sodomite, a conjuror of evil spirits, a seer, a cutter of the throats of Innocents, an apostate, an idolater, having deviated from the faith and being hostile to it, a diviner, and a sorcerer. Thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, commonly said, held, believed, presumed, seen, heard, reputed, public, notorious, and manifest.
XLVI. Item, that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, had and has the habit of committing and perpetrating the said crimes and offenses for which he is publicly and notoriously defamed by honest and serious people and of which he is vehemently accused in each and every one of the aforesaid places; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLVII. Item, that the aforesaid things in general and in particular are clearly detrimental to our Catholic faith and our Holy Mother Church as well as to the public as a whole, inasmuch as they are a pernicious example unto many, and as they contribute to the peril of the said Gilles' soul; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering.
XLVIII. Item, that each of these things and all of them were and are notorious and manifest in the said places to the extent that they could not be hidden by subterfuge or denied by retraction; on the subject of which there are public rumblings and rumors. And all these aforesaid things the said Gilles, the accused, acknowledges, and acknowledges as true.
XLIX. Item, that considering the aforesaid crimes, excesses, and misdemeanors committed and wickedly perpetrated, the said Gilles de Rais incurred the aforesaid authorities' sentence of excommunication and other punishments expected to be promulgated against like presumptuous people as are diviners, sorcerers, conjurors and summoners of evil spirits, abettors, adepts, believers in and partisans of evil spirits, magicians, and all those who have recourse to the illicit and forbidden arts; that, moreover, he lapsed and relapsed into and continues in heresy, that he offended Divine majesty, that he committed the crime of Divine high treason, against the Ten Commandments, against the rites and observances of our Holy Mother Church, that he damnably sowed the most flagrant of errors, which are noxious to Christian believers, and that on the other hand, he gravely and shamefully violated the jurisdiction of said Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes; thus it transpired, and this is a true rendering, notorious, and public.
Conclusion. This is why the said prosecutor requests that you, Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and you, Friar Jean Blouyn, aforesaid Vice-lnquisitor Into Heresy — or whomever of you it so pleases — by your definitive sentence, decree and declare that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, is a heretic and perfidious apostate; declare that he committed and maliciously perpetrated the dreadful invocation of demons; that he has Incurred by this the sentence of excommunication and other lawful punishments; and as a heretic, an apostate, and a conjuror of demons, that he ought to be punished and corrected as the law demands and canonical sanctions stipulate. Moreover, that you, Reverend Father, Lord Bishop of Nantes, and by your definitive sentence, decree and declare that the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, committed the crime and practiced the unnatural vice of sodomy on the aforesaid boys and children; that he maliciously perpetrated sacrilege, namely the violation of ecclesiastical immunity, and has incurred for this the sentence of excommunication and other lawful punishments; and that he ought to be punished and salubriously corrected, as the law and canonical sanctions demand; the said prosecutor humbly implores your gracious office to duly see to the swift fulfillment of justice in all of the aforesaid and every one of them.
And the said prosecutor gives, speaks, and establishes the proof of each and every one of the aforesaid things by the best means possible and proper, and he requests your permission to establish that proof, which he offers to do, with the exception of all superfluous proofs, as noted, which he expressly affirms; and with the exception of the right to correct, add, change, diminish, interpret, ameliorate, reiterate, and prove, if necessary, at a reasonable time and place.
[Signed:] y. Delaunay, J. Petit, G. Lesné.