Note 390 — Chapter V · POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE STATE. (continued 3)

Procès, pp. 508-9.—Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris, an 1431.—Le Brun de Charmettes, IV. 110-41.

There are two forms of abjuration recorded as subscribed by Joan; one brief and simple, the other elaborate (Procès, p. 508; Le Brun de Charmettes, IV. 135-7). Cauchon has been accused of duplicity in reading to her the shorter one and substituting the other for her signature. She subsequently complained that she had never promised to abandon her male attire—a promise which was contained in the longer but not in the shorter one. Much has been made of this, but without reason. The short abjuration is an unconditional admission of her errors, a revocation and submission to the Church, and was as binding and effective as the other.