Note 31 — Part I THE TRIAL
Reading edition
This Examination at Poitiers had taken place in the Chapel attached to the Palace of the Counts of Poitou, which still exists and adjoins the ‘Salle des Pas Perdus,’ now the Great Hall of the Palais de Justice. It was conducted under the direction of the Archbishop of Rheims during the months of March and April, 1429, and extended over three weeks. At the conclusion, the assembly sent, as the result of their inquiries, a resolution to the King to the effect that he should follow the Maid’s guidance, and seek for the sign she promised him in the relief of Orleans, as a proof of the Divine origin of her mission, “for,” they added, “to doubt or forsake her without any appearance of evil would be to vex the Holy Spirit, and to make himself unworthy of the help of God: so saith Gamaliel in the Council of the Jews with regard to the Apostles.”
Unfortunately, no trace of this Examination has been found: the ‘Book of Poitiers’ is referred to several times in the Trial; but it was not forthcoming at the time of the Rehabilitation. It was probably lost or destroyed by Jeanne’s enemies among her own party. The Archbishop of Rheims would have had it in his charge: and he was consistently opposed to Jeanne throughout.
During her stay at Poitiers the Maid lodged in the house of Jean Rabatier.