Item, he stated and deposed that during Pentecost in 1439,109 he, the witness, together with the said Henriet, took from Bourgneuf, in the parish of Saint-Cyr, in the diocese of Nantes, a very beautiful adolescent, approximately fifteen years old, who was staying with a man named Rodigo; and they led him to the said Gilles who was then lodging with the Cordeliers of the same place, where the said Gilles committed and exercised his lusts on the said child, in the aforesaid execrable manner, and the said witness and Henriet, by order of the said Gilles, killed the said child and brought him to the castle at Machecoul where they burned him in the room of the said Gilles, the accused.
Item, he stated and deposed that two and a half years before, as it seems to him,110 a certain inhabitant of Nantes and native thereof, named Pierre Jacquet, commonly called Prince, who had a young, extremely suitable page of approximately fourteen living with him, gave this young boy to the said Gilles, the accused, to be his valet and his servant in place of him, the witness, who was then proposing to retire from service and had many times asked permission of the said Gilles de Rais; who, after having made use of the said adolescent in his lascivious debaucheries, as he had done with the others, killed him by his own hand.
Item, he deposed and stated that a certain André Buchet, who was first in the chapel of the said Gilles de Rais and then in that of the Lord Duke, had led a child of approximately nine from the vicinity of Vannes all the way to Machecoul to the said Gilles, who received him, through one of his servants, named Raoulet; and the said child was dressed as a page, and to pay him back, the said Gilles gave the said Buchet a horse that Pierre Heaume had given him, which was valued at sixty gold royals; and the said Gilles practiced his lascivious debaucheries on the said child, who was then killed like the aforesaid others.
Item, the witness, present and hearing, stated and deposed that the said Gilles de Rais sometimes boasted of taking greater pleasure in killing and cutting the throats of the said boys and girls or having them killed, in seeing them languish and die, and in cutting off their heads and members and in seeing their blood, than in practicing his lust on them.
Item, he stated and deposed that when the said Gilles de Rais found or saw two boys or girls, brothers or sisters, or otherwise related, if one of them were not to his liking, and if he only wanted to practice his lust and become debauched on one but not the other, in order not to alert the displeasing one the other’s having been taken, the said Gilles, the accused, took both of them, or had both taken, and practiced on him who was to his liking his carnal abominations in the manner expressed above, then cut both their throats or had them cut, one and the other.
Item, he said and deposed that the said Gilles, the accused, once performed the said carnal act on him, the witness, in the manner described above, as soon as he, the witness, came to stay with the said Gilles, and he said that he was afraid of being killed by him; and he thinks that he would have been, with a dagger, if the said Sillé had not prevented the said Gilles from doing so, saying that he was a pretty lad and that it was better that the said Gilles make him his page; and the said accused became enamored of him, the witness, and demanded that he take an oath not to reveal any of this or of his other secrets in any fashion.
Item, he stated and deposed that he heard it said by Master Eustache Blanchet, priest, who frequently saw the said Gilles de Rais, that he could not accomplish what he was intending to do and had undertaken, without giving or offering the devil a child’s foot, hand, or other member.
Interrogated as to whether he saw or knew that some of the said members were given or offered to demons by the said Gilles, he responded no. But when in the company of others, he had once seen the said Gilles, after having taken the hand (he does not know whether it was the right or left) and heart of a child killed by his order in the castle at Tiffauges, put the said hand and heart in a glass chalice on a cyma111 of the fireplace in his room, and cover them with a linen cloth, telling the witness and the said Henriet to close and lock the said room.
Interrogated as to what was done with the said members, he responded that he did not know, but he believed that the said Gilles, the accused, subsequently gave them to the said Master François Prelati to be offered to the Devil.
Item, he stated and deposed that the said Gilles de Sillé reported to him, the witness, and the said Henriet, that a fortnight or three weeks before Lords de La Suze and Lohéac arrived at the castle at Machecoul, the said Sillé, according to what he told him, the witness, and the said Henriet had removed and taken away from a tower near the lower hall of the said castle the bones of approximately forty children, and had them burned; and on that subject the same Sillé said that it happened in the nick of time for the said Gilles, the accused, Sillé himself, and all others who loved, and were loved by, the same Gilles, the accused. Thereupon, talking about these things to the witness and the said Henriet, the aforenamed Sillé told them, in French: “Wasn’t Milord Roger de Briqueville a traitor to have asked Robin Romulart and me to watch Lady Jarville and Thomin d’Araguin through a slit when we removed the said bones? and his knowing full well everything that had been done?”112
Interrogated as to who killed the said children, and when, and who put them or their bones in the said tower, he responded that to the best of his belief, the said children were killed by the said Gilles de Rais, Gilles de Sillé, and Roger de Briqueville, before he, the witness, was living with the said Gilles; and he knew nothing else.
Item, he stated and deposed that when the said Gilles, the accused, was unable to find more children at his convenience, boys and girls on whom to practice his execrable debaucheries, he practiced them on the children in his chapel, in the manner set forth above; and principally, according to what he had heard, on the younger of two sons of Master Briand, resident of Nantes.
Interrogated as to whether Gilles de Rais killed any of the said children in his chapel after practicing his debaucheries on them, or had them killed, the witness responded no, because he esteemed them highly and because they themselves kept these acts secret.
Item, he stated and deposed that Milord Eustache Blanchet, a priest aforenamed, by order and at the request of the said Gilles de Rais, went to Italy to bring back Master François Prelati and convey him to the said Gilles, the accused, at Tiffauges, to practice the art of alchemy and invoke demons. And he said that he heard Lord Eustache, speaking with the said Master François, say the following words in French: “He’ll summon Master Aliboron,”113 designating the devil by that name; and that the said Master François would summon the devil and cause him to appear for a jug of wine.
Item, he stated and deposed that the said Master François Prelati, in the presence of the said Gilles de Rais, Milord Eustache Blanchet, Henriet and himself, the witness, made and composed with the tip of a sword, in the large hall of the castle at Tiffauges, a certain large circle; and he drew crosses, signs, or characters, in the manner of armories, in the four parts of the said circle; and into the place where the said circle was made he, the witness, the said Milord Eustache, and Henriet carried a large quantity of coal, incense, a lodestone, in French pierre d’aimant,114 an earthen pot, torches or candles, candlesticks, fire and other things that he does not remember, which the said Gilles, the accused, and François arranged in certain parts of the said circle; and a large fire was lit in the said pot which had a lot of coal. Then the said François made other signs or characters, always in the manner of armories, near or on the wall of the said hall, at an angle to the door; and he lit another fire near the last said signs. And immediately afterwards, the said François had the four windows of the said hall opened in the form or manner of a cross; and this done, the said Gilles de Rais ordered him, the witness, Milord Eustache, and Henriet to leave the hall and go into the room of the said Gilles, and wait for him there and guard it, forbidding them to approach in order to see or hear what the said Gilles de Rais and Master François were doing in the said hall, or to reveal to anyone what had happened. And
the said witness, Milord Eustache and Henriet, by order of the said Gilles, went into the said room, the said Gilles, the accused, and Master François remaining alone in the said hall. As to what they did then, he stated that he did not know, but that later he heard the said Milord Eustache and Henriet say that they had heard Master François speaking in a loud voice, but could not understand what he was saying; then they also heard a noise as if a four-legged animal were walking on the roof of the house, intending to enter by a dormer window in the said castle near where the said Gilles, the accused, and François were, so they said; as he affirmed, he, the witness, heard none of this because, tired, he had fallen asleep upon entering the said room.
Interrogated as to the date and hour, he responded that it was in summer at night; he did not remember any more, except that it began around midnight and it was about an hour later when the said Gilles and François returned to the room of the said Gilles.
Item, he stated and deposed that on the following evening, at a relatively late hour, by order of the said Gilles and constrained by him, not daring to gainsay or refuse the performance of his order, and because the said Master François had promised and assured him that he would be running no risk, danger, or injury, he, the witness, left the said castle of Tiffauges with the said Master François, and together they went into a small field approximately a quarter of a league outside Tiffauges, in the direction of Montaigu, in the diocese of Luçon; actually, the said witness was afraid to go with the said Master François, knowing that he would probably summon the demon, and as much as he could he refused to go, and would not have gone if the said Gilles, the accused, had not ordered him to go and the said François had not reassured him, as above. And the said François and he, the witness, carried fire, coal, incense, a candle, a lodestone, and the book containing the invocations of demons that the said François brought along. And, having arrived at the said place, with the help of a knife the said Master François made a circle with crosses and characters, as he had done in the said hall. And, having lit the candle and coal, the said François forbade him, the witness, to cross himself and enjoined him to enter the said circle with him. And, both of them within the circle, the said Master François performed his invocations; and he, the witness, did not know which invocations, or what he said while doing so, because he did not understand a word, as he attested, except the name of “Barron,” although Master François spoke in a loud voice; and he said and affirmed that, despite the said François’ interdiction, he secretly crossed himself, which the said François did not see.
Interrogated as to whether something appeared at the said invocation and whether the said François had or received a response, he responded no, at least in terms of what he’d seen and heard.
Item, he stated and deposed that, this accomplished, he and the said François returned to Tiffauges, but they could not enter the castle before morning because it was shut; and they received hospitality in the village at someone’s house where the said Eustache was waiting for them, who had his and their fires made and beds prepared. Moreover, he said that when the said François and he, the witness, were inside the circle, it rained heavily and a strong wind blew and a darkness fell that was so thick that they had difficulty returning.
Item, the said witness stated and deposed that last July the said Gilles, the accused, went to Vannes for an audience with the Lord Duke, and lodged with a man named Lemoine, outside the walls of the city of Vannes, opposite and near the episcopal palace, in a place commonly called La Mote; which André Buchet, abovementioned, handed over to Gilles de Rais a child of approximately ten, on whom the said Gilles committed and perpetrated his abominable sins of lust in the manner abovestated; which child was led to the house of a man named Boetden, where the squires of the said Gilles, the accused, were lodging, a house situated close to the marketplace of Vannes, and relatively near the house of the said Lemoine. The child was led there because there was no place secret enough at Lemoine’s wherein to kill him; which child was killed in a room in the house of the said Boetden, his head having been cut off and separated from his body, then burned in the said room; as for the body, tied with the child’s own belt, it was thrown into the latrines of the house of the said Boetden, where he, the witness, descended, with much pain and difficulty, in order to sink the body into the depths of the said latrines; and the witness added that the said Buchet knew all about this.
Item, he stated and deposed that the said Gilles, the accused, after cutting into a vein in the necks or throats of the said children, or into other parts of their body, and while they bled, and also after their decapitation, practiced as abovecited, would occasionally sit on their bellies and delight in watching them die thus, sitting at an angle the better to watch their end and death.
Item, he stated and deposed that occasionally and fairly often after the decapitation and death of the said children, effected thus and otherwise, as related above, the said Gilles delighted in looking at them and having them looked at by him, the witness, and others who were privy to his secrets; and he displayed to them the heads and members of the said slaughtered children, asking them which of these children had the most beautiful member, the most beautiful face, the most beautiful head; often he found joy in kissing one or another of these slaughtered children whose members were being examined, or one of those that had already been examined by someone and seemed to him to have the most beautiful face.
And such was the deposition of the witness. And he was enjoined to reveal nothing of it to anyone whomsoever, etc.
4. Henriet Griart. October 17, 1440.
HENRIET GRIART, originally from the parish of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, in Paris, as he attests, aged about twenty-six, another witness produced in the case, admitted to swear to tell the truth, and excused under bail, on the aforesaid day, in the year of the aforesaid pontificate and general council, examined and submitted to investigation, interrogated on all points contained in the aforesaid articles, and on each of them, deposed in the nature of what follows.
And, first of all, that he has been a valet and servant of the said Gilles, the accused, for five or six years, and that three years after René de Rais, Lord de La Suze, the full brother of the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, took possession of the castle of Champtocé, the same René, Lord de La Suze, went to Machecoul and took possession of the castle of the said place; and it was there that the witness heard Charles du Léon, who was in the company of the said Lord de La Suze, say that the bodies and bones of two children had been found in the lower part of a tower of the said place of Machecoul; and the said Milord Charles asked the witness whether he knew anything; to which he, the witness, responded no, and he warranted that at this time, in fact, he knew nothing. But he said that after the said Gilles de Rais, the accused, recovered the said castle of Champtocé and arrived there to give and deliver it to the Lord Duke of Brittany, the said Gilles demanded an oath from him, the witness, not to reveal those secrets which he intended to reveal to him; and he commanded him, the witness, Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, Gilles de Sillé, Hicquet de Brémont, and Robin Romulart, servants of the said Gilles, to go into the tower of the said castle of Champtocé, where the bodies and bones of a large number of innocents were, put them in a coffer and, as secretly as possible, transport them to Machecoul. And he, the witness, and the others went into the said tower, and there they found the bones of thirty-six to forty-six children, which number he no longer precisely remembers. Which bones were desiccated; but they counted them by their heads, and in another way, so that they were certain of the number of children thrown there; which bones were put in a coffer tightly bound with cords and transported to Machecoul where they were burned in the room of the said Gilles de Rais, in his presence and in that of Gilles de Sillé, Étienne Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, Jean Rossignol, André Buchet, and him, the witness; and the dust or ashes of the said children were thrown into the pits or moats115 of the castle of the said place of Machecoul. He s
aid that they were not burned at Champtocé because the said Gilles, after having regained that castle from the said Lord de La Suze, held on to it for only two days, whereupon he handed its possession over, or had others hand it over, in his name and by his order, to the aforenamed Lord Duke, to whom he had already transferred the lordship of the said place.
Interrogated as to the reason the said bones were desiccated, he responded: because the said children were killed and thrown into the said tower before the taking of the said castle of Champtocé by the said Lord de La Suze, who held and kept it for nearly three years.116
Interrogated as to who killed them, and how and why they were killed, he responded that he did not know because when they were killed, he was not living with the said Gilles, the accused; but, at the same time, he says, the aforesaid Milord Roger de Briqueville, knight, and Gilles de Sillé were living with him, and the witness believed that they were well informed about it.
Moreover, he stated and deposed that he, the witness, the said Sillé, and Étienne Corriallaut, also known as Poitou, brought, gave, and handed over many boys and girls from Nantes, Machecoul, and especially Tiffauges, to the said Gilles de Rais in his room; according to him, as many as forty, on which the said Gilles, the accused, practiced his lascivious, unnatural passions: first by taking his virile rod in hand, stretching it, rubbing it, then agitating it, then by introducing it between the thighs of the said children so that, rubbing his said penis on the bellies of the said children, he took great delight, and got so excited that the sperm, criminally and in a way it ought not, spurted onto the bellies of the said children.
Item, he stated and deposed that the said Gilles, the accused, practiced his lust on each of the said children once or twice and, that done, sometimes killed the said children by his own hand, sometimes had them killed by the said Sillé, Corrillaut, also known as Poitou, or him, the witness, sometimes together, and sometimes separately.