Urbain Grandier

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CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

IN EIGHT VOLUMES



URBAIN GRANDIER--1634




CHAPTER I

On Sunday, the 26th of November, 1631, there was great excitement in the
little town of Loudun, especially in the narrow streets which led to the
church of Saint-Pierre in the marketplace, from the gate of which the
town was entered by anyone coming from the direction of the abbey of
Saint-Jouin-les-Marmes. This excitement was caused by the expected
arrival of a personage who had been much in people's mouths latterly in
Loudun, and about whom there was such difference of opinion that
discussion on the subject between those who were on his side and those
who were against him was carried on with true provincial acrimony. It
was easy to see, by the varied expressions on the faces of those who
turned the doorsteps into improvised debating clubs, how varied were the
feelings with which the man would be welcomed who had himself formally
announced to friends and enemies alike the exact date of his return.

About nine o'clock a kind of sympathetic vibration ran through the crowd,
and with the rapidity of a flash of lightning the words, "There he is!
there he is!" passed from group to group. At this cry some withdrew into
their houses and shut their doors and darkened their windows, as if it
were a day of public mourning, while others opened them wide, as if to
let joy enter. In a few moments the uproar and confusion evoked by the
news was succeeded by the deep silence of breathless curiosity.

Then, through the silence, a figure advanced, carrying a branch of laurel
in one hand as a token of triumph. It was that of a young man of from
thirty-two to thirty-four years of age, with a graceful and well-knit
frame, an aristocratic air and faultlessly beautiful features of a
somewhat haughty expression. Although he had walked three leagues to
reach the town, the ecclesiastical garb which he wore was not only
elegant but of dainty freshness. His eyes turned to heaven, and singing
in a sweet voice praise to the Lord, he passed through the streets
leading to the church in the market-place with a slow and solemn gait,
without vouchsafing a look, a word, or a gesture to anyone. The entire
crowd, falling into step, marched behind him as he advanced, singing like
him, the singers being the prettiest girls in Loudun, for we have
forgotten to say that the crowd consisted almost entirely of women.

Meanwhile the object of all this commotion arrived at length at the porch
of the church of Saint-Pierre. Ascending the steps, he knelt at the top
and prayed in a low voice, then rising he touched the church doors with
his laurel branch, and they opened wide as if by magic, revealing the
choir decorated and illuminated as if for one of the four great feasts of
the year, and with all its scholars, choir boys, singers, beadles, and
vergers in their places. Glancing around, he for whom they were waiting
came up the nave, passed through the choir, knelt for a second time at
the foot of the altar, upon which he laid the branch of laurel, then
putting on a robe as white as snow and passing the stole around his neck,
he began the celebration of the mass before a congregation composed of
all those who had followed him. At the end of the mass a Te Deum was
sung.

He who had just rendered thanks to God for his own victory with all the
solemn ceremonial usually reserved for the triumphs of kings was the
priest Urbain Grandier. Two days before, he had been acquitted, in
virtue of a decision pronounced by M. d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, Archbishop
of Bordeaux, of an accusation brought against him of which he had been
declared guilty by a magistrate, and in punishment of which he had been
condemned to fast on bread and water every Friday for three months, and
forbidden to exercise his priestly functions in the diocese of Poitiers
for five years and in the town of Loudun for ever.

These are the circumstances under which the sentence had been passed and
the judgment reversed.

Urbain Grandier was born at Rovere, a village near Sable, a little town
of Bas-Maine. Having studied the sciences with his father Pierre and his
uncle Claude Grandier, who were learned astrologers and alchemists, he
entered, at the age of twelve, the Jesuit college at Bordeaux, having
already received the ordinary education of a young man. The professors
soon found that besides his considerable attainments he had great natural
gifts for languages and oratory; they therefore made of him a thorough
classical scholar, and in order to develop his oratorical talent
encouraged him to practise preaching. They soon grew very fond of a
pupil who was likely to bring them so much credit, and as soon as he was
old enough to take holy orders they gave him the cure of souls in the
parish of Saint-Pierre in Loudun, which was in the gift of the college.
When he had been some months installed there as a priest-in-charge, he
received a prebendal stall, thanks to the same patrons, in the collegiate
church of Sainte-Croix.

It is easy to understand that the bestowal of these two positions on so
young a man, who did not even belong to the province, made him seem in
some sort a usurper of rights and privileges belonging to the people of
the country, and drew upon him the envy of his brother-ecclesiastics.
There were, in fact, many other reasons why Urbain should be an object of
jealousy to these: first, as we have already said, he was very handsome,
then the instruction which he had received from his father had opened the
world of science to him and given him the key to a thousand things which
were mysteries to the ignorant, but which he fathomed with the greatest
ease. Furthermore, the comprehensive course of study which he had
followed at the Jesuit college had raised him above a crowd of
prejudices, which are sacred to the vulgar, but for which he made no
secret of his contempt; and lastly, the eloquence of his sermons had
drawn to his church the greater part of the regular congregations of the
other religious communities, especially of the mendicant orders, who had
till then, in what concerned preaching, borne away the palm at Loudun.
As we have said, all this was more than enough to excite, first jealousy,
and then hatred. And both were excited in no ordinary degree.

We all know how easily the ill-natured gossip of a small town can rouse
the angry contempt of the masses for everything which is beyond or above
them. In a wider sphere Urbain would have shone by his many gifts, but,
cooped up as he was within the walls of a little town and deprived of air
and space, all that might have conduced to his success in Paris led to
his destruction at Loudun.

It was also unfortunate for Urbain that his character, far from winning
pardon for his genius, augmented the hatred which the latter inspired.
Urbain, who in his intercourse with his friends was cordial and
agreeable, was sarcastic, cold, and haughty to his enemies. When he had
once resolved on a course, he pursued it unflinchingly; he jealously
exacted all the honour due to the rank at which he had arrived, defending
it as though it were a conquest; he also insisted on enforcing all his
legal rights, and he resented the opposition and angry words of casual
opponents with a harshness which made them his lifelong enemies.

The first example which Urbain gave of this inflexibility was in 1620,
when he gained a lawsuit against a priest named Meunier. He caused the
sentence to be carried out with such rigour that he awoke an
inextinguishable hatred in Meunier's mind, which ever after burst forth
on the slightest provocation.

A second lawsuit, which he likewise gained; was one which he undertook
against the chapter of Sainte-Croix with regard to a house, his claim to
which the chapter, disputed. Here again he displayed the same
determination to exact his strict legal rights to the last iota, and
unfortunately Mignon, the attorney of the unsuccessful chapter, was a
revengeful, vindictive, and ambitious man; too commonplace ever to arrive
at a high position, and yet too much above his surroundings to be content
with the secondary position which he occupied. This man, who was a canon
of the collegiate church of Sainte-Croix and director of the Ursuline
convent, will have an important part to play in the following narrative.
Being as hypocritical as Urbain was straightforward, his ambition was to
gain wherever his name was known a reputation for exalted piety; he
therefore affected in his life the asceticism of an anchorite and the
self-denial of a saint. As he had much experience in ecclesiastical
lawsuits, he looked on the chapter's loss of this one, of which he had in
some sort guaranteed the success, as a personal humiliation, so that when
Urbain gave himself airs of triumph and exacted the last letter of his
bond, as in the case of Meunier, he turned Mignon into an enemy who was
not only more relentless but more dangerous than the former.

In the meantime, and in consequence of this lawsuit, a certain Barot, an
uncle of Mignon and his partner as well, got up a dispute with Urbain,
but as he was a man below mediocrity, Urbain required in order to crush
him only to let fall from the height of his superiority a few of those
disdainful words which brand as deeply as a red-hot iron. This man,
though totally wanting in parts, was very rich, and having no children
was always surrounded by a horde of relatives, every one of whom was
absorbed in the attempt to make himself so agreeable that his name would
appear in Barot's will. This being so, the mocking words which were
rained down on Barot spattered not only himself but also all those who
had sided with him in the quarrel, and thus added considerably to the
tale of Urbain's enemies.

About this epoch a still graver event took place. Amongst the most
assiduous frequenters of the confessional in his church was a young and
pretty girl, Julie by name, the daughter of the king's attorney,
Trinquant--Trinquant being, as well as Barot, an uncle of Mignon. Now it
happened that this young girl fell into such a state of debility that she
was obliged to keep her room. One of her friends, named Marthe
Pelletier, giving up society, of which she was very fond, undertook to
nurse the patient, and carried her devotion so far as to shut herself up
in the same room with her. When Julie Trinquant had recovered and was
able again to take her place in the world, it came out that Marthe
Pelletier, during her weeks of retirement, had given birth to a child,
which had been baptized and then put out to nurse. Now, by one of those
odd whims which so often take possession of the public mind, everyone in
Loudun persisted in asserting that the real mother of the infant was not
she who had acknowledged herself as such--that, in short, Marthe
Pelletier had sold her good name to her friend Julie for a sum of money;
and of course it followed as a matter about which there could be no
possible doubt, that Urbain was the father.

Trinquant hearing of the reports about his daughter, took upon himself as
king's attorney to have Marthe Pelletier arrested and imprisoned. Being
questioned about the child, she insisted that she was its mother, and
would take its maintenance upon herself. To have brought a child into
the world under such circumstances was a sin, but not a crime; Trinquant
was therefore obliged to set Marthe at liberty, and the abuse of justice
of which he was guilty served only to spread the scandal farther and to
strengthen the public in the belief it had taken up.

Hitherto, whether through the intervention of the heavenly powers, or by
means of his own cleverness, Urbain Grandier had come out victor in every
struggle in which he had engaged, but each victor had added to the number
of his enemies, and these were now so numerous that any other than he
would have been alarmed, and have tried either to conciliate them or to
take precautions against their malice; but Urbain, wrapped in his pride,
and perhaps conscious of his innocence, paid no attention to the counsels
of his most faithful followers, but went on his way unheeding.

All the opponents whom till now Urbain had encountered had been entirely
unconnected with each other, and had each struggled for his own
individual ends. Urbain's enemies, believing that the cause of his
success was to be found in the want of cooperation among themselves, now
determined to unite in order to crush him. In consequence, a conference
was held at Barot's, at which, besides Barot himself, Meunier, Trinquant,
and Mignon took part, and the latter had also brought with him one
Menuau, a king's counsel and his own most intimate friend, who was,
however, influenced by other motives than friendship in joining the
conspiracy. The fact was, that Menuau was in love with a woman who had
steadfastly refused to show him any favour, and he had got firmly fixed
in his head that the reason for her else inexplicable indifference and
disdain was that Urbain had been beforehand with him in finding an
entrance to her heart. The object of the meeting was to agree as to the
best means of driving the common enemy out of Loudon and its
neighbourhood.

Urbain's life was so well ordered that it presented little which his
enemies could use as a handle for their purpose. His only foible seemed
to be a predilection for female society; while in return all the wives
and daughters of the place, with the unerring instinct of their sex,
seeing, that the new priest was young, handsome, and eloquent, chose him,
whenever it was possible, as their spiritual director. As this
preference had already offended many husbands and fathers, the decision
the conspirators arrived at was that on this side alone was Grandier
vulnerable, and that their only chance of success was to attack him where
he was weakest. Almost at once, therefore, the vague reports which had
been floating about began to attain a certain definiteness: there were
allusions made, though no name was mentioned, to a young girl in Loudun;
who in spite of Grandier's frequent unfaithfulness yet remained his
mistress-in-chief; then it began to be whispered that the young girl,
having had conscientious scruples about her love for Urbain, he had
allayed them by an act of sacrilege--that is to say, he had, as priest,
in the middle of the night, performed the service of marriage between
himself and his mistress. The more absurd the reports, the more credence
did they gain, and it was not long till everyone in Loudun believed them
true, although no one was able to name the mysterious heroine of the tale
who had had the courage to contract a marriage with a priest; and
considering how small Loudun was, this was most extraordinary.

Resolute and full of courage as was Grandier, at length he could not
conceal from himself that his path lay over quicksands: he felt that
slander was secretly closing him round, and that as soon as he was well
entangled in her shiny folds, she would reveal herself by raising her
abhorred head, and that then a mortal combat between them would begin.
But it was one of his convictions that to draw back was to acknowledge
one's guilt; besides, as far as he was concerned, it was probably too
late for him to retrace his steps. He therefore went on his way, as
unyielding, as scornful, and as haughty as ever.

Among those who were supposed to be most active in spreading the slanders
relative to Urbain was a man called Duthibaut, a person of importance in
the province, who was supposed by the townspeople to hold very advanced
views, and who was a "Sir Oracle" to whom the commonplace and vulgar
turned for enlightenment. Some of this man's strictures on Grandier were
reported to the latter, especially some calumnies to which Duthibaut had
given vent at the Marquis de Bellay's; and one day, Grandier, arrayed in
priestly garments, was about to enter the church of Sainte-Croix to
assist in the service, he encountered Duthibaut at the entrance, and with
his usual haughty disdain accused him of slander. Duthibaut, who had got
into the habit of saying and doing whatever came into his head without
fear of being called to account, partly because of his wealth and partly
because of the influence he had gained over the narrow-minded, who are so
numerous in a small provincial town, and who regarded him as being much
above them, was so furious at this public reprimand, that he raised his
cane and struck Urbain.

The opportunity which this affront afforded Grandier of being revenged on
all his enemies was too precious to be neglected, but, convinced, with
too much reason, that he would never obtain justice from the local
authorities, although the respect due to the Church had been infringed,
in his person he decided to appeal to King Louis XIII, who deigned to
receive him, and deciding that the insult offered to a priest robed in
the sacred vestments should be expiated, sent the cause to the high court
of Parliament, with instructions that the case against Duthibaut should
be tried and decided there.

Hereupon Urbain's enemies saw they had no time to lose, and took
advantage of his absence to make counter accusations against him. Two
worthies beings, named Cherbonneau and Bugrau, agreed to become
informers, and were brought before the ecclesiastical magistrate at
Poitiers. They accused Grandier of having corrupted women and girls, of
indulging in blasphemy and profanity, of neglecting to read his breviary
daily, and of turning God's sanctuary into a place of debauchery and
prostitution. The information was taken down, and Louis Chauvet, the
civil lieutenant, and the archpriest of Saint-Marcel and the Loudenois,
were appointed to investigate the matter, so that, while Urbain was
instituting proceedings against Duthibaut in Paris, information was laid
against himself in Loudun. This matter thus set going was pushed forward
with all the acrimony so common in religious prosecutions; Trinquant
appeared as a witness, and drew many others after him, and whatever
omissions were found in the depositions were interpolated according to
the needs of the prosecution. The result was that the case when fully
got up appeared to be so serious that it was sent to the Bishop of
Poitiers for trial. Now the bishop was not only surrounded by the
friends of those who were bringing the accusations against Grandier, but
had himself a grudge against him. It had happened some time before that
Urbain, the case being urgent, had dispensed with the usual notice of a
marriage, and the bishop, knowing this, found in the papers laid before
him, superficial as they were, sufficient evidence against Urbain to
justify him in issuing a warrant for his apprehension, which was drawn up
in the following words:

"Henri-Louis, Chataignier de la Rochepezai, by divine mercy Bishop of
Poitiers, in view of the charges and informations conveyed to us by the
archpriest of Loudun against Urbain Grandier, priest-in-charge of the
Church of Saint-Pierre in the Market-Place at Loudun, in virtue of a
commission appointed by us directed to the said archpriest, or in his
absence to the Prior of Chassaignes, in view also of the opinion given by
our attorney upon the said charges, have ordered and do hereby order that
Urbain Grandier, the accused, be quietly taken to the prison in our
palace in Poitiers, if it so be that he be taken and apprehended, and if
not, that he be summoned to appear at his domicile within three days, by
the first apparitor-priest, or tonsured clerk, and also by the first
royal sergeant, upon this warrant, and we request the aid of the secular
authorities, and to them, or to any one of them, we hereby give power and
authority to carry out this decree notwithstanding any opposition or
appeal, and the said Grandier having been heard, such a decision will be
given by our attorney as the facts may seem to warrant.

"Given at Dissay the 22nd day of October 1629, and signed in the original
as follows:

"HENRI-LOUIS, Bishop of Poitiers."

Grandier was, as we have said, at Paris when these proceedings were taken
against him, conducting before the Parliament his case against Duthibaut.
The latter received a copy of the decision arrived at by the bishop,
before Grandier knew of the charges that had been formulated against him,
and having in the course of his defence drawn a terrible picture of the
immorality of Grandier's life, he produced as a proof of the truth of his
assertions the damning document which had been put into his hands. The
court, not knowing what to think of the turn affairs had taken, decided
that before considering the accusations brought by Grandier, he must
appear before his bishop to clear himself of the charges, brought against
himself. Consequently he left Paris at once, and arrived at Loudun,
where he only stayed long enough to learn what had happened in his
absence, and then went on to Poitiers in order to draw up his defence.
He had, however, no sooner set foot in the place than he was arrested by
a sheriff's officer named Chatry, and confined in the prison of the
episcopal palace.

It was the middle of November, and the prison was at all times cold and
damp, yet no attention was paid to Grandier's request that he should be
transferred to some other place of confinement. Convinced by this that
his enemies had more influence than he had supposed, he resolved to
possess his soul in patience, and remained a prisoner for two months,
during which even his warmest friends believed him lost, while Duthibaut
openly laughed at the proceedings instituted against himself, which he
now believed would never go any farther, and Barot had already selected
one of his heirs, a certain Ismael Boulieau, as successor to Urbain as
priest and prebendary.

It was arranged that the costs of the lawsuit should be defrayed out of a
fund raised by the prosecutors, the rich paying for the poor; for as all
the witnesses lived at Loudun and the trial was to take place at
Poitiers, considerable expense would be incurred by the necessity of
bringing so many people such a distance; but the lust of vengeance proved
stronger than the lust of gold; the subscription expected from each being
estimated according to his fortune, each paid without a murmur, and at
the end of two months the case was concluded.

In spite of the evident pains taken by the prosecution to strain the
evidence against the defendant, the principal charge could not be
sustained, which was that he had led astray many wives and daughters in
Loudun. No one woman came forward to complain of her ruin by Grandier;
the name of no single victim of his alleged immorality was given. The
conduct of the case was the most extraordinary ever seen; it was evident
that the accusations were founded on hearsay and not on fact, and yet a
decision and sentence against Grandier were pronounced on January 3rd,
1630. The sentence was as follows: For three months to fast each Friday
on bread and water by way of penance; to be inhibited from the
performance of clerical functions in the diocese of Poitiers for five
years, and in the town of Loudun for ever.

Both parties appealed from this decision: Grandier to the Archbishop of
Bordeaux, and his adversaries, on the advice of the attorney to the
diocese, pleading a miscarriage of justice, to the Parliament of Paris;
this last appeal being made in order to overwhelm Grandier and break his
spirit. But Grandier's resolution enabled him to face this attack
boldly: he engaged counsel to defend his case before the Parliament,
while he himself conducted his appeal to the Archbishop of Bordeaux. But
as there were many necessary witnesses, and it was almost impossible to
bring them all such a great distance, the archiepiscopal court sent the
appeal to the presidial court of Poitiers. The public prosecutor of
Poitiers began a fresh investigation, which being conducted with
impartiality was not encouraging to Grandier's accusers. There had been
many conflicting statements made by the witnesses, and these were now
repeated: other witnesses had declared quite openly that they had been
bribed; others again stated that their depositions had been tampered
with; and amongst these latter was a certain priest named Mechin, and
also that Ishmael Boulieau whom Barot had been in such a hurry to select
as candidate for the reversion of Grandier's preferments. Boulieau's
deposition has been lost, but we can lay Mechin's before the reader, for
the original has been preserved, just as it issued from his pen:

"I, Gervais Mechin, curate-in-charge of the Church of Saint-Pierre in the
Market Place at Loudun, certify by these presents, signed by my hand, to
relieve my conscience as to a certain report which is being spread
abroad, that I had said in support of an accusation brought by Gilles
Robert, archpriest, against Urbain Grandier, priest-in-charge of
Saint-Pierre, that I had found the said Grandier lying with women and
girls in the church of Saint Pierre, the doors being closed.