THE VAUDOIS OF ARRAS. 525 great confidence, back with the vicars, to be present at all exami- nations. They reached Arras August 14, after which there were no further arrests, although innumerable names were on the lists of accused. The prisoners were less inhumanly treated, and but four of the pending trials were pushed to a conclusion. Reports of these were sent to Brussels for the duke's consideration, and they were brought back, October 12, by the president of the ducal cham- ber, Adrien Collin, in whose presence the accused were again ex- amined. Finally, on October 22, the customary assembly was held, immediately followed by the auto de fe, where the sermon was preached by the Inquisitor of Cambrai, and the sentences were read by the Inquisitor of Arras, and by Michael du Hamel, one of the vicars. The four convicts had different fates. The Chevalier de Beauffort, it was recited, had confessed that he had thrice been to the Sabbat — twice on foot and once by fly- ing on an anointed staff. He had refused to give his soul to Satan, but had given him four of his hairs. The inquisitor asked him if this was true, and he replied in the affirmative, begging for mercy. The inquisitor then announced that, as he had confessed without torture, and had never retracted, he should not be mitred and burned but be scourged (a penance inflicted by the inquisitor on the spot, but without removing the penitent's clothes), be imprisoned for seven years, and pay a long list of fines for pious purposes, amount- ing in all to eight thousand two hundred livres, including one thousand five hundred to the Inquisition. But besides these fines, thus publicly announced, he was obliged to pay four thousand to the Duke of Burgundy, two thousand to the Comte d'Estampes, one thousand to the Seigneur de Crevecceur, and one hundred to his lieutenant, Guillaume de Berry.* The next was the rich eschevin, Jean Tacquet. He admitted that he had been to the Sabbat ten times or more. He had en- deavored to withdraw his allegiance from Satan, who had forced him to continue it by beating him cruelly with a bull's pizzle. He was now condemned to scourging, administered as in the case of
- This was, doubtless, in commutation for confiscation, and reveals the object
of the whole affair. To estimate the magnitude of the fines, it may be men- tioned that de Beauffort's annual revenue was estimated at five hundred livres. The richest citizens of Arras who were arrested were said to be worth from four hundred to five hundred livres a vear.
