Confession of Guillemette, widow of Pierre Battegay of Pamiers
The year of the Lord, 1319, Tuesday the 13th day of the Kalends of April
(19 March 1320), Guillemette, the widow of Pierre Battegay of Pamiers avowed
that which follows:
A year ago and a bit more, I had lost my daughter, Fabrissa, the wife of
Jacques-Raimond Arnaud. One day, I don't remember exactly when, Mengarde
the seamstress came to find me at my house and told me that she had also
lost her daughter but that there was a man at Mas-Saint-Antonin who could
see the dead and travel with them. They would leave their travail to take
him along with them. He had seen her daughter (Mengarde's) and he had told
her how she was doing. And she told me that if I wished she would arrange
for this man to come see me and tell me what circumstances my daughter was
in. I asked her to do it.
After this, one day, I was making a meal for a sick man and my son, Arnaud
Battegay was skinning a sheep. This man from Mas came to my house and said
he wanted to speak to me in secret. I told him he could speak to me when
I was done with what I was preparing. When this was done, he told me that
Fabrissa, my late daughter, gave me a hearty hello, that she had passed
the vigil the preceding night in the church of St. Jean of Pamiers, and
the following night she would spend in the church of St. Martin of Ollières,
and the following in the church of St. Raimond, then the next at Mas-Vieux
and the next at the church of Saint-Antonin. He said that the dead did no
other penance than to keep vigil going from church to church. I told him
that they must be suffering greatly because the cold was bitter. He replied
that the dead would seek a house or a place where there was plenty of wood,
and that they would make a fire with this wood and warm themselves by the
fire.
He told me that my Fabrissa had come to see me and found me in bed. Then
he told me, on behalf of my daughter, to have a mass celebrated for her
and to put a half-pound's (demi-livre) worth of oil in the lamp that burned
before the altar of St. Mary.
And then, this having been said, this man wished to retire, but I invited
him to stay and dine, and we dined together, my son, he and I on bread,
wine and meat. After the meal this man told me that my daughter was travelling
with the late daughter of na Nespla (Dame Nespla) and two other women and
that she travelled as quickly as the others. I asked him how my daughter
could go so quickly since she was pregnant and heavy when she died. He replied
that my daughter was a strong and beautiful woman and that she travelled
just as fast as the others. Then I said to him, "Since you see the
dead and travel with them, ask my daughter if my son, Jean Battegay is dead
or alive and where he is now. It has been a long time since he left and
I have not seen him nor do I know where he is." He told me he would
do it gladly.
A fortnight or so later, this man came to see me at my house and told me
that my daughter sent her greetings and told me to give to a Franciscan
the bread, wine and money that he would need for one day. When this was
done, she would not ask anything more of me, because she would be able to
go to the Repose of all Saints after this. This, he told me, is because
no soul can go to Paradise, at least no soul of an adult man or woman, until
the day of Judgement. But the souls of children who died before the age
of 7 go forthwith into the glory of God.
He told me also, or so it seems to me that all the souls of men and women,
when their penance is done (which they do by travelling from church to church)
go to Repose, and then on the day of Judgement all will be saved. And then
no soul of a man or woman will perish nor be damned. I said to him, "May
it please God that no person be damned!"
-----Did you believe what this man said?
No.
-----Did you give him anything?
No, except for something to eat.
-----Have you revealed this affair to anyone or any other persons?
Yes, to Ermengarde, the widow of Raimond of Belfag, and to Resplandie, the
wife of Jean Serny and to the mother of this same Resplandie, in the room
where they dwell.
And this Guillemette said that she repented of the above and that she
was ready to complete all penance which the said lord bishop would impose
on her, seeking humbly to absolve herself from the sentence of excommunication
which she had incurred for the preceding.
Item she swore on the four holy Gospels of God that if she knew anything
concerning heretics and their believers she would reveal it and cause them
to be apprehended as far as she was able and especially, that she would
reveal all and each of those whom she knew to have sought out the said Arnaud
for prognostication or anything similar and anyone who had participated
in these events.
And then the said lord bishop absolved Guillemette from the said sentence
of excommunication which she had incurred by the above events, if indeed
she repented of these from her heart and if she had spoken the plain truth
concerning herself and others, otherwise it was not the intention of the
said lord bishop, as he said, that the said Guillemette be absolved from
the said sentence of excommunication.
And then the said Guillemette asked that if she were to remember anything
more concerning the above events, that she could confess anything that had
returned to her memory without danger, and this was granted to her by the
said lord bishop.
After this in the same year as above, the 7th of March 132, the said Guillemette
appeared for questioning in the episcopal seat at Pamiers before my said
lord bishop and the religious person my lord Brother Jean de Beaune of the
order of Preachers, inquisitor of the heretical deviation in the kingdom
of France and named by the Apostolic See. She swore with her own hands on
the four holy Gospels of God to tell the pure and simple truth concerning
all facts touching the Catholic faith and heresy, as much concerning herself
as informed against as concerning others living or dead, as witness. Then
her confession was read and recited to her before my said lord bishop, who
had already explained these in the vulgar tongue. She said that she wished
to hold and persist in these avowals, attested to them once again, ratified
and approved them saying that she wished to live and die in them.
Made the same year and day as above, in the presence of my lord Germain
de Castelnau, archdeacon of the church of Pamiers, Masters Menet de Robécourt,
Barthélemy Adalbert, notaries of my said lord inquisitor and master
Guillaume Peyre-Barthe, notary of my lord bishop, who has received and written
all that precedes.
After this the above said lords bishop and inquisitor assigned to the said
Guillemette a date to hear definitive sentence passed on the above mentioned
facts, namely the Sunday immediately following, the 8th of March, at the
cemetery of Saint-Jean-Martyr of Pamiers, a day which the said Guillemette
accepted of her own free will.
That same Sunday assigned, the said Guillemette appeared before the said
lords bishop and inquisitor in the said cemetery and they pronounced setence
on the said Guilemeette in the terms which follow: "Let it be known
to all....". See this sentence in the Book of Sentences.
The persons named above, namely Mengarde, widow of Arnaud of Pomiès,
Raimonde daughter of Guillaume Fauré of Saint-Bauzeil, Navarre, wife
of Pons Bru, Arnaud of Monesple, priest and Guillemette, wife of Pierre
Battegay of Pamiers, did not abjure during the proceedings taken against
them above, but only at the sentencing when they were convoked in public,
and there they abjured all heresy and belief of heretics, as is contained
in the said sentence given against them.
And I, Rainaud Jabbaud, cleric of Toulouse, sworn to the service of the
Inquisition, have, on the order of my lord bishop, faithfully corrected
the said confessions against the original.
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