Perversion the Social Relation

Confessions of a Medieval Sodomite 129declaring that they could not be described in such ceremonial circumstancesowing to their utterly scandalous nature. When he announcedthat the full extent of Gilles's transgressive acts would be "disclosed inLatin at the appropriate time and place," 7 the bishop attempted to situatethese acts on the other side of the iterable, sheltered from the impressionableears of the vulgate-speaking audience. Jean de Malestroit'sletter of citation announcing the trial of Gilles de Rais to the people ofNantes participated in this manner in a quest for the sensational; theecclesiastical authorities tantalizingly proclaimed a coming spectacle atthe same time that they nominally denounced its outré contents. Hereone finds an emblematic example of a splitting in the church's positionof enunciation that characterizes the entirety of its dealings withGilles. While overtly denouncing the criminality of Gilles's activities,the church covertly participated in the transformation of the trial intoa sensational event designed to consolidate the institution's ideologicalpower over^he community of believers. From the beginning of the trialphenomenon, so it appears, the church was fully cognizant of the opportunitythe Gilles case provided to consolidate its oppressive politicalauthority.The representatives of divine justice, however, were not the onlyparties responsible for the trial's titillating publicity. With the aristocratichaughtiness of a grand personage accustomed to the accordanceof his most capricious whim, Gilles also sought after the diffusion of thenews of his crimes in an apparent effort to increase the eventuality of hisreligious rehabilitation and divine pardon. The fundamental paradox ofGilles's attitude with regard to his trial immediately presents itself: inspite of the seriousness of the accusations mounted against him, Gillesunfailingly considered throughout the trial proceedings the dramatizationof his own brutality as favorable to his prospects for clemency onthe part of the church authorities and his status under the gaze of God.Subsequent to the public reading of his bill of indictment, for example,Gilles gave his assent to the publication in French of the full depositionsof the witnesses in order that these testimonies reach the widest possibleaudience. Additionally, having made his initial "out of court" confessionunder threat of torture, Gilles confirmed the validity of his testimonywhen he reappeared during official court procedure, adding in the processfurther self-incriminating details. As the documents indicate, Gilles