Perversion the Social Relation

130 James Penneydesired to repeat his out of court confession in the public confines of thetrial "to remedy its faults in the event that he had omitted anything, andto make more thorough declarations of the points developed summarilyin the ... articles [of the indictment]" (189; 241-42). Menaced with excommunicationand torture, Gilles decided not only to participate fullyin his own incrimination, but also to do so in the most theatrical fashionpossible.Only moments prior to the most explicit description of his crimes,during which he acknowledged having cut open the bodies of his youngvictims in order to delight in "the view of their internal organs" (189;244-45), Gilles repeated his request that his confession be published inFrench "for any and all of the people present [at the trial]... in order...to attain more easily the forgiveness of his sins and God's grace in absolvingthem" (190; 242-43). According to Georges Bataille's interpretationof the trial, a cynical desire to horrify his public while allowing himselfto wallow theatrically in his own monumental evil set the stage forGilles 's precise and clinical exhibitionism. After the judges of the Inquisitionthreatened Gilles with excommunication, Gilles began his grislyevocation of the crimes in order to reveal, according to Bataille, their"horrible grandeur, that grandeur that would leave [the audience] trembling"(60; 74; translation modified). At the moment when the Inquisitionissued its threat, Gilles realized, in this view, that he had nothingto lose. Having lost the dignity of his privileged position in the feudalsocial structure, Gilles had left only the terrible spectacle of his crimes,and he certainly was not going to forego the opportunity to flaunt themin the most grisly manner possible.Given the evidence provided by the trial documents, however, themotivation for Gilles's unfettered confession appears more straightforwardlyto lie in his fear of the consequences of being jettisoned from thecommunity of God and so deprived of a chance for salvation. The Inquisition'sthreat of excommunication is the unambiguous turning pointthat changed Gilles's attitude with respect to the legal authority of thechurch over his indictment. Oddly, however, Gilles did not consider thedescription of his crimes as grounds for the potential reinstitution ofthe excommunication. Indeed, Gilles thought that his chances at absolutionincreased in proportion to the morbid completeness of his confession.This is what is so astounding about Gilles's self-perception with