bring vengeance upon his enemies. She had him baptize a toad and feed it a consecrated
host. Then she tore the toad to pieces and from it made a poison that caused the enemies
to perish.
Yet the cases that attracted most attention were those involving collaboration of clergy
and prominent public figures. In 1440, Gilles de Rais, who as marshal of France had
fought alongside Jeanne d’Arc at Orléans, was tried for consulting necromancers, most
importantly a Florentine priest called François Prelati, in an effort to regain his
squandered fortune.
Richard Kieckhefer
[See also: CHARLES VI; JEANNE D’ARC; MAGIC; MARIGNY, ENGUERRAN
DE; RAIS, GILLES DE; WITCHCRAFT]
Driscoll, Daniel, trans. The Sworn Book of Honorius the Magician. Berkeley Heights: Heptangle,
1983.
Hyatte, Reginald, trans. Laughter for the Devil: The Trials of Gilles de Rais, Companion-in-Arms
of Joan of Arc (1440). Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984.
Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Butler, Eliza Marian. Ritual Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1949.
Harvey, Margaret. “Papal Witchcraft: The Charges Against Benedict XIII.” In Sanctity and
Secularity: The Church and the World, ed. Derek Baker. Oxford: Blackwell, 1973, pp. 109–16.
Jones, William R. “Political Uses of Sorcery in Medieval Europe.” Historian 34 (1972):670–87.
NESSON, PIERRE DE
(1383-before 1442). One of the more important late-medieval poets of death. Nesson is
known principally for two works: the Paraphase sur Job or Vigiles des Morts, later
published by Vérard, is a powerful and stark meditation on death and human vanity; the
Lai de guerre, an answer to Alain Chartier’s Lai de paix, expounds on the political
thinking of his patroness, Marie de Berry, widow of John, duke of Berry.
Earl Jeffrey Richards
Piaget, Arthur, and Eugénie Droz, eds. Pierre de Nesson et ses œuvres. Paris: Jeanbin, 1925.
Champion, Pierre. “Pierre de Nesson, le poète de la mort.” In Histoire poétique du XVe siècle. 2
vols. Paris: Champion, 1923, Vol. 1, pp. 167–225.
NEUSTRIA
. The northwestern part of Gaul during the Frankish period. There really were two
Neustrias. Mero-vingian Neustria stretched from the Loire to the Meuse; Carolingian and
post-Carolingian Neustria was smaller, comprising the area between the Loire and the
Seine, excluding Brittany. The name appears ca. 642 and is of uncertain etymology, but it
designated the western lands of the kingdom, whereas “Austrasia” designated the eastern
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