Editing Gilles de Rais (section)

==Question of guilt==
Although Gilles de Rais was convicted of murdering many children by his confessions and the detailed eyewitness accounts of his own confederates and victims' parents,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/rais/execution_13.html |title=Gilles de Rais: The Pious Monster|publisher= The Crime Library|accessdate=17 November 2011}}</ref> doubts have persisted about the court's verdict. Counterarguments are based on the theory that de Rais was himself a victim of an ecclesiastic plot or act of revenge by the Catholic Church or French state. Doubts on Gilles de Rais' guilt have long persisted because the Duke of Brittany, who was given the authority to prosecute, received all the titles to de Rais' former lands after his conviction. The Duke then divided the land among his own [[vassal|nobles]]. Writers such as [[secret societies]] specialist [[:fr:Jean-Pierre Bayard|Jean-Pierre Bayard]], in his book ''Plaidoyer pour Gilles de Rais'', contend he was a victim of the [[Inquisition]].

In the early 20th century, Anthropologist Margaret Murray and occultist Aleister Crowley are among those who questioned the involvement of the ecclesiastic and secular authorities in the case. Murray, who propagated the witch-cult hypothesis, speculated in her book ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' that Gilles de Rais was really a witch and adherent of a [[fertility cult]] centered on the [[Roman mythology|pagan]] goddess, Diana.<ref>{{cite book|pages= 173–174|title=[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20411 The Witch-Cult in Western Europe]|authorlink=Margaret Murray|first= Margaret|last= Murray|quote= Gilles de Rais was tried and executed as a witch and, in the same way, much that is mysterious in this trial can also be explained by the Dianic Cult|publisher=Oxford: Clarendon Press|year=1921}}</ref><ref>[http://www.aeja.org/Murray/index.html "Historical Association for Joan of Arc Studies."]</ref> However, most historians reject Murray's theory.<ref>Trevor-Roper, Hugh. ''The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,'' 1969.</ref><ref>Russell, Jeffrey. ''A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans,'' 1970.</ref><ref>Simpson, Jacqueline. "Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why?" ''Folkrealllore'' 105, 1994, pp. 89–96.</ref><ref>Hutton, Ronald. ''The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1991.</ref><ref>Hutton, Ronald. ''The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999</ref><ref>Kitteredge, G. L. ''Witchcraft in Old and New England''. 1951. pp. 275, 421, 565.</ref> [[Norman Cohn]] argues that her theory does not agree with what is known of de Rais' crimes and trial.<ref>Cohn, Norman. ''Europe's Inner Demons''. London: Pimlico, 1973.</ref><ref>Thomas, Keith. ''Religion and the Decline of Magic'', 1971 and 1997, pp. 514–517.</ref> Historians do not regard de Rais as a martyr to a pre-Christian religion; other scholars tend to view him as a lapsed Catholic who descended into crime and depravity.<ref>Barett, W.P. ''The Trial of Joan of Arc''. 1932.</ref><ref>Pernoud, Regine and Marie Veronique Clin. ''Joan of Arc, Her Story''. 1966</ref><ref>Meltzer, Françoise. ''For Fear of the Fire: Joan of Arc and the Limits of Subjectivity''. 2001.</ref>

Gilles de Rais was retried in a [[Moot court]], an unofficial process of rehabilitation in his home country of France.<ref>Alain Jost, ''Gilles de Rais'', Marabout, 1995, pp. 152</ref><ref>http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19921111&id=ATkdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5KUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6620,2828943</ref> In 1992, [[Freemason]] Jean-Yves Goëau-Brissonnière, the [[Grand Master (Masonic)|Grand Master]] of the [[Grande Loge de France|Grand Lodge of France]], organized a court consisting of former French ministers, [[French Parliament|parliament members]] and UNESCO experts to re-examine the source material and evidence available at the medieval trial. The hearing, which concluded Gilles de Rais was not guilty of the crimes, was turned into a documentary called ''Gilles de Rais ou la Gueule du loup'', narrated by the writer Gilbert Prouteau. A team of lawyers, writers and politicians led by Gilbert Prouteau and presided over by Judge Henri Juramy found him not guilty, although none of the initiators is a medieval historian by profession. In addition, none of them sought professional advice from certified medievalists.<ref>Jean Kerhervé, « L'histoire ou le roman ? », in ''Le Peuple breton'', n° 347, November 1992, pp. 6-8</ref> "The case for Gilles de Rais's innocence is very strong," Prouteau said, "no child's corpse was ever found at his castle at Tiffauges and he appears to have confessed to escape excommunication...the accusations appear to be false charges made up by powerful rival lords to benefit from the confiscation of his lands."<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/jun/17/bluebeard-gilles-de-rais-france</ref> However, the journalist Gilbert Philippe from the newspaper ''Ouest-France'', said that Prouteau was being "facetious and provocative."<ref>Gilbert Philippe, [http://www.ouest-france.fr/2012/08/03/vendee/L-ecrivain-Gilbert-Prouteau-s-est-eteint-a-95-ans-63350035.html « L'écrivain Gilbert Prouteau s'est éteint à 95 ans - Vendée »], in ''Ouest-France'', Friday August 2012.</ref> He also claimed that Prouteau thought the retrial was basically "an absolute joke."<ref>Jean de Raigniac, book review of Gilbert Prouteau's ''Roman de la Vendée'', in ''Lire en Vendée'', June–December 2010, [http://fr.slideshare.net/ecrivains-vendee/lire-envendeejuindecembre2010 pp.5]</ref>