BRÉHAL, JEAN. – Dominican, inquisitor general of France, born in Normandy at the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was already inquisitor general when, in 1452, Cardinal G. d'Estouteville associated him with himself for the revision of the trial of Giovanna d'Arco; B. worked on it tirelessly for four years and, on 7 July 1456, at Rouen, pronounced the sentence declaring it null. He held important offices in the Order and composed several treatises.
BIBL.: Quétif-Echard, I, pp. 815–16; T. Deman, Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains, in Arch. fratr. praed., 1 (1932), pp. 377–87; M. H. Laurent, s. V. in DHG, X, cols. 498–99. Luigi Michelini Tocci