The Life of Joan of Arc Part 102

She adroitly made answer by asking another question: "Are there two?"[2300]

[Footnote 2300: _Ibid._, p. 82.]

No, there were not two; Clement VIII's abdication had put an end to the schism; the great rift in the Church had been closed for thirteen years and all Christian nations recognized the Pope of Rome; even France who had become resigned to the disappearance of her Avignon popes. There was something, however, which neither the accused nor her judges knew; on that 1st of March, 1431, far from there being two popes, there was not even one; the Holy See had fallen vacant by the death of Martin V on the 20th of February, and the vacancy was only to be filled on the 3rd of March, by the election of Eugenius IV.[2301]

[Footnote 2301: _a.n.a.lecta juris Pontif._, vol. xiv, p. 117.]

The examiner in questioning Jeanne concerning the Holy See was not without a motive. That motive became obvious when he asked her whether she had not received a letter from the Count of Armagnac. She admitted having received the letter and having replied to it.

Copies of these two letters were included in the evidence to be used at the trial. They were read to Jeanne.

It appeared that the Count of Armagnac had asked the Maid by letter which of the three popes was the true one, and that Jeanne had replied to him, likewise by letter, that for the moment she had not time to answer, but that she would do so at her leisure when she should come to Paris.

Having heard these two letters read, Jeanne declared that the one attributed to her was only partially hers. And since she always dictated and could never read what had been taken down, it is conceivable that hasty words, uttered with her foot in the stirrup, may not have been accurately transcribed; but in a series of involved and contradictory replies she was unable to demonstrate how that which she had dictated differed from the written text;[2302] and in itself the letter appears much more likely to have proceeded from an ignorant visionary than from a clerk who would have some knowledge, however little, of church affairs.

[Footnote 2302: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 82, 84.]

It contains certain words and turns of expression which are to be found in Jeanne's other letters. There can hardly be any doubt that this letter is by her; she had forgotten it. There is nothing surprising in that; her memory, as we have seen, was curiously liable to fail her.[2303]

[Footnote 2303: The expression, "_a Dieu vous recommande, Dieu soit garde de vous_," occurs in the letters to the people of Tournai, to those of Troyes and of Reims, and in the letter to the Duke of Burgundy. And what is still more significant, in two of these letters, one to the people of Troyes, the other to the Duke of Burgundy, are the words: "_Le Roi du ciel, mon droiturier et souverain seigneur_."

_Trial_, vol. i, p. 246.]

On this doc.u.ment the judges based the most serious of charges; they regarded it as furnis.h.i.+ng proof of a most blamable temerity. What arrogance on the part of this woman, so it seemed to them, to claim to have been told by G.o.d himself that which the Church alone is ent.i.tled to teach! And to undertake by means of an inner illumination to point out the true pope, was that not to commit grave sin against the Bride of Christ, and with sacrilegious hand to rend the seamless robe of our Lord?

For once Jeanne saw clearly how her judges were endeavouring to entrap her, wherefore she twice declared her belief in the Sovereign Pontiff of Rome.[2304] How bitterly she would have smiled had she known that the lights of the University of Paris, these famous doctors who held it mortal sin to believe in the wrong pope, themselves believed in his Holiness about as much as they disbelieved in him; that at that very time certain of their number, Maitre Thomas de Courcelles, so great a doctor, Maitre Jean Beaupere, the examiner, Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur, who acted the part of Saint Catherine, were hastening to despatch her, in order that they might bestride their mules and amble away to Bale, there in the Synagogue of Satan to hurl thunderbolts against the Holy Apostolic See, and diabolically to decree the subjection of the Pope to the Council, the confiscation of his annates, dearer to him than the apple of his eye, and finally his own deposition.[2305] Now would have been the time for her to have cried, with the voice of a simple soul, to the priests so keen to avenge upon her the Church's honour: "I am more of a Catholic than you!" And the words in her mouth would have been even more appropriate than on the lips of the Limousin clerk of old. Yet we must not reproach these clerics for having been good Gallicans at Bale, but rather for having been cruel and hypocritical at Rouen.

[Footnote 2304: _Ibid._, pp. 82, 83.]

[Footnote 2305: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 27, 32, 75, 82.]

In her prison the Maid prophesied before her guard, John Grey.

Informed of these prophecies, the judges wished to hear them from Jeanne's own mouth.

"Before seven years have pa.s.sed," she said to them, "the English shall lose a greater wager than any they lost at Orleans. They shall lose everything in France. They shall suffer greater loss than ever they have suffered in France, and that shall come to pa.s.s because G.o.d shall vouchsafe unto the French great victory."

"How do you know this?"

"I know it by revelation made unto me and that this shall befall within seven years. And greatly should I sorrow were it further delayed. I know it by revelation as surely as I know that you are before my eyes at this moment."

"When shall this come to pa.s.s?"

"I know neither the day nor the hour."

"But the year?"

"That ye shall not know for the present. But I should wish it to be before Saint John's Day."

"Did you not say that it should come to pa.s.s before Saint Martin in the winter?"

"I said that before Saint Martin in the winter many things should befall and it might be that the English would be discomfited."

Whereupon the examiner asked Jeanne whether when Saint Michael came to her he was accompanied by Saint Gabriel.

Jeanne replied: "I do not remember."[2306]

[Footnote 2306: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 84, 85.]

She did not remember whether, in the mult.i.tude of angels who visited her, was the Angel Gabriel who had saluted Our Lady and announced unto her the salvation of mankind. So many angels and archangels had she seen that this one had not particularly impressed her.

After an answer of such perfect simplicity how could these priests proceed to question her on her visions? Were they not sufficiently edified? But no! These innocent answers whetted the examiner's zeal.

With intense ardour and copious amplification, pa.s.sing from angels to saints, he multiplied petty and insidious questions. Did you see the hair on their heads? Had they rings in their ears? Was there anything between their crowns and their hair? Was their hair long and hanging?

Had they arms? How did they speak? What kind of voices had they?[2307]

[Footnote 2307: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]

This last question touched on an important theological point. Demons, whose voices are as rasping as a cart wheel or a winepress screw, cannot imitate the sweet tones of saints.[2308]

[Footnote 2308: Le Loyer, iv, _Livres des Spectres_, Angers, 1605, in 4to.]

Jeanne replied that the Voice was beautiful, sweet, and soft, and spoke in French.

Whereupon she was asked craftily wherefore Saint Margaret did not speak English.

She replied: "How should she speak English, since she is not on the side of the English?"[2309]

[Footnote 2309: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]

Two hundred years before, a poet of Champagne had said that the French language, which Our Lord created beautiful and graceful, was the language of Paradise.

She was afterwards asked concerning her rings. This was a hard matter; in those days there were many magic rings or rings bearing amulets.

They were fas.h.i.+oned by magicians under the influence of planets; and, by means of wonder-working herbs and stones, these rings had spells cast upon them and received miraculous virtues. Constellation rings worked miracles. Jeanne, alas! had possessed but two poor rings, one of bra.s.s, inscribed with the names Jesus and Marie, which she received from her father and mother, the other her brother had given her. The Bishop kept the latter; the other had been taken from her by the Burgundians.[2310]

[Footnote 2310: _Ibid._, pp. 86, 87. Vallet de Viriville, _Les anneaux de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de France_, vol. x.x.x, 1868, pp. 82, 97.]

An attempt was made to incriminate her in a pact made with the Devil near the Fairy Tree. She was not to be caught thus, but retorted by prophesying her deliverance and the destruction of her enemies. "Those who wish to banish me from this world may very likely leave it before me.... I know that my King will win the realm of France."

She was asked what she had done with her mandrake. She said she had never had one.[2311]

[Footnote 2311: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]

Then the examiner appeared to be seized with curiosity concerning Saint Michael. "Was he clothed?"

She replied: "Doubt ye that Messire lacks wherewithal to clothe himself?"

"Had he hair?"

"Wherefore should he have cut it off?"