The Life of Joan of Arc Part 14

[Footnote 307: _Ibid._, p. 53.]

Jeanne's native village was named after the blessed Remi;[308] the parish church bore the name of the great apostle of the Gauls, who, in baptising King Clovis, had anointed with holy oil the first Christian prince of the n.o.ble House of France, descended from the n.o.ble King Priam of Troy.

[Footnote 308: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 393, 400, _pa.s.sim_.]

Thus runs the legend of Saint Remi as it was told by churchmen. In those days the pious hermit Montan, who lived in the country of Laon, beheld a choir of angels and an a.s.sembly of saints; and he heard a voice full and sweet saying: "The Lord hath looked down upon the earth. That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain: that they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem. When the people a.s.semble together, and kings to serve the Lord.[309] And Cilinia shall bring forth a son for the saving of the people."

[Footnote 309: Psalm ci, 20-23. _Vulgate_, Douai Version (W.S.).]

Now Cilinia was old, and her husband Emilius was blind. Yet Cilinia, having conceived, brought forth a son; and with the milk with which she nourished her babe she rubbed the eyes of the father, and straightway his eyes were opened, and he saw.

This child, whose birth had been foretold by angels, was called Remi, which, being interpreted, means oar; for by his teaching, as with a well-cut oar, he was to guide the Church of G.o.d, and especially the church of Reims, over the stormy sea of life, and by his merits and his prayers bring it into the heaven of eternal salvation.

In retirement and in the practice of holy and Christian observances, Cilinia's son pa.s.sed his pious youth at Laon. Hardly had he entered his twenty-second year, when the episcopal seat of Reims fell vacant on the death of the blessed Bishop Bennade. An immense concourse of people nominated Remi the shepherd of the flock. He refused a burden which he said was too heavy for the weakness of his youth. But suddenly there fell upon his forehead a ray of celestial light, and a divine liquid was shed upon his hair, and scented it with a strange perfume. Wherefore, without further delay, the bishops of the province of Reims, with one consent, consecrated him their bishop.

Established in the seat of Saint Sixtus, the blessed Remi revealed himself liberal in almsgiving, a.s.siduous in vigilance, fervent in prayer, perfect in charity, marvellous in doctrine, and holy in all his conversation. Like a city built on the top of a mountain, he was admired of all men.

In those days, Clovis, King of France, was a heathen, with all his knights. But he had won a great victory over the Germans by invoking the name of Christ. Wherefore, at the entreaty of the saintly Queen Clotilde, his wife, he resolved to ask baptism at the hands of the blessed Bishop of Reims. When this pious desire had been made known to him, Saint Remi taught the King and his subjects that, renouncing Satan and his pomps and his works, they must believe in G.o.d and in Jesus Christ his Son. And as the solemn festival of Easter was approaching, he commanded them to fast according to the custom of the faithful. On the day of the Pa.s.sion of Our Lord, the eve of the day on which Clovis was to be baptised, early in the morning the Bishop went to the King and Queen and led them to an oratory dedicated to the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles. Suddenly the chapel was filled with a light so brilliant that the suns.h.i.+ne became as shadow, and from the midst of this light there came a voice saying: "Peace be with you, it is I, fear not and abide in my love." After these words the light faded, but there remained in the chapel an odour of ineffable sweetness. Then, with his face s.h.i.+ning like the countenance of Moses, and illuminated within by a divine brightness, the holy Bishop prophesied and said: "Clovis and Clotilde, your descendants shall set back the boundaries of the kingdom. They shall raise the church of Jesus Christ and triumph over foreign nations provided they fall not from virtue and depart not from the way of salvation, neither enter upon the sinful road leading to destruction and to those snares of deadly vices which overthrow empires and cause dominion to pa.s.s from one nation to another."

Meanwhile the way is being prepared from the King's palace to the baptistry; curtains and costly draperies are hung up: the houses on each side of the street are covered with hangings; the church is decorated, and the baptistry is strewn with balsam and all manner of sweet-smelling herbs. Overwhelmed with the Lord's favour the people seem already to taste the delights of Paradise. The procession sets out from the palace; the clergy lead with crosses and banners, singing hymns and sacred canticles; then comes the Bishop leading the King by the hand; and lastly the Queen follows with the people. By the way the King asked the Bishop if yonder was the kingdom of G.o.d he had promised him. "No," answered the blessed Remi, "but it is the beginning of the road that leads to it." When they had reached the baptistry, the priest who bore the holy chrism was hindered by the crowd from reaching the sacred font; so that, as G.o.d had ordained, there was no holy oil for the benediction at the font. Then the Pontiff raises his eyes to heaven, and prays in silence and in tears. Straightway there descends a dove white as snow, bearing in its beak an ampulla full of chrism sent from heaven. The heavenly oil emits a delicious perfume, which intoxicates the mult.i.tude with a delight such as they had never experienced before that hour. The holy Bishop takes the ampulla, sprinkles the baptismal water with chrism, and straightway the dove vanishes.

At the sight of so great a miracle of grace, the King, transported with joy, renounces Satan and his pomps and his works. He demands instant baptism, and bends over the fountain of life.[310]

[Footnote 310: Gregoire de Tours, _Le livre des miracles_, ed.

Bordier, 1864, in 8vo, vol. ii, pp. 27, 31. Hincmar, _Vita sancti Remigii_ in the _Patrologie de Migne_, vol. cxxv, pp. 1130 _et seq._ H. Jadart, _Bibliographie des ouvrages concernant la vie et le culte de saint Remi, eveque de Reims_, 1891, in 8vo.]

Ever since then the kings of France have been anointed with the divine oil which the dove brought down from heaven. The holy ampulla containing it is kept in the church of Saint Remi at Reims. And by G.o.d's grace on the day of the King's anointing this ampulla is always found full.[311]

[Footnote 311: Froissart, Bk. II, ch. lxxiv. Le doyen de Saint-Thibaud, p. 328. Vertot, _Dissertation au sujet de la sainte ampoule conservee a Reims_, in _Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, 1736, vol. ii, pp. 619-633; vol. iv, pp. 1350-1365. Leber, _Des ceremonies du sacre ou recherches historiques et critiques sur les moeurs, les coutumes dans l'ancienne monarchie_, Paris, Reims, 1825, in 8vo, pp. 255 _et seq._]

Such was the clerks' story; and doubtless the peasants of Domremy on a humbler note might have said as much or even more. We may believe that they used to sing the complaint of Saint Remi. Every year, when on the 1st of October the festival of the patron saint came round, the priest was wont to p.r.o.nounce an eulogium on the saint.[312]

[Footnote 312: A. Monteil, _Histoire des Francais_, 1853, vol. ii, p.

194.]

About this time a mystery was performed at Reims in which the miracles of the apostle of Gaul were fully represented.[313]

[Footnote 313: _Mystere de saint Remi_, a.r.s.enal Library, ms. no.

3.364. This mystery dates from the fifteenth century, from the time of the wars in Champagne. The following lines relate to the misfortunes of the kingdom:

SAINT-ESTIENNE

O Jhesucrist, qui les sains cieulx As de lumiere environnez, Soleil et lune enlumines, Et ordonnez a ta plaisance; Pour le tres doulz pas de France Les martirs, non pas un mais tous, A jointes mains et a genoux Te requierent que tu effaces La grant doleur de France; et faces Par ta sainte digne vertu Qu'ilz aient paix; adfin que tu, Ta doulce mere et tous les sains, Et ceulx qui sont de pechiez sains, Devotement servis y soient!...

SAINT STEPHEN

O Jesus Christ who hast surrounded the heavens with light and kindled the sun and the moon, command, if it be thy will, the martyrs, not one only but all, to clasp their hands and on bended knee to implore thee to remove the great sorrow from France; and by thy holy and august merit ordain that they may have peace, that thou, thy sweet mother and all the saints and those who are cleansed from sin may be served devoutly!...

SAINT-NICOLAS

Dieu tout puissant fay tant qu'il ysse Hors du doulz pas sans amer Que toutes gens doivent amer C'est France, ou sont les bons Chrestiens S'on les confort; si les soustiens Car l'engin de leur adversaire Et son faulx art les tire a faire Contre ta sainte voulente.

Ayez pitie de Crestiente Beau sire Dieux Tant en France qu'en autres lieux!

Ce seroit Pitie a oultrance Que si n.o.ble roiaume, comme France, Fust par male temptacion Mis du tout a perdicion....

Fol. 3, verso.

SAINT NICHOLAS

G.o.d all powerful grant that he may issue forth from that sweet land which all must love, all France, where are good Christians, and may they be comforted, and may they be sustained; for the power of their adversary and his false art tempt them to withstand thy holy will.

Have pity on Christendom, good lord G.o.d, on other lands as well as on France! It would be the worst of pities if so n.o.ble a kingdom as France were through much temptation to fall into perdition....]

And among them were some which would appeal strongly to rustic souls.

In his mortal life my Lord Saint Remi had healed a blind man possessed of devils. A man bestowed his goods on the chapter of Reims for the salvation of his soul and died; ten years after his death Saint Remi restored him to life, and made him declare his gift. Being entertained by persons who had nothing to drink, the saint filled their cask with miraculous wine. He received from King Clovis the gift of a mill; but when the miller refused to yield it up to him, my Lord Saint Remi, by the power of G.o.d, threw down the mill, and cast it into the centre of the earth. One night when the Saint was alone in his chapel, while all his clerks were asleep, the glorious apostles Peter and Paul came down from Paradise to sing matins with him.

Who better than the folk of Domremy should know of the baptism of King Clovis of France, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost, at the singing of Veni Creator Spiritus, bearing in its beak the holy ampulla, full of chrism blessed by Our Lord?[314]

[Footnote 314: _Mystere de Saint Remi_, a.r.s.enal Library, ms. no.

3.364, fol. 69, verso.]

Who better than they should understand the words addressed to the very Christian King, by my Lord Saint Remi, not doubtless in the Church's Latin, but in the good tongue of the people and very much like the following: "Now, Sire, take knowledge and serve G.o.d faithfully and judge justly, that thy kingdom may prosper. For if justice depart from it then shall this kingdom be in danger of perdition."[315]

[Footnote 315: _Mystere de Saint Remi_, fol. 71, verso.]

In short, in one way or another, whether through the clerks who directed her or through the peasants among whom she dwelt, Jeanne had knowledge of the good Archbishop Remi, who so dearly cherished the royal blood in the holy ampulla at Reims, and of the anointing of the very Christian kings.[316]

[Footnote 316:

_Le bon archevesque Remy, Qui tant aime le sang royal, Qui tant a son conseil loyal, Qui tant aime Dieu et l'eglise._

_Mystere de Saint Remi_, fol. 77.

The good Archbishop Remi, who so dearly cherishes the _royal_ blood, so faithful in counsel, so devout a lover of G.o.d and the Church.]

And the Angel appeared unto her and said: "Daughter of G.o.d, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Reims that he may there receive worthily his anointing."[317]

[Footnote 317: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]

The maid understood. The scales fell from her eyes; a bright light was shed abroad in her mind. Behold wherefore G.o.d had chosen her. Through her the Dauphin Charles was to be anointed at Reims. The white dove, which of old was sent to the blessed Remi, was to come down again at the Virgin's call. G.o.d, who loves the French, marks their king with a sign, and when there is no sign the royal power has departed. The anointing alone makes the king, and Messire Charles de Valois had not been anointed. Notwithstanding the father lies becrowned and besceptred in the basilica of Saint-Denys in France, the son is but the dauphin and will not enter into his inheritance till the day when the oil of the inexhaustible ampulla shall flow over his forehead. And G.o.d has chosen her, a young, ignorant peasant maid, to lead him, through the ranks of his enemies, to Reims, where he shall receive the unction poured upon Saint Louis. Unfathomable ways of G.o.d! The humble maid, knowing not how to ride a horse, unskilled in the arts of war, is chosen to bring to Our Lord his temporal vicar of Christian France.

Henceforth Jeanne knew what great deeds she was to bring to pa.s.s. But as yet she discerned not the means by which she was to accomplish them.

"Thou must fare forth into France," Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret said to her.

"Daughter of G.o.d, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Reims[318] that he may there receive worthily his anointing," the Archangel Michael said to her.

[Footnote 318: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130; vol. ii, p. 456; vol. iii, p.

3, _pa.s.sim_.]

She must obey them--but how? If at that time there were not just at hand some devout adviser to direct her, one incident quite personal and unimportant, which then occurred in her father's house, may have sufficed to point out the way to the young saint.