The Life of Joan of Arc Part 103

"Did he hold scales?"

"I don't know."[2312]

[Footnote 2312: _Ibid._, p. 89.]

Their object was to ascertain whether she saw Saint Michael as he was represented in the churches, with scales for weighing souls.[2313]

[Footnote 2313: A. Maury, _Croyances et legendes du moyen age_, pp. 171 _et seq._]

When she said that at the sight of the Archangel it seemed to her she was not in a state of mortal sin, the examiner fell to arguing on the subject of her conscience. She replied like a true Christian.[2314]

Then he returned to the miracle of the sign, which had not been referred to since the first sitting, to the mystery of Chinon, to that wondrous crown, which Jeanne, following Saint Catherine of Alexandria, believed she had received from the hand of an angel. But she had promised Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret to say nothing about it.

[Footnote 2314: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 90.]

"When you showed the King the sign was there any one with him?"

"I think there was no other person, albeit there were many folk not far off."

"Did you see a crown on the King's head when you gave him this sign?"

"I cannot say without committing perjury."

"Had your King a crown at Reims?"

"My King, methinketh, took with pleasure the crown he found at Reims.

But afterwards a very rich crown was brought him. He did not wait for it, because he wished to hurry on the ceremony according to the request of the inhabitants of Reims who desired to rid their town of the burden of men-at-arms. If he had waited he would have had a crown a thousand times more rich."

"Have you seen that richer crown?"

"I cannot tell you without committing perjury. If I have not seen it I have heard tell how rich and how magnificent it is."[2315]

[Footnote 2315: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 90, 91.]

Jeanne suffered intensely from being deprived of the sacraments. One day when Messire Jean Ma.s.sieu, performing the office of ecclesiastical usher, was taking her before her judges, she asked him whether there were not on the way some church or chapel in which was the body of Our Lord Jesus Christ.[2316]

[Footnote 2316: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 16.]

Messire Jean Ma.s.sieu, dean of Rouen, was a cleric of manners dissolute; his inveterate lewdness had involved him in difficulties with the Chapter and with the Official.[2317] He may have been neither as brave nor as frank as he wished to make out, but he was not hard or pitiless.

[Footnote 2317: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le proces de cond.a.m.nation_, p. 115.]

He told his prisoner that there was a chapel on the way. And he pointed out to her the chapel of the castle.

Then she besought him urgently to take her into the chapel in order that she might worship Messire and pray.

Readily did Messire Jean Ma.s.sieu consent; and he permitted her to kneel before the sanctuary. Devoutly bending, Jeanne offered her prayer.

The Lord Bishop, being informed of this incident, was highly displeased. He instructed the Usher that in the future such devotions must not be tolerated.

And the Promoter, Maitre Jean d'Estivet, on his part, addressed many a reprimand to Messire Jean Ma.s.sieu.

"Rascal," he said, "what possesses thee to allow an excommunicated wh.o.r.e to approach a church without permission? If ever thou doest the like again I will imprison thee in that tower, where for a month thou wilt see neither sun nor moon."

Messire Jean Ma.s.sieu heeded not this threat. And the Promoter, perceiving this, himself took up his post at the chapel door when Jeanne went that way. Thus he prevented the hapless damsel from engaging in her devotions.[2318]

[Footnote 2318: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 16.]

The sixth sitting was held in the same court as before, in the presence of forty-one a.s.sessors, of whom six or seven were new, and among them was Maitre Guillaume Erart, doctor in theology.[2319]

[Footnote 2319: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 91, 92.]

In the beginning, the examiner asked Jeanne whether she had seen Saint Michael and the saints, and whether she had seen anything but their faces. He insisted: "You must say what you know."

"Rather than say all that I know, I would have my head cut off."[2320]

[Footnote 2320: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 93.]

They puzzled her with questions touching the nature of angelic bodies.

She was simple; with her own eyes she had seen Saint Michael; she said so and could not say otherwise.

The examiner, now as always, informed of the words she had let fall in prison, asked her whether she had heard her Voices.

"Yes, in good sooth. They told me that I should be delivered. But I know neither the day nor the hour. And they told me to have good courage, and to be of good cheer."[2321]

[Footnote 2321: _Ibid._, p. 94.]

Of all this the judges believed nothing, because demonologists teach that witches lose their power when an officer of Holy Church lays hands upon them.

The examiner recurred to her man's dress. Then he endeavoured to find out whether she had cast spells over the banners of her companions in arms.

He sought out by what secret power she led the soldiers.

This power she was willing to reveal: "I said to them: 'Go on boldly against the English;' and at the same time I went myself."[2322]

[Footnote 2322: _Ibid._, pp. 95-97.]

In this examination, which was the most diffuse and the most captious of all, the following curious question was put to the accused: "When you were before Jargeau, what was it you were wearing behind your helmet? Was there not something round?"[2323]

[Footnote 2323: _Ibid._, p. 99.]

At the siege of Jargeau she had been struck on the head by a huge stone which had not hurt her; and this her own party deemed miraculous.[2324] Did the judges of Rouen imagine that she wore a golden halo, like the saints, and that this halo had protected her?

[Footnote 2324: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 301. _Journal du siege_, pp. 98, 99.]

Later she was examined on a more ordinary subject, concerning a picture in the house of her host at Orleans, representing three women: Justice, Peace, Union.

Jeanne knew nothing about it;[2325] she was no connoisseur in tapestry and in paintings, like the Duke of Bar and the Duke of Orleans; neither were her judges, not on this occasion at any rate. And if they were concerned about a picture in the house of Maitre Boucher, it was not so much on account of the painting as of the doctrine. These three women that the wealthy Maitre Boucher kept in his house were doubtless nude. The painters of those days depicted on small panels allegories and bathing scenes, and they painted nude women. Full foreheads, round heads, golden hair, short figures of small build but with embonpoint, their nudity minutely represented and but thinly veiled; many such were produced in Flanders and in Italy. The ill.u.s.trious masters, to whom those pictures appeared corrupt and indecent, doubtless wished to reproach Jeanne with having looked at them in the house of the treasurer of the Duke of Orleans. It is not difficult to divine what were the doctors' suspicions when they are found asking Jeanne whether Saint Michael wore clothes, in what manner she greeted her saints, and how she gave them her rings to touch.[2326]

[Footnote 2325: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 101.]