The Life of Joan of Arc Part 56

In a moment the fame of the French King's prophetess had been spread abroad throughout Christendom. While in temporal affairs the people were rending each other, in spiritual matters obedience to one common head made Europe one spiritual republic with one language and one doctrine, governed by councils. The spirit of the Church was all-pervading. In Italy, in Germany, the talk was all of the Sibyl of France and her prowess which was so intimately a.s.sociated with the Christian faith. In those days it was sometimes the custom of those who painted on the walls of monasteries to depict the Liberal Arts as three n.o.ble dames. Between her two sisters, Logic would be painted, seated on a lofty throne, wearing an antique turban, clothed in a sparkling robe, and bearing in one hand a scorpion, in the other a lizard, as a sign that her knowledge winds its way into the heart of the adversary's argument, and saves her from being herself entrapped.

At her feet, looking up to her, would be Aristotle, disputing and reckoning up his arguments on his fingers.[1311] This austere lady formed all her disciples in the same mould. In those days nothing was more despicable than singularity. Originality of mind did not then exist. The clerks who treated of the Maid all followed the same method, advanced the same arguments, and based them on the same texts, sacred and profane. Conformity could go no further. Their minds were identical, but not their hearts; it is the mind that argues, but the heart that decides. These scholastics, dryer than their parchment, were men, notwithstanding; they were swayed by sentiment, by pa.s.sion, by interests spiritual or temporal. While the Armagnac doctors were demonstrating that in the Maid's case reasons for belief were stronger than reasons for disbelief, the German or Italian masters, caring nought for the quarrel of the Dauphin of Viennois,[1312] remained in doubt, unmoved by either love or hatred.

[Footnote 1311: Cathedrale du Puy. E.F. Corpet, _Portraits des arts liberaux d'apres les ecrivains du moyen age_, in _Annales archeologiques_, 1857, vol. xvii, pp. 89, 103. Em. Male, _Les Arts liberaux dans la statuaire du moyen age_, in _Revue archeologique_, 1891.]

[Footnote 1312: Another name for Dauphine (W.S.).]

There was a doctor of theology, one Heinrich von Gorc.u.m, a professor at Cologne. As early as the month of June, 1429, he drew up a memorial concerning the Maid. In Germany, minds were divided as to whether the nature of the damsel were human or whether she were not rather a celestial being clothed in woman's form; as to whether her deeds proceeded from a human origin or had a supernatural source; and, if the latter, whether that source were good or bad. Meister Heinrich von Gorc.u.m wrote his treatise to present arguments from Holy Scripture on both sides, and he abstained from drawing any conclusion.[1313]

[Footnote 1313: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 411-421. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'eglise de son temps_, vol. i, pp. 61-68.]

In Italy, the same doubts and the same uncertainty prevailed concerning the deeds of the Maid. Those there were who maintained that they were mere inventions. At Milan, it was disputed whether any credence could be placed in tidings from France. To discover the truth about them, the notables of the city resolved to despatch a Franciscan friar, Brother Antonio de Rho, a good humanist and a zealous preacher of moral purity.

And Giovanni Corsini, Senator of the duchy of Arezzo, impelled by a like curiosity, consulted a learned clerk of Milan, one Cosmo Raimondi of Cremona. The following is the gist of the learned Ciceronian's reply:

"Most n.o.ble lord, they say that G.o.d's choice of a shepherdess for the restoration of a kingdom to a prince, is a new thing. And yet we know that the shepherd David was anointed king. It is told how the Maid, at the head of a small company, defied a great army. The victory may be explained by an advantageous position and an unexpected attack. But supposing we refrain from saying that the enemy was surprised and that his courage forsook him, matters which are none the less possible, supposing we admit that there was a miracle: what is there astonishing in that? Is it not still more wonderful that Samson should have slain so many Philistines with the jaw-bone of an a.s.s?

"The Maid is said to possess the power of revealing the future.

Remember the Sibyls, notably the Erythraean and the c.u.maean. They were heathens. Why should not a like power be granted to a Christian? This woman is a shepherdess. Jacob, when he kept Laban's flocks, conversed familiarly with G.o.d. To such examples and to such reasons, which incline me to give credence to the rumour, I add another reason derived from physical science. In treatises on astrology I have often read that by the favourable influence of the stars, certain men of lowly birth have become the equals of the highest princes and been regarded as men divine charged with a celestial mission. Guido da Forli, a clever astronomer, quotes a great number of such instances.

Wherefore I should not deem myself to be incurring any reproach if I believed that through the influence of the stars, the Maid has undertaken what is reported of her."

At the conclusion of his arguments the clerk of Cremona says that, while not absolutely rejecting the reports concerning her, he does not consider them to be sufficiently proved.[1314]

[Footnote 1314: Le P. Ayroles, vol. iv, _La vierge guerriere_, pp. 240 _et seq._]

Jeanne maintained her resolution to go to Reims and take the King to his anointing.[1315] She did not stay to consider whether it would be better to wage war in Champagne than in Normandy. She did not know enough of the configuration of the country to decide such a question, and it is not likely that her saints and angels knew more of geography than she did. She was in haste to take the King to Reims for his anointing, because she believed it impossible for him to be king until he had been anointed.[1316] The idea of leading him to be anointed with the holy oil had come to her in her native village, long before the siege of Orleans.[1317] This inspiration was wholly of the spirit, and had nothing to do with the state of affairs created by the deliverance of Orleans and the victory of Patay.

[Footnote 1315: "_Sed dicta puella semper fuit opinionis quod opportebat ire Remis._" _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 12 (evidence of Dunois).]

[Footnote 1316: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 20. _Journal du siege_, pp. 93, 94.]

[Footnote 1317: See _ante_, pp. 53 _et seq._]

The best course would have been to march straight on Paris after the 18th of June. The French were then only ninety miles from the great city, which at that juncture would not have thought of defending itself. Considering it as good as lost, the Regent shut himself up in the Fort of Vincennes.[1318] They had missed their opportunity. The French King's Councillors, Princes of the Blood, were deliberating, surprised by victory, not knowing what to do with it. Certain it is that not one of them thought of conquering, and that speedily, the whole inheritance of King Charles. The forces at their disposal, and the very conditions of the society in which they lived, rendered it impossible for them to conceive of such an undertaking. The lords of the Great Council were not like the poverty stricken monks, dreaming in their ruined cloisters[1319] of an age of peace and concord. The King's Councillors were no dreamers; they did not believe in the end of the war, neither did they desire it. But they intended to conduct it with the least possible risk and expenditure. There would always be folk enough to don the hauberk and go a-plundering they said to themselves; the taking and re-taking of towns must continue; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; to fight long one must fight gently; nine times out of ten more is gained by negotiations and treaties than by feats of prowess; truces must be concluded craftily and broken cautiously; some defeats must be expected, and some work must be left for the young. Such were the opinions of the good servants of King Charles.[1320]

[Footnote 1318: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 451. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 239. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 291.

De Barante, _Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne_, vol. iii, p. 323.]

[Footnote 1319: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises_, introduction.]

[Footnote 1320: Those of Louis XI were of a like mind: "One should fear risking a great battle if one be not constrained to it." Philippe de Comynes, ed. Mdlle. Dupont, vol. i, p. 146.]

Certain among them wished the war to be carried on in Normandy.[1321]

The idea had occurred to them as early as the month of May, before the Loire campaign, and indeed there was much to be said for it. In Normandy they would cut the English tree at its root. It was quite possible that they might immediately recover a part of that province where the English had but few fighting men. In 1424 the Norman garrisons consisted of not more than four hundred lances and twelve hundred bowmen.[1322] Since then they had received but few reinforcements. The Regent was recruiting men everywhere and displaying marvellous activity, but he lacked money, and his soldiers were always deserting.[1323] In the conquered province, as soon as the _Coues_ came out of their strongholds they found themselves in the enemy's territory. From the borders of Brittany, Maine, Perche as far as Ponthieu and Picardy, on the banks of the Mayenne, Orne, the Dive, the Touque, the Eure, the Seine, the partisans of the various factions held the country, watching the roads, robbing, ravaging, and murdering.[1324] Everywhere the French would have found these brave fellows ready to espouse their cause; the peasants and the village priests would likewise have wished them well. But the campaign would involve long sieges of towns, strongly defended, albeit held by but small garrisons. Now the men-at-arms dreaded the delays of sieges, and the royal treasury was not sufficient for such costly undertakings.[1325]

Normandy was ruined, stripped of its crops, and robbed of its cattle.

Were the captains and their men to go into this famine-stricken land?

And why should the King reconquer so poor a province?

[Footnote 1321: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 12, 13. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 300. Perceval de Cagny, p. 170. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, p. 87. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 63, note 2.]

[Footnote 1322: Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, 1875, vol. i, p. 213.]

[Footnote 1323: Rymer, _Foedera_, 18 June, 1429. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 132-133; vol. iv, supplement, xvii. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise en mai 1429_, Paris, 1894, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1324: G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La guerre des partisans dans la Haute Normandie_ (1424-1429), in the _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_ since 1893.]

[Footnote 1325: "The King had no great sums of money with which to pay his army." Perceval de Cagny, pp. 149, 157.]

And these freebooters, who were willing to stretch out a hand to the French, were not very attractive. It was well known that brigands they were, and brigands would remain, and that Normandy once reconquered, they would have to be got rid of, to the last man, without honour and without profit. In which case would it not be better to leave them to be dealt with by the _G.o.dons_?

Other n.o.bles clamoured for an expedition into Champagne.[1326] And in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, the Maid's visions had no influence whatever on this determination. The King's Councillors led Jeanne and were far from being led by her. Once before they had diverted her from the road to Reims by providing her with work on the Loire. Once again they might divert her into Normandy, without her even perceiving it, so ignorant was she of the roads and of the lie of the land. If there were certain who recommended a campaign in Champagne, it was not on the faith of saints and angels, but for purely human reasons. Is it possible to discover these reasons? There were doubtless certain lords and captains who considered the interest of the King and the kingdom, but every one found it so difficult not to confound it with his own interest, that the best way to discover who was responsible for the march on Reims is to find out who was to profit by it. It was certainly not the Duke of Alencon, who would have greatly preferred to take advantage of the Maid's help for the conquest of his own duchy.[1327] Neither was it my Lord the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, nor the Sire de Gaucourt, nor the King himself, for they must have desired the securing of Berry and the Orleanais by the capture of La Charite held by the terrible Perrinet Gressart.[1328] On the other hand we may conclude that the Queen of Sicily would not be unfavourable to the march of the King, her son-in-law, in a north easterly direction. This Spanish lady was possessed by the Angevin mania. Rea.s.sured for the moment concerning the fate of her duchy of Anjou, she was pursuing eagerly, and to the great hurt of the realm of France, the establishment of her son Rene in the duchy of Bar and in the inheritance of Lorraine. She cannot have been displeased, therefore, when she saw the King keeping her an open road between Gien and Troyes and Chalons. But since the Constable's exile she had lost all influence over her son-in-law, and it is difficult to discover who could have watched her interests in the Council of May, 1429.[1329]

Besides, without seeking further, it is obvious that there was one person, who above all others must have desired the anointing of the King, and who more than any was in a position to make his opinion prevail. That person was the man on whom devolved the duty of holding in his consecrated hands the Sacred Ampulla, my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop Duke of Reims, Chancellor of the Kingdom.[1330]

[Footnote 1326: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 1327: Perceval de Cagny, p. 170.]

[Footnote 1328: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 310.]

[Footnote 1329: E. Cosneau, _Le connetable de Richemont_, pp. 179 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1330: Even after the coronation Regnault de Chartres would not "suffer the Maid and the Duke of Alencon to be together nor that he should recover her." Perceval de Cagny, p. 171.]

He was a man of rare intelligence, skilled in business, a very clever diplomatist, greedy of wealth, caring less for empty honours than for solid advantage, avaricious, unscrupulous, one who at the age of about fifty had lost nothing of his consuming energy; he had recently displayed it by spending himself n.o.bly in the defence of Orleans. Thus gifted, how could he fail to exercise a powerful control over the government?

Fifteen years had pa.s.sed since his elevation to the archiepiscopal see of Reims; and of his enormous revenue he had not yet received one penny. Albeit the possessor of great wealth from other sources, he pleaded poverty. To the Pope he addressed heart-rending supplications.[1331] If the Maid had found favour in the eyes of the Poitiers doctors, Monseigneur Regnault had had something to do with it. Had it not been for him, the doctors at court would never have proposed her examination. And we shall not be making too bold a hypothesis if we conclude, that when the march on Reims was decided in the royal council, it was because the Archbishop, on grounds suggested by human reason, approved of what the Maid proposed by divine inspiration.[1332]

[Footnote 1331: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises_, introduction.]

[Footnote 1332: See _ante_, pp. 153-159.]

While the coronation campaign was attended with grave drawbacks and met with serious obstacles, it nevertheless brought great gain and a certain subtle advantage to the royal cause. Unfortunately it left free from attack the rest of France occupied by the English, and it gave the latter time to recover themselves and procure aid from over sea. We shall shortly see what good use they made of their opportunities.[1333] As to the advantages of the expedition, they were many and various. First, Jeanne truly expressed the sentiments of the poor priests and the common folk when she said that the Dauphin would reap great profit from his anointing.[1334] From the oil of the holy Ampulla the King would derive a splendour, a majesty which would impress the whole of France, yea, even the whole of Christendom. In those days royalty was alike spiritual and temporal; and mult.i.tudes of men believed with Jeanne that kings only became kings by being anointed with the holy oil. Thus it would not be wrong to say that Charles of Valois would receive greater power from one drop of oil than from ten thousand lances. On a consideration like this the King's Councillors must needs set great store. They had also to take into account the time and the place. Might not the ceremony be performed in some other town than Reims? Might not the so-called "mystery" take place in that city which had been delivered by the intercession of its blessed patrons, Saint-Aignan and Saint Euverte? Two kings descended from Hugh Capet, Robert the Wise and Louis the Fat, had been crowned at Orleans.[1335] But the memory of their royal coronation was lost in the mists of antiquity, while folk still retained the memory of a long procession of most Christian kings anointed in the town where the holy oil had been brought down to Clovis by the celestial dove.[1336]

Besides, the lord Archbishop and Duke of Reims would never have suffered the King to receive his anointing save at his hand and in his cathedral.

[Footnote 1333: Morosini, vol. iv, supplement, xvii.]

[Footnote 1334: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 20, 300. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 322, 323. _Journal du siege_, pp. 93, 114. "And although the King had not money wherewith to pay his army, all knights, squires, men-at-arms, and the commonalty refused not to serve the King in this journey in company with the Maid." Perceval de Cagny, p. 157.]

[Footnote 1335: Le Maire, _Antiquites d'Orleans_, ch. xxv, p. 100.]

[Footnote 1336: Pius II, _Commentarii_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp.

513-514. Pierre des Gros, _Jardin des n.o.bles_ in P. Paris, _Ma.n.u.scrits francais de la bibliotheque du roi_, vol. ii, p. 149, and _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 533, 534.]

Therefore it was necessary to go to Reims. It was necessary also to antic.i.p.ate the English who had resolved to conduct thither their infant King that he might receive consecration according to the ancient ceremonial.[1337] But if the French had invaded Normandy they would have closed the young Henry's road to Paris and to Reims, a road which was already insecure for him; and it would be childish to maintain that the coronation could not have been postponed for a few weeks. If the conquest of Norman lands and Norman towns was renounced therefore, it was not merely for the sake of capturing the holy Ampulla. The Lord Archbishop of Reims had other objects at heart. He believed, for example, that, by pressing in between the Duke of Burgundy and his English allies, an excellent impression would be produced on the mind of that Prince and the edifying object-lesson presented to his consideration of Charles, son of Charles, King of France, riding at the head of a powerful army.

[Footnote 1337: William of Worcester [1415-1482, or Botoner, chronicler and traveller, secretary to Sir John Fastolf, disputed with John Paston concerning some land near Norwich, and frequently referred to in the Paston Letters. W.S.] in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 475. In 1430 it was the intention of the English to take their King to Reims "for which cause all the subjects of the kingdom would be more inclined to him" (advice given by Philippe le Bon to Henry VI, as cited by H. de Lannoy, in P. Champion, _G. de Flavy_, p. 156). There was an English project for carrying off the holy Ampulla from Reims. Pius II, _Commentarii_ in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 513.]

To attain the city of the Blessed Saint Remi two hundred and fifty miles of hostile country must be traversed. But for some time the army would be in no danger of meeting the enemy on the road. The English and Burgundians were engaged in using every means both fair and foul for the raising of troops. For the moment the French need fear no foe.

The rich country of Champagne, spa.r.s.ely wooded, well cultivated, teemed with corn and wine, and abounded in fat cattle.[1338] Champagne had not been devastated like Normandy. There was a likelihood of obtaining food for the men-at-arms, especially if, as was hoped, the good towns supplied victuals. They were very wealthy; their barns overflowed with corn. While owing allegiance to King Henry, no bonds of affection united them to the English or to the Burgundians. They governed themselves. They were rich merchants, who only longed for peace and who did their best to bring it about. Just now they were beginning to suspect that the Armagnacs were growing the stronger party. These folk of Champagne had a clergy and a _bourgeoisie_ who might be appealed to. It was not a question of storming their towns with artillery, mines, and trenches, but of getting round them with amnesties, concessions to the merchants and elaborate engagements to respect the privileges of the clergy. In this country there was no risk of rotting in hovels or burning in bastions. The townsfolk were expected to throw open their gates and partly from love, partly from fear, to give money to their lord the King.