The Life of Joan of Arc Part 89

96. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc au cimetiere de Saint-Ouen et l'authenticite de sa formule_, Paris, 1902, in 8vo, p.

18.]

[Footnote 2028: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 8-10. E. O'Reilly, _Les deux proces_, vol. ii, pp. 13, 14. P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 516, no. 2372.]

"... We beseech you in all good affection, O powerful Prince," he said, "and we entreat your n.o.ble va.s.sals that by them and by you Jeanne be sent unto us surely and shortly, and we hope that thus ye will do as being the true protector of the faith and the defender of G.o.d's honour...."[2029]

[Footnote 2029: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 12. E. O'Reilly, _Les deux proces_.]

The Vicar-General of the Grand Inquisitor of France, Brother Martin Billoray,[2030] Master of theology, belonged to the order of friars preachers, the members of which exercised the princ.i.p.al functions of the Holy office. In the days of Innocent III, when the Inquisition was exterminating Cathari and Albigenses, the sons of Dominic figured in paintings in monasteries and chapels as great white hounds spotted with black, biting at the throats of the wolves of heresy.[2031] In France in the fifteenth century the Dominicans were always the dogs of the Lord; they, jointly with the bishops, drove out the heretic. The Grand Inquisitor or his Vicar was unable of his own initiative to set on foot and prosecute any judicial action; the bishops maintained their right to judge crimes committed against the Church. In matters of faith trials were conducted by two judges, the Ordinary, who might be the bishop himself or the Official, and the Inquisitor or his Vicar. Inquisitorial forms were observed.[2032]

[Footnote 2030: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 3, 12; vol. iii, p. 378; vol. v, p. 392.]

[Footnote 2031: _Domini canes._ Thus they are represented in the frescoes of the Capella degli Spagnuoli in Santa-Maria-Novella at Florence.]

[Footnote 2032: Tanon, _Histoire des tribuneaux de l'inquisition en France_, ch. ii.]

In the Maid's case it was not the Bishop only who was prompting the Holy Inquisition, but the Daughter of Kings, the Mother of Learning, the Bright and Shining Sun of France and of Christendom, the University of Paris. She arrogated to herself a peculiar jurisdiction in cases of heresy or other matters of doctrine occurring in the city or its neighbourhood; her advice was asked on every hand and regarded as authoritative over the face of the whole world, wheresoever the Cross had been set up. For a year her masters and doctors, many in number and filled with sound learning, had been clamouring for the Maid to be delivered up to the Inquisition, as being good for the welfare of the Church and conducive to the interests of the faith; for they had a deep-rooted suspicion that the damsel came not from G.o.d, but was deceived and seduced by the machinations of the Devil; that she acted not by divine power but by the aid of demons; that she was addicted to witchcraft and practised idolatry.[2033]

[Footnote 2033: Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 510; _Le proces de Jeanne d'Arc et l'universite de Paris_, Paris, 1897, in 8vo, 32 pp.]

Such knowledge as they possessed of things divine and methods of reasoning corroborated this grave suspicion. They were Burgundians and English by necessity and by inclination; they observed faithfully the Treaty of Troyes to which they had sworn; they were devoted to the Regent who showed them great consideration; they abhorred the Armagnacs, who desolated and laid waste their city, the most beautiful in the world;[2034] they held that the Dauphin Charles had forfeited his rights to the Kingdom of the Lilies. Wherefore they inclined to believe that the Maid of the Armagnacs, the woman knight of the Dauphin Charles, was inspired by a company of loathsome demons. These scholars of the University were human; they believed what it was to their interest to believe; they were priests and they beheld the Devil everywhere, but especially in a woman. Without having devoted themselves to any profound examination of the deeds and sayings of this damsel, they knew enough to cause them to demand an immediate inquiry. She called herself the emissary of G.o.d, the daughter of G.o.d; and she appeared loquacious, vain, crafty, gorgeous in her attire. She had threatened the English that if they did not quit France she would have them all slain. She commanded armies, wherefore she was a slayer of her fellow-creatures and foolhardy. She was seditious, for are not all those seditious who support the opposite party? But recently having appeared before Paris in company with Friar Richard, a heretic, and a rebel,[2035] she had threatened to put the Parisians to death without mercy and committed the mortal sin of storming the city on the Anniversary of the Nativity of Our Lady. It was important to examine whether in all this she had been inspired by a good spirit or a bad.[2036]

[Footnote 2034: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, _pa.s.sim_.

Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 450.]

[Footnote 2035: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 237. T. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. iv, pp. 103, 104.

Monstrelet, vol. iv, ch. lxiii. Bougenot, _Deux doc.u.ments inedits relatifs a Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue bleue_, 13 Feb., 1892, pp. 203, 204.]

[Footnote 2036: Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 515, no. 2370; _Le proces de Jeanne d'Arc et l'universite de Paris_.]

Despite his strong attachment to the interests of the Church, the Duke of Burgundy did not respond to the urgent demand of the University; and Messire Jean de Luxembourg, after having kept the Maid three or four days in his quarters before Compiegne, had her taken to the Castle of Beaulieu in Vermandois, a few leagues from the camp.[2037]

Like his master, he ever appeared the obedient son of Mother Church; but prudence counselled him to await the approach of English and French and to see what each of them would offer.

[Footnote 2037: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 389. Perceval de Cagny, p. 176.

Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 300-302; vol. iv, pp. 254-355. De La Fons-Melicocq, _Une cite picarde au moyen age ou Noyon et les Noyonnais aux XIV'e et XV'e siecles_, Noyon, 1841, vol. ii, pp.

100-105. In 1441 Lyonnel de Wandomme, who was governor of this town, was driven out by the inhabitants on the death of Jean de Luxembourg (Monstrelet, vol. v, p. 456).]

At Beaulieu, Jeanne was treated courteously and ceremoniously. Her steward, Messire Jean d'Aulon, waited on her in her prison; one day he said to her pitifully:

"That poor town of Compiegne, which you so dearly loved, will now be delivered into the hands of the enemies of France, whom it must needs obey."

She made answer: "No, that shall not come to pa.s.s. For not one of those places, which the King of Heaven hath conquered through me and restored to their allegiance to the fair King Charles, shall be recaptured by the enemy, so diligently will he guard them."[2038]

[Footnote 2038: Perceval de Cagny, p. 177, very doubtful.]

One day she tried to escape by slipping between two planks. She had intended to shut up her guards in the tower and take to the fields, but the porter saw and stopped her. She concluded that it was not G.o.d's will that she should escape this time.[2039] Notwithstanding she had far too much self-reliance to despair. Her Voices, like her enamoured of marvellous encounters and knightly adventures, told her that she must see the King of England.[2040] Thus did her dreams encourage and console her in her misfortune.

[Footnote 2039: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 163-164, 249.]

[Footnote 2040: _Ibid._, p. 151.]

Great was the mourning on the Loire when the inhabitants of the towns loyal to King Charles learnt the disaster which had befallen the Maid.

The people, who venerated her as a saint, who went so far as to say that she was the greatest of all G.o.d's saints after the Blessed Virgin Mary, who erected images of her in the chapels of saints, who ordered ma.s.ses to be said for her, and collects in the churches, who wore leaden medals on which she was represented as if the Church had already canonized her,[2041] did not withdraw their trust, but continued to believe in her.[2042] Such faithfulness scandalized the doctors and masters of the University, who reproached the hapless Maid herself with it. "Jeanne," they said, "hath so seduced the Catholic people, that many have adored her as a saint in her presence, and now in her absence they adore her still."[2043]

[Footnote 2041: Vallet de Viriville, _Note sur deux medailles de plomb relatives a Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1861, in 8vo, 30 pages. Forgeais, _Notice sur les plombs histories trouves dans la Seine_, Paris, 1860, in 8vo. J. Quicherat, _Medaille frappee en l'honneur de la Pucelle, Six dessins sur Jeanne d'Arc tires d'un ma.n.u.scrit du XV'e siecle_, in _L'autographe_, No. 24, 15 Nov., 1864.]

[Footnote 2042: P. Lanery d'Arc, _Le culte de Jeanne d'Arc au XV'e siecle_, Paris, 1887, in 8vo, 29 pages.]

[Footnote 2043: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 290.]

This was indeed true of many folk and many places. The councillors of the town of Tours ordered public prayers to be offered for the deliverance of the Maid. There was a public procession in which took part the canons of the cathedral church, the clergy of the town, secular and regular, all walking barefoot.[2044]

[Footnote 2044: Carreau, _Histoire ma.n.u.scrite de Touraine_, in _Proces_, vol. v, pp. 253, 254.]

In the towns of Dauphine prayers for the Maid were said at ma.s.s.

"_Collect._ O G.o.d, all powerful and eternal, who, in thy holy and ineffable mercy, hast commanded the Maid to restore and deliver the realm of France, and to repulse, confound and annihilate her enemies, and who hast permitted her, in the accomplishment of this holy work, ordained by thee, to fall into the hands and into the bonds of her enemies, we beseech thee, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints to deliver her out of their hands, without her having suffered any hurt, in order that she may finish the work whereto thou hast sent her."

"For the sake of Jesus Christ, etc."

"_Secret._ O G.o.d all powerful, Father of virtues, let thy holy benediction descend upon this sacrifice; let thy wondrous power be made manifest, that by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints, it may deliver the Maid from the prisons of the enemy so that she may finish the work whereto thou hast sent her.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc."

"_Post Communion._ O G.o.d all powerful, incline thine ear and listen unto the prayers of thy people: by the virtue of the Sacrament we have just received, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the saints, burst the bonds of the Maid, who, in the fulfilment of thy commands, hath been and is still confined in the prisons of our enemy; through thy divine compa.s.sion and thy mercy, permit her, freed from peril, to accomplish the work whereto thou hast sent her. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc."[2045]

[Footnote 2045: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104. E. Maignien, _Oraisons latines pour la delivrance de Jeanne d'Arc_. Gren.o.ble, 1867, in 8vo (_Revue des Societes savantes_, vol. iv, pp. 412-414). G. de Braux, _Trois oraisons pour la delivrance de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Journal de la Societe d'Archeologie Lorraine_, June, 1887, pp. 125, 127.]

Learning that the Maid, whom he had once suspected of evil intentions and then recognised to be wholly good, had just fallen into the hands of the enemy of the realm, Messire Jacques Gelu, my Lord Archbishop of Embrun, despatched to King Charles a messenger bearing a letter touching the line of conduct to be adopted in such an unhappy conjuncture.[2046]

[Footnote 2046: _Vita Jacobi Gelu ab ipso conscripta_, in _Bulletin de la Societe archeologique de Touraine_, iii, 1867, pp. 266 _et seq._ The Rev. Father Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 313 _et seq._]

Addressing the Prince, whom in childhood he had directed, Messire Jacques begins by recalling what the Maid had wrought for him by G.o.d's help and her own great courage. He beseeches him to examine his conscience and see whether he has in any wise sinned against the grace of G.o.d. For it may be that in wrath against the King the Lord hath permitted this virgin to be taken. For his own honour he urges him to strain every effort for her deliverance.

"I commend unto you," he said, "that for the recovery of this damsel and for her ransom, ye spare neither measures nor money, nor any cost, unless ye be ready to incur the ineffaceable disgrace of an ingrat.i.tude right unworthy."

Further he advises that prayers be ordered to be said everywhere for the deliverance of the Maid, so that if this disaster should have befallen through any misdoing of the King or of his people, it might please G.o.d to pardon it.[2047]

[Footnote 2047: _Ibid._, pp. 319, 320.]

Such were the words, lacking neither in strength nor in charity, of this aged prelate, who was more of a hermit than of a bishop. He remembered having been the Dauphin's Councillor in evil days and he dearly loved the King and the kingdom.

The Sire de la Tremouille and the Lord Archbishop of Reims have been suspected of desiring to get rid of the Maid and of having promoted her discomfiture. There are those who think they have discovered the treacherous methods employed to compa.s.s her defeat at Paris, at La Charite and at Compiegne.[2048] But in good sooth such methods were unnecessary. At Paris there was but little chance of her being able to cross the moat, since neither she nor her companions in arms had ascertained its depth; besides, it was not the fault of the King and his Council that the Carmelites, on whom they relied, failed to open the gates. The siege of La Charite was conducted not by the Maid, but by the Sire d'Albret and divers valiant captains. In the sortie from Compiegne, it was certain that any dallying at Margny would cause the French to be cut off by the English from Venette and by the Burgundians from Clairoix and to be promptly overcome by the Burgundians from Coudun. They forgot themselves in the delights of pillage; and the inevitable result followed.

[Footnote 2048: Thoma.s.sin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 312. _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 323. _Chronique de Tournai_, in _Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, p. 415.

_Chronique de Normandie_, ed. A. h.e.l.lot, Rouen, 1881, in 8vo, pp. 77, 78. _Chronique de Lorraine_, ed. Abbe Marchal (_Recueil de doc.u.ments sur l'histoire de Lorraine_, vol. v).]

And why should the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Archbishop have wanted to get rid of the Maid? She did not trouble them; on the contrary they found her useful and employed her. By her prophecy that she would cause the King to be anointed at Reims, she rendered an immense service to my Lord Regnault, who more than any other profited from the Champagne expedition, more even than the King, who, while he succeeded in being crowned, failed to recover Paris and Normandy.

Notwithstanding this great advantage, the Lord Archbishop felt no grat.i.tude towards the Maid; he was a hard man and an egoist. But did he wish her harm? Had he not need of her? At Senlis he was maintaining the King's cause; and he was maintaining it well, we may be sure, since, with the towns that had returned to their liege lord, he was defending his own episcopal and ducal city, his benefices and his canonries. Did he not intend to use her against the Burgundians? We have already noted reasons for believing that towards the end of March, he had asked the Sire de la Tremouille to send her from Sully with a goodly company to wage war in l'ile-de-France. And our hypothesis is confirmed when, after they had been unhappily deprived of Jeanne's services, we find the bishop and the Chamberlain driven to replace her by someone likewise favoured with visions and claiming to be sent of G.o.d. Unable to discover a maid they had to make shift with a youth. This resolution they took a few days after Jeanne's capture and this is how it came about.