St. Joan of Arc

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InFrenchJeanne d'Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known asla Pucelle (the Maid).

Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died atRouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke ofBurgundy, but in the protracted conflict between the Armagnacs (the party of Charles VII, King ofFrance), on the one hand, and theBurgundians in alliance with theEnglish, on the other, Domremy had always remained loyal to Charles.

Jacques d'Arc, Joan's father, was a small peasant farmer,poor but not needy. Joan seems to have been the youngest of afamily of five. She never learned to read or write but was skilled in sewing and spinning, and the popularidea that she spent the days of her childhood in the pastures, alone with the sheep and cattle, is quite unfounded. All thewitnesses in the process of rehabilitation spoke of her as a singularly pious child, grave beyond her years, who oftenknelt in thechurch absorbed inprayer, andloved thepoor tenderly. Great attempts were made at Joan's trial to connect her with somesuperstitious practices supposed to have been performed round a certain tree, popularly known as the "Fairy Tree" (l'Arbre des Dames), but the sincerity of her answers baffled her judges. She had sung anddanced there with the other children, and had woven wreaths forOur Lady'sstatue, but since she was twelve years old she had held aloof from such diversions.

It was at the age of thirteen and a half, in the summer of 1425, that Joan first becameconscious of thatmanifestation, whosesupernatural character it would now be rash to question, which she afterwards came to call her "voices" or her "counsel." It was at first simply a voice, as if someone had spoken quite close to her, but it seems also clear that a blaze of light accompanied it, and that later on she clearly discerned in some way the appearance of those who spoke to her, recognizing them individually asSt. Michael (who was accompanied by otherangels),St. Margaret,St. Catherine, and others. Joan was always reluctant to speak of her voices. She said nothing about them to her confessor, and constantly refused, at her trial, to be inveigled into descriptions of the appearance of thesaints and to explain how she recognized them. None the less, she told her judges: "I saw them with these very eyes, as well as I see you."

Great efforts have been made byrationalistic historians, such as M. Anatole France, to explain these voices as the result of acondition ofreligious and hysterical exaltation which had been fostered in Joan bypriestly influence, combined with certainprophecies current in the countryside of a maiden from thebois chesnu (oak wood), near which the Fairy Tree was situated, who was to saveFrance by amiracle. But the baselessness of thisanalysis of the phenomena has been fully exposed by many non-Catholic writers. There is not a shadow of evidence to support this theory ofpriestly advisers coaching Joan in a part, but much which contradicts it. Moreover, unless we accuse the Maid ofdeliberate falsehood, which no one is prepared to do, it was the voices which created the state ofpatriotic exaltation, and not the exaltation which preceded the voices. Her evidence on these points is clear.

Although Joan never made any statement as to the date at which the voices revealed her mission, it seemscertain that the call of God was only made known to her gradually. But by May, 1428, she no longerdoubted that she was bidden to go to the help of the king, and the voices became insistent, urging her to present herself to Robert Baudricourt, who commanded for Charles VII in the neighbouring town of Vaucouleurs. This journey she eventually accomplished a month later, but Baudricourt, a rude and dissolute soldier, treated her and her mission with scant respect, saying to the cousin who accompanied her: "Take her home to herfather and give her a good whipping."

Meanwhile the military situation of King Charles and his supporters was growing more desperate.Orléans was invested (12 October, 1428), and by the close of the year complete defeat seemed imminent. Joan's voices became urgent, and even threatening. It was in vain that she resisted, saying to them: "I am apoor girl; I do notknow how to ride or fight." The voices only reiterated: "It isGod who commands it." Yielding at last, she left Domremy in January, 1429, and again visited Vaucouleurs.

Baudricourt was still skeptical, but, as she stayed on in the town, her persistence gradually made an impression on him. On 17 February she announced a great defeat which had befallen theFrench arms outsideOrléans (the Battle of the Herrings). As this statement was officially confirmed a few days later, her cause gained ground. Finally she was suffered to seek the king at Chinon, and she made her way there with a slender escort of three men-at-arms, she being attired, at her own request, in male costume — undoubtedly as a protection to her modesty in the rough life of the camp. She always slept fully dressed, and all those who were intimate with her declared that there was something about her which repressed every unseemly thought in her regard.

She reached Chinon on 6 March, and two days later was admitted into the presence of Charles VII. To test her, the king had disguised himself, but she at once saluted him without hesitation amidst a group of attendants. From the beginning a strong party at the court — La Trémoille, the royal favourite, foremost among them — opposed her as a crazyvisionary, but a secret sign, communicated to her by her voices, which she madeknown to Charles, led the king, somewhat half-heartedly, tobelieve in her mission. What this sign was, Joan never revealed, but it is now most commonlybelieved that this "secret of the king" was adoubt Charles had conceived of thelegitimacy of his birth, and which Joan had beensupernaturally authorized to set at rest.

Still, before Joan could be employed in military operations she was sent toPoitiers to be examined by a numerous committee of learnedbishops anddoctors. The examination was of the most searching and formal character. It is regrettable in the extreme that the minutes of the proceedings, to which Joan frequentlyappealed later on at her trial, have altogether perished. All that weknow is that her ardentfaith, simplicity, and honesty made a favourable impression. Thetheologians found nothingheretical in her claims tosupernatural guidance, and, without pronouncing upon the reality of her mission, they thought that she might be safely employed and further tested.

Returning to Chinon, Joan made her preparations for the campaign. Instead of the sword the king offered her, she begged that search might be made for an ancient swordburied, as she averred, behind thealtar in thechapel of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois. It was found in the very spot her voices indicated. There was made for her at the sametime a standard bearing the wordsJesus,Maria, with a picture ofGod the Father, andkneelingangels presenting a fleur-de-lis.

But perhaps the most interesting fact connected with this early stage of her mission is a letter of one Sire de Rotslaer written fromLyons on 22 April, 1429, which was delivered atBrussels and duly registered, as themanuscript to this day attests, before any of the events referred to received their fulfilment. The Maid, he reports, said "that she would saveOrléans and would compel theEnglish to raise the siege, that she herself in a battle beforeOrléans would be wounded by a shaft but would not die of it, and that the King, in the course of the coming summer, would becrowned atReims, together with other things which the King keeps secret."

Before entering upon her campaign, Joan summoned the King ofEngland to withdraw his troops fromFrench soil. TheEnglish commanders werefurious at the audacity of the demand, but Joan by a rapid movement enteredOrléans on 30 April. Her presence there at once worked wonders. By 8 May theEnglish forts which encircled the city had all been captured, and the siege raised, though on the 7th Joan was wounded in the breast by an arrow. So far as the Maid went she wished to follow up these successes with all speed, partly from a sound warlikeinstinct, partly because her voices had already told her that she had only a year to last. But the king and his advisers, especially La Trémoille and theArchbishop ofReims, were slow to move. However, at Joan's earnest entreaty a short campaign was begun upon the Loire, which, after a series of successes, ended on 18 June with a great victory at Patay, where theEnglish reinforcements sent fromParis under Sir John Fastolf were completely routed. The way toReims was now practically open, but the Maid had the greatest difficulty in persuading the commanders not to retire beforeTroyes, which was at first closed against them. They captured the town and then, still reluctantly, followed her toReims, where, onSunday, 17 July, 1429, Charles VII was solemnlycrowned, the Maid standing by with her standard, for — as she explained — "as it had shared in the toil, it wasjust that it should share in the victory."

The principal aim of Joan's mission was thus attained, and some authorities assert that it was now her wish to return home, but that she was detained with the army against herwill. The evidence is to some extent conflicting, and it is probable that Joan herself did not always speak in the same tone. Probably she saw clearly how much might have been done to bring about the speedy expulsion of theEnglish fromFrench soil, but on the other hand she was constantly oppressed by the apathy of the king and his advisers, and by the suicidal policy which snatched at every diplomatic bait thrown out by the Duke ofBurgundy.

An abortive attempt onParis was made at the end of August. ThoughSt-Denis was occupied without opposition, the assault which was made on the city on 8 September was not seriously supported, and Joan, while heroically cheering on her men to fill the moat, was shot through the thigh with a bolt from a crossbow. The Duc d'Alençon removed her almost by force, and the assault was abandoned. The reverse unquestionably impaired Joan's prestige, and shortly afterwards, when, through Charles' political counsellors, a truce was signed with the Duke ofBurgundy, she sadly laid down her arms upon thealtar ofSt-Denis.

The inactivity of the following winter, mostly spent amid the worldliness and thejealousy of the Court, must have been a miserable experience for Joan. It may have been with theidea of consoling her that Charles, on 29 December, 1429, ennobled the Maid and all herfamily, who henceforward, from the lilies on theircoat of arms, were known by the name of Du Lis. It was April before Joan was able to take the field again at the conclusion of the truce, and at Melun her voices madeknown to her that she would be takenprisoner before Midsummer Day. Neither was the fulfilment of thisprediction long delayed. It seems that she had thrown herself into Compiègne on 24 May at sunrise to defend the town againstBurgundian attack. In the evening she resolved to attempt a sortie, but her little troop of some five hundred encountered a much superior force. Her followers were driven back and retired desperately fighting. By some mistake or panic of Guillaume de Flavy, who commanded in Compiègne, the drawbridge was raised while still many of those who had made the sortie remained outside, Joan amongst the number. She was pulled down from her horse and became theprisoner of a follower of John of Luxemburg. Guillaume de Flavy has been accused of deliberate treachery, but there seems no adequate reason to suppose this. He continued to hold Compiègne resolutely for his king, while Joan's constant thought during the early months of her captivity was to escape and come to assist him in this task of defending the town.

No words can adequately describe the disgraceful ingratitude and apathy of Charles and his advisers in leaving the Maid to herfate. If military force had not availed, they hadprisoners like the Earl of Suffolk in their hands, for whom she could have been exchanged. Joan was sold by John of Luxembourg to theEnglish for a sum which would amount to several hundred thousand dollars in modern money. There can be nodoubt that theEnglish, partly because theyfeared theirprisoner with asuperstitious terror, partly because they were ashamed of the dread which she inspired, were determined at all costs to take herlife. They could notput her to death for having beaten them, but they could get hersentenced as awitch and aheretic.

Moreover, they had a tool ready to their hand in Pierre Cauchon, theBishop ofBeauvais, an unscrupulous andambitious man who was the creature of theBurgundian party. A pretext for invoking his authority was found in the fact that Compiègne, where Joan was captured, lay in theDiocese of Beauvais. Still, asBeauvais was in the hands of theFrench, the trial took place atRouen — the lattersee being at thattimevacant. This raised many points of technical legality which were summarily settled by the partiesinterested.

TheVicar of theInquisition at first, upon somescruple ofjurisdiction, refused to attend, but this difficulty was overcome before the trial ended. Throughout the trial Cauchon'sassessors consisted almost entirely ofFrenchmen, for the most parttheologians anddoctors of theUniversity of Paris. Preliminary meetings of the court took place in January, but it was only on 21 February, 1431, that Joan appeared for the first time before her judges. She was not allowed an advocate, and, though accused in anecclesiastical court, she was throughout illegally confined in the Castle of Rouen, a secularprison, where she was guarded by dissoluteEnglish soldiers. Joan bitterly complained of this. She asked to be in thechurch prison, where she would have hadfemale attendants. It was undoubtedly for the better protection of her modesty under suchconditions that she persisted in retaining her male attire. Before she had been handed over to theEnglish, she had attempted to escape by desperately throwing herself from the window of the tower of Beaurevoir, an act of seemingpresumption for which she was much browbeaten by her judges. This also served as a pretext for the harshness shown regarding her confinement atRouen, where she was at first kept in an iron cage, chained by the neck, hands, and feet. On the other hand she was allowed nospiritualprivileges — e.g. attendance atMass — on account of the charge ofheresy and the monstrous dress (difformitate habitus) she was wearing.

As regards the official record of the trial, which, so far as theLatin version goes, seems to be preserved entire, we may probably trust its accuracy in all that relates to the questions asked and the answers returned by theprisoner. These answers are in every way favourable to Joan. Her simplicity, piety, and good sense appear at every turn, despite the attempts of the judges to confuse her. They pressed her regarding hervisions, but upon many points she refused to answer. Her attitude was always fearless, and, upon 1 March, Joan boldly announced that "within seven years' space theEnglish would have to forfeit a bigger prize thanOrléans." In point of factParis was lost to Henry VI on 12 November, 1437 — six years and eight months afterwards. It was probably because the Maid's answers perceptibly won sympathizers for her in a large assembly that Cauchon decided to conduct the rest of the inquiry before a small committee of judges in theprison itself. We may remark that the only matter in which any charge of prevarication can be reasonably urged against Joan's replies occurs especially in this stage of the inquiry. Joan, pressed about the secret sign given to the king, declared that anangel brought him a golden crown, but on further questioning she seems to have grown confused and to have contradicted herself. Most authorities (like, e.g., M. Petit de Julleville and Mr. Andrew Lang) are agreed that she was trying to guard the king's secret behind an allegory, she herself being theangel; but others — for instance P. Ayroles and Canon Dunand — insinuate that the accuracy of theprocès-verbal cannot be trusted. On another point she was prejudiced by her lack ofeducation. The judges asked her to submit herself to "the Church Militant." Joan clearly did not understand the phrase and, though willing and anxious toappeal to thepope, grew puzzled and confused. It was asserted later that Joan's reluctance to pledge herself to a simpleacceptance of theChurch's decisions was due to some insidious advice treacherously imparted to her to work her ruin. But the accounts of this alleged perfidy are contradictory and improbable.

Theexaminations terminated on 17 March. Seventy propositions were then drawn up, forming a very disorderly and unfair presentment of Joan's "crimes," but, after she had been permitted to hear and reply to these, another set of twelve were drafted, better arranged and less extravagantly worded. With this summary of her misdeeds before them, a largemajority of the twenty-two judges who took part in the deliberations declared Joan'svisions and voices to be "false anddiabolical," and they decided that if she refused to retract she was to be handed over to thesecular arm — which was the same as saying that she was to be burned. Certain formaladmonitions, at first private, and then public, were administered to the poor victim (18 April and 2 May), but she refused to make any submission which the judges could have considered satisfactory. On 9 May she was threatened with torture, but she still held firm. Meanwhile, the twelve propositions were submitted to theUniversity of Paris, which, being extravagantlyEnglish in sympathy,denounced the Maid inviolent terms. Strong in this approval, the judges, forty-seven in number, held a final deliberation, and forty-two reaffirmed that Joan ought to be declaredheretical and handed over to thecivil power, if she still refused to retract. Anotheradmonition followed in theprison on 22 May, but Joan remained unshaken. The next day a stake was erected in thecemetery of St-Ouen, and in the presence of a great crowd she was solemnlyadmonished for the last time. After acourageous protest against the preacher's insulting reflections on her king, Charles VII, the accessories of the scene seem at last to have worked uponmind and body worn out by so many struggles. Hercourage for once failed her. Sheconsented to sign some sort of retraction, but what the precise terms of that retraction were will never beknown. In the official record of the process a form of retraction is in inserted which is most humiliating in every particular. It is a long document which would have taken half an hour to read. What was read aloud to Joan and was signed by her must have been something quite different, for fivewitnesses at the rehabilitation trial, including Jean Massieu, the official who had himself read it aloud, declared that it was only a matter of a few lines. Even so, the poor victim did not sign unconditionally, but plainly declared that she only retracted in so far as it wasGod'swill. However, in virtue of this concession, Joan was not then burned, but conducted back toprison.

TheEnglish andBurgundians were furious, but Cauchon, it seems, placated them by saying, "We shall have her yet." Undoubtedly her position would now, in case of a relapse, be worse than before, for no second retractation could save her from the flames. Moreover, as one of the points upon which she had been condemned was the wearing of male apparel, a resumption of that attire would alone constitute a relapse intoheresy, and this within a few days happened, owing, it was afterwards alleged, to a trap deliberately laid by her jailers with the connivance of Cauchon. Joan, either to defend her modesty from outrage, or because herwomen's garments were taken from her, or, perhaps, simply because she was weary of the struggle and was convinced that her enemies were determined to have her blood upon some pretext, once more put on the man's dress which had been purposely left in her way. The end now came soon. On 29 May a court of thirty-seven judges decided unanimously that the Maid must be treated as a relapsedheretic, and thissentence was actually carried out the next day (30 May, 1431) amid circumstances of intense pathos. She is said, when the judges visited her early in the morning, first to have charged Cauchon with the responsibility of her death, solemnly appealing from him toGod, and afterwards to have declared that "her voices haddeceived her." About this last speech adoubt must always be felt. We cannot be sure whether such words were ever used, and, even if they were, the meaning is not plain. She was, however, allowed to make herconfession and to receiveCommunion. Her demeanour at the stake was such as to move even her bitter enemies to tears. She asked for across, which, after she had embraced it, was held up before her while she called continuously upon thename of Jesus. "Until the last," said Manchon, the recorder at the trial, "she declared that her voices came fromGod and had notdeceived her." After death her ashes were thrown into the Seine.

Twenty-four years later a revision of her trial, theprocès de réhabilitation, was opened atParis with theconsent of theHoly See. The popular feeling was then very different, and, with but the rarest exceptions, all thewitnesses were eager to render their tribute to thevirtues andsupernatural gifts of the Maid. The first trial had been conducted without reference to thepope; indeed it was carried out in defiance of St. Joan'sappeal to thehead of the Church. Now an appellate court constituted by thepope, after long inquiry andexamination ofwitnesses, reversed and annulled thesentence pronounced by a local tribunal under Cauchon's presidency. The illegality of the former proceedings was made clear, and it speaks well for the sincerity of this new inquiry that it could not be made without inflicting some degree of reproach upon both the King ofFrance and theChurch at large, seeing that so great aninjustice had been done and had so long been suffered to continue unredressed. Even before the rehabilitation trial, keen observers, like Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwardsPope Pius II), though still indoubt as to her mission, had discerned something of theheavenlycharacter of the Maid. InShakespeare's day she was still regarded inEngland as awitch in league with thefiends ofhell, but ajuster estimate had begun to prevail even in the pages of Speed's "History of Great Britaine" (1611). By the beginning of the nineteenth century the sympathy for her even inEngland was general. Such writers as Southey, Hallam, Sharon Turner, Carlyle, Landor, and, above all, De Quincey greeted the Maid with a tribute of respect which was not surpassed even in her own native land. Among herCatholic fellow-countrymen she had been regarded, even in her lifetime, as Divinely inspired.

At last the cause of herbeatification was introduced upon occasion of anappeal addressed to theHoly See, in 1869, byMgr Dupanloup,Bishop ofOrléans, and, after passing through all its stages and being duly confirmed by the necessarymiracles, the process ended in thedecree being published byPius X on 11 April, 1909. AMass andOffice of St. Joan, taken from the "Commune Virginum," with "proper"prayers, have been approved by theHoly See for use in theDiocese of Orléans.

St. Joan wascanonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

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