第44章

There was at that time (who would believe it?) a vicar- general of the Inquisition in France, by name Brother Martin.It was one of the most horrible effects of the total subversion of that unfortunate country.Brother Martin claimed the prisoner as smelling of heresy ( odorantem haeresim).He called upon the Duke of Burgundy and the Comte de Ligny, " by the right of his office, and of the authority given to him by the Holy See, to deliver Joan to the Holy Inquisition."The Sorbonne hastened to support Brother Martin, and wrote to the Duke of Burgundy and to Jean de Luxembourg -" You have used your noble power to apprehend this woman who calls herself the Maid, by means of whom the honour of God has been immeasurably offended, the faith exceedingly hurt, and the Church too greatly dishonoured; for by reason of her, idolatry, errors, bad doctrine, and other inestimable evils have ensued in this kingdom...but what this woman has done would be of small account, if did not ensue what is meet for satisfying the offence perpetrated by her against our gentle Creator and His faith, and the Holy Church with her other innumerable misdeeds...and it would be intolerable offence against the divine majesty if it happened that this woman were freed."Finally, the Maid was awarded to Jean Cauchon whom people called the unworthy bishop, the unworthy Frenchman, and the unworthy man.Jean de Luxembourg sold the Maid to Cauchon and the English for ten thousand livres, and the Duke of Bedford paid them.The Sorbonne, the bishop and Brother Martin, then presented a new petition to this Duke of Bedford, regent of France, "in honour of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for that the said Joan may be briefly put into the hands of the Church." Joan was led to Rouen.The archbishopric was vacant at that time, and the chapter permitted the Bishop of Beauvais to work in the town.(Besogner is the term which was used.) He chose as assessors nine doctors of the Sorbonne with thirty-five other assisiants, abbots or monks.The vicar of the Inquisition, Martin, presided with Cauchon; and as lie was only a vicar, he had but second place.

Joan underwent fourteen examinations; they are singular.She said that she saw St.Catherine and St.Marguerite at Poitiers.Doctor Beaupere asks her how she recognized the saints.She answers that it was by their way of bowing.Beaupere asks her if they are great chatterboxes."Go look on the register," she says.Beaupere asks her if, when she saw St.Michael, he was naked.She answers: " Do you think our Lord had nothing to clothe him with? "The curious will carefully observe here that Joan had long been directed with other religious women of the populace by a rogue named Richard, who performed miracles, and who taught these girls to perform them.One day he gave communion three times in succession to Joan, in honour of the Trinity.

It was then the custom in matters of importance and in times of great peril.

The knights had three masses said, and communicated three times when they went to seek fortune or to fight in a duel.It is what has been observed on the part of the Chevalier Bayard.

The workers of miracles, Joan's companions, who were submissive to Richard, were named Pierrone and Catherine.Pierrone affirmed that she had seen that God appeared to her in human form as a friend to a friend.

God was "clad in a long white robe, etc.''

Up to the present the ridiculous; here now is the horrible.

One of Joan's judges, doctor of theology and priest, by name Nicholas the Bird-Catcher, comes to confess her in prison.He abuses the sacrament to the point of hiding behind a piece of serge two priests who transcribed Joan of Arc's confession.Thus did the judges use sacrilege in order to be murderers.And an unfortunate idiot, who had had enough courage to render very great services to the king and the country, was condemned to be burned by fortyfour French priests who immolated her for the English faction.

It is sufficiently well-known how someone had the cunning and meanness to put a man's suit beside her to tempt her to wear this suit again, and with what absurd barbarism this transgression was claimed as a pretext for condemning her to the flames, as if in a warrior girl it was a crime worthy of the fire, to put on breeches instead of a skirt.All this wrings the heart, and makes common sense shudder.One cannot conceive how we dare, after the countless horrors of which we have been guilty, call any nation by the name of barbarian.

Most of our historians, lovers of the so-called embellishments of history rather than of truth, say that Joan went fearlessly to the torture;but as the chronicles of the times bear witness, and as the historian Villaret admits, she received her sentence with cries and tears; a weakness pardonable in her sex, and perhaps in ours, and very compatible with the courage which this girl had displayed amid the dangers of war; for one can be fearless in battle, and sensitive on the scaffold.

I must add that many persons have believed without any examination that the Maid of Orleans was not burned at Rouen at all, although we have the official report of her execution.They have been deceived by the account we still have of an adventuress who took the name of the " Maid," deceived Joan of Arc's brothers, and under cover of this imposture, married in Lorraine a nobleman of the house of Armoise.There were two other rogues who also passed themselves off as the " Maid of Orleans." All three claimed that Joan was not burned at all, and that another woman had been substituted for her.Such stories can be admitted only by those who want to be deceived.Philosophical Dictionary: Kissing KISSING I ASK pardon of the boys and the girls; but maybe they will not find here what they will seek.This article is only for scholars and serious persons for whom it is barely suitable.