The Life of Joan of Arc | Page 9

suit the occasion, or even when it is absolutely contrary to the
truth, we must blame not only those who gave it, but those who
received it. In its elicitation the latter were too artful. This evidence has
about as much value as the evidence in a trial by the Inquisition. In
certain matters it may represent the ideas of the judges as much as those
of the witnesses.
What the judges in this instance were most desirous to establish was
that Jeanne had not understood when she was spoken to of the Church
and the Pope, that she had refused to obey the Church Militant because
she believed the Church Militant to be Messire Cauchon and his
assessors. In short, it was necessary to represent her as almost an
imbecile. In ecclesiastical procedure this expedient was frequently
adopted. And there was yet another reason, a very strong one, for
passing her off as an innocent, a damsel devoid of intelligence. This

second trial, like the first, had been instituted with a political motive; its
object was to make known that Jeanne had come to the aid of the King
of France not by devilish incitement, but by celestial inspiration.
Consequently in order that divine wisdom might be made manifest in
her she must be shown to have had no wisdom of her own. On this
string the examiners were constantly harping. On every occasion they
drew from the witnesses the statement that she was simple, very simple.
Una simplex bergereta,[62] says one. Erat multum simplex et
ignorans,[63] says another.
[Footnote 62: Trial, vol. iii, p. 20.]
[Footnote 63: Ibid., p. 87.]
But since, despite her ignorance, this innocent damsel had been sent of
God to deliver or to capture towns and to lead men at arms, there must
needs be innate in her a knowledge of the art of war, and in battle she
must needs manifest the strength and the counsel she had received from
above. Wherefore it was necessary to obtain evidence to establish that
she was more skilled in warfare than any man.
Damoiselle Marguerite la Touroulde makes this affirmation.[64] The
Duke of Alençon declares that the Maid was apt alike at wielding the
lance, ranging an army, ordering a battle, preparing artillery, and that
old captains marvelled at her skill in placing cannon.[65] The Duke
quite understands that all these gifts were miraculous and that to God
alone was the glory. For if the merit of the victories had been Jeanne's
he would not have said so much about them.
[Footnote 64: Trial, vol. iii, p. 85.]
[Footnote 65: Ibid., p. 100. On the other hand see the evidence of
Dunois (vol. iii, p. 16), "licet dicta Johanna aliquotiens jocose
loqueretur de facto armorum, pro animando armatos ... tamen quando
loquebatur seriose de guerra ... nunquam affirmative asserebat nisi
quod erat missa ad levandum obsidionem Aurelianensem."]
And if God had chosen the Maid to perform so great a task, it must

have been because in her he beheld the virtue which he preferred above
all others in his virgins. Henceforth it sufficed not for her to have been
chaste; her chastity must become miraculous, her chastity and her
moderation in eating and drinking must be exalted into sanctity.
Wherefore the witnesses are never tired of stating: Erat casta, erat
castissima. Ille loquens non credit aliquam mulierem plus esse castam
quam ista Puella erat. Erat sobria in potu et cibo. Erat sobria in cibo et
potu.[66]
[Footnote 66: Trial, vol. ii, pp. 438, 457; vol. iii, pp. 100, 219.]
The heavenly source of such purity must needs have been made
manifest by Jeanne's possessing singular immunities. And on this point
there is a mass of evidence. Rough men at arms, Jean de Novelompont,
Bertrand de Poulengy, Jean d'Aulon; great nobles, the Count of Dunois
and the Duke of Alençon, come forward and affirm on oath that in
them Jeanne never provoked any carnal desires. Such a circumstance
fills these old captains with astonishment; they boast of their past
vigour and wonder that for once their youthful ardour should have been
damped by a maid. It seems to them most unnatural and humanly
impossible. Their description of the effect Jeanne produced upon them
recalls Saint Martha's binding of the Tarascon beast. Dunois in his
evidence is very much occupied with miracles. He points to this one as,
to human reason, the most incomprehensible of all. If he neither desired
nor solicited this damsel, of this unique fact he can find but one
explanation, it is that Jeanne was holy, res divina. When Jean de
Novelompont and Bertrand de Poulengy describe their sudden
continence, they employ identical forms of speech, affected and
involved. And then there comes a king's equerry, Gobert Thibaut, who
declares that in the army there was