Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France: Being the Story of Her Life, Her Achievements, and Her Death, as Attested on Oath and Set Forth in the Original Documents
History
Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France: Being the Story of Her Life, Her Achievements, and Her Death, as Attested on Oath and Set Forth in the Original Documents
Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431 -- Trials, litigation, etc.
Wednesday, the Vigil of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I repaired in the
morning with the venerable Maître Pierre Maurice, to the place where
Jeanne, commonly called the Maid, was detained, to exhort and admonish
her on the subject of the salvation of her soul. She was besought to
speak truth on the subject of that Angel who, she had declared, had
brought to him she called her King a crown, very precious, and of the
purest gold: she was pledged not to hide the truth, inasmuch as nothing
more remained to her but to think of her own salvation. Then I heard her
declare that it was she herself who had brought him she called her King
the crown in question; that it was she who was the Angel of whom she had
spoken; and that there had been no other Angel but herself. Asked if she
had really sent a crown to him whom she called her King, she replied
that he had no other crown but the promise of his coronation—a promise
she had made in giving to her King the assurance that he would be
crowned. In the presence of Maître Pierre Maurice, of the two
Dominicans, of you, the Bishop, and of several others, I heard her many
times declare that “she had really had revelations and apparitions of
spirits; that these revelations had deceived her; that she recognized it
in this, that they had promised her deliverance, and that she now saw
the contrary; that she was willing to refer to the Clergy to know if
these spirits were good or evil; that she did not put, and would no more
put, faith in them.” I exhorted her, to destroy the error that she had
sown among the people, to declare publicly that she had herself been
deceived, and that through her fault she had deceived the people by
putting faith in these revelations and in counselling the people to
believe in them; and I told her it was necessary that she should humbly
ask pardon. She told me she would do it willingly, but that she did not
think she would be able to remember, when the proper moment came—that is
to say, when she found herself in the presence of the people; she prayed
her Confessor to remind her of this point and of all else which might
tend to her salvation. From all this, and from many other indications, I
conclude that Jeanne was then of sound mind. She shewed great penitence
and great contrition for her crimes. I heard her, in the prison, in
presence of a great number of witnesses, and subsequently after
sentence, ask, with much contrition of heart, pardon of the English and
Burgundians for having caused to be slain, beaten, and damned, a great
number of them, as she recognized.
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Footnote 99:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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