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.
As to the feeling of the Judges and those who conducted the Trial of the
said Jeanne, I neither assisted nor was I present at the Trial. I can
say nothing, therefore, as to what I saw; but the common report was,
that they persecuted her from desire of perverse vengeance, and of this
they gave sign and appearance. For, before her death, the English
proposed to lay siege to Louviers; soon, however, they changed their
purpose, saying they would not besiege the said town until the Maid had
been examined. What followed was evident proof of this; for, immediately
after she was burnt, they went to besiege Louviers, considering that
during her life they could have neither glory nor success in deeds of
war.
The day when Jeanne was delivered up to be burned, I was in the prison
during the morning with Brother Martin Ladvenu, whom the Bishop of
Beauvais had sent to her to announce her approaching death, and to
induce in her true contrition and penitence, and also to hear her in
confession. This the said Ladvenu did most carefully and charitably; and
when he announced to the poor woman the death she must die that day, as
the Judge had ordained, and she heard of the hard and cruel death which
was approaching, she began, in a sad and pitiful manner, as one
distraught, tearing her hair, to cry out: “Alas! am I to be so horribly
and cruelly treated? Alas! that my body, whole and entire, which has
never been corrupted, should to-day be consumed and burned to ashes! Ah!
I would far rather have my head cut off, seven times over, than be thus
burned! Alas! had I been in the ecclesiastical prison, to which I
submitted myself, and guarded by the Clergy instead of by my enemies, it
would not have fallen out so unhappily for me. I appeal to God, the
Great Judge, for the great evils and injustice done to me!”
After these complaints, the aforesaid Bishop arrived, to whom she at
once said: “Bishop, I die through you.” And he began to explain to her,
saying: “Ah! Jeanne, have patience; you die because you have not kept to
what you promised us, and for having returned to your first evil-doing.”
And the poor Maid answered him: “Alas, if you had put me in the prisons
of the Church Courts, and given me into the hands of competent and
suitable ecclesiastical guardians, this would not have happened: for
this I summon you before God.”
This done, I went out, and heard no more.
BROTHER YSAMBARD DE LA PIERRE, _of the Order of Saint Dominic, of the
Convent at Rouen_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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