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.
ARTICLE XLVIII. Jeanne hath said that she did and doth still believe
that the spirits which appear to her are Angels and Archangels and the
Saints of God, as firmly as she believes in the Christian Faith, and in
the Articles of that Faith, although she can report no sign which can be
of a nature to prove that she hath in reality had this communication;
she hath consulted neither Bishop, Priest, nor Prelate, nor any
ecclesiastical person whatsoever, to know whether she ought to have
faith in such spirits; yet more, she saith that her Voices have
forbidden her to reveal anything to any one whosoever it may be, save
first to a captain of soldiers, then to Charles her King, and afterwards
to other persons purely laic. By this, she admits that her belief on
this point is audacious, her faith erroneous, her revelations doubtful,
having always kept them from the knowledge of the clergy and never
having been willing to reveal them save to seculars.
“What have you to say to this Article?”
“I have answered it already. I refer to what is written. And as to the
signs, if those who asked for them were not worthy, I could not help it.
Many a time did I pray that it might please God to reveal it to some of
this party. It is true, that to believe in my revelations I asked
neither Bishop, Priest, nor any one else. I believe it was Saint
Michael, from the good teaching he shewed me.”
“Did Saint Michael say to you: ‘I am Saint Michael’?”
“I have answered before.”
As to the concluding part of the Article, she answered: “I refer me to
Our Lord.... As firmly as I believe Our Saviour Jesus Christ suffered
death to redeem us from the pains of hell, so firmly do I believe that
it was Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel, Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret whom Our Saviour sent to comfort and to counsel me.”[278]
ARTICLE XLIX. On the foundation of this fancy alone Jeanne hath
venerated spirits of this kind, kissing the ground on the which she said
they had walked, bending the knee before them, embracing them, kissing
them, paying all sorts of adoration to them, giving them thanks with
clasped hands, taking the greatest familiarities with them; when she did
not know if they were good or evil spirits, and when, by reason of all
the circumstances revealed above, these spirits should have been rather
considered by her as evil. This worship, this veneration, is idolatry:
it is a compact with demons.
“What have you to say on this Article?”
“I have already answered; for the conclusion, I refer me to Our
Lord.”[279]
ARTICLE L. Every day and many times daily Jeanne doth invoke these evil
spirits and consult them on what she should do,—notably on the manner in
which she should answer in court. This seems to constitute, and doth in
effect constitute, an invocation of demons.
“What have you to say on this Article?”
“I have already answered it; I shall call them to my help as long as I
live.”
“In what way shall you call them?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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