The other priest, named John Colin, was the curate of the parish
church of Domremy, and a canon of the collegiate church of Saint
Nicolas de Brixey, near Vaucouleurs. His age was sixty-six. The last
of these thirty-four witnesses was the sergeant, Guillot Jacquier,
aged thirty-six: why he was called as a witness does not appear. As a
child he had heard Joan of Arc spoken of as 'une brave fille, de bonne
renommee, et de conduite honnete,' which opinion was the general one
given in their evidence by all the other witnesses, whose names only
we have been able to give.
Relating to the period in the life of the heroine between the time of
the King's coronation and that of her capture, the facts told by the
various persons examined are few and far between. In the trial for the
rehabilitation of the Maid of Orleans, the story of her deeds in the
field was not of much importance to the commissioners. What they
principally desired to ascertain was the fact that no taint of heresy
could attach to the life of the heroine. It was for this reason that
all those persons who could throw any light upon Joan's early days and
the actions of her childhood had been collected to give their
evidence. We now come to those witnesses who were examined regarding
the life of Joan of Arc after her interview with the King at Chinon
and about the stirring events which immediately followed that
interview. The first of these is the 'nobile et savant homme Messire
Simon Charles,' Master of the Requests (_Maitre des requetes_) in the
year 1429. He had been president of the State exchequer in 1456, and
was aged sixty. Simon's evidence is of interest and importance both as
regards Joan of Arc's arrival at Chinon, and also with respect to the
siege of Orleans and the triumphant entry into Rheims. The next
witness was one of the clergy who examined Joan when at Poitiers; this
was a preaching friar from Limousin who had asked Joan of Arc in what
language her saints spoke to her, and had been answered by 'In a
better language than yours'--for this good friar, whose name was
Brother Sequier, spoke with a strong Limousin accent. When he was
giving his evidence before the commission (in 1456) he was an old man
in his seventy-third year, and head of the theological college of
Poitiers.
Next to him came the evidence given by the 'venerable et savant homme
Maitre Jean Barbier, docteur es lois.' Barbier was King's-Advocate in
the House of Parliament, and had also been one of the judges at Joan
of Arc's examination at Poitiers: he was aged fifty. Barbier had been
at Loches when the people threw themselves before Joan of Arc's horse,
and embraced the heroine's feet and hands. Barbier reproved her for
allowing them to do so. He told her that if she permitted them to act
thus it would render them idolatrous in their worship of her, to which
reprimand Joan answered, 'Indeed, without God's help I could not
prevent them from becoming so.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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