Post mortem: Essays, historical and medical — John Shaqi
Post mortem: Essays, historical and medicalMacLaurin, C. (Charles)
History
Post mortem: Essays, historical and medical
MacLaurin, C. (Charles)
Biography; Pathology
of the clerics who had helped to condemn her crowded to give evidence
in the poor child’s favour, attributing the miscarriage of justice
in her case to people who were now dead or hopelessly unpopular; some
friends of her childhood came forward and people who had known her
at the time of her glory; and, perhaps most important, some of her
old comrades in arms rallied round her memory. We thus have a fairly
complete account of her battles, friendships, trials, character, and
death; if we read this evidence with due care, remembering that more
than twenty years had elapsed and the mentality of mediæval man, we
may take some of the statements at their face value. Otherwise there
is absolutely no contemporary evidence of the Maid; Anatole France has
pricked the bubble of the chroniclers and of the Journal of the siege
of Orleans. But there is so much of pathological interest to be found
in the reports of the trials that I need no excuse for a brief study of
them in that respect.
The record of the life of Jeanne d’Arc is all too short, and the main
facts are not in dispute. It is the interpretation of these facts
that _is_ in dispute. She was born on January 6th, 1412; the year is
uncertain. Probably she did not know herself. In the summer of 1424 she
saw a great light on her right hand and heard a voice telling her to
be a good girl. This voice she knew to be the voice of God. Later on
she heard the voices of St. Michael the Archangel, of St. Catherine,
and of St. Margaret. St. Michael appeared first, and warned her to
expect the arrival of the others, who came in due course. All three
were to be her constant companions for the rest of her life. At first
their appearances were irregular, but later on they came frequently,
especially at quiet moments. Sometimes, when there was a good deal of
noise going on, they appeared and tried to tell her something, but she
could not hear what they said. These she called her Council, or her
Voices. Occasionally the Lord God spoke to her himself; Him she called
“Messire.”
As Jeanne grew more accustomed to her heavenly visitors they came in
great numbers, and she used to see vast crowds of angels descending
from heaven to her little garden. She said nothing to anybody about
these unusual events, but grew up a brooding and intensely religious
girl, going to church at every possible opportunity, and apparently
neglecting her ordinary duties of looking after her father’s sheep and
cattle. She learned to sew and knit, to say her Credo, Paternoster, and
Ave Maria; otherwise she was absolutely ignorant, and very simple in
mind and honest. She was dreamy and shy; nor did she ever learn to read
or write.
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