[Footnote 354: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 214.] [Footnote 355: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. clxxvii.] [Footnote 356: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 51, 214; vol. ii, p. 402.] At Neufchateau as at Domremy Jeanne drove her father's beasts to the field and kept his flocks.[357] Handy and robust she used also to help La Rousse in her household duties.[358] This circumstance gave rise to the malicious report set on foot by the Burgundians that she had been serving maid in an inn frequented by drunkards and bad women.[359] The truth is that Jeanne, when she was not tending the cattle, and helping her hostess, passed all her time in church.[360] [Footnote 357: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 409, 423, 428, 463.] [Footnote 358: _Ibid._, pp. 416, 417.] [Footnote 359: Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 314.] [Footnote 360: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 51.] There were two fine religious houses in the town, one belonging to the Grey Friars, the other to the Sisters of St. Claire, the sons and daughters of good St. Francis.[361] The monastery of the Grey Friars had been built two hundred years earlier by Mathieu II of Lorraine. The reigning duke had recently added richly to its endowments. Noble ladies, great lords, and among others a Bourlemont lord of Domremy and Greux lay there beneath brasses.[362] [Footnote 361: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. clxxvii.] [Footnote 362: Expilly, _Dictionnaire geographique de la France_, under the word _Neufchateau_.] In the flower of their history these mendicant monks of old had welcomed to their third order crowds of citizens and peasants as well as multitudes of princes and kings.[363] Now they languished corrupt and decadent among the French friars. Quarrels and schisms were frequent. Notwithstanding Colette of Corbie's attempted restoration of the rule, the old discipline was nowhere observed.[364] These mendicants distributed leaden medals, taught short prayers to serve as charms, and vowed special devotion to the holy name of Jesus.[365] [Footnote 363: S.M. de Vernon, _Histoire generale et particuliere du tiers-ordre de Saint-Francois_, Paris, 1667, 3 vols. in 8vo. Hilarion de Nolay, _Histoire du tiers-ordre_, Lyon, 1694, in 4to.] [Footnote 364: Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, p. 549.] [Footnote 365: Wadding, _Annales Minorum_, vol. v, p. 183.] During the fortnight Jeanne spent in the town of Neufchateau,[366] she frequented the church of the Grey Friars monastery, and two or three times confessed to brethren of the order.[367] It has been stated that she belonged to the third order of St. Francis, and the inference has been drawn that her affiliation dated from her stay at Neufchateau.[368]