The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
Let us put it, then, that Jeanne d’Arc’s was an advanced case of the
mental and bodily constitution exemplified by the relatively small
proportion of people, the sane seers of visual hallucinations and
hearers of unreal voices. Her thoughts--let us say the thoughts of
the deepest region of her being--presented themselves in visual forms,
taking the shapes of favourite saints--familiar to her in works of
sacred art--attended by an hallucinatory brightness of light [‘a
photism’), and apparently uttering words of advice which was in conflict
with Jeanne’s great natural shrewdness and strong sense of duty to
her parents. ‘She MUST go into France,’ and for two or three years she
pleaded her ignorance and incompetence. She declined to go. She COULD
resist her voices. In prison at Beaurevoir, they forbade her to leap
from the tower. But her natural impatience and hopefulness prevailed,
and she leaped. ‘I would rather trust my soul to God than my body to the
English.’ This she confessed to as sinful, though not, she hoped, of
the nature of deadly sin. Her inmost and her superficial nature were in
conflict.
It is now desirable to give, as briefly as possible, Jeanne’s own
account of the nature of her experiences, as recorded in the book of her
trial at Rouen, with other secondhand accounts, offered on oath, at
her trial of Rehabilitation, by witnesses to whom she had spoken on the
subject. She was always reticent on the theme.
The period when Jeanne supposed herself to see her first visions was
physiologically critical. She was either between thirteen and fourteen,
or between twelve and thirteen. M. Simeon Luce, in his ‘Jeanne d’Arc
a Domremy,’ held that she was of the more advanced age, and his date
(1425) fitted in with some public events, which, in his opinion, were
probably the occasions of the experiences. Pere Ayroles prefers the
earlier period (1424) when the aforesaid public events had not yet
occurred. After examining the evidence on both sides, I am disposed to
think, or rather I am certain, that Pere Ayroles is in the right. In
either case Jeanne was at a critical age, when, as I understand, female
children are occasionally subject to illusions. Speaking then as a
non-scientific student, I submit that on the side of ordinary causes for
the visions and voices we have:
1. The period in Jeanne’s life when they began.
2. Her habits of fasting and prayer.
3. Her intense patriotic enthusiasm, which may, for all that we know,
have been her mood before the voices announced to her the mission.
Let us then examine the evidence as to the origin and nature of the
alleged phenomena.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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