The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in AnthropologyMurray, Margaret Alice
Religion
The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology
Murray, Margaret Alice
Ethnology; Witchcraft -- Great Britain
The names of Christian saints, given to the persons whom Joan called her
'Voices', have misled modern writers; but the questions showered upon her
show that the judges had shrewd suspicions as to the identity of these
persons. That the 'Voices' were human beings is very clear from Joan's own
testimony: 'Those of my party know well that the Voice had been sent to me
from God, they have seen and known this Voice. My king and many others have
also heard and seen the Voices which came to me ... I saw him [St. Michael]
with my bodily eyes as well as I see you.' She refused to describe 'St.
Michael'; and bearing in mind some of the descriptions of the Devil in
later trials, it is interesting to find that when the judges put the direct
question to her as to whether 'St. Michael' came to her naked, she did not
give a direct answer. Later the following dialogue took place: 'If the
devil were to put himself in the form or likeness of an angel, how would
you know if it were a good or an evil angel?' asked the judges. Again
Joan's reply was not direct: 'I should know quite well if it were St.
Michael or a counterfeit.' She then stated that she had seen him many times
before she knew him to be St. Michael; when a child she had seen him and
had been afraid at first. Pressed for a description, she said he came 'in
the form of a true honest man' [tres vray preudomme, forma unius verissimi
probi hominis].[957] The accounts of the trial prove that Joan continually
received advice from the 'saints'. The person whom she called 'St.
Katherine' was obviously in the castle and able to communicate with the
prisoner: this was not difficult, for the evidence shows that there was a
concealed opening between Joan's room and the next. It was in the adjoining
room, close to the opening, that the notaries sat to take down Joan's words
when the spy Loyseleur engaged her in conversation; and it was evidently
through this opening that 'St. Katherine' spoke when she awoke Joan
'without touching her', and again when Joan could not hear distinctly what
she said 'on account of the noise in the castle'. A remark of Joan's that
'she often saw them [the Voices] among the Christians, they themselves
unseen', is noteworthy for the use of the word _Christian_, suggesting that
the 'Voices' were of a different religion. The remark should also be
compared with the account given by Bessie Dunlop as to her recognizing Thom
Reid when those about him did not know him; and with the statement by
Danaeus that 'among a great company of men, the Sorcerer only knoweth
Satan, that is present, when other doo not know him, although they see
another man, but who or what he is they know not'.
The points of mortal sin, of which Joan finally stood accused, were the
following: 1, The attack on Paris on a feast day; 2, taking the horse of
the Bishop of Senlis; 3, leaping from the tower of Beaurevoir; 4, wearing
male costume; 5, consenting to the death of Franquet d'Arras at Lagny.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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