Joan: The Mysterious Life of the Heretic Who Became a Saint (24 page)
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Authors: Donald Spoto
Tags: #General, #Biography & Autobiography, #of Arc, #Women, #France, #Europe, #Christian women saints, #Christian women saints - France, #Saint, #Historical, #Hundred Years' War, #Religion, #Religious, #Autobiography, #Biography, #History, #Historical - General, #1412-1431, #Joan, #1339-1453
Quicherat, Jules-Étienne-Joseph, ed.
Procès de condamnation et de réhabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc, dite la Pucelle: Publiés pour la première fois d’après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationalle, suivis de tous les documents historiques qu’on a pu réunir et accompagnés de notes et déclaircissements.
5 vols. Sociéte de l’Histoire de France. Paris: Jules Renouard, 1841–1849.
Scott, W. S., trans.
The Trial of Joan of Arc: Being the Verbatim Report of the Proceedings from the Orléans Manuscript.
London: Folio Society, 1956.
Shaw, Bernard.
Saint Joan: A Chronicle Play in Six Scenes and an Epilogue 1924).
Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1951.
Tallon, Mary Elizabeth, ed.
Joan of Arc at the University.
Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1997.
Tavard, George H.
The Spiritual Way of St. Jeanne d’Arc.
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 1998.
Tisset, Pierre, and Yvonne Lanhers, eds. and trans.
Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc.
3 vols. Sociét de l’Histoire de France. Paris: Klincksieck, 1960, 1970, 1971.
Wheeler, Bonnie, and Charles T. Wood, eds.
Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc.
New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1996.
Willard, Charity Cannon.
Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works.
New York: Persea Books, 1984.
Wood, Charles T. “Joan of Arc’s Mission and the Lost Record of Her Interrogation at Poitiers.” In
Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc,
edited by Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood, 19–30. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1996.
A prolific and respected biographer and theologian,
DONALD SPOTO
is the author of twenty published books, among them bestselling biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Alfred Hitchcock, Tennessee Williams, and Audrey Hepburn. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Donald Spoto earned his Ph.D. in theology at Fordham University. After years as a theology professor, he turned to full-time writing.
The Hidden Jesus: A New Life,
published in 1999, was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as ‘offering a mature faith fi t for the new millennium.’ His successful biography of Saint Francis was published in 2002. Spoto lectures worldwide on important topics such as theology, the arts, and social issues.
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Jacket design: LeVan Fisher Design
JOAN: T
HE
M
YSTERIOUS
L
IFE OF THE
H
ERETIC
W
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ECAME A
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Copyright © 2007 by Donald Spoto. Copyright © 2007 by Donald Spoto. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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* Alterations have not destroyed the original layout of the house of Jacques d’Arc, which may be visited to this day. The village is now known as Domrémy-la-Pucelle, thus honoring its celebrated daughter.
* A widespread obsession with angels in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries may be a sign of a certain decadence of religion. In popular entertainments angels are presented as kindly policemen, wise aunts or down-home psychologists. They are not much different from friendly aliens, but they dress better.
* The historicity of the first journey to Vaucouleurs, in May 1428, is much debated, and some scholars insist there was but one trip, in early 1429. Despite the confusing evidence, the tradition of the earlier sojourn may be affirmed: in 1429, some at Vaucouleurs seem to have known her from a prior visit.
* As late as the thirteenth century, two hundred years before Joan, Clare of Assisi was forced into a convent. She had wanted to live like her friend Francis, dedicated but in the world. The regulations of the time, however, required him to put her in an enclosure. A century after Clare, Catherine of Siena was one of the first egregious exceptions to this tradition.
* That Joan could ride well would not have been unusual: the horse was the usual method of transport, and, like her peers, she would have ridden her father’s animals in Domrémy from an early age.
* Some sources amplify the incident with extended dialogue, the better to dramatize the first meeting between Joan and Charles.
* Mark Twain’s fictional biography,
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
(1895), is narrated by a character named Sieur Louis de Conte, a variant of the name of Joan’s real-life page. His initials (S.L.C.) are also, of course, the initials of Twain’s real name, Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
* Gerson’s positive reaction to Joan was likely based only on her reputation and the report from Poitiers. It is unlikely that he knew of Joan’s triumph at Orléans, for his treatise was concluded in Lyons on May 14, only six days after the siege was lifted.
* Apart from their presence among her troops, no details have survived about Joan’s brothers, who survived her.
* The first warning was contained in the letter of March 22; a letter similar to that of May 5 had already been sent on April 30.
* Joan and Alençon were already friends, and now his evident trepidation further evoked her affection; furthermore, the minimal difference in their ages encouraged her to address him in the familiar
tu
instead of the formal
vous,
which was customary in addressing a man of his rank.
* The absence of Charles’s wife, Marie of Anjou, is easily explained: the route to Reims was dangerous, and the army feared for her safety. In addition, the coronation of the French queen consort had far less significance than in earlier times.
* There is a touch of sarcasm here: for years Philip had repeated his unfulfilled vow to join a Crusade. If he truly wanted to make war, Joan advised him to do it as promised—against infidels, not the French.
* Many other testimonies support these; see, for example, the recollections of Martin Ladvenu, Jean Toutmouillé, Jean Le Fèvre, Jean Le Maire, Thomas Marie, Guillaume de la Chambre, and Jean de Mailly (the bishop of Noyon), all preserved in Duparc,
Procès en nullité,
vol. 1.
* Both Joan and her judges alternate between the singular and plural use of
voice,
which, on her side, is to be expected of any attempt to put a mystical experience into ordinary language.
* Would Cauchon knowingly have sent Joan a poisoned fish in order to end the proceedings with her untimely death? Such an action may not have been out of character, but there is no evidence for it; more to the point, he would have failed to secure precisely what the English wanted and what would effect his triumph—a public proclamation of her perfidy, her execution as a heretic, and the ultimate discredit of Charles VII. Given the lack of refrigeration it is likely that Joan had food poisoning with no help from the bishop of Beauvais, although we can surely understand her suspicions.
* Although her request for a papal audience was excised from the trial record, it was detailed by Isambart de la Pierre during his testimony for the nullification process, on May 9, 1452; see Duparc,
Procès en nullité,
1:222.
* To the French the English seemed constantly to utter the expletive
God damn
—hence the French nickname for them,
goddons.
* The mention of schism was calculated to evoke the Great Schism in the Church, only recently resolved.
* Manchon and Isambart de la Pierre testified that Joan resumed male clothing as a defense against assault by the guards, who had been treating her roughly since her return to prison. Their accounts, lacking Massieu’s details, vary slightly but are not inconsistent with his. According to the official transcript Joan said that no one had forced her into men’s clothes. But we have seen that Cauchon frequently ordered changes to the minutes.
* Isambart de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenu report Cauchon’s exact words: “
Farowelle, faictes bonne chière—il est faict
” (Quicherat,
Procès de condamnation,
2:5, 8).
Table of Contents
ONE Of War and Occupation (1412–1423)
THREE Tomorrow, Not Later (January 1428–February 1429)
FOUR Armor and a Household (March–April 1429)
FIVE The New Deborah (April–June 1429)
SIX “I Won’t Fly Away!” (May–July 1429)
SEVEN A Leap of Faith (August 1429–December 1430)
EIGHT Cunning and Clothes (January–February 1431)
NINE A Dress for a Mass (March 1431)