Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle): Difference between revisions
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Notes on sources and quotations: | Notes on sources and quotations: | ||
* I am using the 1902 translation of the Trials by T. Douglas Murray; | * I am using the 1902 translation of the Trials by T. Douglas Murray, [https://archive.org/details/jeannedarcmaidof00joan/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater Jeanne d'Arc: Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France] | ||
* Indented text are direct quotations, so quotation marks are only used for nested ( | ** Murray converted the third-person Trial of Condemnation transcript into dialogue, which makes for much more effective reading than the original transcript; for that, go to [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.62531/page/n5/mode/2up The Trial Of Jeanner D'Arc], by W.P. | ||
** I am in the process of checking Murray's extrapolations against the original texts, but am confident of their accuracy as employed here. | |||
** The largest problem with Murray is not the extrapolation of dialog but his selective edits, which were employed to reduce redundancy and to include both Trials into a single edition. | |||
* Indented text are direct quotations from Murray, so quotation marks are only used for nested (inner) quotations | |||
* '''Emphasis''' added to quotations is mine and not from the sources. | * '''Emphasis''' added to quotations is mine and not from the sources. | ||
* I have deleted spaces between | * I have deleted spaces between punctuation marks from Murray's text. | ||
* I have not otherwise modernized spelling or usage in quotations | * I have not otherwise modernized spelling or usage in quotations. | ||
Notes on names and spelling: | Notes on names and spelling: | ||
* I am using the French spelling for proper nouns, except as found in sources, such as Murray's which uses the English "Rheims" over the French Reims. | * I am using the French spelling for proper nouns, except as found in sources, such as Murray's which uses the English "Rheims" over the French Reims. | ||
* Where a name includes a ''de'' I will generally but not always use the English "of the", and where it is a ''d''' I will use the original French (saying ''Duc d'Orléans'' is far cooler than "Duke of Orleans") | * Where a name includes a ''de'' I will generally but not always use the English "of the", and where it is a ''d''' I will use the original French (saying ''Duke'' or ''Duc d'Orléans'' is far cooler than "Duke of Orleans") | ||
* I'm tempted to use the French ''Bourguignons'' and ''duc de Bourgogne'' instead of the anglicized Burgundy, but the French nasal consonant "gn" is simply unworkable for the English tongue. | * I'm tempted to use the French ''Bourguignons'' and ''duc de Bourgogne'' instead of the anglicized Burgundy, but the French nasal consonant "gn" is simply unworkable for the English tongue. | ||
Notes on archaic word use: | Notes on archaic word use: | ||
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<blockquote>When she heard any one taking in vain the Name of God, she was very angry; she held such blasphemies in horror: and Jeanne told La Hire, who used many oaths and swore by God, that he must swear no more, and that, when he wanted to swear by God, he should swear by his staff. And afterwards, indeed, when he was with her, La Hire never swore but by his staff.</blockquote> | <blockquote>When she heard any one taking in vain the Name of God, she was very angry; she held such blasphemies in horror: and Jeanne told La Hire, who used many oaths and swore by God, that he must swear no more, and that, when he wanted to swear by God, he should swear by his staff. And afterwards, indeed, when he was with her, La Hire never swore but by his staff.</blockquote> | ||
Her enemies can instruct us here, as well. With the evidence before us from antagonistic points of view, we can learn much about Joan from the attacks upon her. The English-backed Rouen ecclesiastical court pushed her on orthodoxy. The formal charges against her started with a claim of authority from the court,<ref>Article I of the formal charges, "Act of Accusation Prepared by the Promoter, dated March 27, 1431. (Murray, p. 342)</ref> | Her enemies can instruct us here, as well. With the evidence before us from antagonistic points of view, we can learn much about Joan from the attacks upon her. The English-backed Rouen ecclesiastical court pushed her on orthodoxy. The formal charges against her started with a claim of authority from the court. From Article 1 of the "Seventy Articles" of accusation reads,<ref>Article I of the formal charges, "Act of Accusation Prepared by the Promoter, dated March 27, 1431. (Murray, p. 342)</ref> | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote>And first, according to Divine Law, as according to Canon and Civil Law, it is to you, the Bishop, as Judge Ordinary, and to you, the Deputy, as Inquisitor of the Faith, that it appertaineth to drive away, destroy, and cut out from the roots in your Diocese and in all the kingdom of France, heresies, witchcrafts, superstitions, and other crimes of that nature; it is to you that it appertaineth to punish, to correct and to amend heretics and all those who publish, say, profess, or in any other manner act against our Catholic Faith: to wit, sorcerers, diviners, invokers of demons, those who think ill of the Faith, all criminals of this kind, their abettors and accomplices, apprehended in your Diocese or in your jurisdiction, not only for the misdeeds they may have committed there, but even for the part of their misdeeds that they may have committed elsewhere, saving, in this respect, the power and duty of the other Judges competent to pursue them in their respective dioceses, limits, and jurisdictions. And your power as to this exists against all lay persons, whatever be their estate, sex, quality, and pre-eminence: in regard to all you are competent Judges.</blockquote> | ||
The statement is a rote declaration of authority and purpose, likely not much different from any other such trial, especially the mandate to stamp out "sorcerers, diviners", etc. The problem for the court in this case is that there was no evidence of Satan's works upon Joan outside of her having defeated the English in battle. Even the matter of her clothing, | The statement is a rote declaration of authority and purpose, likely not much different from any other such trial, especially the mandate to stamp out "sorcerers, diviners", etc. The problem for the court in this case is that there was no evidence of Satan's works upon Joan outside of her having defeated the English in battle, which rendered her a heretic. The court thereby had to pretend not to be taking the English side and to be speaking for the entire Church. Even the matter of her clothing, an obsession of historians, was theologically not difficult to dismiss, as had the Bishops and Doctors who had investigated her on behalf of the Charles VII at Poitiers.<ref>Bishop Jean Gerson addressed the question in his Apologia for the Maid, [https://archive.org/details/traitdejeanger00monn Traité de Jean Gerson sur la Pucelle (Archive.org)]</ref> | ||
The Rouen court did its homework. They sent investigators to her hometown, who came back with stories from her village of charms and fairies, from which they inferred that Joan, too, believed in them ( | The Rouen court did its homework. They sent investigators to her hometown, who came back with stories from her village of charms and fairies, from which they inferred that Joan, too, believed in them. (Modern courts call this "speculative" as opposed to "circumstantial" evidence.<ref>For example, the court made a big deal that Joan admitted that her Godmother may have believed in the fairies, which it attempted to infer that thereby Joan did, too. (See Murray p. 21)</ref>) Worse for them, they were never able to pierce the consistent Catholic logic of her replies to their examinations. The worst they could find was such that she had kissed the feet of Saints, who, by Church dogma, were understood not to have bodies. | ||
This is a girl whose mother taught her to recite in Latin the ''Our Father'', ''Ave Maria'', and ''Credo'' prayers. Her religious upbringing was entirely orthodox. Her devoutness to it irrepressible. Her military standard read, "Jhesus Maria," and her final words were "Jesus" repeated as the flames consumed her and while staring at a cross she asked be held before her. | This is a girl whose mother taught her to recite in Latin the ''Our Father'', ''Ave Maria'', and ''Credo'' prayers. Her religious upbringing was entirely orthodox. Her devoutness to it irrepressible. Her military standard read, "Jhesus Maria," and her final words were "Jesus" repeated as the flames consumed her and while staring at a cross she asked be held before her. | ||
To Article I of the | To Article I of the Seventy Articles, Joan replied, | ||
<blockquote>I believe surely that our Lord the Pope of Rome, the Bishops, and other Clergy, are established to guard the Christian Faith and punish those who are found wanting therein: but as for me, for my doings I submit myself only to the Heavenly Church— that is to say, to God, to the Virgin Mary, and to the Saints in Paradise. I firmly believe I have not wavered in the Christian Faith, nor would I waver. </blockquote> | <blockquote>I believe surely that our Lord the Pope of Rome, the Bishops, and other Clergy, are established to guard the Christian Faith and punish those who are found wanting therein: but as for me, for my doings I submit myself only to the Heavenly Church— that is to say, to God, to the Virgin Mary, and to the Saints in Paradise. I firmly believe I have not wavered in the Christian Faith, nor would I waver. </blockquote> | ||