The Trial of
Jeanne d'Arc
The Trial of Jeanne d'Arc. With Introduction by W. P. Barrett- (Routledge. 15s.)
A COMPLETE translation of the text of the original documents concerning the trial of St. Joan of Arc is now published. We can all read exactly what happened, and as so often happens, fuller information does not make for easier con- clusion. Keeping in mind the fact that within twenty-five years the judgment was reversed and the trial denounced as " full of cozenage, in.consequences, iniquity and manifest errors both in fact and in law," it becomes difficult to regard the moral and religious attitude . of the time as a complete key to the situation. Mr. Shaw, as we know, pushes the rehabilitation contemptuously aside as a piece of gross posthumous injustice to well meaning judges. Mr. Barrett also in his very interesting introduction to the present trans- lation has little to say about it, though we see that his own standpoint could not be summed up in the words we have quoted, because of the technical fidelity of the procedure to precedent. He certainly goes as far, however, as Isambard de la Pierre, who watched the trial and declared at the rehabilitation that though the judge observed the legal forms, the sentence was due rather to vindictiveness than to zeal for justice.
The judge and inquisitor had, Mr. Barrett thinks, a weak case and knew it, in spite of the concordance of the Paris University. The doctors of Rouen, though in the end they produced a document unfavourable to the Maid, were plainly uneasy, played for time, asked that she should be " tenderly exhorted to submit " and urged, uselessly as it turned out, consultation with the lights of the University. It is extra- ordinary as one reads to see how anxious each body of persons consulted were to agree with their immediate brethren. One frank, if cowardly, doctor writes " I in no way wish to think alone," and we feel he is giving voice to the flock. Cauchon's action in collecting more evidence after his victim was dead suggests uneasy feelings. The prisoner found him guilty, and her verdict, " Bishop, I die through you," may have troubled even a well schooled conscience. A very interesting scrap of unbiased evidence is here quoted from someone who might, we suppose, be regarded as a reporter of the period. " You see how they proceed," said Lohier, a famous Norman clerk, " they will get her if they can by her words, by the statements where she says I know for certain when speaking of the revelations. If she said I think instead of I know for certain, I do not believe any man could condemn her."
But, of course, the real interest of the proceeding turns upon Jeanne. Sir John Macdonnell, a great lawyer and a great student of medireval trials is here quoted as saying " I know nothing in history comparable to her bearing under pressure and strain which would have broken the most heroic. It is not Bruno, or Servetus, or Galileo or Campanella who stands out beyond all others in the long history of martyrs under legal process. It is the village maiden." Always " her courage held, good-humour, innocence, patience and sanity never deserted her." We marvel that her personality did not forbid her punishment ! But human nature loves a horror 1 The setting up of a scaffold creates an irresistible thrill.
Nothing strikes- the student of this horribly real drama more than the scepticism of the judges. The Victorian age could hardly, have taken a more determined attitude; indeed, but for the belief in witchcraft, accentuated as it would seem to serve their purpose, no supernatural suggestion escapes their scorn. Voices indeed ! They askd, in effect, what language did these yokes speak ? What did the saints wear who came to corn- fore her ? How tall were they ? Did the one she touched feel warm ? Thus they turned all her spiritual experiences into ridicule. How does Jeanne know she is forgiven ? How dare to say she is not in mortal sin ? She had better come and look at the torture chamber ! It makes the reader's blood boil that these churchmen should have tried to suggest to her that she was " in mortal sin.". But she knew always how to answer. " Please God I never was in such sin, and if it ,please Him I never shall commit nor have committed such deeds as burden my soul." On the other hand, one has to remember that no legal process has yet been devised which seems fair throughout. Counsel on both sides still say, a great deal which they do not believe. Joan was offered a " counsellor " but she refused, saying, " I have no intention of departing from the counsel of Our Lord." Hauteur is no less characteristic of the faith than is humility.
With extraordinary dexterity she was always able to bring the argument back into a spiritual atmosphere. Asked whether the saints appeared with a great light she replied that there was always plenty of light " as was fitting," adding with a humorous intention which must have made these churchmen wince, " all the light comes not to you." When examined in prison as to whether she had formerly attempted to escape, she replied, " I wished and still wish to escape as is lawful to any captive or prisoner." Asked whether she would do so now if she got the chance, she replied that if she saw the door open she should go through it. " I should take it as God's permission." Admitting that she feared both imprisonment and execution, she showed every moment that of her judges she was not afraid in the least.. " You put yourself in great peril," she said to Cauchon when he threatened her. One thing which went steadily against her with the judges was her tmwillingness to take oath. She was willing to swear to speak the truth, and nothing else, but she hesitated always to say that she would speak the whole truth, saying she could not tell what she had sworn to keep secret, and she saw no obligation to answer questions irrelevant to the matter in hand. She never " gave away " anyone. Asked whether she loved her sword or her standard best (of all puerile questions !), she replied, the standard, which she carried rather than her sword, so that she might never kill anyone, adding " I never have killed a man.' Asked again, had she ever used her standard to catch butterflies (surely, the examiners were marking time), she said she never had, but had seen others do so ; asked who they were, she said she knew nothing about it I Taking the whole of the questions and answers together one is equally impressed by a frankness which is almost boyish and by her essential femininity. " She answered very subtly with the subtlety of a woman," said a listener of considerable insight. One wonders sometimes will the women of the future take to a military life. . . .God forbid ! unless they be saints, and there will never be enough of them to form a regiment !
CECILIA TOWNSEND,
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