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.Joan of Arc 70 THE GOD OF THE WITCHESThe reason for Joan's resumption of male dress is given quite differently by three witnesses, all of whomclaimed to have heard it from Joan herself.Martin Ladvenu reported that Joan wore the dress as a protectionfrom insult, a ridiculous statement if the circumstances of her imprisonment are taken into consideration.JeanMassieu declared that the guards took away the woman's dress and left her only the male costume.Thomasde Courcelles said that he was with the bishop of Beauvais when the news came that she had resumed themale habit.He accompanied the bishop to the castle, where the bishop interrogated her as to the cause of thechange of dress.Joan gave the simple explanation that it seemed to her more suitable to wear a man's dressamong men than a woman's.The enormous importance as to the wearing of the male costume is emphasisedby the fact that as soon as it was known in Rouen that Joan was again dressed as a man the inhabitantscrowded into the castle courtyard to see her, to the great indignation of the English soldiers who promptlydrove them out with hard words and threats of hard blows.This circumstance shows the inaccuracy ofLadvenu's statement as to Joan's fear of insult, for it is evident that in the day she could be seen from outside,which would in itself be a protection, and Massieu's words indicate that, like all her contemporaries, she woreno clothes when in bed.Ladvenu, Massieu and Isamberd were with her to the end, and two of them claim to have been asked to fetchthe cross from the church, while Massieu records the making of a little cross of two bits of stick by anEnglish soldier.All three priests were naturally very insistent that Joan died a good Christian, for the Enquirywas set on foot to prove that point.If she were a Pagan she had been rightly excommunicated; but if she hadbeen a Christian the ban of excommunication would have to be lifted.All the priests speak of the cruelty ofthe bishop of Beauvais in not permitting her to worship in a church or other shrine, but they appear to haveconveniently forgotten that an excommunicated person was not allowed to enter a Christian place of worship.The bishop must have been more kindly than many Inquisitors when he permitted her to "receive the Body ofChrist" before her execution, although she was condemned to the fire as "idolator, heretic, apostate,relapsed".A few days after she was burnt, the Inquisitor of France himself preached about her in Paris, andsaid that she had left her parents "accompagnée de l'ennemi d'enfer, et depuis vesquit homicide dechrestienté".[9]If Joan were a Pagan, and in the eyes of her Pagan followers the substitute for the king and therefore GodIncarnate for the time being, much of the obscurity which surrounds her life and death is cleared away.Shecame from a part of the country so well known to be Pagan that she had to be examined by persons whoseown Christianity was beyond question before the king could accept her.To announce her mission she wentfirst to Robert de Beaudricourt, agent in Lorraine for King Réné of Provence, a king whose magical practiceswould have brought upon him the wrath of the Church but for his high position.Her "Voices" were called bythe names most common among witches, and at her trial she spoke of seeing them among the Christians, theythemselves unseen This use of the word Christian again shows that Christianity was not universal.Theremark should be compared with the statement by Danaeus[10] that "among a great company of men, theSorcerer only knoweth Satan that is present, when other doe not know him, though they see another man, butwho or what he is they know not".It is also reminiscent of the stories of fairies, who were recognised only bythe initiates, when in the company of others.Joan chose for her protector that great soldier who was of her own religion, and who was later tried andexecuted as a Pagan.She announced that she would last only one year, and during that time she receivedalmost divine honours from the common people, but she was quite aware that at the end of that year shewould suffer martyrdom.When the time came for the sacrifice not one of her friends or worshippers stirred afinger to save her.Throughout her trial she spoke of her god as "the King of Heaven" as "my Lord", orsimply as "God"; she never mentioned "Christ" or "our Saviour", or even "our Lord".It is only in theRehabilitation that she is reported to have used the name of Jesus.Many people vouched for her having criedJhesu with her last breath, but no one, not even the priests, were very near her at the end.Massieu, however,stated that she called on God, St.Michael and St.Katherine; in other words, on the very "saints" with whomshe had been in communication since her first encounter with them at the Fairy-Tree of Bourlemont.Joan of Arc 71 THE GOD OF THE WITCHESShe used Christian symbols, such as the cross or the words "Jhesu Maria", on her letters when they wereintended to deceive.She steadfastly refused to say the Lord's Prayer, a refusal which in later times wouldhave been tantamount to confessing herself a witch.She utterly refused to acknowledge the authority of theChurch, though she understood what was meant by the Pope and asked to be taken to him.She declined totake the oath on the Gospels, and after much persuasion and very unwillingly she swore on the Missal.Shetreated the ecclesiastics who examined her at Poitiers with familiarity; when Pierre Séguin de Séguin, Deanof the Faculty of Theology in the University of Poitiers, asked her what dialect (idioma) her Voices spoke,she answered "A better one than yours", for he spoke in the Limousin dialect.He then asked her if shebelieved in God, to which she replied, "More than you do".At the trial at Rouen she treated her judges withcontempt.When asked direct questions regarding her faith, she invariably prevaricated; thus, when askedwhether she had ever blasphemed God, she answered that she had never cursed (maledixit ) the saints; whenpressed to say if she had ever denied God, she would make no other reply than that she had never denied thesaints.One remark recorded in the Rehabilitation appears significant; it is in the evidence of Dame MargaretaLa Touroulde; Joan narrated to her hostess how she had been examined by the clergy at Poitiers, and how shehad said to them, "There is more in the books of our Lord than in yours".With a slight emphasis on the wordour, the signification is apparent, otherwise the remark has no meaning.The wearing of the male costume seems to have had a signification which was clear to the people of her owntime though hidden from us.She insisted that she wore it not by the advice of mortal man, and she refused towear a woman's dress except by the direct command of God.It is impossible to say why so much stress waslaid on her attire, as in itself it has never been a capital crime for a woman to appear as a man [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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