The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1874-06-11
Joan of Arc.
An historic DcUBf,

Mgr. Dupsnloup, the bishop Of Orleans,
was gone to Rome, it 10 said, 70 obtain the
canonisation q the maid. An equestrian
statue in nsmory Of her has already been
erected this year near the Louvre in Paris.
The Boston Advertiser, in commensing on
this, says " Her faithful worshipers are
not content with this, but ask place for be,
among the saints immortal. But the law
yers Of the Vatican entertain grave his
soric doubts. 1t Is not only, above all
things, necessary to know whether. Dan
Of Arc bad, and practiced in the heroic de-
gree (such is the formula) the four cardin-
al virtues OF fortitude, justice, temperance,
and prudence, and tue three theological
virtues of faith, hope, and CHARITY But
there rises, also the spectral inquiry wheth-
er her reputed execution a. . sorceress
was with the consent End under the au-
spices of bishop Of tie church. 1t would
be a strange anomaly if it should happen
that the infsllible church, the same yester-
of our Lord 1874 canonizs as salt tho
eccentric and daring woman whom it burn.
ed as witch 10 l43l. 1t is to solve this
difficulty that NJ. Dupaploup has been sum
moned to Rome.
"Ilis curious inquiry has revived the
old controversy whether Joan of Arc was
ever condemned and burned at all, and has
called to the recollection of the newspaper
'antiquaries the fact there was female
claimant 10 France in the fifteenth ecu
tury, whose brothers swore to her identity
as the real Joan, while a thoroughly be-
lieying city, granted to her considerable
testimonial ID ready money in proof of its
belief In her pretensions. The facts and
authorities, says The London Neus, are
lucidly stated by the Eminent antiquarian,
Mr.. George Skene, in paper in The
Churchman's Champion published this
year. Notw;tt the apparently
comp lete identification of the real Joan of
Arc with the woman who was burned at
Rouen In 1881, and whose body was ex.
pressly exposed after death by the drawing
lack of the fagots round the stake that the
populace might see it before the ashes were
thrown into the Seine, there appeared FIVE
years afterxard, in the neishborhood of
Metz, lady who announced herself as La
Pucelie Jehanne. The two brothers Of the
real joan, who had been ennobled by Charles
VII, uuder the name of Do Lys, met her
there apparently by appointment), and
formally recognized her as their sister
Their testimony was at once accepted by
number of noblemen Of the country, who
presented her with horses, arms, etc., and
one OF them, knight named Robert des
Hermoses, married her and lived with her
many years afterward in house in Metz,
opposite the church of St. Segoleine.
"This wonderful story is found at length
in a chronicle of Metz which comes down
only to l445, and must have been written
shortly after the events narra tod, and it is
corroborated by many collateral records, by
the journal Of citizen of Paris, dated l449,
preserved in the Louvre, and by the cnron-
icle of Lorraine, which closes in 1914.
Pier Vignier, who lived in the seventeenth
century, states that he saw among the
titls-deeds of the family of Des IIermois es
the marriage contract of Robert with La
Pucelle,' and also deed of sale in which
one party was styled Jeanne du Las la
Pacelle de France A great variety of
entries in the records of the Hotel de Vile,
of Orleans, record expenses Incurred in
1896 for carrying letters, and for wine and
refreshments, and gift Of go to Jeanne
la Pucelle and her brothers, demonstrating
that the city of Orleans, like the people of
Metz, fully accepted the claim of of came
DIES Hermoises to be the same Maid who
had been the cynosure of every eye IN their
town ten years before. There is, of course,
another side to the case but this only
shows to what a strain in the best attested
facts of history may come to be exposed :"