Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-06-10
JOAN OR ARC.
A Historic Doubt.

Historic Doubt.
Mgr. Dupanloup, the Bishop of Or
leans, has gone to Rome, it is said, to
obtain the canonization of the Maid.
An equestrian statue in memory of her
has already been erected this year near
the Louvre in Paris. Her faithful
worshippers are not content with this,
but ask a place for her among the
saints immortal. But the lawyers of
the Vatican entertain grave historic
doubts. It is not only, above all things,
necessary to know "whether Joan or
Arc had and practiced in the heroic de-
gree (such is the formula) the four car
dinal virtues of Fortitude, Justice,
Temperance and Prudence, and the
three theological virtues. of Faith,
Hope and Charity" But there rises
also the spectral inquiry whether her
reputed execution as a sorceress was
with the consent and under the aus
pieces of a bishop of the church. It
would be a strange anomaly if it should
happen that the infallible church, the
same yesterday, to-day and forever,
should in the year Of our Lord 1874
canonize as saint the eccentric and
daring woman whom it burned as
witch in 1431. It is to solve this diff.
entity that M. Dupanloup has been sum-
moned to Rome
This curious inquiry has revived the
old controversy whether Joan of Arc
was ever condemned and burnt at all,
and has called to the recollection Of the
newspaper antiquarian that there was a
female " claimant in France in the
fifteenth century, whose brothers swore
to her identity as the real Joan, while
a thoroughly believing city granted to
her a considerable testimonial in ready
money in proof of it's belief in her pre-
| tentions. The facts and authorities,
says the London News, are lucidly stat
ed by the eminent antiquarian, Mr..
George Skene, ina paper in the Church
mans Companion, published this year.
Notwithstanding the apparently COM
Arc with the woman who was burned at
Rouen in 1431, and whose body was
expressly exposed after death by the
drawing back of the fagots round the
stake that the populace might see it
before the ashes were thrown into the
Refine, there appeared five years after
wards, in the neighbOrhood of Metz,
lady who announced herself as La PH-
ellie Jehanne. The two brothers of the
real Joan, who had been enobled by
Charles VII. under the name of Du
Lys, met her there apparently by APP
pointment), and formally recognized
her as their sister Their testimony
was at once accepted by a number Of
noblemen Of the country, who present
ed her with horses, arms, &c, and one
of them, knight named Robert des
Hermoises, married her and lived with
her many years afterwards 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 1445, and must
have been written shortly after the
events narrated, and it is corroborated
by many collateral records, by the jour
nal of a citizen of Paris, dated 1449,
preserved in the Louvre, and by the
Chronicle of Lorraine, which closes in
1914. Pere Vigmer, who lived IN the
18th century, states that he saw among
the tisse-deeds of the family of Des
Hermoises the marriage contract of
Robert with " La Pucelle, and also a
deed of sale in which one party was
styled, "Jeara1ae du us la Pucelle 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 e7O to
Jehanne La Pucelle and her brothers,
demonstrating that the city of Orleans,
like the people of Metz, fully accepted
the claim of Jeanne des Hermoises to
be the same ''Maid" who had been the
cynosure of every eye in their town ten
years before. There is, of course, an
other side to the case but this only
shows to what strain the best attested
facts of history may come to be expos
ed.-BOstOn Advertiser.