Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1878-07-24
wAs JOAN OF A1o BURNrr


or Dia NE Iseaps vroa the DcslSold BY
IN Article.
From the London Times.
It IL commonly accepted ~ IN histori-
cal fact that joan of Arc was burnt at
the stake in the market place of Rome,
ON the 3lst of May. 1881. In view of
the intended erection by the French
clerical marty of . " national memorial "
to this martyr" . consideration Of the
following may mot be ill-timed:
The Able Lenglet, in his Historic
de Jeanne dare" says that La Pucelle
made her appearance at Metz sometime
after her supposed execution, where she
was received with due hOnors, "was
acknowledged by her two brothers, Jean
and Pierre dare, and wa married to a
gentleman of the house of AmbOise in
1886. At their solicitation her sentence
wss annulledin 1885," Her seemingly mi
raculous escape from "the jaws Of a fiery
death" is accounted for Is follows:
"The bishop of Beauvais is accused by
all parties Of trick and treachery in the
conduct of the trial. 1t was his known
propensity to gain his ends by stratagem,
craft, maneuvre, fraud and dexterity.
He sought out and brought forward
such testimony only ~ related to ecclesi-
astical ofenses, and then handed over
the decision to the secular judges, whose
clemency he invoked. Joan said to him
publicly, You promised to restore
me to the church, and you deliver me to
mine enemies (Villaret: 'Histore tie
France vol. xv., p. 72.) The intention
Of the bishop, then, must have been that
the secular Judges, for want of evidence,
should see no offense againt the state, as
the clerical judges, Notwithstanding the
evidence, declined to see any against the
church. A fatal sentence was, however,
pronounced, and the fulfllment OF
it intrusted to the ecclesiastical author
tiles.
Immediately after the auto do E, one
of the executiOners ran to two friars and
said that he had never been SO shocked
at any execution, and that the English
had built up a scaffolding of plaster Gun
echntaud de platre) 50 lofty that he could
not approach the culprit, which must
have caused her sufferings to be long
and horrid. (Pasquier: "Histoire
d'Orleans," vol. VIZ Yet she escaped,
and appeared as above stated, at Metz
some time afterward.
The Parisians, indeed, long remained
incredulous. They must otherwise have
punished those ecclesiastics whose hu'
manity, perhaps, conspired with thu
bishop of Besuvais to withdraw her from
real execution down q central chimney
of brick and mortar, or as the execu
TONER called it, q scafolding of plaster.
The king, too, whose intimacy will
Joan before she fell into the hands O
the English was well known, is stated t.
have recognized her, as her brothers hat
done, and received her with these words
Pucelle, mamie, soyez la tres biel
revenue, au nom de Dieu! She is thel
said to have knelt at his majesty's fee
and communicated to him the artifice b.
which she had escaped.
1t would not be only curious, but in
tereasting to know on what authorit.
the above historians made these state
ments, as, could their truth be proved
the greatest stain upon England's victor
ious arms would be firmly wiped away
The Able Lenglet's Historic de Jeann
dare, VERGE, heroine. ct martyre d'etat
s~uscitee par la Providence pour retabli
Ia Monarchie Franchise, was publishe,
in 1853, in l2mo; Viliaret's work abou
ten years afterwards, in continuation o
the unfinished labors of De Velly.
May l ask, through the Time
whether these statements have eve beef
confutedY Your obedient servant,
A. E. VILEs.