St. Landry democrat., 1878-07-27
WAS JOAN OF ARC BURNT?
Or Did She Escape from ire Scafiod by an
Artifce.

Or Did She Escape from the Scafiod by an
Artifce
1t is commonly accepted as an his.
torical fact that Joan of Arc was burnt
at the stake in the market place of
Rouen, on the 3lst Of May, 1881. In
view of the intended erection by the
French Clerical party of national
memorial" to this martyr" con-
sideration of the following may not be
i'll timed:
The able Lenglet; in his " Historic de
Jeanne dare" says that Ii Puceile
made her appearance at Metz sometime
alter supposed execution, where sho was
received with due honors, "was
acknowledge by her two brothers, jean
and Pierre dare, and was married to
gentleman OF the house of Amboise in
1886. At their solicitation her sentence
was annulled in 1856" Her seemingly
miraculous escape from "tke jaws of a
frery death" is accounted for as 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, manuever, fraud and dexterity.
He sought out and brought forward such
testimony only as related to ecclesiastical
offsnses and then handed over the de-
cision to the secular judges, whose clena>
ency he invoked. Joan said to him
publicly, You promised to restore me
to the church, and you deliver me to ny
enemies (Villaret: "Historie de
France vol. XIV, p. 72) The intention
of the Bishop, then, must have been that
the secular judges, for want of evidence,
should see no ofense against the state, as
the clerical judges, notwithstanding the
evidence, declined to see any against the
church. A fatal sentence was, however,
pronounced, and the fulfillment of it in.
trusted to the ecclesiastical authorities.
Immediately after the aato du te, one of
the executioners ran to the friars and
said that be had never been so shocked
at any execution, and that the English
had built up scafolding of plaster (un
echataud de platre) SO lofty that he could
not approach the culprit, which must
have caused her suf1erings to be long and
horrid. (Pasquier Historic d'Or.
leans" vol. stated at Metz some time
afterward.
The Parisians, indeed, long remained
incredulous. They must have otherwise
have punished those ecclesiastics whose
humanity, perhaps, conspired with the
Bishop of Beauvais to withdraw her
from real execution down central Chin
ney of brick and mortar, or, as the execu.
toner called it, scafolding of plaster.
The king, too, whose intimacy with
Joan before she fell into the hands of the
English was we'll known, is stated to
have recognized her, as her brothers had
done, and received her with these words:
Pucelle, mamie, soyea la tres bien reutnue,
au nom de Dieul She is then said to have
knelt at his majesty's feet and commune
Gated to him the article by which she
had escaped.
1t would be not only curious, but i'll
terestlng to know On what authority the
above historians made these statements,
as, could their truth Re proved, the
greatest stain upon England's victorious
arms would be firmly wiped away.
The Able Lenglet's Historic de Jeanne
dire, vierge, heroine, ct mnrtyre d'etat,
suscitee par Ia Providence pour reiabHr Ia
Monarchie Frsncaise, was published in
1853 in limo; Villeret's work about ten
years afterwards, in continuation of the
unfinished labors of De Velly.
May ask, through the Times, whether
these statements have ever been con-
iuted? A E. VILEs.
FTHEn ESE,nnnnr,o NFn1y;,,x. rI,,.: