The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-02
RoUEN IN HISTORY
MEMORIAL. REARED IN HONOR OF
 THE SAINT.
William E. Curtis writes Interestingly O9 The French City And The Great Names Assocta-
 ted With 1t.


 
 There is more to see and learn In Rouen than in any other town in France except Paris. It is loaded with history and contains perhaps the most exquisite examples of the builders art in all the universe, writes William E. Curtis, to The Chicago Record Herald. An ugly modern edifice stands upon the site of the priory of St. Gervaise. to which William the Conqueror was carried fn his last illness and where he died. The old walls and battIe- ments of the city have vanished and all the ancient keeps but one. For merly there was q great deal mora Of architecture than now. Time is re- lentIess destroyer, but, while we can not help regretting the wonderful things that we have lost, we ought to be thankful that modern improvers have left us anything to recall the centuries that died when they were young. Every street, every square, every tower, and steeple reminds us or some great man or some great event. Rouen has been the residence Of war riors, cardinals. writers and wits, ana is so old that it's early days are hid- den by a mist. In 1197 Richard Couer de Lien lived in a chateau which stood where the cathedral now raises US graceful spires to heaven. Godfrey ! Empress Matilda, his beautiful wife, founded a convent of religious sisters with gray gowns who slill move aboW the city in the morning and evening leading and following procession Of little charity children.
 The Romans laid $he foundations of Rouen as they did those of so many other towns in Europe, and then van ished, but before they disappeared the ! first missionaries of the Gospel ot 1 Christ came here to SOW the seeds or l the church When the legions of the 1 Caesars left the faith remained, and at one time ths lofty spires of thirty ! five churches arose above the roofs of the town and thirty-four monasteries were maintained within or without its walls. The monasteries are abolished; '; the religious orders have been expelled, l all except a few sweet faced sisters who are doing charity work. Their buildings have been torn down and replaced by modern structures except few that have been adapted for ot- ficial purposes; and only four or five of the churches remain, but they are , the most beautiful of all churches ana have never been surpassed either In ancient or modern times.
 l We are reminded of Joan of Arc by statue in bronze; by wide, busy street that bears her name;a tablet In the wall of the market house giv- ! ing a brief account eff her career; a cross In the pavement below 1t to mark the spot where she was burned; the dungeon cell in which she awaited her trial and the room in which she was tried.
 The tower of Joan of Arc is said to be the most perfect example of military architecture of the thirteenth century and tw0-thirds of 1t remains in it's orig Inal masonry 1t was held by an Eng 7 fish garrison when Joan of Arc was | brought to Rouen a prisoner in l43U, and is the last visible relic of the rCy- al chateaus of Rouen, which at cue time were the grandest and the mos' impregnable in France.
 1 The tower stands alone on a com { manding site surrounded by a lovely garden The eel Joan of Arc occu- pied is a triangular closet, lighted | from slit in the wall higher than man can reach. ne old sold1er who acts as custodian, tells a very inter. esting story, although he is inaccurate i In some Of his most important state | ments. He told us, for example, that Joan of Arc had been canUnIzed by tue | Pope and was now one of the saints Of | the Roman Catholic Church, and he | stubbornly insisted upon it. An ear- nest effort has been made for years to secure the canOnizatiun of thls remarkable woman and upon the lat | est anniversary of her death petition signed by millions of women, faithful, pious members of the church, was pre- | sented to the Pope. The question has been before the sacred congregations of | the Curia at Rome for nearly a cen tury and Is revived at intervals. 1t l came up again on the anniversary re- 1 gerred to but a final decision was again postponed. Convincing evidence mas been presented to prove that the Maid | of Orleans was pure, chaste and pIous | woman. actuated by motives of pa | triotism and religious zeal, but the car | dinais have not yet Leen able to re- ! conciIe the fact thaC she went around
 In mems clothing with their ideas of
 saintly habits.
 Joan of Arc was brought tG Rouen
 q prisoner in May. 1430. and the vicar
 general of the inquisition and the Uni
 versity of Paris demanded that she
 should be delivered over to "the jus
 tice of the church" and tried by an
 ecclesiastical court for being a witch
 She was locked up in an iron cage
 in one of the strongest rooms of the
 castle while the bishop of Beauvais
 proceeded tc pack a jury with able and
 uncomprcmising theolOgians, One Eng
 lishman was a member of the court
 the bishop of Bedfard. They were so
 afraid that she would escape that they
 kept her feet chained to a log of wood
 and the iron cage guarded night ana
 day by four soldiers. On the 9th of
 January, 1431 she was summoned be-
 fore the court, and when she was com
 handed to answer truly upon oath
 ali the questions that might be put
 to her. she replied with childish mai
 cete:
 T do not know what questions you
 are going to ask me. You might asl mo things that I wtlt not tell you" The examination. questions and an swers. was written down verbatim by
 the clerks and the record is preserved