The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-04-19
iPOPE AND ROTESTANTS SAINT JOAN OF ARC

leans and would compel the English
to raise the siege, that she herself in
battle before Orleans would be
wounded by shaft but would not die
OF it, and that the king, in the course
OF the coming summer, would be
crowned at Rheims, together with
other things which the king keeps
secret Before entering upon her
campaign Joan summoned the king of
England to withdraw his troops from
french soil. The English commanders
were furious at the audacity of the
demand, but Joan by a rapid move
ment entered Orleans on April 80
her presence there at once worked
wonders. By May the English forts
which encircled the city had all been
captured, and the siege raised, though
on the 1th Joan was wounded in the
breast by an arrow. So far as the
Maid went she wished to follow up
these successes with all speed, partly
from a sound warlike instinct, partly
because her voices had already told
her that she had only a year to last.
But the king and his advisers, especial-
ly La Tremoille and the Archbishop of
Rheims, were slow to move. How
ever, at JOan's earnest entreaty. a
snort campaign was begun upon the
Loire, which, after a series of sue
cesses, ended on June IS with a great
victory at Patay, where the English
relnforcements sent from Paris under
st. John Fastolf were completely
routed. The way to Rheims was now
practically open, but the Maid had the
greatest difficulty in persuading the
commanders not to retire before
Troyes, which was at first closed
against them. They captured the town
and then, still reluctantly, followed
her to Rheims, where, on Sunday,
July II, 1929, Charles VII was SOL
emnly crowned, the Maid standing by
with her standard, for-as she ex-
plalned-"as it had shared in the toll.
it was just that it should share in the
victory"
Joan a Prisoner.
In further effort to expel the Brit
ish from France she was pulled down
from her horse and became the prison
er of a follower of John of Luxembourg.
Joan was sold by John of Luxembourg
to the English for sum which would
be the equivalent of $4,000 in mod
ern money There can be no doubt
that tho EnpIich lu
feared their prisoner with a supersti-
tious terror, partly because they were
ashamed of the dread which she in
spired, were determined at all costs
to take her life. They could not put
her to death for having beaten them,
but they could get her sentenced as
a witch and a hereto. Moreover, they
had tool ready to their hand in
Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beau
vais, an unscrupulous and ambitious
man who was the creature of the Bur-
gundian party. After a long drawn
out and farcical trial Joan was con-
demned as hereto and sentenced ac-
cordingly. Her plea to the Holy
Father was suppressed. She was al
lowed to make her confession and to
receive Communion. Her demeanor at
the stake was such as to move even
her bitter enemies to tears She asked
for cross, which, after she had en-
braced it, was held up before her while
she called continuously upon the name
of Jesus. Until the last" said Man
chon, the recorder at the trial, she
declared that her voices came from
God and had not deceived her." After
death her ashes were thrown into the
Seine.
Justice for Joan.
Twenty-four years later revision of
her trial, the process de rehabilitation,
was opened at Paris with the consent
of the Holy See The popular feeling
was then very different, and, with but
the rarest exceptions, all the witnesses
were eager to render their tribute to
the virtues and supernatural gifts of
the Maid. The first trial had been con-
Quoted without reference to the Pope;
indeed, it was carried out in defiance
of Blessed Joan's appeal to the head
of the Church. Now an appellate court
constituted by the Pope, after long in
quiry and examination of witnesses,
| reversed and annulled the sentence
pronounced by local tribunal under
Cauchon's presidency. The illegality
of the former proceedings was made
clear, and it speaks well for the sin
| ceritv of this new inquiry that it could
| not be made without inflicting some
degree of reproach upon both the king
of France and the Church at large, see-
ing that SO great an injustice had been
done and had SO long been suffered to
continue unredressed. At last the
| cause of her beatification was intro
duced upon occasion of an appeal ad-
| dressed to the Holy See, in 1869, by
Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans,
and, after passing through all it's
states and being duly confirmed by
the necessary miracles, the process
ended in the decree of beatification
being published by Plus x on April
II, 1909.