DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70300#0237
JOAN D’ARC.
W
she offered that prince, in the name of the Supreme Cieator,
to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct him to Rheitns,
to be there crowned and anointed; and on his expressing
some doubts of her mission, revealed to him, before some
sworn confidants, a secret unknown to all the world except
himself, and which it was impossible for her to know, but by
a heavenly inspiration; demanding, at the same time, as the
instrument of her future victories, a particular sword, care-
fully kept in the church of St. Catherine de Fierbois, and
which, though she had never seen, she described with all
its marks, mentioning the place in which it had long laid
neglected and forgotten. It is very certain that all these mi-
raculous stories were circulated in order to engage the at-
tention of the vulgar.
The more the king and his ministers were determined to
make use of this religious visionary, the more scruples they
pretended to raise against her mission. An assembly of
grave doctors and divines cautiously examined Joan’s pre-
tensions, and pronounced them undoubted and supernatural.
She was therefore sent to the parliament then assembled at
Poictiers, where she was closely interrogated. The president
and council, who came thither fully persuaded of her im-
posture, returned convinced of her inspiration. A ray of
hope now began to break through the clouds of despair,
which had for some time surrounded the court of Charles.
Heaven, they said, had now declared in favour of France,
and had laid bare its almighty arm to take vengeance on her
invaders. Few were able to distinguish between the im-
pulse of inclination, and the force of conviction ; and still
fewer were willing to undertake the trouble of making a
scrutiny so disagreeable to their wishes.
In the mean time the siege of Orleans was pushed by
the English with the utmost vigour, and the besieged still
continued to make a noble resistance ; but the want of pro-
visions increasing everyday, it became absolutely necessary to
send the garrison a supply; and Charles determined that
W
she offered that prince, in the name of the Supreme Cieator,
to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct him to Rheitns,
to be there crowned and anointed; and on his expressing
some doubts of her mission, revealed to him, before some
sworn confidants, a secret unknown to all the world except
himself, and which it was impossible for her to know, but by
a heavenly inspiration; demanding, at the same time, as the
instrument of her future victories, a particular sword, care-
fully kept in the church of St. Catherine de Fierbois, and
which, though she had never seen, she described with all
its marks, mentioning the place in which it had long laid
neglected and forgotten. It is very certain that all these mi-
raculous stories were circulated in order to engage the at-
tention of the vulgar.
The more the king and his ministers were determined to
make use of this religious visionary, the more scruples they
pretended to raise against her mission. An assembly of
grave doctors and divines cautiously examined Joan’s pre-
tensions, and pronounced them undoubted and supernatural.
She was therefore sent to the parliament then assembled at
Poictiers, where she was closely interrogated. The president
and council, who came thither fully persuaded of her im-
posture, returned convinced of her inspiration. A ray of
hope now began to break through the clouds of despair,
which had for some time surrounded the court of Charles.
Heaven, they said, had now declared in favour of France,
and had laid bare its almighty arm to take vengeance on her
invaders. Few were able to distinguish between the im-
pulse of inclination, and the force of conviction ; and still
fewer were willing to undertake the trouble of making a
scrutiny so disagreeable to their wishes.
In the mean time the siege of Orleans was pushed by
the English with the utmost vigour, and the besieged still
continued to make a noble resistance ; but the want of pro-
visions increasing everyday, it became absolutely necessary to
send the garrison a supply; and Charles determined that