Jeanne D'Arc, St. (St. Joan of Arc) (ca. 1412-1431)

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Jeanne D'Arc, St. (St. Joan of Arc) (ca. 1412-1431)

Joan was born Jeanette, with the surname Arc or Romée, in the village of Domrémy, on the border of Champagne and Lorraine, on January 15, 1412. In documents of her time she is known as Jeanne.

She was taught to spin and sew but not to read or write, these accomplishments being unnecessary to people in her station of life. Her parents were devout, and she was brought up piously. Her nature was gentle, modest, and religious, but with no physical weakness or morbidity. On the contrary, she was exceptionally strong, as her later history shows.

At or about age 13 she began to experience what modern psychology calls "auditory hallucinations." In other words, she heard voices (usually accompanied by a bright light) when no visible person was present. This is a symptom that occasionally presages a mental disorder, but no insanity developed in Jeanne d'Arc. She was startled at first, but continuation of the experience led to familiarity and trust. The voices gave good counsel of a commonplace nature, for example, that she "must be a good girl and go often to church."

Soon, however, she began to have visions. She saw St. Michael, St. Catharine, and St. Margaret and was given instructions as to her mission. She eventually made her way to the dauphin, put herself at the head of 6,000 men, and advanced to the relief of Orleans, which was surrounded by the victorious English. After a fortnight of hard fighting the siege was raised and the enemy driven off. The tide of war turned, and in three months the dauphin was crowned king at Rheims as Charles VII.

At this point Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished, but her wish to return to her family was overruled by the king and the archbishop. She took part in further fighting against the allied English and Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and tactical skill. In November 1430, however, in a desperate sally from Compiégne (which was besieged by the duke of Burgundy), she fell into the enemy's hands and was sold to the English and thrown into a dungeon at their headquarters in Rouen.

After a year's imprisonment she was brought to trial before the bishop of Beauvais in an ecclesiastical court. The charges were heresy and sorcery. Learned doctors of the church and subtle lawyers did their best to entangle the simple girl in their dialectical webs, but she showed remarkable power in keeping to her affirmations and avoiding heretical statements. "God has always been my Lord in all that I have done," she repeated.

But the trial was only a sham, for her fate was already decided. She was condemned to the stake. To the end she solemnly affirmed the reality of her "voices" and the truth of her depositions. Her last word, as the smoke and flame rolled round her, was "Jesus." Said an English soldier, awestruck by the manner of her passing, "We are lost; we have burned a saint." The idea was corroborated in popular opinion by events that followed, for speedy death (as if by Heaven's anger) overtook her judges and accusers. Inspired by her example and claims, and helped by dissension and weakening on the side of the enemy, the French took heart once more and the English were all but swept out of the country.

Jeanne's family was rewarded by ennoblement, under the name De Lys. Twenty-five years after her death, the pope acceded to a petition that the trial by which Jeanne was condemned should be reexamined. The judgment was reversed and her innocence was established and proclaimed.

The life of the Maid of Orleans presents a problem that orthodox science cannot solve. She was a simple peasant girl with no ambitions. She rebelled pathetically against her mission, saying, "I had far rather rest and spin by my mother's side, for this is no work of my choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." She cannot be dismissed on the "simple idiot" theory of Voltaire, for her genius in war and her aptitude in repartee undoubtedly prove exceptional mental powers, un-schooled though she was. She cannot be dismissed as a mere hysteric, for her health and strength were superb.

It is on record that a man of science said to an abbot, "Come to the Salpêtrière Hospital [the refuge for elderly, poor, and insane patients in Paris] and I will show you twenty Jeannes d'Arc." To which the abbot responded, "Has one of them given us back Alsace and Lorraine?"

Although Jeanne delivered France and her importance in history is great, it is arguable that her mission and her actions were the outcome of merely subjective hallucinations induced by the brooding of her religious and patriotic mind on the woes of her country. The army, being ignorant and superstitious, would have readily believed in the supernatural nature of her mission, resulting in great energy and valor—soldiers fight well when they feel that Providence is on their side. So goes the most common theory in explaining the facts surrounding the life of St. Joan. But it is not fully satisfactory.

How was it possible that this simple, untutored peasant girl could persuade not only the soldiers, but also the dauphin of France and the court of her divine appointment? How did she come to be given the command of an army? It seems improbable that a post of such responsibility and power would be given to an ignorant girl of 18 on the mere strength of her own claim to inspiration.

Although the materialistic school of historians conveniently ignores or belittles it, there is strong evidence to support the idea that Jeanne gave the dauphin some proof of her possession of supernormal faculties. In fact, the evidence is so strong that Andrew Lang, not known for unsupported statements, called it "unimpeachable." Among other curious things, Jeanne seems to have repeated to Charles the words of a prayer that he had said mentally, and she also made some kind of clairvoyant discovery of a sword hidden behind the altar of the Fierbois church. Johann Schiller's magnificent dramatic poem "Die Jungfrau von Orleans" (1801), although not historically correct in some details, is positive on these points concerning clairvoyance and mindreading.

There is also evidence that Jeanne was connected with fairies, which were also part of witchcraft beliefs. Not far from Domrémy was a tree called "the Fairies' Tree" beside a spring said to cure fevers. The wife of the local mayor stated that it had been said that "Jeanne received her mission at the tree of the fairy-ladies" and that St. Katharine and St. Margaret came and spoke to her at the spring beside the fairies' tree. During Jeanne's trial the fourth article of accusation was that Jeanne was not instructed in her youth in the primitive faith, but was imbued by certain old women in the use of witchcraft, divination, and other superstitious works or magic arts. Jeanne herself, according the accusation, had said she heard from her godmother and other people about visions and apparitions of fairies.

Moreover, Pierronne, a follower of Jeanne d'Arc, was burned at the stake as a witch. She stated on oath that God appeared to her in human form and spoke to her as a friend, and that he was clothed in a scarlet cap and a long white robe.

It has been suggested that the voices heard by Jeanne may have been those of human beings rather than Christian saints, and Jeanne herself stated, "Those of my party know well that the Voice had been sent to me from God, they have seen and known this Voice. My king and many others have also heard and seen the Voices which came to me…. I saw him [St. Michael] with my bodily eyes as well as I see you." Jeanne's references to "the King of Heaven" in the original Latin and French were translated with a Christian bias as "Our Lord," and "my Lord" was translated as "Our Saviour." The scholar Margaret A. Murray in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) also suggests that if Jeanne was a member of a Dianic [witch] cult, the wearing of male clothing may have been for Jeanne an outward sign of that faith, hence the importance attached to it.

In another book, The God of the Witches (1931), Murray examines the tradition that Jeanne was not actually burned at the stake but survived for a number of years afterward. The Chronique de Metz states, "Then she was sent to the city of Rouen in Normandy, and there was placed on a scaffold and burned in a fire, so it was said, but since then was found to be the contrary." Some of the evidence for this view had been cited earlier by Andrew Lang in his essay "The False Jeanne d'Arc" in his book The Valet's Tragedy and Other Studies (1903).

The period between the trial at Rouen and the Trial of Rehabilitation (1452-56) is crucial. In 1436, five years after the Rouen trial, the herald-at-arms and Jeanne's brother Jean du Lys announced officially in Orleans that Jeanne was still alive. The city accounts record that on Sunday, August 6, Jean du Lys, brother of "Jehane la Pucelle" [Jeanne the Maid] was in Orleans with letters from his sister to the king. In July 1439 Jeanne's brothers were in Orleans with their sister, now married to the sieur des Armoises (or Harmoises), and the city council presented Jeanne des Armoises with 210 pounds "for the good that she did to the said town during the siege of 1429." Accounts are also recorded of the wine merchant and draper who supplied Jeanne with wine and clothing. Her own mother was in Orleans at the time. Moreover, the masses that had been celebrated in Orleans for the repose of Jeanne's soul were discontinued after her mother's visit.

It is not conclusive that this Jeanne was an impostor (as Andrew Lang believed), and it seems unlikely that many people in Orleans, including Jeanne's own brothers, could have been deceived. The riddle of conflicting evidence of burning at the stake or substantiated appearances years later has never been satisfactorily resolved. Many such questions remain unresolved, in spite of various books, mainly by French writers, dealing with the issue.

Early French books on the subject include La Survivance et le Mariage de Jeanne D'Arc, by Grillot de Givry and La Legende Detruite: Indications pour essayer de suivre l'histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, by Paraf-Javal (1929). More recently another French writer, Pierre de Sermoise, published Jeanne d'Arc et la Mandragore (1983), which has revived the claim that the veiled woman burned at the stake in the marketplace was a prisoner condemned to death as a witch, substituting for France's national heroine.

More speculative is the conclusion of American biologist Robert Greenblatt (reported in 1983) that Jeanne was really a man. It was also claimed that two midwives who had examined Jeanne to establish her virginity were astonished to find that she had not reached puberty. In 1994, Jeanne d'Arc's suit of armor was thought to have been discovered by a Parisian antiques dealer. Not only did the suit fit his 14-year-old daughter's body, but where it was damaged seemed to match where it was believed to be the saint was wounded. Even in the twenty-first century Jeanne d'Arc remains a popular subject for articles, books and a popular character for television programs and movies.