VEN. JOAN 435 St. Jerusalem, July 25, a holy womau honoured in the Greek Church. Mas Latrie. St. Joan or Joanna, Jane. Ven. Joan, 1412-1431 (Jeanne or Jkuane d'Abo, la Pucelle, the Maid of Orleans, often erroneously called in England Joan of Arc). Her father was Jean d'Arc, a peasant of Domr^my. She was a strong-built, hard-working, dutiful girl. In 1425 the Archangel Michael appeared to her and commanded her to deliver her country. Voices of other angels and saints encouraged and in- structed her from time to time. In 1428 the English had possession of a great part of France and were besieging Orleans, the last stronghold left to Charles VII., king of France. His treasury was empty, a complete demorali- zation had set in amongst his Mends and subjects, and he was preparing to seek an asylum in Scotland or Spain, when Joan announced her mission. Many difficulties and delays were thrown in her way, but at last she sent a summons to Henry VI., king of England, the Begent Duke of Bedford, and their lieutenants, to give up the keys of all the towns they held in France, and go home to their own country. On April 28, 1429, she rode into Orleans, and at once everything changed. She was wounded by an arrow, and the English thought she was killed. When they saw her leading a new assault they began to think ^e had some unearthly aid. Meantime, merely human and very feminine, she had wept with pain and fear while the wound was being dressed. The siege had lasted seven months ; in one week she raised it. On the last day she ordered that the English should not be attacked unless they began the fight. Immediately they moved o£f. In a short time she took from them several towns without any difficulty, for at the sight of her banner the soldiers were seized with panic. Those newly levied in England deserted in great numbers, '^ for feare of the mayde," before they arrived at the port of embarkation. The saints had sent her to raise the siege of Orleans and to have the king crowned at Bheims. After a hard fight against his 'indolence and vacillation and the jealousy and dishonesty of the courtiers, she induced Charles to come to Bheims, and stood beside him while he was anointed and crowned by the archbishop. In May, 1430, she was at Compi^gno, whore the English and Burgundians were still making a stand. In a sortie that she made on the 24th her troop lost courage and fied to the town. Some of the enemy were pushing it with the retreating French ; and, whether by treachery or blind panic, the gates were shut, and Joan was taken prisouer by a soldier in the service of John of Luxem- burg. Within two days the Vicar- general of the Inquisition sent a message to the Duke of Burgundy requiring him to deliver up Joan to the justice of the Church, and the University of Paris wrote to him to the same effect. The English desired her death. They felt they should have no success while she lived ; they believed no mere mortal could make their soldiers flee before the French, so they were glad to join the Church in counting her a sorceress. Pierre Cochon, bishop of Beauvais, was the chief organ of the university. He made favour with the English in the hope of getting the bishopric of Bouen for himself. The Archbishop of Bheims announced to his people that la Pucelle had beeh taken, and that it was a just judgment of God, because she had obeyed her own inspirations instead of putting herself under the direction of the clergy. She was taken to Bouen in the last days of 1430. There she was treated with every indignity and injustice. Traps were set to make her contradict or in- criminate herself. France moved not a finger to help her. She was burned in the market-place at Bouen as a heretic and magician. Scarce had her soul left her body than an Englishman who had helped to pile the faggots for her execu- tion, exclaimed, '* God have mercy .on us, we have burnt a saint t " (Wallon, Jeanne d*Arc d*apres les monumena contemporains). There is a mass of literature about her in English and French, both Catholic and Protestant. All the writers agree in admiring her character. There is some controversy as to the proportion of
