Part 13 (1/2)
And a voice from heaven made answer: ”Come, my beloved bride; the gate of heaven is open to thee. And to those who shall invoke me through thy intercession, I promise help from on high.” From the riven neck of the virgin flowed forth milk instead of blood.
Thus Madame Sainte Catherine pa.s.sed from this world to celestial happiness, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of November, which was a Friday.[277]
[Footnote 277: Voragine, _La legende doree_, 1846, pp. 789-797.
Douhet, _Dictionnaire des legendes_, 1855, pp. 824-836.]
My Lord Saint Michael, the Archangel, did not forget his promise. The ladies Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret came as he had said. On their very first visit the young peasant maid vowed to them to preserve her virginity as long as it should please G.o.d.[278] If there were any meaning in such a promise, Jeanne, however old she may then have been, could not have been quite a child. And it seems probable that the angel and the saints appeared to her first when she was on the threshold of womanhood, that is, if she ever became a woman.[279]
[Footnote 278: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 29. When we come to the trial, we shall consider whether it be possible to reconcile Jeanne's a.s.sertions with regard to this vow.]
[Footnote 279: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128; vol. iii, p. 219.]
The saints soon entered into familiar relations with her.[280] They came to the village every day, and often several times a day. When she saw them appear in a ray of light coming down from heaven, s.h.i.+ning and clad like queens, with golden crowns on their heads, wearing rich and precious jewels, the village maiden crossed herself devoutly and curtsied low.[281] And because they were ladies of good breeding, they returned her salutation. Each one had her own particular manner of greeting, and it was by this manner that Jeanne distinguished one from the other, for the dazzling light of their countenances rendered it impossible for her to look them in the face. They graciously permitted their earth-born friend to touch their feet, to kiss the hems of their garments, and to inhale rapturously the sweet perfume they emitted.[282] They addressed her courteously,[283] as it seemed to Jeanne. They called the lowly damsel daughter of G.o.d. They taught her to live well and go to church. Without always having anything very new to say to her, since they came so constantly, they spoke to her of things which filled her with joy, and, after they had disappeared, Jeanne ardently pressed her lips to the ground their feet had trodden.[284]
[Footnote 280: _Ibid._, index, under the words, _Voices_, _Catherine_, and _Marguerite_.]
[Footnote 281: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 71-85, 167 _seq._, 186 _seq._]
[Footnote 282: _Ibid._, pp. 185, 186.]
[Footnote 283: In the French, _humblement_. In old French _humblement_ means courteously. In Froissart there is a pa.s.sage quoted by La Curne: ”_Li contes de Hainaut rechut ces seigneurs d'Engleterre, l'un apres l'autre, moult humblement._”]
[Footnote 284: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130.]
Oftentimes she received the heavenly ladies in her little garden, close to the precincts of the church. She used to meet them near the spring; often they even appeared to their little friend surrounded by heavenly companies. ”For,” Isabelle's daughter used to say, ”angels are wont to come down to Christians without being seen, but I see them.”[285] It was in the woods, amid the light rustling of the leaves, and especially when the bells rang for matins or compline, that she heard the sweet words most distinctly. And so she loved the sound of the bells, with which her Voices mingled. So, when at nine o'clock in the evening, Perrin le Drapier, s.e.xton of the parish, forgot to ring for compline, she reproached him with his negligence, and scolded him for not doing his duty. She promised him cakes if in the future he would not forget to ring the bells.[286]
[Footnote 285: _Ibid._, p. 130.]
[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 413, note 2.]
She told none of these things to her priest; for this, according to some good doctors, she must be censured, but, according to others equally excellent, she must be commended. For if on the one hand we are to consult our ecclesiastical superiors in matters of faith, on the other, where the gift of the Holy Ghost is poured out, there reigns perfect liberty.[287]
[Footnote 287: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52, marginal comment of the d'Urfe MS.: _Celavit visiones curato, patri et matri et cuic.u.mque_, in the _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128, note. Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 471.]
Since the two saints had been visiting Jeanne, my Lord Saint Michael had come less often; but he had not forsaken her. There came a time when he talked to her of love for the kingdom of France, of that love which she felt in her heart.[288]
[Footnote 288: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 171: ”_Et luy racontet l'angle la pitie qui estoit ou royaume de France._” _Pitie_ means here occasion for tenderness and love. The angel is thinking especially of the Dauphin. For the meaning and use of this word, cf. Monstrelet, vol.
iii, p. 74: ”_... et le peuple plorant de pitie et de joie qu'ils avoient a regarder leur seigneur_.” Gerard de Nevers in La Curne: ”_Pitie estoit de voir festoyer leur seigneur; on ne pourroit retenir ses larmes en voyant la joie qu'ils marquoient de recevoir leur seigneur._”]
And the holy visitants, whose voices grew stronger and more ardent as the maiden's soul grew holier and more heroic, revealed to her her mission. ”Daughter of G.o.d,” they said, ”thou must leave thy village, and go to France.”[289]
[Footnote 289: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]
Had this idea of a holy militant mission, conceived by Jeanne through the intermediary of her Voices, come into her mind spontaneously without the intervention of any outside will, or had it been suggested to her by some one who was influencing her? It would be impossible to solve this problem were there not a slight indication to direct us.
Jeanne at Domremy was acquainted with a prophecy foretelling that France would be ruined by a woman and saved by a maiden.[290] It made an extraordinary impression upon her; and later she came to speak in a manner which proved that she not only believed it, but was persuaded that she herself was the maiden designated by the prophecy.[291] Who taught her this? Some peasant? We have reason to believe that the peasants did not know it, and that it was current among ecclesiastics.[292] Besides, it is important to notice in this connection that Jeanne was acquainted with a particular form of this prophecy, obviously arranged for her benefit, since it specified that the Maiden Redemptress should come from the borders of Lorraine. This local addition is not the work of a cowherd; it suggests rather a mind apt to direct souls and to inspire deeds. It is no longer possible to doubt that the prophecy thus revised is the work of an ecclesiastic whose intentions may be easily divined. Henceforth one is conscious of an idea agitating and possessing the young seer of visions.
[Footnote 290: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 444.]
[Footnote 291: ”_Nonne alias dictum fuit quod Francia per mulierem desolaretur, et postea per Virginem restaurari debebat?_” Evidence given by Durand La.s.sois in _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 444.]
[Footnote 292: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 447. Nevertheless the woman Le Royer of Domremy remembered it and was astonished by it. _Et hunc ipsa testis haec audisse recordata est et stupefacta fuit._]