Part 14 (2/2)
Ayez pitie de Crestiente Beau sire Dieux Tant en France qu'en autres lieux!
Ce seroit Pitie a oultrance Que si n.o.ble roiaume, comme France, Fust par male temptacion Mis du tout a perdicion....
Fol. 3, verso.
SAINT NICHOLAS
G.o.d all powerful grant that he may issue forth from that sweet land which all must love, all France, where are good Christians, and may they be comforted, and may they be sustained; for the power of their adversary and his false art tempt them to withstand thy holy will.
Have pity on Christendom, good lord G.o.d, on other lands as well as on France! It would be the worst of pities if so n.o.ble a kingdom as France were through much temptation to fall into perdition....]
And among them were some which would appeal strongly to rustic souls.
In his mortal life my Lord Saint Remi had healed a blind man possessed of devils. A man bestowed his goods on the chapter of Reims for the salvation of his soul and died; ten years after his death Saint Remi restored him to life, and made him declare his gift. Being entertained by persons who had nothing to drink, the saint filled their cask with miraculous wine. He received from King Clovis the gift of a mill; but when the miller refused to yield it up to him, my Lord Saint Remi, by the power of G.o.d, threw down the mill, and cast it into the centre of the earth. One night when the Saint was alone in his chapel, while all his clerks were asleep, the glorious apostles Peter and Paul came down from Paradise to sing matins with him.
Who better than the folk of Domremy should know of the baptism of King Clovis of France, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost, at the singing of Veni Creator Spiritus, bearing in its beak the holy ampulla, full of chrism blessed by Our Lord?[314]
[Footnote 314: _Mystere de Saint Remi_, a.r.s.enal Library, ms. no.
3.364, fol. 69, verso.]
Who better than they should understand the words addressed to the very Christian King, by my Lord Saint Remi, not doubtless in the Church's Latin, but in the good tongue of the people and very much like the following: ”Now, Sire, take knowledge and serve G.o.d faithfully and judge justly, that thy kingdom may prosper. For if justice depart from it then shall this kingdom be in danger of perdition.”[315]
[Footnote 315: _Mystere de Saint Remi_, fol. 71, verso.]
In short, in one way or another, whether through the clerks who directed her or through the peasants among whom she dwelt, Jeanne had knowledge of the good Archbishop Remi, who so dearly cherished the royal blood in the holy ampulla at Reims, and of the anointing of the very Christian kings.[316]
[Footnote 316:
_Le bon archevesque Remy, Qui tant aime le sang royal, Qui tant a son conseil loyal, Qui tant aime Dieu et l'eglise._
_Mystere de Saint Remi_, fol. 77.
The good Archbishop Remi, who so dearly cherishes the _royal_ blood, so faithful in counsel, so devout a lover of G.o.d and the Church.]
And the Angel appeared unto her and said: ”Daughter of G.o.d, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Reims that he may there receive worthily his anointing.”[317]
[Footnote 317: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]
The maid understood. The scales fell from her eyes; a bright light was shed abroad in her mind. Behold wherefore G.o.d had chosen her. Through her the Dauphin Charles was to be anointed at Reims. The white dove, which of old was sent to the blessed Remi, was to come down again at the Virgin's call. G.o.d, who loves the French, marks their king with a sign, and when there is no sign the royal power has departed. The anointing alone makes the king, and Messire Charles de Valois had not been anointed. Notwithstanding the father lies becrowned and besceptred in the basilica of Saint-Denys in France, the son is but the dauphin and will not enter into his inheritance till the day when the oil of the inexhaustible ampulla shall flow over his forehead. And G.o.d has chosen her, a young, ignorant peasant maid, to lead him, through the ranks of his enemies, to Reims, where he shall receive the unction poured upon Saint Louis. Unfathomable ways of G.o.d! The humble maid, knowing not how to ride a horse, unskilled in the arts of war, is chosen to bring to Our Lord his temporal vicar of Christian France.
Henceforth Jeanne knew what great deeds she was to bring to pa.s.s. But as yet she discerned not the means by which she was to accomplish them.
”Thou must fare forth into France,” Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret said to her.
”Daughter of G.o.d, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Reims[318] that he may there receive worthily his anointing,” the Archangel Michael said to her.
[Footnote 318: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130; vol. ii, p. 456; vol. iii, p.
3, _pa.s.sim_.]
She must obey them--but how? If at that time there were not just at hand some devout adviser to direct her, one incident quite personal and unimportant, which then occurred in her father's house, may have sufficed to point out the way to the young saint.
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