Part 33 (1/2)
[Footnote 770: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 20.]
But for the Maid the sign of victory was victory itself. She said without ceasing: ”The sign that I will show you shall be Orleans relieved and the siege raised.”[771]
[Footnote 771: _Ibid._, pp. 20, 205. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
278. _Journal du siege_, p. 49.]
Such persistency made an impression on most of her interrogators. They determined to make of it, not a stone of stumbling, but rather an example of zeal and a subject of edification. Since she promised them a sign it behoved them in all humility to ask G.o.d to send it, and, filled with a like hope, joining with the King and all the people, to pray to the G.o.d, who delivered Israel, to grant them the banner of victory. Thus were overcome the arguments of Brother Seguin and of those who, led away by the precepts of human wisdom, desired a sign before they believed.
After an examination which had lasted six weeks, the doctors declared themselves satisfied.[772]
[Footnote 772: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 19, 20.]
There was one point it was necessary to ascertain; they must know whether Jeanne was, as she said, a virgin. Matrons had indeed already examined her on her arrival at Chinon. Then there was a doubt as to whether she were man or maid; and it was even feared that she might be an illusion in woman's semblance, produced by the art of demons, which scholars considered by no means impossible.[773] It was not long since the death of that canon who held that now and again knights are changed into bears and spirits travel a hundred leagues in one night, then suddenly become sows or wisps of straw.[774] Suitable measures had therefore been taken. But they must be carried out exactly, wisely, and cautiously, for the matter was of great importance.
[Footnote 773: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 95; vol. iii, p. 209.]
[Footnote 774: Mary Darmesteter, _Froissart_, Paris, 1894, in 12mo, p.
96.]
CHAPTER VIII
THE MAID AT POITIERS (_continued_)
A belief, common to learned and ignorant alike, ascribed special virtues to the state of virginity. Such ideas had been handed down from a remote antiquity; their origin was pre-Christian; they were an immemorial inheritance, one part of which came from the Gauls and Germans, the other from the Romans and Greeks. In the land of Gaul there still lingered a memory of the sacred beauty of the white priestesses of the forest; and sometimes in the Island of Sein, along the misty sh.o.r.es of the Ocean, there wandered the shades of those nine sisters at whose bidding, in days of yore, the tempest raged and was stilled.
According to these beliefs, which had dawned in the childhood of races, the gift of prophecy is bestowed on virgins alone. It is the heritage of a Ca.s.sandra or a Velleda. It was said that Sibyls had prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ. In the Church they were considered the first witnesses of Christ among the Gentiles, and they were venerated as the august sisters of the prophets of Israel. The _Dies Irae_ mentions one of them in the same breath with King David himself. By what pious frauds their fame for prophecy was established, we cannot tell any more than Jean Gerson or Gerard Machet. With the doctors of the fifteenth century we must look upon these virgins as speaking the word of truth to the nations, who venerated but did not understand them. Such was the ancient tradition of the Christian Church. The most ancient fathers of the Church, Justin, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, frequently made use of the Sibylline oracles; and the heathen were at a loss for a reply when Lactantius confronted them with these prophetesses of the nations. Trusting in the word of Varro, Saint Jerome firmly believed in their existence. Into _The City of G.o.d_ Saint Augustine introduces the Erythrean Sibyl, who, he says, faithfully foretold the Life of the Saviour. As early as the thirteenth century, these virgins of old had their places in cathedrals by the side of patriarchs and prophets. But it was not until the fifteenth century that mult.i.tudes of them were represented; sculptured on church porches, carved on choir stalls, painted on chapel walls or gla.s.s windows. Each one has her distinctive attribute.
The Persian holds the lantern and the Libyan the torch, which illuminated the darkness of the Gentiles. The Agrippine, the European, and Erythrean are armed with the sword; the Phrygian bears the Paschal cross; the h.e.l.lespontine presents a rose tree in flower; the others display the visible signs of the mystery they foretell: the c.u.maean a manger; the Delphian, the Samian, the Tiburtine, the Cimmerian a crown of thorns, a sceptre of reeds, scourges, a cross.[775]
[Footnote 775: Jean Philippe de Lignan, Rome, 1481 (not paginated), leaf 10 and the following. For the comparison of Jeanne d'Arc to the ancient Sibyl, see the Clerk of Spire, _Sibylla Francica_, in the _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 422. Christine de Pisano in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 12. Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 8-10. Barbier de Montault, _Iconographie des Sibylles_, in the _Revue de l'art chretien_, xiii-xiv (1869-1870). Barraud, _Notice sur les attributs avec lesquelles on represente les Sibylles aux XV'e et XVI'e siecles_, in the _Bulletin archeologique de la Commission historique des arts mon._, vol. iv (1848). Cf. Morosini, vol. iv, supplement xiv, p. 319.]
The very economy of the Christian religion--the ordering of its mysteries, wherein humanity is represented as ruined by a woman and saved by a virgin, and all flesh is involved in Eve's curse--led to the triumph of virginity and the exaltation of a condition which, in the words of a Father of the Church, is in the flesh, yet not of the flesh.
”It is because of virginity,” says Saint Gregory of Nyssa, ”that G.o.d vouchsafes to dwell with men. It is virginity which gives men wings to soar towards heaven.” Celibacy raises the Apostle John above the Prince of the Apostles himself. At the funeral of the Virgin Mary, Peter gave John a palm branch, saying: ”It becometh one who is celibate to bear the Virgin's palm.”[776]
[Footnote 776: Voragine, _La legende doree_ (a.s.somption de la Vierge).]
Throughout western Christendom the Virgin Mary--the Virgin _par excellence_--had been the object of zealous devout wors.h.i.+p[777] ever since the twelfth century. The great cathedrals of northern France, dedicated to Our Lady, celebrated the feast of their patron saint on the day of the a.s.sumption. On the sculptured pillar of the central porch was the Virgin, with her divine Child and the Virgin's lily.
Sometimes Eve figured beneath, in order to represent at once sin and its redemption: the second Eve redeeming the first, the Virgin exalted the woman humbled. Marvellous scenes are portrayed on the tympanums of porches. The Virgin is kneeling; at her side is a flowering lily in a vase. The Angel, book in hand, greets her with an AVE, thus transposing the name EVA, _mutans Evae nomen_. Or again, with her feet resting on the crescent moon, she rises to the highest heaven: _Exaltata est super choros angelorum_. Further, from Jesus Christ she receives the precious crown: _Posuit in capite ejus coronam de lapide pretioso_. In gems of painted gla.s.s, church windows portrayed the figures of Mary's virginity; the stone which Daniel saw dug from the mountain by no human hand, Gideon's fleece, Moses' burning bush, and Aaron's budding rod.
[Footnote 777: Le Cure de Saint-Sulpice, _Notre Dame de France ou histoire du culte de la Sainte Vierge en France_, Paris, 1862, 7 vols.
in 8vo. Abbe Mignard, _La Sainte Vierge_, Paris, 1877, in 8vo, pp. 382 _et seq._]
In an inexhaustible flow of images, expressed in hymns, sequences, and litanies, she was the Mystic Rose, the Ivory Tower, the Ark of the Covenant, the Gate of Heaven, the Morning Star. She was the Well of Living Water, the Fountain of the Garden, the Walled Orchard, the Bright and s.h.i.+ning Stone, the Flower of Virtue, the Palm of Sweetness, the Myrtle of Temperance, the Sweet Ointment.
In the Golden Legend, images rich and charming clothed the idea that grace and power resided in virginity. The hagiographers burst forth in loving praise of the brides of Jesus Christ; of those especially who put on the white robe of virginity and the red roses of martyrdom. It was during the pa.s.sion of virgins that miracles of the most abounding grace were worked. Angels bring down to Dorothea celestial roses, which she scatters over her executioners. Virgin martyrs exercise their power over beasts. The lions of the amphitheatre lick the feet of Saint Thecla. The wild beasts of the circus gather together, and with tails interlaced, prepare a throne for Saint Euphemia; in the pit, aspics form a pleasing necklace for Saint Christina. It is not the will of the divine Spouse for whom they endure anguish that they should suffer in their modesty. When the executioner tears off Saint Agnes's garments, her hair grows thicker and clothes her in a miraculous garment. When Saint Barbara is to be taken naked through the streets, an angel brings her a white tunic. These Agneses and these Dorotheas, these Catherines and these Margarets, this legion of innocent conquerors prepared men's minds to believe in the miracle of a virgin stronger than armed men. Had not Saint Genevieve turned away Attila and his barbarian warriors from Paris?
The fable of the Maid and the Unicorn, so widely known in those days, is a lively expression of this belief in a special virtue residing in the state of virginity.
The unicorn was half goat and half horse, of immaculate whiteness; it bore a marvellous sword upon its forehead. Hunters, when they saw it pa.s.s in the thicket, had never been able to reach it, so rapid was its course. But if a virgin in the forest called the unicorn, the creature obeyed, came and laid its head on her lap, and allowed such feeble hands to take and bind it. If however a damsel corrupt and no longer a maid approached it, the unicorn slew her immediately.[778]