Part 74 (1/2)
She had never seen this baron, and doubtless she had never heard of him. Jean IV, son of that Constable of France who had been killed in 1418, was the cruellest man in the kingdom. At that time he was between thirty-three and thirty-four years of age. He held both Armagnacs, the Black and the White, the country of the Four Valleys, the counties of Pardiac, of Fesenzac, Astarac, La Lomagne, and l'ile-Jourdain. After the Count of Foix he was the most powerful n.o.ble of Gascony.[1691]
[Footnote 1691: A. Longnon, _Les limites de la France et l'etendue de la domination anglaise a l'epoque de la mission de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1875, in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie generale_, iii, col. 255, 257.]
While his name was among those of the adherents of the King and while it was used to designate those who were hostile to the English and Burgundians, Jean IV himself was neither French nor English, but simply Gascon. He called himself count by the grace of G.o.d, but he was ever ready to acknowledge himself the King's va.s.sal when it was a question of receiving gifts from that suzerain, who might not always be able to afford himself new gaiters, but who must perforce spend large sums on his great va.s.sals. Meanwhile Jean IV showed consideration to the English, protected an adventurer in the Regent's pay, and gave appointments in his household to men wearing the red cross. He was as violent and treacherous as any of his retainers.
Having unlawfully seized the Marshal de Severac, he exacted from him the cession of all his goods and then had him strangled.[1692]
[Footnote 1692: _Chronique de Mathieu d'Escouchy_, vol. i, p. 68, and proofs and ill.u.s.trations, pp. 126, 128, 139, 140. Dom Vaissette, _Histoire generale du Languedoc_, vol. iv, pp. 469, 470. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 151. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie generale_, 1861, vol. iii, pp. 255-257. Le P.
Ayroles, _La vierge guerriere_, p. 66.]
This murder was quite recent. And now we have the docile son of Holy Church appearing eager to discover who is his true spiritual father.
It would seem, however, that his mind was already made up on the subject and that he already knew the answer to his question. In verity the long schism, which had rent Christendom asunder, had terminated twelve years earlier. It had ended when the Conclave, which had a.s.sembled at Constance in the House of the Merchants on the 8th of November, 1417, on the 11th of that month, Saint Martin's Day, proclaimed Pope, the Cardinal Deacon Otto Colonna, who a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Martin V. In the Eternal City Martin V wore that tiara which Lorenzo Ghiberti had adorned with eight figures in gold;[1693] and the wily Roman had contrived to obtain his recognition by England and even by France, who thenceforward renounced all hope of a French pontiff.
While Charles VII's advisers may not have agreed with Martin V on the question of a General Council, all the rights of the Pope of Rome in the Kingdom of France had been restored to him by an edict, in 1425.
Martin V was the one and only pope. Nevertheless, Alphonso of Aragon, highly incensed because Martin V supported against him the rights of Louis d'Anjou to the Kingdom of Naples, determined to oppose to the Pope of Rome a pontiff of his own making. And just ready to hand he had a canon who called himself pope, and on the following grounds: the Anti-pope, Benedict XIII, having fled to p.e.n.i.scola, had on his death-bed nominated four cardinals, three of whom appointed to succeed him a canon of Barcelona, one Gil Munoz, who a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Clement VIII. Imprisoned in the chateau of p.e.n.i.scola on a barren neck of land on three sides washed by the sea, this was the Clement whom the King of Aragon had chosen to be the rival of Martin V.[1694]
[Footnote 1693: _Annales juris pontificis_ (1872-1875), vii, 385. E.
Muntz, _La tiare pontificale du VIII'e au XVI'e siecle_ in _Mem.
Acad. Inscript. et Belles Lettres_, vol. xxvi, I, pp. 235-324, fig.
_Les arts a la cour des papes pendant les XV'e et XVI'e siecles_, in _Bibl. des ecoles francaises d'Athenes et Rome_, vol. iv.]
[Footnote 1694: Baluze, _Vitae paparum Avenionensium_, 1693, I, pp. 1182 _et seq._ Fabricius, _Bibliotheca medii aevi_, 1734, I, p. 1109.]
The Pope excommunicated the King of Aragon and then opened negotiations with him. The Count of Armagnac joined the King's party.
For the baptism of his children the Count had holy water blessed by Benedict XIII brought from p.e.n.i.scola. He likewise was excommunicated.
The blow had fallen upon him in this very year, 1429. Thus for some months he had been deprived of the sacraments and excluded from public wors.h.i.+p. Hence arose all manner of secular difficulties, in addition to which he was probably afraid of the devil.
Moreover his position was becoming impossible. His powerful ally, King Alfonso, gave in, and himself called upon Clement VIII to resign. When he addressed his inquiry to the Maid of France, the Armagnac was evidently meditating the withdrawal of his allegiance from an unfortunate anti-pope, who was himself renouncing or about to renounce the tiara; for Clement VIII abdicated at p.e.n.i.scola on the 26th of July. The dictation of the Count's letter cannot have occurred long before that date and may have been after. At any rate whenever he dictated it he must have been aware of the position of the Sovereign Pontiff Clement VIII.
As for the third Pope mentioned in his missive, Benedict XIV, he had no tidings of him, and indeed he was keeping very quiet. His election to the Holy See had been singular in that it had been made by one cardinal alone. Benedict XIV's right to the papacy had been communicated to him by a cardinal created by the Anti-pope, Benedict XIII, at the time of his promotion in 1409. That Cardinal was Jean Barrere, a Frenchman, Bachelor of laws, priest and Cardinal of Saint-etienne _in Coelio monte_. It was not to Benedict XIV that the Armagnac was thinking of giving his allegiance; obviously he was eager to submit to Martin V.
It is not easy therefore to discover why he should have asked Jeanne to indicate the true pope. Doubtless it was customary in those days to consult on all manner of questions those holy maids to whom G.o.d vouchsafed illumination. Such an one the Maid appeared, and her fame as a prophetess had been spread abroad in a very short time. She revealed hidden things, she drew the curtain from the future. We are reminded of that _capitoul_[1695] of Toulouse, who about three weeks after the deliverance of Orleans, advised her being consulted as to a remedy for the corruption of the coinage. Bona of Milan, married to a poor gentleman in the train of her cousin, Queen Ysabeau, besought the Maid's help in her endeavour to regain the duchy which she claimed through her descent from the Visconti.[1696] It was just as appropriate to question the Maid concerning the Pope and the Anti-pope. But the most difficult point in this question is to discover what were the Count of Armagnac's reasons for consulting the Holy Maid on a matter concerning which he appears to have been sufficiently informed. The following seems the most probable.
[Footnote 1695: Cf. vol. i, p. 337 (W.S.).]
[Footnote 1696: According to Le Maire, _Histoire et antiquites de la ville et d.u.c.h.e d'Orleans_, p. 197, this request is addressed to ”Jeanne the Maid, greatly to be honoured and most devout, sent by the King of Heaven for the restoration, and for the extirpation of the English who tyrannize over France.” _Trial_, vol. v, p. 253. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 131.]
Jean IV was prepared to recognise Martin V as Pope; but he desired his submission to appear honourable and reasonable. Wherefore he conceived the idea of ascribing his conduct to the command of Jesus Christ, speaking through the Holy Maid. But it was necessary for the command to be in accordance with his wishes. The letter provides for that. He is careful to indicate to Jeanne, and consequently to G.o.d, what reply would be suitable. He lays stress on the fact that Martin V, who had recently excommunicated him, was elected at Constance by the consent of all Christian nations, that he dwells at Rome and that he is obeyed by all Christian kings. He points out on the other hand the circ.u.mstances which invalidate the election of Clement VIII by only three cardinals, and the still more ridiculous election of that Benedict, who was chosen by a conclave consisting of only one cardinal.[1697]
[Footnote 1697: Noel Valois, _La France et le grand schisme d'Occident_, vol. iv (1902), in 8vo, _pa.s.sim_.]
After such a setting forth could there possibly remain a single doubt as to whether Pope Martin was the true pope? But such guile was lost on Jeanne; it escaped her entirely. The Count of Armagnac's letter, which she had read to her as she was mounting her horse, must have struck her as very obscure.[1698] The names of Benedict, of Clement and of Martin she had never heard. The Saints, Catherine and Margaret, with whom she was constantly holding converse, revealed to her nothing concerning the Pope. They spoke to her of nought save of the realm of France; and Jeanne's prudence generally led her to confine her prophecies to the subject of the war. This circ.u.mstance was pointed out by a German clerk as a matter extraordinary and worthy of note.[1699] But for this once she consented to reply to Jean IV, in order to maintain her reputation as a prophet and because the t.i.tle of Armagnac strongly appealed to her. She told him that at that moment she was unable to instruct him concerning the true pope, but that later she would inform him in which of the three he must believe, according as G.o.d should reveal it unto her. In short, she in a measure followed the example of such soothsayers as postpone the announcement of the oracle to a future day.
[Footnote 1698: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 82.]
[Footnote 1699: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 466, 467.]
Jhesus [cross symbol] Maria
Count of Armagnac, my good friend and beloved, Jehanne the Maid lets you to wit that your message hath come before me, the which hath told me that you have sent from where you are to know from me in which of the three popes, whom you mention in your memorial, you ought to believe. This thing in sooth I cannot tell you truly for the present, until I be in Paris or at rest elsewhere, because for the present I am too much hindered by affairs of war; but when you hear that I am in Paris send a message to me, and I will give you to understand what you shall rightfully believe, and what I shall know by the counsel of my Righteous and Sovereign Lord, the King of all the world, and what you should do, as far as I may. To G.o.d I commend you; G.o.d keep you. Written at Compiengne, the 22nd day of August.[1700]