The Maid of Orleans

What is to be thought of her? What is to be thought
of the poor shepherd girl from the hills and forests
of Lorraine, that—like the Hebrew shepherd boy from the
hills and forests of Judea—rose suddenly out of the quiet,
out of the safety, out of the religious inspiration, rooted
in deep pastoral solitudes, to a station in the van of
armies, and to the more perilous station at the right hand
of kings?

The boy rose to a splendor and a noonday prosperity,
both personal and public, that rang through the
records of his people, and became a by-word amongst his
posterity for a thousand years, until the sceptre was departing
from Judah. The poor, forsaken girl, on the contrary,
drank not herself from that cup of rest which she
had secured for France.

Pure, innocent, noble-hearted girl!… This
was amongst the strongest pledges for thy truth,
that never once didst thou revel in the vision of coronets
and honor from man…. To suffer and to do, that
was thy portion in this life; that was thy destiny; and
not for a moment was it hidden from thyself.

Great was the throne of France even in those days,
and great was he that sat upon it: but well Joanna
knew that not the throne, nor he that sat upon it, was for
her; but, on the contrary, that she was for them; not
she by them, but they by her, should rise from the dust.
Gorgeous were the lilies of France, and for centuries had
the privilege to spread their beauty over land and sea;
… but well Joanna knew, early at Domrémy she
had read that bitter truth, that the lilies of France would
decorate no garland for her. Flower nor bud, bell nor
blossom, would ever bloom for her!

THOMAS DE QUINCEY

IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART NEW YORK

JOAN OF ARC, BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE

THE YOUTH OF THE MAID

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course

Joan of Arc, whose name more properly was Jeanneton
Darc, and who is now known in France as Jeanne d’Arc,
was one of the most wonderful women that ever lived. It
is hard to believe some of the strange things that happened
to her before she was twenty years old.

She was born at Domrémy, over in the eastern part of France, on
January 6, 1412. She was the daughter of a peasant, and never learned
to read or write; yet later in her life learned men could not puzzle
her by questions. She was so sympathetic that she would stop to comfort
her wounded enemies on the battlefield; yet she was so brave that
even when severely wounded she continued to lead her soldiers.

Before hearing the story of Joan of Arc, it is interesting to know something
of what was happening in France at the time she lived. For a long
time the English king had been trying to make himself also the ruler of
France. The ruler at that time was named Charles; but he had never
been crowned king, as the coronation should have taken place at the
Cathedral at Rheims (English pronunciation—Reemz.) But as Rheims
was in the power of the English, Charles could not go there to be crowned.

The French themselves were divided into two parts. Some of them
sided with Charles; but more took the part of England. These latter
people lived in Burgundy. So at the time that Joan of Arc was born
France was in a most unhappy state.

The girl sometimes guarded her father’s flocks, and she was always
glad to assist in the household work. She was noted for her physical
strength, and for this reason and for her unselfish kindness she was a
favorite in her village. She was of an extremely religious temperament,
and the church services made her very happy.

When Joan was about thirteen years old her Voices came to her for
the first time. She told of this great event later in her life:

“When I was about thirteen years old there came to me a Voice from
God, teaching me how I was to behave and what I was to do. And the
first time that Voice came I was afraid. I was standing about the middle
of the day, in summer, in my father’s garden. The Voice came from the
right hand, from where the church stands, and when it came I usually
saw a great light on the side from which it spoke. The Voice told me to
be a good girl and go to church and go to save France. I said I was only
a poor girl, who could not ride or lead the soldiers in the wars.”

Joan also said that she saw figures of angels, and she enjoyed talking
to them and listening to their counsel. However, no one else ever saw
the angels or heard the Voices.

About this time Henry V of England died, and his son became heir
to the throne. But the war against France was still being carried on.
Just then the English were besieging the town of Orléans. This was
in the fall of 1428. It seemed as though the city would be captured
and the last stronghold of Charles would be lost to him. There were
about 4,000 English besieging the city, and they planned to starve Orléans
into surrender. It was then that the Voices advised Joan to save France.

THE LUXEMBOURG, PARIS

JOAN OF ARC, BY HENRI CHAPU

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

Joan lived far away from Orléans; but her Voices kept saying
to her that she must go and drive away the English from that
town. She did not want to do this, as she preferred to live
quietly in her native village. But the Voices were urgent,
and so at last Joan went to a nearby town, Vaucouleurs, and
asked the commander there to lend her an escort, so that she might go
to King Charles of France at Chinon (Shee-nong). This commander,
whose name was Robert de Baudricourt (Bó-dree-koor), laughed at her;
but when Joan told him of a great disaster that had happened to the
French army near Orléans at the time that it happened, whereas he did
not hear of it until sometime later, he was convinced of her miraculous
power, and sent her to Charles.

This was on February 23, 1429. After riding for several days, the
maid and her band reached Chinon. Then there was more delay; but
at last she was allowed to have an audience with the king. To test her
power, Charles stood among a crowd of courtiers, clothed very simply;
but without hesitation Joan knelt before him and said:

“Fair sir, you are the Dauphin to whom I am come.”

Charles pointed to another and said, “That is the king.”

“No, fair sir,” said Joan, “It is to you that I am sent.”

This assured the king; but to convince him further of her power, she
told him of his own private secret. This was that he prayed every night
to know whether or not he was the rightful king of France. As Charles
had not told this secret to a living soul, he was amazed. He was also
encouraged when the girl told him he was the rightful king.

Then Joan was examined by the wise men of the court, and finally
everyone agreed that she was advised by supernatural powers. An army
was then collected, with which she was to march to the relief of Orléans.

White armor was made for her and a sacred banner presented to her.
Her sword was dug from the ground behind the altar of Saint Catharine,
in a little town named Fierbois (Fyere-bwah). She had prophesied that
this sword would be found there.

Then the Maid led the French to Orléans.

AT CHINON, FRANCE

JOAN OF ARC, BY J. ROULLEAU

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Joan entered Orléans at nightfall. The people were all glad
to see her, and lighted her way with torches. They tried to
kiss her hands. In her white armor she was an inspiration
to the French.

Joan wanted to sally out from Orléans immediately and
attack the English; but the commander of the French forces did not
think it wise to do so. Shortly afterward, however, Joan had her way.

The French planned an attack on the strongest of the English forts
besieging Orléans. This was placed at the end of the bridge over the river
Loire (Lwahr). It was a dangerous thing to do, as the fort was very strong;
but Joan herself led the soldiers against its walls. The English were
brave, and repulsed the attack throughout the day. At about one o’clock
in the afternoon Joan was wounded by an arrow. She had prophesied
this sometime before. The wound was not serious, however, and she
went back into the battle. At eight o’clock Dunois, the commander of
the French, wanted to withdraw, saying that they could not capture the
fort that day; but Joan would not give up. She went away for awhile
and prayed. When she returned, she seized her standard and led the
soldiers up to the walls of the fort. The French, inspired by her bravery,
followed, climbing the walls and killing or capturing all the English in
the fort.

This defeat discouraged the English, and they withdrew from Orléans
on May 8, 1429. In four days Joan had accomplished more than the
French had been able to do in seven long months.

Joan next planned to take Charles to Rheims (English pronunciation—Reemz)
and have him crowned with the holy oil; but most of the country
was held by the English. So Joan determined to capture the cities, and
thereby make it safe for the king to go to Rheims. She first captured
Jargeau, then Meun, and after that Beaugency.

Shortly after this the English army was near a little town called
Pathay. The French were pursuing them; so the main part of the English
army was placed at the end of a long lane between two thick hedges.
Then they hid their archers behind these hedges. They planned to trap
the French in this long lane and shoot them down.

The French would have gone right into this trap, if a stag had not
been roused by them and run up the lane into the English lines. The
English archers could not resist a chance like this. They shot at the
stag. This revealed their ambush to the French, and saved Joan’s
army from defeat. The English were beaten, and the Maid won a great
victory.

IN THE PLACE DU MARTROI, ORLÉANS, FRANCE

JOAN OF ARC, BY FOYATIER

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

After Joan of Arc had beaten the English at Pathay, she
wanted to carry out her plan to have Charles VII crowned
King of France in the Cathedral at Rheims. But Charles
was badly advised. His counselors were lazy and cowardly,
and they told him that it was unsafe for him to attempt to
go to Rheims.

But at last he decided to march there with his army, and on July 16,
1429, he entered the city. The next day Charles was crowned King of
France, while Joan stood beside him holding her sacred banner.

When the coronation was over, Joan knelt at the king’s feet and
said, “Gentle King, now is the will of God fulfilled.”

Charles wished to reward her and asked what she wanted. She said
that her only wish was that Domrémy, her native village, should ever
after be free from taxes. Her wish was granted.

The next plan of the Maid was to capture Paris from the English.
But she received no assistance from the king and his followers. He did
not want to make war; for he hoped to gain the friendship of the Duke of
Burgundy. Finally, however, Charles was persuaded to go to a little
town called St. Denis (Song-Den-ee), which is near Paris. But he was
not much help.

Joan led her soldiers against a gate in Paris called the Porte St.
Honoré (On-er-ray). One of the men who fought in the battle tells of
it in this manner:

“The fight was long and fierce, and it was wonderful to hear the noise
of guns and culverins from the walls, and to see the arrows fly like clouds.
Few of those who went down into the dry ditch with the Maid were hurt,
though many others were wounded with arrows and stone cannon balls;
but, by God’s grace and the Maid’s favour, there were none but could
return without help. We fought from noon till darkness began. After
the sun set, the Maid was wounded in the thigh by a bolt from a crossbow,
but she only shouted louder, ‘Come on and the place was ours.’
But when it was dark and all were weary, men came from the King and
brought her up out of the ditch against her will.”

The next day, when Joan and her followers were riding to attack
Paris, King Charles sent messengers forbidding them to do it. So they
gave up their plans for the day, planning to seize the city the following
day. But the king kept putting off the attack, until finally Joan gave
up in despair, and her troops were disbanded.

Later Joan went to Normandy, but in December returned to the
court of Charles, where on the 29th her family were ennobled with the
surname of du Lis (Lee). She did not care for honors, however, but concentrated
all her energies on driving the English from her native country.

In March, 1430, she went away from the court to assist in the defense
of Compiègne against the Duke of Burgundy, who was attacking
the city.

THE MAID OF ORLEANS, BY ROWLAND WHEELWRIGHT

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

Joan had often prophesied that her mission would last but a
year, and this year was now fast drawing to a close. Her
Voices also spoke to her about this time, saying that she
would be taken prisoner soon. They would never tell her
when. Joan prayed that she might die before she was captured;
for the English had often threatened that they would burn her as
a witch if they caught her. She fought on bravely, however, and did not
allow her fear to overcome her courage.

When the Duke of Burgundy began to besiege Compiègne, Joan, before
dawn, on May 23, 1430, stole into the city with two or three hundred
men. The people were overjoyed to see her.

That evening she led her little force out of Compiègne in a sortie
against the besiegers. She charged the Burgundians at Margny,
(Marn-yee) which is near Compiègne, and drove them twice back to
another village called Clairoix (Klare-wah). But her enemies were there
reinforced and finally drove her back. Again she rallied her men and
charged them. But there were very few of her followers with her this
time, and she was surrounded and captured. She would not yield at
first, hoping to be killed; but the Burgundians did not wish this, as she
was more valuable to them alive than dead. They hoped to get a great
ransom for her.

It might be imagined that the king and the people of France would
have been glad to pay any sum for the safe return of the Maid, who had
so greatly helped their native land. But Charles was indolent, and his
advisers, who did not like Joan, counseled him not to ransom her.
Therefore, he never made an effort to save her, nor did he show any
interest in her fate.

Jean de Luxembourg was Joan’s captor, and he sold her to the English.
She knew what her fate would be in their hands, and one day when
she was taking the air on the flat roof of the great tower at Beaurevoir,
(Bo-re-vwar), where she was imprisoned, she leaped, hoping to kill herself.
Strangely, she was not hurt,—not a bone in her body was broken,—but
after the fall she found that she could not move a limb. It was destined
that she should not escape. She was recaptured and turned over to
the English, who put her into a new prison.

ERECTED AT ORLEANS

JOAN OF ARC, BY PRINCESS MARIE OF ORLEANS

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course

The English turned Joan of Arc over to the Inquisition on
January 3, 1431. The Inquisition was a court which tried
people for religious offenses against the church. They put
her into a cage in the castle of Rouen. Chains were placed on
her legs, and five rough soldiers kept watch in the room day
and night. Her captors wished to prove her a witch to take away the
sting of having been defeated by a girl. The principal enemy of Joan
was Pierre Cauchon (co-shong), the Bishop of Beauvais (bo-vay´), who
hoped to be made Archbishop of Rouen by the English.

Her examination by the Court of the Inquisition began on January
9th. For three months these wise men examined the Maid every day.
She had no advocate, and was forced to defend herself. But she showed
that she was far wiser than her learned judges. She would never answer
questions about her Saints and Voices except when the Voices gave her
permission to do so.

In particular the judges wished to know the secret of the king, which
secret they knew Joan possessed. But in spite of the king’s neglect of
the Maid, she would never betray him. Finally they told her they
would torture her. They took her to the torture chamber and asked
her if she would tell them then. But Joan said:

“Torture me if you please. Tear my body to pieces. Whatever I
say in my pains will not be true, and as soon as I am released I will deny
that it was true. Now go on!”

They did not torture her, but continued to harass her with questions.
They said she should not wear man’s dress as she did. She answered that
when among men in war it was better and more proper. Once during
the trial she seemed to hear her Voices and stopped speaking suddenly.
Then after listening a moment she said, “Before seven years are passed
the English will lose a greater stake than they have lost at Orléans: they
will lose everything in France.” This prophecy came true, as we know.

At last, on May 24, 1431, her judges took Joan to the graveyard of the
Church of St. Ouen (Oo-ong) at Rouen. There was a stake and faggots all
ready for the burning, and they said that she would be burned to death
unless she signed a paper saying that she would wear woman’s dress and
would submit to the judges. She said that she would be willing to do
this if she would receive pardon. But as Joan could not read, the judges
substituted another paper for her to make her mark on. On this paper
was a statement that her saints were evil spirits, and that she had done
all sorts of wrong things.

She was still a prisoner of the English, and they kept her in prison.
Her jailers by trickery induced her to put on her man’s dress once more.
When she had done this she was judged to have relapsed. This was the
greatest crime, and she was sentenced to death.

On May 30, 1431, she was burned to death in the marketplace of
Rouen. Eight hundred soldiers surrounded the stake for fear that someone
might attempt to save her. Only one kind priest who pitied her
brought a cross and held it before her eyes while she was burning.

In 1436 a woman appeared who said she was Joan of Arc escaped
from the flames. Many people believed her; but afterward she confessed
to being an impostor.

On July 7, 1456, the pope revoked the sentence passed on the Maid.
In February, 1903, a formal proposal was entered for her canonization,
and on December 13, 1908, she was made a saint.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 22, SERIAL No. 98
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

[1]

By IDA M. TARBELL

MENTOR GRAVURES		MENTOR GRAVURES
JOAN OF ARC By Foyatier		JOAN OF ARC By Henri Chapin
JOAN OF ARC By J. Roulteau		THE MAID OF ORLEANS By R. Wheelwright
JOAN OF ARC By Princess Marie of Orleans		JOAN OF ARC By Jules Bastien-Lepage
	Joan of Arc From a Drawing by George Alfred Williams

THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF BIOGRAPHY

JANUARY 1, 1916

Aside from the story of the Christ there is none in history which
offers so complete a picture of the heights and depths of human
character as that of Joan of Arc. So perfect is its symbolism that
one coming for the first time to the records of the world might well believe
it the invention of some consummate master of the intricacies of human
nature, intent on showing to men the extremes of evil and of good of
which they are capable.

THE HOME OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMRÉMY, FRANCE
A modern Photograph

THE DOORWAY TO THE HOUSE

Full of subtleties and mysteries as the story is, there is none in history
more perfectly documented. We have not merely the proofs of what the
Holy Maid claimed to be and what she did, but the details of her childhood,
the inmost experiences of her spiritual and physical life. And these
events and experiences stand on the evidences of not one, but of many, of
those who were with her from her birth on January 6, 1412, in the little
village of Domrémy, some 125 miles southeast of Paris, to the day nineteen
years later, when, before the eyes of a great multitude of the people of
Rouen (roo-ong), she was burned at the stake. She suffered her fate because
a body of eminent lawyers and divines had found that she was, as their restrained
and Christian language has it, “a liar, an inventor of revelations
and apparitions, a deceiver, pernicious, presumptuous, light of faith, rash,
[2]
superstitious, a soothsayer, a blasphemer against God and His saints,
a contemner of God even in His sacraments, a prevaricator of divine
law and of sacred doctrines and of ecclesiastical sanction, seditious,
cruel, apostate, schismatic, having committed a thousand errors
against religion, and by all these tokens rashly guilty towards God
and Holy Church!”

THE VOICES

JOAN OF ARC
Admonished by an angel to liberate
France by the sword. From the
painting by J. E. Lenepveu

The girl against whom
these vindictive and hysterical
charges were made was of peasant origin, not yet twenty years
of age, and knew not A from B. She had come to her cruel end because
from the time she was thirteen she had heard Voices—the Voices of saints—which
she never had doubted had come from God and had never failed
to obey, though the orders they gave her were so extraordinary that
they had at the beginning filled her with terror. She had wept and
pled her youth, her ignorance, her unfitness for the mission on which
they would send her.

It was an amazing mission; nothing less than to save France from the
clutches of England. Her instructions were detailed.
She was to go to the governor of a nearby town and
ask for an escort to conduct her to Charles VII, who
called himself king of France, though he had never
been crowned. She was to go to Charles and announce
herself as sent by God to raise the siege of Orléans and
to conduct him to Rheims (Reemz), where he was to be
crowned. The English in the end were to be driven
from all France, the Voices assured her.

To Joan of Arc this mission was of supremest importance. She lived
in the path of war, and, like many a Belgian, a French, or a Polish
girl of today, she had seen her village sacked, her family and her
friends obliged to flee saving what they could. Domrémy lived in
constant danger of the Burgundian allies of England and of all the
pitiless riffraff war breeds. Joan was an ardent patriot and suffered
with her country; she loved her king too, looking on him as sent of
God. To rescue him was the noblest work
which one could be given. After the first revolt she[3]
accepted the call without misgivings. It was
not for her to question Voices sent by God.

The key to the career of Joan of Arc is this unfaltering confidence.
She did things from the start utterly preposterous by human standards
of conduct. What more unlikely of success than that the governor of
a tormented district should turn over for the asking to a child of
seventeen, of whom he had never heard, an escort to take her to the
king of the land! yet the governor of Vaucouleurs (vo-koo-lurr) did
this: not on the first or second asking, to be sure, but on the third,
and Joan had never doubted that she would get her escort—”the
Voices had told me it would be thus.”

THE MAID AND THE KING

THE ROOM IN WHICH JOAN WAS BORN
She was born at Domrémy, France, on January 6, 1412

Her mind was so full of the command laid
upon her that once accepted nothing could
divert or frighten her. One might expect a girl
of her origin to be awestruck at the thought of presenting herself before
a court and a king; but not Joan. She passed unabashed through the
throng that had gathered to witness her first meeting with Charles, and
kneeling told him composedly, “Most noble Lord Dauphin, I am come,
and am sent to you from God to give succor to the kingdom and to you.”

She won Charles from the start, for he was much of a person in spite
of his vacillating and his weakness, and he answered to the nobility of her
call. She won the better part of his court, and as for the people they
flocked to her. She was sent to be examined by experts in law and religion;
for without assurance that her Voices were indeed from God Charles
did not dare risk it. Joan might of course be what the English and
the cynical of the court declared,—a witch and her Voices of the devil.

For six weeks the girl was questioned by the ablest lawyers and
churchmen of the kingdom. A selected body of women gave her a physical
examination. The end of it was complete justification: “It is found
and hereby declared that Joan of Arc, called the Maid, is a Christian
and a Catholic, and that there is nothing in her presence or her words
contrary to the faith, and that the king may and ought to accept the succor
[4]
she offers; for to repel it would be to offend the Holy
Spirit, and render him unworthy of the aid of God.”

THE GRAND HALL OF THE PALACE AT CHINON (Shee-nong)
Where Joan first met Charles VII.
From the painting by P. Carrier-Belleuse

Before this ratification all opposition to Joan fell. She was
proclaimed by the king as one sent by God to assist him. She was given
armor, a guard, soldiers, and under her orders a theatrical campaign
was conducted. Orléans fell before her; though it was so invested that
Charles had ceased to hope for its recovery. The winning of Orléans
converted some who had doubted her in spite of learned jurists and
theologians. It was with them as with d’Aulon, her steward: “It was not
possible for so young a maid to do such things without the will and
guidance of our Lord.” Those who, because of personal ambition, did not
believe in her, those who hated her purity and the habits of restraint
and temperance she imposed on the army, those who called her witch,
still did not dare oppose her openly. She might be from God,
and whether she was or not she was in the saddle, adored of the people,
supported by the king, a terror to the English.

CORONATION OF CHARLES VII.

KING CHARLES VII OF FRANCE
From an engraving

KING CHARLES VII OF FRANCE
From an engraving published in 1805

The complete ascendancy Joan of Arc had won in France in two months
from the time of her first interview with the king lasted from the fall of
Orléans to the coronation of Charles at Rheims, on July 17, 1429. The[5]
march which proceeded the crowning was most of it through land which
the English held. There were sieges and battles, dangers and escapes.
It was managed by the Maid with a calm authority, an unwavering reliance
on her Voices, which lifted her even in the minds
of her most cynical associates quite out of the ranks of
human leaders. She was a greater general than them
all. She foresaw all, she never feared nor hesitated—and
she a girl of seventeen! She must be of God! And
when finally the impossible had been accomplished,
and, in spite of English, Burgundians, and the plotters,
Charles was crowned, there were few of the French
who even secretly denied her claim.

How could they when all she foretold promptly
came true? It was by the success or failure of their
prophesying that men of those days judged largely
whether one came from God or not. It was because
she told the governor of Vaucouleurs of a distant battle
on the day it occurred and days before the news could reach him
that he finally yielded to her demands for an escort. It was because she
selected the king from a throng in which he mingled and told him that
which no one but he knew that he accepted her. She had said that she
would be wounded at Orléans—and she was. She had warned a wicked
fellow that he would be dead shortly—and he was. Who could deny the
holy origin of such a Maid? Certainly not the average man or woman of
the fifteenth century; certainly not the loyal and devout French she
succored. As for the English who fled before her, they acknowledged
her powers; but they declared them to be of the devil—as was natural,
since they were the sufferers!

THE PALACE AT CHINON
The ruins of the Hall

JOAN OF ARC
From the painting by J. Ingres

THE CHARACTER OF JOAN

But outside of her divine guidance and her unquestionable military
and political genius, Joan of Arc had human qualities calculated to
make even the roughest of men love and respect her. Peasant though she
was, she was beautiful to see. This fresh, untouched young girl with
the flame of inspiration in her eye and the authority of the divine in
her bearing, clad in her pure-white armor and mounted on a warhorse
as spirited as the best of them, must have been a sight to stir the
heart.

Her sympathy for the afflicted poor
of the country was as genuine as her
devotion to the king. They knew it,[6]
and no little of her power came from their perception. There was no
shadow of self-seeking in her; she never asked honor or wealth or
pleasure. There were clever and designing ones who sought to trap her
with such baubles, —a well-known and usually quite successful
method of sidetracking troublesome people with ideas of their
own,—but Joan was quite outside of all worldliness. It looked
small and thin to one who consorted with saints and followed the orders
of the Most High. What she took of the gifts showered upon her she gave
to the poor. When at the coronation the king told her to ask what she
would, she asked that Domrémy be freed forever from taxes.

BLESSING THE STANDARD OF THE MAID
After the painting by Michel

HOUSE IN ORLEANS OCCUPIED BY THE MAID

She was devout. No Catholic in France was more faithful to the
church, no one partook of its holy mysteries with more humility or with
more worship in his heart.

But good and devout and charitable as she was she was no colorless
person. There are numerous delightful human outbreaks recorded in
the documents of her life. She wept like an ordinary girl when she received
her first wound. She flew often into a passion when her commands
had been disobeyed. She was particularly hard on the wanton women[7]
who followed the camp, often herself chasing
them off. Once she broke a sword over the
head of one, and again killed one by the
blow she gave.

She guarded her own divine prerogative
with quite human jealousy. As there were
many women prophesying in those days, a
company of them were enlisted to help the
king after Joan’s first success. Joan never
liked them. “Folly and futility,” was her characterization
of the work of the most prominent
of these women, Catherine de la Rochelle.
“Send her home to her husband and children,”
was her order. A common enough point of
view of the Maid who has made a career for
herself and sees a married woman seeking to
do the same! However, in Catherine’s case Joan suspected fraud, and
there seems to have been reason.

THE END OF HER MISSION AND CAPTURE

THE VICTORIOUS ENTRANCE INTO ORLÉANS
From the painting by J. J. Scherrer

With the crowning of the king at Rheims Joan seemed to feel that her
mission was at an end. She was homesick when she saw her father and
those who had come from Domrémy to witness her miraculous elevation.
She prayed Charles to release her, to send her back to her spinning
and her flocks, her mother and her
friends. But she was too precious at
the moment. The king and his counselors
would have more of her aid;
but they wanted it without admitting
her to their councils and without
heeding the orders she gave as
coming from her Voices. She was severe
and outspoken about this treatment.
“Truces have been made,”
she wrote once to the people of
Rheims, “that are not pleasing to
me, and I know not whether I shall
keep them; but if I keep them, it
will be solely to maintain the king’s
honor.”

THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS
In the lower right corner may be seen the
equestrian statue of Joan of Arc

After Rheims there followed campaigns in which she had little or no
support, treaties of which she did not approve, intrigues which, though
she frequently divined and frustrated them, slowly produced their effect
on king and people. She failed in[8]
September to take Paris; though she had been as confident that it would
fall as that Orléans would. She scandalized the church by attacking
it on the anniversary of the birth of the Virgin Mary. She was sorely
wounded too in this attack and had to be carried from the field. It
hurt her prestige.

In the winter following the failure to take Paris Joan wrought
many marvels in the Loire country to which the king had retreated.
The greatest was that, among doubters and flatterers, and in spite of
intrigue and discouragement, she kept her purpose clear, her confidence
unshaken. She was still Joan, the Maid sent by God to drive the English
from all France. But she was no longer a Maid with full power over the
king.

JOAN OF ARC
Equestrian statue by Anna V. Hyatt

She stood it until spring; then the certainty that there was danger
of losing all Champagne led her to set out with a band of perhaps
a hundred horse and still fewer archers, her objective Compiègne
(cong-pyen) which the Duke of Burgundy was threatening. It was the
thirteenth of May when she reached Compiègne. The aid she rendered
seems futile enough at this distance. The truth was Joan had no
knowledge of the situation, and could have no plans for relief. She was
not admitted into the counsels of those who defended the town. For her
attack on Orléans and her march on Rheims she had had the knowledge
which during three years of devout belief in her mission she had
collected unconsciously no doubt; but at Compiègne she had nothing but
her Voices. She had almost full command from Orléans to Rheims: now she
was little more in the minds of the commanding officers than a painted
saint, a bejeweled reliquary, to be used on their sallies and in their
attacks.

THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII
The King of France was crowned in the Cathedral
at Rheims, on July 17, 1429. In this painting by
Bartolini, Joan of Arc stands with her banner near
the kneeling king

The result was her capture. It came at a moment when she was crying,
“Go forward! They are ours!” though as a matter of fact all of the
French but her and her little guard had fled.

If in the few months Joan of Arc held sway over the minds of the
French king and his people she showed as none outside of the Christ
have ever shown the divinity in man and its power to elevate human
nature, surely that which followed
is as perfect an illustration of the deviltry[9]
in the human heart and what it can do to corrupt and harden men.
Never were human minds so put to it to prove a saintly thing evil. All
the learning that was in the University of Paris, all the authority there
was in the church and state in the part of the world where Joan was
finally taken for trial, was summoned to find out: not the truth,—they had
no interest in the truth,—but plausible reasons for declaring her a heretic.
The orders from the English government were that she should not be
allowed to die save by what they called “the hand of justice”; that is,
she must be proved to be of the devil. This was the business of the church.

TRIAL AND TORTURE AND DEATH

At this noble work there now was set a band of some sixty of the
most learned and distinguished scholars, judges, and ministers in the
land. There was an occasional one for whom the work was too abominable.
One such declared boldly that to force this simple girl to reply
without guidance to such great doctors, to so many masters, was mocking
justice. “They mean to catch her,” was his verdict. “I will stay no
longer. I cannot witness it.” And indeed they did mean to catch her;
but what a chase she gave them! I doubt if there is such a test of wit
and courage and faith in all the history of disputation.

At every point they taxed their
devilish ingenuity to put her at a disadvantage.
They drained her physical
strength by abominable prison conditions. Joan had been a captive
for seven months when she was finally taken to Rouen to trial. In the
dungeon tower room given her it is said she was at first chained in an
iron cage in which it was impossible to stand erect; certain it is that
shackles were always on her feet, a chain round her waist by which she
was padlocked to a beam. Five English guards slept in her room jeering
at and insulting her. It was in this room they came to her with promises,
bribes, flatteries, and threats.

It was from here that she went in chains in February, 1431, for six
public examinations by the sixty or more doctors and lawyers. These
open meetings proved too damaging to her judges. She was too truthful,
too unafraid, too confident in God and her Voices. The subtlety of some[10]
of her answers confused and shamed the most relentless
of her examiners. They had that overpowering
quality which the direct unadulterated truth
gives. What chance in the long run has a university
dialectician before the truth?

THE LAST COMMUNION OF JOAN OF ARC

From the painting by Michel

They took her to closed chambers, and hardly
did better. They went to her when she was ill and
likely to die. But they could not touch this clean
white thing. It slipped through their fingers like
a ray of light. And on what unimportant matters
they badgered her! Her dress, for one. The trial
seems at points to have been hung on the crime of
her wearing man’s apparel. “Dress is but a little
thing, less than nothing,” she told them.

THE JOAN OF ARC PRISON TOWER AT ROUEN

They threatened her finally with torture if she did not reply to questions
she said her Voices had forbidden her to answer. In the very torture
chamber with the horrid irons before her eyes she cried, “Verily, if
you were to tear my limbs asunder and drive my soul out of my body,
naught else would I tell you, and if I did say anything unto you, I would
always maintain afterward that you dragged it from me by force.”

THE BURNING OF JOAN OF ARC AT ROUEN
From the fresco in the Panthéon, Paris,
by J. E. Lenepveu

For months this unbelievable torment went on, until finally, lost in
the maze they had prepared for her, worn by confinement and incessant
mental and physical strain, she broke under the threat of burning,—a
child’s horror of a fate she had persuaded herself God would not permit.[11]
Her Voices had deceived her. She signed the deed of abjuration they had
prepared for her: only to find it did not mean what she thought.

Back in her prison, her courage and her confidence reasserted
themselves and she recanted, “All that I said I uttered through fear
of fire, and I recanted nothing that was not contrary to the truth. I
had liefer do my penance once and for all, to wit by dying, than endure
further anguish in prison. Whatsoever abjuration I have been forced
to make, I never did anything against God and religion. I did not
understand what was in the deed of abjuration, wherefore I did not mean
to abjure anything unless it were Our Lord’s will.”

It was this that caught her, such is the dexterity of the human
intellect bent on proving that which is good to be evil. Joan had been
pronounced a heretic, she had confessed to being one, so they declared:
now she recanted. The Holy Church could have nothing to do with so
monstrous a creature. At last the learned doctors had unimpeachable
authority for turning her over to the English, who now had the
undeniable right of burning her alive.

They lost no time. It was on a Tuesday (May 29) that she was declared
a relapsed heretic. It was on the morning of the following day
that she died by fire. A rough wooden cross, fashioned, at her request, by
a pitying English soldier, was on her breast, the words “Jesus, Jesus” on
her lips. On her head was a great fool’s cap on which was written
Hérétique, relapse, apostate, idolâtre.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

⁂ Information concerning the above books and articles may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.

[12]

This is a New Year number of The
Mentor—so let us look backward and forward.
The first Mentor was published
on February 17, 1913—not quite three
years ago. Three years is a short span in
the life of a periodical publication, but it
is long enough in most cases to relegate
the back numbers to oblivion, or at least
to the department of bound magazines in
libraries. But the first number of The
Mentor is still in demand—and so are the
numbers that followed it. Thousands of
the early numbers are ordered every
week. This means something. It means
that The Mentor is not a magazine, but a
popular educational course. While you
like some numbers more than others, you
want them all. You like The Mentor
plan, and you hope that we are succeeding,
and you would like to see The Mentor
plan extended all over the world—these
and many other warm words of encouragement
have come to me from you day by
day. Many of you have asked how we
are doing now at the close of our third
year. I am glad you have asked, for the
answer is a very satisfactory one. At the
end of the first six months of its life, The
Mentor Association numbered about 5,000.
It now numbers more than 60,000, and it
is growing by hundreds every week. In
that big and growing membership is the
assurance that a new idea has taken definite
form and that thousands of you have
found it worthy. That makes the New
Year look bright to us.

As we take our backward look the
original ideal of The Mentor presents
itself to us anew. The word “ideal”
should be carefully used, but we do not
hesitate to apply it to The Mentor.
What is an ideal? It is not a sufficient
answer to say that it is the “best possible,”
for idealism does not concern itself
with what is possible. The “best possible”
is simply a standard—not an ideal.
When the schoolboy said, “Standards
are the things we live up to, ideals are the
things we fall short of,” he showed a
worldly wisdom beyond his years. There
are several shades of definition in the
dictionaries, but “ideal” as we conceive
it is the finest and fullest dream of achievement
in any line of endeavor. The dream
may seem impossible. It does seem so
in the case of the most precious ideals.
But that matters not. We treasure the
ideal the more that it is unattainable.
An ideal, like a fixed star, is far enough
off to be steadfast and unchangeable. It
may never be reached, but its guiding
light may always be depended on.

But this is not an essay on ideals. My
purpose is definite and practical. It is
simply to recall the fact at the beginning of
a new year that The Mentor was conceived
in idealism; that it has been conducted in
the spirit of idealism, and to reaffirm on
this day our devotion to the ideal that has
dominated The Mentor from the beginning—the
ideal of Service. The Mentor
Association was founded for the benefit
of thousands of people who are eagerly
seeking for information in the various
fields of knowledge. We set out to give
such information in a simple, attractive
way by text and by pictures, and to add
to that a general service of information.
We were told by many that the ideal of
service that we had before us could not
be realized in this present day and generation
of busy periodical publishing. Our
ideal, like that of many others, was pronounced
a Utopian dream—a visionary
undertaking. It has often been remarked
that while idealists are perfectly confident
of the successful outcome of their dreams,
very few will put any money into them.
Just this in your ear, good reader: those
who founded The Mentor not only had
convictions, but had the courage of them.
Many thousands of dollars have been
spent on The Mentor Ideal, and now that
The Mentor Plan is an assured success we
know that we are “turning our dreams
into fact.”

It is not an editorial “we” that I am
using. “We” includes those of us who
are conducting The Mentor, but it means
chiefly “you”—the 60,000 of “you” who
make up The Mentor Association. Whether
The Mentor Ideal was a distant, unattainable
one was not clear to us until we heard
from you. Now we know. You made The
Mentor, and The Mentor
is made for you.

W.D. Moffat
Editor

[13]

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The purpose of The Mentor Association is to give its members, in an
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[14]

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FOOTNOTES: