On the 23d of May, Saint Joan was again summoned before the Court. It had been decreed by her enemies that she must die. She had been tried for sorcery and heresy, and neither charge had been proven against her. A paper was drawn up, in which, in obscure language, she was made to say that she had deceived her countrymen in regard to her mission, and that her Voices were illusions.
The paper which she was asked to sign, and which she did sign under threat of torture and death, was not, many witnesses have averred, the one so carefully prepared by her so-called judges. That to which Saint Joan had meant to put her signature, and which had been read to her, said only, in substance, that she submitted in all things to the Church. The other paper which was given her to sign and which she had never heard read, was much longer and contained a specific denial of all her claims to having been a messenger of God.
But, whether under threat of death by fire, worn out, ill, persecuted by her enemies and deserted by those who owed her deepest gratitude, Saint Joan did not sign the original with a knowledge of its contents.
The fact must never be forgotten that the signature was extorted from her by threats and that as soon as the Maid realized what she had done she made all the amends in her power by declaring that she had been deceived and knew not the importance of what she was doing when she put the final seal on the triumph of her enemies.
We will not admit that she did put her signature to the paper save under the belief that it was something different from what it really was; but, for the sake of argument, if such were the ease, is hers the only incident in history where one of the chosen of God has lapsed and returned again to His love and service? The Old Testament contains numerous similar instances. The saints are human; if they were angels where would be the victory over passions and inclinations, with which angels never struggle because they are free from all that clogs and hampers heavenly perfection?
In the New Testament the same thing occurred, and the same thing will occur again until the end of time. Was it not Peter, the first of the apostles, who denied the Saviour - Peter, the Rock on which He built His Church, against which the gates of hell have never prevailed and never shall prevail? Was not his repentance all the more glorious for that reason, the record of his subsequent life, tear-furrowed cheeks, and heroic death all the more grand? We are to believe that out of the thousands who followed Our Lord during the three years of His mission on earth He chose for His apostles the twelve most worthy to be His helpers and successors. How many of them followed Him to Calvary? Only one - the loving and beloved Saint John. Yet did they not all, after the Holy Ghost came upon them, go forth bravely to preach His Gospel, whom they had for a time feared to follow except in the darkness and afar off; and in His name, were not all - except Saint John - martyred at last?
On May 9th the judges proposed to put Saint Joan to the torture if she would not confess. When she heard of their plans she must have had a fear and presentiment that she would not be able to hold out against them, for she said:
"In very truth, if you were to cause my limbs to be torn from my body and my soul to be driven out I would say nothing different. And if I should say something different I should always be obliged to tell you afterward that you had made me say it by force."
They had promised the Maid that if she would sign the paper they would release her from her English captors and place her in the hands of the Church. But this was not done. When Cauchon was reminded of this promise he brutally waved it aside and said, "Take her back whence you brought her!" One of the crimes charged against Saint Joan - and her enemies made it a very heinous one - was that she had worn man's attire and persisted in wearing it, against the teachings of the Church. They made no such objection to her garments while she was fighting in the field and leading the King's troops to victory. Her refusal to put on woman's dress was well-founded. Thrown into a gloomy prison where there were only men to guard and tend her, she persisted in retaining her military garb as a means of safety and protection. She had promised to resume the dress of a woman as soon as she should be taken from the company of men and soldiers, but she was not set at liberty; therefore, as her judges had not fulfilled their promise she was absolved from hers. On Sunday morning the Maid said to her guards, "Unchain me, that I may rise!"
One of them then took away her woman's dress, which had been placed near her, and put in its place her former garments, saying to her, "Get up!"
"Sir," Saint Joan replied, "you know I have promised to put on my woman's garments, and that I am forbidden any more to dress as a man."
After a long argument, and seeing that unless she wished to lie in bed permanently she must obey, Saint Joan finally resumed the dress of a man, which she wore thereafter, being unable to persuade her guards to provide her with any others. And yet, in the final summing up of the charges against her, Cauchon laid stress on the circumstance, saying that in spite of her promise she declined to wear woman's clothes. He did not explain, however, that his part of the agreement had not been fulfilled.
Saint Joan spent Easter Day in her cell, although she had been promised that she might hear Mass, on the foregoing condition. The next morning Cauchon paid her a visit, to find her ill and in bed. Her brave young spirit had at last broken under the indignities and injustice to which she had been subjected; she was suffering from severe nausea and fever.
Warwick and Beaufort, fearing that she might die in prison, hastened to send her medical attendance.
"Do your best for her," commanded the Earl, "for my King would on no account have her die a natural death. He bought her dear and holds her dear; she shall die by the law and be burned."
"Why be burned - why die?" whispered some faithful spirits to one another. "What hath she done - what hath been proven against her?" But they could not speak their whispers aloud.
Cauchon made a long speech of exhortation. When he had finished, Saint Joan said:
"I thank you for what you say to me for my salvation. It seems to me, seeing how ill I am, that I am in great danger of death. If it be that God do His pleasure on me, I ask of you that I may have confession and my Saviour, and that I may be put in blessed ground."
"Do you believe that the Holy Scriptures have been revealed by God?" asked the hypocritical Cauchon.
"Why weary me forever with the same questionings? You know it well - I know it well."
They called her a heathen and a "Saracen."
Saint Joan replied from her bed of anguish, "I am a good Christian; I have been baptized. I shall die a good Christian. I love God and serve Him. I wish to maintain the Church with all my might."
Could anything have been more clear, more fearless, more positive?
Baffled, they sought to torture her by refusing her the consolation of the Sacraments. It was the worst thing they could do to the poor, suffering body and faithful soul. They turned and left her to the rough ministrations of her jailers.
- taken from A Child's Life of Saint Joan of Arc, by Mary Ellen Mannix