The Life of Joan of Arc

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The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2), by

Anatole France This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2)
Author: Anatole France
Translator: Winifred Stephens
Release Date: October 7, 2006 [EBook #19488]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC
BY ANATOLE FRANCE
A TRANSLATION BY WINIFRED STEPHENS
IN TWO VOLS., VOL. I
[Illustration]
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY: MCMIX
Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by MANZI, JOYANT ET CIE
Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by JOHN LANE COMPANY
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
[Illustration: Joan of Arc]

PREFACE
TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
Scholars have been good enough to notice this book; and the majority have treated it very kindly, doubtless because they have perceived that the author has observed all the established rules of historical research and accuracy. Their kindness has touched me. I am especially grateful to MM. Gabriel Monod, Solomon Reinach and Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, who have discovered in this work certain errors, which will not be found in the present edition.
My English critics have a special claim to my gratitude. To the memory of Joan of Arc they consecrate a pious zeal which is almost an expiatory worship. Mr. Andrew Lang's praiseworthy scruples with regard to my references have caused me to correct some and to add several.
The hagiographers alone are openly hostile. They reproach me, not with my manner of explaining the facts, but with having explained them at all. And the more my explanations are clear, natural, rational and derived from the most authoritative sources, the more these explanations displease them. They would wish the history of Joan of Arc to remain mysterious and entirely supernatural. I have restored the Maid to life and to humanity. That is my crime. And these zealous inquisitors, so intent on condemning my work, have failed to discover therein any grave fault, any flagrant inexactness. Their severity has had to content itself with a few inadvertences and with a few printer's errors. What flatterers could better have gratified "the proud weakness of my heart?"[1]
PARIS, January, 1909.
[Footnote 1: "De mon coeur l'orgueilleuse faiblesse," Racine, Iphigénie en Aulide, Act i, sc. i.--(W.S.)]

INTRODUCTION
My first duty should be to make known the authorities for this history. But L'Averdy, Buchon, J. Quicherat, Vallet de Viriville, Siméon Luce, Boucher de Molandon, MM. Robillard de Beaurepaire, Lanéry d'Arc, Henri Jadart, Alexandre Sorel, Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, L. Jarry, and many other scholars have published and expounded various documents for the life of Joan of Arc. I refer my readers to their works which in themselves constitute a voluminous literature,[2] and without entering on any new examination of these documents, I will merely indicate rapidly and generally the reasons for the use I have chosen to make of them. They are: first, the trial which resulted in her condemnation; second, the chronicles; third, the trial for her rehabilitation; fourth, letters, deeds, and other papers.
[Footnote 2: Le P. Lelong, Bibliothèque historique de la France, Paris, 1768 (5 vols. folio), II, n. 17172-17242. Potthast, Bibliotheca medii ?vi, Berlin, 1895, 8vo, vol. i, pp. 643 seq. U. Chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du Moyen ?ge, Paris, 8vo, 1877, pp. 1247-1255; Jeanne d'Arc, bibliographie, Montbéliard, 1878 [selections]; Supplément au Répertoire, Paris, 1883, pp. 2684-2686, 8vo. Lanéry d'Arc, Le livre d'or de Jeanne d'Arc, bibliographie raisonnée et analytique des ouvrages relatifs à Jeanne d'Arc, Paris, 1894, large 8vo, and supplement. A. Molinier, Les sources de l'histoire de France des origines aux guerres d'Italie, IV: Les Valois, 1328-1461, Paris, 1904, pp. 310-348.]
First, in the trial[3] which resulted in her condemnation the historian has a mine of rich treasure. Her cross-examination cannot be too minutely studied. It is based on information, not preserved elsewhere, gathered from Domremy and the various parts of France through which she passed. It is hardly necessary to say that all the judges of 1431 sought to discover in Jeanne was idolatry, heresy, sorcery and other crimes against the Church. Inclined as they were, however, to discern evil in every one of the acts and in each of the words of one whom they desired to ruin, so that they might dishonour her king, they examined all available information concerning her life. The high value to be set upon the Maid's replies is well known; they are heroically sincere, and for the most part perfectly lucid. Nevertheless they must not all be interpreted literally. Jeanne, who never regarded either the bishop or the promoter as