IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Of what is authentically known about Saint Joan of Arc can be found in the Documents of the Trial of Condemnation and the Trial of Rehabilitation. What follows are excerpts from these Documents.
JOAN, IN HER OWN WORDS
Concerning a Prophecy:
When I came before the King, several people asked me if there were not in my country a wood, called the Oak-wood, because there were prophecies which said that from the neighborhood of this wood would come a maid who should do marvelous things.
Concerning Joan's Origins:
I was born in the village of Domremy, which is really one with the village of Greux. The principal Church is at Greux. My father is called Jacques d'Arc; my mother, Ysabelle. I was baptized in the village of Domremy. One of my godmothers is called Agnes, another Jeanne, a third Sibyl. One of my godfathers is called Jean Lingué another Jean Barrey. I had many other godmothers, or so I have heard from my mother. I was, I believe, baptized by Messier Jean Minet; he still lives, so far as I know. I am, I should say, about nineteen years of age. From my mother I learned my Pater, my Ave Maria, and my Credo. I believe I learned all this from my mother.
Concerning Joan's Voices:
I was thirteen when I had a Voice from God for my help and guidance. The first time that I heard this Voice, I was very much frightened; it was mid-day, in the summer, in my father's garden. I heard this Voice to my right, towards the Church; rarely do I hear it without its being accompanied also by a light. This light comes from the same side as the Voice. Generally it is a great light.
If I were in a wood, I could easily hear the Voice which came to me. It seemed to me to come from lips I should reverence. I believe it was sent me from God. When I heard it for the third time, I recognized that it was the Voice of an Angel. This Voice has always guarded me well, and I have always understood it; it instructed me to be good and to go often to Church; it told me it was necessary for me to come into France. You ask me under what form this Voice appeared to me? It said to me two or three times a week: 'You must go into France.' The Voice said to me: 'Go into France! Go, raise the siege which is being made before the City of Orleans. Go! to Robert de Baudricourt, Captain of Vaucouleurs: he will furnish you with an escort to accompany you.'
It is the Voice of Saint Catherine and of Saint Margaret.
I saw them with my bodily eyes as well as I see you; when they went from me, I wept. I should have liked to be taken away with them.
I have also received comfort from Saint Michael.
I saw him before my eyes; he was not alone, but quite surrounded by the Angels of Heaven.
Concerning Joan's Journey from Domremy to Vaucouleurs:
I went to my uncle and said that I wished to stay near him for a time. I remained there eight days. I said to him, 'I must go to Vaucouleurs.' He took me there. When I arrived, I recognized Robert de Baudricourt, although I had never seen him. I knew him, thanks to my Voice, which made me recognize him. I said to Robert, 'I must go into France!' Twice Robert refused to hear me, and repulsed me. The third time, he received me, and furnished me with men; the Voice had told me it would be thus.
Concerning Joan's Journey from Vaucouleurs to Chinon:
From Vaucouleurs I departed, dressed as a man, armed with a sword given me by Robert de Baudricourt, but without other arms. I had with me a Knight, a Squire, and four servants, with whom I reached the town of Saint Urbain, where I slept in an Abbey. On the way, I passed through Auxerre, where I heard Mass in the principal Church.
Robert de Baudricourt made those who went with me swear to conduct me well and safely. 'Go,' said Robert de Baudricourt to me, 'Go! and let come what may!' It was necessary for me to change my woman's garments for a man's dress.
I went without hindrance to the King. Having arrived at the village of Saint Catherine de Fierbois, I sent for the first time to the Castle of Chinon, where the King was. I got there towards mid-day, and lodged first at an inn. After dinner, I went to the King, who was at the Castle.
Concerning the Meeting Between Joan and the Dauphin at Chinon:
After dinner, I went to the King, who was at the Castle. When I entered the room where he was I recognized him among many others by the counsel of my Voice, which revealed him to me. I told him that I wished to go and make war on the English.
Concerning the Authenticity of Joan's Mission:
During three weeks I was questioned by the clergy at Chinon and at Poitiers. Before he was willing to believe me, the King had a sign of my mission; and the clergy of my party were of opinion that there was nothing but good in my mission.
Concerning Joan's Arms
I had a banner of which the field was sprinkled with lilies; the world was painted there, with an angel at each side; it was white, of the white cloth called 'boccassin'; there was written above, I believe, 'Jhesus Maria'; it was fringed with silk.
I had a sword I had taken at Vaucouleurs. Whilst I was at Tours, or at Chinon, I sent to seek for a sword which was in the Church of Saint Catherine de Fierbois, behind the altar; it was found there at once; the sword was in the ground, and rusty; upon it were five crosses; I knew by my Voice where it was. I had never seen the man who went to seek for it. I wrote to the Priests of the place, that it might please them to let me have this sword, and they sent it to me. It was under the earth, not very deeply buried, behind the altar, so it seemed to me: I do not know exactly if it were before or behind the altar, but I believe I wrote saying that it was at the back. As soon as it was found, the Priests of the Church rubbed it, and the rust fell off at once without effort. It was an armorer of Tours who went to look for it. The Priests of Fierbois made me a present of a scabbard; those of Tours, of another; one was of crimson velvet, the other of cloth-of-gold. I had a third made of leather, very strong. When I was taken prisoner I had not got this sword. I always bore the sword of Fierbois from the time I had it up to my departure from Saint-Denis, after the attack on Paris.
Concerning Joan Having been Wounded:
Then, in the attack on the Bridge fortress, I was wounded in the neck by an arrow or cross-bolt; but I had great comfort from Saint Catherine, and was cured in less than a fortnight. I did not interrupt for this either my riding or work. I knew quite well that I should be wounded; I had told the King so, but that, notwithstanding, I should go on with my work. This had been revealed to me by the Voices of my two Saints, the blessed Catherine and the blessed Margaret. It was I who first planted a ladder against the fortress of the Bridge, and it was in raising this ladder that I was wounded in the neck by this cross-bolt.
Concerning the Coronation of the Dauphin:
The crown was given to an Archbishop - that is, to the Archbishop of Reims - so it seems to me, in the presence of my King. The Archbishop received it, and gave it to the King. I was myself present. The crown was afterwards put among my King's treasures.
Concerning Joan's Voices Predicting that She would be Captured:
It was told me by my Voices - that is to say, by Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, 'You will be taken before Saint John's Day; and so it must be: do not torment yourself about it: be resigned; God will help you.
And I asked of my Voices that, when I should be taken, I might die soon, without long suffering in prison; and they said to me: 'Be resigned to all - thus it must be.' But they did not tell me the time; and if I had known it, I should not have gone. Often I asked to know the hour: they never told me.
Concerning Joan's Capture at Compiegne:
That day I did not know at all that I should be taken, and I had no other command to go forth; but they had always told me it was necessary for me to be taken prisoner.
I passed by the bridge and the boulevard, and went with the company of followers of my side against the followers of my Lord of Luxembourg. I drove them back twice against the camp of the Burgundians, and the third time, to the middle of the highway. The English who were there then cut off the road from me and my people, between us and the boulevard. For this reason, my followers retreated, and, in retreating towards the fields, on the Picardy side, near the boulevard, I was taken. Between Compiegne and the place where I was taken there is nothing but the stream and the boulevard with its ditch.
Concerning Joan's Imprisonment in the Tower of Beaurevoir
When I knew that the English were come to take me, I was very angry; nevertheless, my Voices forbade me many times to leap. In the end, for fear of the English, I leaped, and commended myself to God and Our Lady. I was wounded. When I had leaped, the Voice of Saint Catherine said to me I was to be of good cheer, for those at Compiegne would have succor. I prayed always for those at Compiegne, with my Counsel.
On the morning of the 30th of May, 1431, Joan was led to the marketplace of Rouen. There, after the reading of the Sentence of Death and the Sentence of Excommunication, Joan's brief life came to an end. Her last words were: "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY TO JOAN'S DEATH
Brother Ysambard de la Pierre:
When I was holding the Cross before her, she begged me to descend, as the fire was mounting.
Additional Testimony of Brother Ysambard de la Pierre:
She was brought in a cart to the cemetery of Saint-Ouen. After the preaching [at the Old Market] there was a long waiting, and then the King's clerks conducted her to the stake, I and Brother Martin Ladvenu accompanying her up to the end.
On this same occasion, the Bishop of Beauvais wept. A certain Englishman, a soldier, who hated her greatly, had sworn to bring a faggot for the stake. When he did so, and heard Jeanne calling on the name of Jesus in her last moments, he was stupefied, and, as it were, in an ecstasy at the spectacle: his companions took him and led him away to a neighboring tavern. After refreshment, he revived. In the afternoon, the same Englishman confessed, in my presence, to a Brother of the Order of Saint Dominic, that he had gravely erred, and that he repented of what he had done against Jeanne. He held her to be a good woman, for he had seen the spirit departing from her, as it were a white dove, going away from France.
In the afternoon of the same day, the executioner came to the Convent of the Dominicans, saying to them and to Brother Martin Ladvenu, that he feared he was damned because he had burnt a saint.
Pierre Cusqel:
I was not present at the last preaching and condemnation and execution of Jeanne, because my heart could not bear it, for pity of her; but I heard that she received the Body of the Lord before her condemnation.
Maitre Jean Tressart, when he returned from the execution, groaning and weeping sadly, lamented to me what he had seen at this place, saying to me: "We are all lost; we have burnt a Saint"; adding, that he believed her soul was in the hands of God because, when she was in the midst of the flames, she constantly called on the name of the Lord Jesus.
Additional Testimony of Pierre Cusqel:
After her death, the English had her ashes collected and thrown into the Seine, because they feared that some might believe she had escaped.
Brother Martin Ladvenu:
Directly Jeanne was abandoned by the Church, she was seized by the English soldiers, who were present in large numbers, without any sentence from the secular authority, although the Bailly of Rouen and the Counsels of the Secular Court were present. I know this because I was with her, from the Castle to her last breath.
The executioner, in my presence, gave his testimony that she had been unjustly put to death.
Additional Testimony of Brother Martin Ladvenu:
On the day of her death I was with her until her last breath. One present said he wished his soul might be where he believed Jeanne's soul was. After the reading of the sentence, she came down from the platform on which the preaching had been, and was led by the executioner, without any sentence from the secular Judges, to the place where the pile was prepared for her burning. The pile was on a scaffold, and the executioner lighted it from below. When Jeanne perceived the fire, she told me to descend and to hold up the Cross of the Lord on high before her that she might see it.
When I was with her, and exhorting her on her salvation, the Bishop of Beauvais and some of the Canons of Rouen came over to see her; and, when Jeanne perceived the Bishop, she told him that he was the cause of her death; that he had promised to place her in the hands of the Church, and had relinquished her to her mortal enemies.
Up to the end of her life she maintained and asserted that her Voices came from God, and that what she had done had been by God's command. She did not believe that her Voices had deceived her: [but that] the revelations which she had received had come from God.
Father Pierre Lebouchier:
As soon as the sentence had been read by the Ecclesiastical Judge, [at the Old Market,] she was conducted to the platform of the Bailly by the King's followers, on which platform were the Bailly and other lay officers. She remained there some time with them; and what they did or said I know not, only that she was taken back and given over to the fire after they had departed.
While they were tying her to the stake she implored and specially invoked Saint Michael. She seemed to me a good Christian to the end the greater number of those present, to the number of ten thousand, wept and lamented, saying that she was of great piety.
Of the eyewitnesses who gave sworn testimony at the Trial of Rehabilitation, and who were present at Joan's death, all were in agreement that she was put to death unjustly and that she died a pious Catholic.