Volume 1.
Freely translated out of the ancient French into modern
English from the original unpublished manuscript in
the National Archives of France
by Jean Francois Alden Authorities
examined in verification of the truthfulness of this
narrative:
J. E. J. QUICHERAT, Condamnation et Rehabilitation
de Jeanne d’Arc.
J. Fabre, Proces de Condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc.
H. A. WALLON, Jeanne d’Arc.
M. SEPET, Jeanne d’Arc.
J. Michelet, Jeanne d’Arc.
BERRIAT de saint-prix, La Famille de
Jeanne d’Arc.
La Comtesse A. De CHABANNES, La Vierge Lorraine.
Monseigneur Ricard, Jeanne d’Arc la Venerable.
Lord Ronald Gower, F.S.A., Joan of Arc.
John O’HAGAN, Joan of Arc.
Janet Tuckey, Joan of Arc the Maid.
To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man’s
character one must judge it by the standards of his
time, not ours. Judged by the standards of one
century, the noblest characters of an earlier one lose
much of their luster; judged by the standards of to-day,
there is probably no illustrious man of four or five
centuries ago whose character could meet the test
at all points. But the character of Joan of Arc
is unique. It can be measured by the standards
of all times without misgiving or apprehension as
to the result. Judged by any of them, it is still
flawless, it is still ideally perfect; it still occupies
the loftiest place possible to human attainment, a
loftier one than has been reached by any other mere
mortal.
When we reflect that her century was the brutalest,
the wickedest, the rottenest in history since the
darkest ages, we are lost in wonder at the miracle
of such a product from such a soil. The contrast
between her and her century is the contrast between
day and night. She was truthful when lying was
the common speech of men; she was honest when honesty
was become a lost virtue; she was a keeper of promises
when the keeping of a promise was expected of no one;
she gave her great mind to great thoughts and great
purposes when other great minds wasted themselves
upon pretty fancies or upon poor ambitions; she was
modest, and fine, and delicate when to be loud and
coarse might be said to be universal; she was full
of pity when a merciless cruelty was the rule; she
was steadfast when stability was unknown, and honorable
in an age which had forgotten what honor was; she
was a rock of convictions in a time when men believed
in nothing and scoffed at all things; she was unfailingly
true to an age that was false to the core; she maintained
her personal dignity unimpaired in an age of fawnings
and servilities; she was of a dauntless courage when
hope and courage had perished in the hearts of her
nation; she was spotlessly pure in mind and body when
society in the highest places was foul in both—she
was all these things in an age when crime was the
common business of lords and princes, and when the
highest personages in Christendom were able to astonish
even that infamous era and make it stand aghast at
the spectacle of their atrocious lives black with
unimaginable treacheries, butcheries, and beastialities.
