"Joan of Arc" by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, summary Automatic translate

This book is a religious and philosophical reflection on the path of the Maid of Orleans, written in 1938. The author compares the Hundred Years’ War with the decline of Europe on the eve of new global catastrophes, seamlessly merging the historical records of the Inquisition’s trial with mystical reflections on the coming Kingdom of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Joan and the Kingdom of the Spirit

The narrative opens with a comparison of two French saints. The author draws a parallel between the medieval warrior Joan of Arc and the 19th-century Catholic nun Thérèse of Lisieux. Both women sought salvation for their homeland through direct communication with God. They took the Gospel’s words about the establishment of the heavenly kingdom literally. The heroines’ living faith challenges the dry dogma of the Roman Church. The heroine’s mystical connection with the future universal Church of the Spirit frightened the judges.

France’s enemies are called by the ancient nickname "Godons." During the Hundred Years’ War, this was the name given to the English invaders for their blasphemies. New Godons live on in the 20th century. They are destroying the soul of the nation through impiety. Historical skeptics cannot comprehend Joan’s true nature. Anatole France dismissed her revelations as hallucinations. Voltaire ridiculed the peasant woman. The Church tried her twice, and her acquittal proved no less hypocritical than her death sentence.

Voices and the Beginning of the Journey

The girl was born around 1412 in the Lorraine village of Domrémy. Her father, Jacques d’Arc, served as the village mayor, and her mother, Isabella Romea, fervently venerated the Black Virgin. Near their home, the ancient Vosges forest swayed and grew the Tree of Fairies, where local youth gathered. Jeanne avoided pagan dances and preferred to pray in the chapel. Soon, the region was engulfed in fires due to enemy invasions, the people fell into madness, and nobles, like Marshal Gilles de Retz, celebrated masses to the devil.

In the quiet of a midday garden, a thirteen-year-old shepherdess heard a calling. The Archangel Michael appeared to her in shining knightly armor. Later, Saints Catherine and Margaret joined him. They told the girl to remain a virgin. For five years, she hid the visions from her parents. The voices urged her to lift the siege of Orleans. The girl was to crown the rightful heir to the throne.

Meeting with the Dauphin

Jeanne left her home. She went to the town of Vaucouleurs. The local commandant, Robert de Baudricourt, had been chasing her away for a long time. The girl accurately predicted the French defeat at the Battle of Rouveil. This miracle convinced the commandant to believe her. The knights Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy bought her a man’s suit and a warhorse. The detachment secretly crossed enemy-held territory. The travelers arrived safely at the Château de Chinon.

Dauphin Charles VII hid among a crowd of three hundred richly dressed courtiers. Joan confidently approached him. She revealed the secret of his private prayers. The future monarch doubted his legitimate descent due to the ill-repute of his mother, Isabella of Bavaria. The peasant woman’s words restored his confidence. To test her sincerity, Charles sent the girl to Poitiers. Theologians interrogated Joan for three weeks. The learned men recognized her mission as divine.

Lifting the siege of Orleans

The king entrusted the army to the girl. The armorers of Tours forged her a light suit of armor. In the chapel of Fierboise, she found a sword hidden under the altar. A white banner with the inscription "Jesus-Mary" became her main weapon. Joan cleared the camp of prostitutes and forced the soldiers to pray. Before the attack, she sent a letter to the English command offering peace. The enemy responded with harsh insults and threatened to burn the messenger at the stake.

The army approached Orleans along the left bank of the Loire, but the crossing seemed impossible due to headwinds. At Joan’s command, the wind shifted to a favorable one. The military governor, Jean Batard, was genuinely amazed by her military talent when she personally led the soldiers in the assault on the fortress of Saint-Loup. She wept at the sight of spilled blood, but the French soon captured the fortified Tower of the Augustins.

The assault on the main English stronghold of Turelli began on May 7. A crossbow bolt pierced Joan’s steel shoulder pad. The wound seemed severe. The girl quickly returned to the thick of the battle. The English succumbed to superstitious panic. General Glesdal drowned in the river when a burning wooden bridge collapsed. The siege of Orleans was lifted within three days. The Maid’s military glory instantly spread throughout Europe.

Wedding in Reims and captivity

The French army routed the retreating English on the Paté plain. The road to Reims was clear. Charles VII was anointed in the ancient cathedral on July 17, 1429. Joan embraced the monarch’s knees and quietly begged to be allowed to go home. The court intriguers La Trémoille and Archbishop Regnault de Chartres exploited her fame for their own selfish ends. The king concluded a secret truce with the Burgundians. The advance halted.

Joan attempted to storm Paris against Charles’s wishes, but the attack failed. She was wounded again, and the king ordered a retreat across the Loire. The winter passed in agonizing inaction. In the spring, Joan rushed to defend the besieged Compiègne, despite the clear warnings of her imminent capture. The French retreated under enemy pressure on May 23, 1430. The commandant raised the fortress bridge, and Joan was left alone outside the gates.

Trial in Rouen

The Picardy marksman Lionel pulled the Maid from her horse. Jacques of Luxembourg sold the noble captive to the English for ten thousand gold livres. The girl was thrown into the prison of the Château de Beaurevoir. She learned of the impending massacre in Compiègne. The captive attempted to escape. Jeanne jumped from a window from a height of about eighteen meters. She miraculously survived. After recovering, she was transported to Rouen for a show trial.

Bishop Pierre Cauchon presided over the trial. The English wanted to prove the illegality of Charles VII’s coronation, so Joan was kept in an iron cage and chained to the wall with heavy chains. Rough mercenaries guarded her. The interrogations lasted for several months. Doctors of theology set verbal traps, attempting to accuse the girl of consorting with demons. The young peasant answered the judges with serene calm. Her directness disarmed the experienced inquisitors.

The judges reproached Joan for wearing men’s clothing. They accused her of rebellion against the earthly church. The girl recognized only the supreme judgment of God. Threats of physical torture failed to break her will. The inquisitors resorted to a vile deception. In the Saint-Ouen cemetery, a frightened Joan was given a prepared document of abdication. She made a cross under it promising to submit to the laws of the church and wear women’s clothing.

Fiery Cross

In prison, the deception was finally revealed. English guards secretly confiscated her women’s clothing, forcing the captive to dress in men’s clothing. Bishop Cauchon gleefully accused Joan of relapsing into heresy. The ecclesiastical court hypocritically handed her over to the secular authorities. The condemned woman was brought to the Place du Vieux-Market on May 30, 1431, where the executioner prepared an unusually high scaffold with dry wood.

Jeanne asked for a cross. An English soldier tied two branches together and handed it to her. The monk Isamber held the crucifix high before the fire. Flames engulfed the body. The girl cried out loudly, "Jesus!" The witnesses to the execution wept in unbearable horror. Someone thought they saw a white dove flying out of the flames. The executioner threw the charred bones and the untouched heart into the Seine.

The English authorities sent out letters cynically justifying the execution, boasting of the destruction of a dangerous witch.

Charles VII initiated a new trial only twenty-five years later. The ecclesiastical court completely annulled the guilty verdict in 1456. The name of the shepherdess of Lorraine was cleared of slander. A stone cross in Rouen commemorated the holy soul of France.