'Voices', have misled modern writers; but the questions showered upon her
show that the judges had shrewd suspicions as to the identity of these
persons. That the 'Voices' were human beings is very clear from Joan's own
testimony: 'Those of my party know well that the Voice had been sent to me
from God, they have seen and known this Voice. My king and many others have
also heard and seen the Voices which came to me ... I saw him [St. Michael]
with my bodily eyes as well as I see you.' She refused to describe 'St.
Michael'; and bearing in mind some of the descriptions of the Devil in
later trials, it is interesting to find that when the judges put the direct
question to her as to whether 'St. Michael' came to her naked, she did not
give a direct answer. Later the following dialogue took place: 'If the
devil were to put himself in the form or likeness of an angel, how would
you know if it were a good or an evil angel?' asked the judges. Again
Joan's reply was not direct: 'I should know quite well if it were St.
Michael or a counterfeit.' She then stated that she had seen him many times
before she knew him to be St. Michael; when a child she had seen him and
had been afraid at first. Pressed for a description, she said he came 'in
the form of a true honest man' [tres vray preudomme, forma unius verissimi
probi hominis].[957] The accounts of the trial prove that Joan continually
received advice from the 'saints'. The person whom she called 'St.
Katherine' was obviously in the castle and able to communicate with the
prisoner: this was not difficult, for the evidence shows that there was a
concealed opening between Joan's room and the next. It was in the adjoining
room, close to the opening, that the notaries sat to take down Joan's words
when the spy Loyseleur engaged her in conversation; and it was evidently
through this opening that 'St. Katherine' spoke when she awoke Joan
'without touching her', and again when Joan could not hear distinctly what
she said 'on account of the noise in the castle'. A remark of Joan's that
'she often saw them [the Voices] among the Christians, they themselves
unseen', is noteworthy for the use of the word _Christian_, suggesting that
the 'Voices' were of a different religion. The remark should also be
compared with the account given by Bessie Dunlop as to her recognizing Thom
Reid when those about him did not know him; and with the statement by
Danaeus that 'among a great company of men, the Sorcerer only knoweth
Satan, that is present, when other doo not know him, although they see
another man, but who or what he is they know not'.
The points of mortal sin, of which Joan finally stood accused, were the
following: 1, The attack on Paris on a feast day; 2, taking the horse of
the Bishop of Senlis; 3, leaping from the tower of Beaurevoir; 4, wearing
male costume; 5, consenting to the death of Franquet d'Arras at Lagny.
Of these the most surprising to modern ideas is the one referring to
costume, yet it was on this that the judges laid most stress. Even the
severest of sumptuary laws has never made the wearing of male dress by a
woman a capital crime; yet, though Joan had recanted and been received into
the Church, the moment that she put on male attire she was doomed on that
account only. Whether she donned it by accident, by treachery, by force,
or out of bravado, the extraordinary fact remains that the mere resuming of
male garments was the signal for her death without further trial. On the
Sunday she wore the dress, on the Monday she was condemned, on the Tuesday
the sentence was communicated to her, on the Wednesday she was burned, as
an 'idolator, apostate, heretic, relapsed'. If, as I suppose, she were a
member of the Dianic Cult, the wearing of male attire must have been, for
her, an outward sign of that faith, and the resuming of it indicated the
relapse; the inscription on the high cap, which she wore at her execution,
shows that the judges at least held this opinion. Throughout the trial
questions were poured upon her as to her reasons for wearing the dress, and
she acknowledged that she wore it, not by the advice of a human man [per
consilium hominis mundi] ... 'Totum quod feci est per praeceptum Domini, et
si aliam praeciperet assumere ego assumerem, postquam hoc esset per
praeceptum Dei.' Asked if she thought she would have been committing mortal
sin by wearing women's clothes, she answered that she did better in obeying
and serving her supreme Lord, who is God. She refused to wear women's dress
except by command of God: 'I would rather die than revoke what God has made
me do.'
On her letters were placed sometimes the words Jhesus Maria or a cross.
'Sometimes I put a cross as a sign for those of my party to whom I wrote so
that they should not do as the letters said.' Though the mark was merely a
code-signal to the recipient of the letter, it seems hardly probable that a
Christian of that date would have used the symbol of the Faith for such a
purpose. She also consistently refused to take an oath on the Gospels, and
was with difficulty persuaded to do so on the Missal. When she was asked
whether she had ever blasphemed [blasphemaverit] God, she replied that she
had never cursed the Saints [maledixit Sanctum vel Sanctam]. When pressed
whether she had not denied [denegaverit] God, she again refused a direct
answer, saying that she had not denied the Saints [denegaverit Sanctum nec
Sanctam].
The general feeling towards her among the Christian priesthood is shown by
the action of Brother Richard. When he first entered her presence 'he made
the sign of the cross and sprinkled holy water, and I said to him, Approach
boldly, I shall not fly away.'
Another point to be noted is her answer that she learned the Paternoster,
Ave Maria, and Credo from her mother, thus proving that she was not of a
witch-family. According to Reginald Scot it was sufficient evidence to
condemn a woman to death as a witch if her mother had been a witch before
her. At the same time, however, Joan refused to say the Paternoster except
in confession, when the priest's lips would have been sealed if she had
proved herself not to be a Christian. She was very urgent to confess to the
Bishop of Beauvais, but he was too wary to be caught.
She first heard the 'Voices' at the age of thirteen, the usual time for the
Devil and the witch to make 'paction'. One of her followers, Pierronne, was
burnt as a witch, avowing to the last that she had spoken with God as
friend with friend, and describing the costume of her Deity with a detail
which shows the reality of the occurrence. If also there is any weight to
be attached to certain names--as seems likely after studying the lists
given above--then we have in this history four of the chief witch-names;
Joan, the daughter of Isabel, and the two saints Katherine and Margaret.
These coincidences may be small, but there are too many of them to be
ignored.
There is evidence from Joan's own words that she felt herself divine and
also that she knew her time was limited, but she never realized till the
last that the end meant death; this, however, the 'Voices' knew and it was
for this that they were preparing her. At the beginning of the trial, 'she
said she had come from God, and had nothing to do here, asking to be sent
back to God from whom she came [dixit quod venit ex parte Dei, et non habet
quid negotiari quidquam, petens ut remitteretur ad Deum a quo venerat].
'Many times she said to him [the King], I shall live a year, barely longer.
During that year let as much as possible be done.' The 'Voices' told her
she would be taken before the feast of St. John, and that thus it must be,
and that she must not be troubled but accept willingly and God would help
her. They also said it was necessary for her to be captured: 'Receive all
willingly, care not for thy martyrdom, thou shalt come at last to the
kingdom of paradise.' On the fatal Tuesday when she learned her doom, flesh
and spirit quailed at the prospect of the agony to come, and she cried out
that her 'Voices' had deceived her, for she had thought that in her
imprisonment she had already suffered the promised martyrdom. Yet within
twenty-four hours she went to the stake with courage unquenched,
acknowledging that her 'Voices' were from God. Like John Fian nearly two
centuries later, her spirit had sunk at first, and again like Fian she
endured to the end, dying a martyr to the God who had exploited her
confidence and simplicity and whom she had served so well. To her de
Lancre's words might well apply, 'The witches are so devoted to his service
that neither torture nor death can affright them, and they go to martyrdom
and to death for love of him as gaily as to a festival of pleasure and
public rejoicing.'
The ashes were collected and thrown into running water; a common rite, in
religions of the Lower Culture, after the sacrifice of the Incarnate God.
It is also worth noting that Rouen was one of the French cities in which
there was still a living tradition of human sacrifice.
2. _Gilles de Rais_
Like Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais was tried and executed as a witch; and in
the same way, much that is mysterious in this trial can also be explained
by the Dianic Cult.
On the mother's side he descended from Tiphaine de Champtoce, and on the
father's from Tiphaine de Husson; this latter was the niece of Bertrand du
Guesclin, and called after du Guesclin's wife, who was a fairy woman.[958]
The name Tiphaine appears to come from the same root as Fein, Finn, and
Fian, all of which meant 'fairy' in Great Britain, and probably in Brittany
as well. There is therefore a strong suggestion of a strain of fairy blood,
and with that blood there may also have descended to Gilles many of the
beliefs and customs of the dwarf race.
The bond between Gilles and Joan was a very close one. She obtained
permission from the King to choose whom she would for her escort; her
choice at once fell on Gilles, for she would naturally prefer those of her
own faith. He held already a high command in the relieving force, and added
the protection of Joan as a special part of his duties. Later on, even
after he had reached the high position of Marshal of France, he still
continued those duties, remaining with her all day when she was wounded at
the assault on Paris. It is an interesting point also that Charles VII
granted permission to both these great leaders to bear the royal arms on
their escutcheons. It seems incredible that a soldier of Gilles's character
and standing should have made no move to rescue Joan by ransom or by force,
when she was captured. She was not only a comrade, she was especially
under his protection, and it is natural for us to think that his honour was
involved. But if he regarded her as the destined victim, chosen and set
apart for death, as required by the religion to which both he and she
belonged, he could do nothing but remain inactive and let her fate be
consummated. If this is so, then the 'Mystery of Orleans', of which he was
the author, would be a religious play of the same class as the
mystery-plays of the Christians.
The extraordinary prodigality and extravagance of Gilles may have been due,
as is usually suggested, to profligacy or to madness, but it may equally
well have been that he took seriously the belief that as the Incarnate
God--or at any rate as a candidate for that honour--he must give to all who
asked. He rode a black horse, as also did Joan and the 'Devils' of later
centuries; and on two separate occasions he attempted to enter into a
compact with the 'Devil'. He could not decide to which religion he would
belong, the old or the new, and his life was one long struggle. The old
religion demanded human sacrifices and he gave them, the new religion
regarded murder as mortal sin and he tried to offer expiation; openly he
had Christian masses and prayers celebrated with the utmost pomp, secretly
he followed the ancient cult; when he was about to remove the bodies of the
human victims from the castle of Champtoce, he swore his accomplices to
secrecy by the binding oaths of both religions; on the other hand members
of the old faith, whom he consulted when in trouble, warned him that as
long as he professed Christianity and practised its rites they could do
nothing for him.
An infringement of the rights of the Church brought him under the
ecclesiastical law, and the Church was not slow to take advantage of the
position. Had he chosen to resist, his exalted position would have
protected him, but he preferred to yield, and like Joan he stood his trial
on the charge of heresy. The trial did not take long; he was arrested on
September 14, and executed on October 26. With him were arrested eight
others, of whom two were executed with him. Seeing that thirteen was always
the number of witches in a Coven, it is surely more than an accidental
coincidence that nine men and women, including Gilles, were arrested, two
saved themselves by flight, and two more who had played a large part in the
celebration of the rites of the old religion were already dead. Thus even
as early as the middle of the fifteenth century the Coven of thirteen was
in existence.
Gilles was charged with heresy before a Court composed of ecclesiastics
only, and like Joan he was willing to be tried for his faith. He announced
that he had always been a Christian, which may be taken to mean that there
was some doubt as to whether he was not a heathen. He suddenly gave way to
a curious outburst against the authority of the Court, saying that he would
rather be hanged by the neck with a lace than submit to them as judges.
This can only be understood by comparing his reference to 'hanging with a
lace' with the method by which Playfair in 1597 (p. 204), John Stewart in
1618 (p. 202), and John Reid in 1697 (p. 203), met their deaths.
The sudden change of front in this haughty noble may be accounted for by
the excommunication which was decreed against him, but this explains
neither his passionate haste to confess all, and more than all, of which he
was accused, nor his earnest and eager desire to die. How much of his
confession was true cannot be determined now, but it is very evident that
he was resolved to make his own death certain. His action in this may be
compared with that of Major Weir in 1670, who also was executed on his own
voluntary confession of witchcraft and crime. Gilles's last words, though
couched in Christian phraseology, show that he had not realized the
enormity of the crimes which he confessed: 'We have sinned, all three of
us', he said to his two companions, 'but as soon as our souls have left our
bodies we shall all see God in His glory in Paradise.' He was hanged on a
gibbet above a pyre, but when the fire burned through the rope the body was
snatched from the flames by several ladies of his family, who prepared it
for burial with their own hands, and it was then interred in the Carmelite
church close by. His two associates were also hanged, their bodies being
burned and the ashes scattered.
On the spot where Gilles was executed his daughter erected a monument, to
which came all nursing mothers to pray for an abundance of milk. Here again
is a strong suggestion that he was regarded as the Incarnate God of
fertility. Another suggestive fact is the length of time--nine years--which
elapsed between the death of Joan and the death of Gilles. This is a usual
interval when the Incarnate God is given a time-limit.
It required twenty-five years before an action of rehabilitation could be
taken for Joan. In the case of Gilles, two years after the execution the
King granted letters of rehabilitation for that 'the said Gilles, unduly
and without cause, was condemned and put to death'.
An intensive study of this period might reveal the witch organization at
the royal Court and possibly even the Grand-master to whom Joan owed
allegiance, the 'God' who sent her. Giac, the King's favourite, was
executed as a witch, and Joan's _beau duc_, the Duke d'Alencon, was also of
the fraternity.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 956: It is advisable to read the trial in the original Latin and
French, as the translations have often a Christian bias, e.g. 'the King of
Heaven' being rendered as 'our Lord', and 'my Lord' as 'our Saviour'. This
is not merely inaccurate but actually misleading.]
[Footnote 957: Compare Bessie Dunlop's more homely description of Thom
Reid: 'An honest wele elderlie man.']
[Footnote 958:
_____________
| |
Tiphaine de = Maurice Chevalier = Clemence Bertrand = Tiphaine
Champtoce |de Craon de Husson | du Guesclin (the fairy)
| |
| |
| Guy de = Tiphaine
| Laval I |
| |
Marie de Craon = Guy de Laval II
|
Gilles de Rais
]
APPENDIX V
FLYING OINTMENTS
The three formulae for the 'flying' ointment used by witches are as
follows:
1. Du persil, de l'eau de l'Aconite, des feuilles de Peuple, et de la suye.
2. De la Berle, de l'Acorum vulgaire, de la Quintefeuille, du sang de
chauuesouris, de la Morelle endormante, et de l'huyle.
3. De graisse d'enfant, de suc d'Ache, d'Aconite, de Quintefeuille, de
Morelle, et de suye.
These formulae may be translated as follows:
1. Parsley, water of aconite, poplar leaves, and soot.
2. Water parsnip, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat's blood, deadly nightshade,
and oil.
3. Baby's fat, juice of water parsnip, aconite, cinquefoil, deadly
nightshade, and soot.
These prescriptions show that the society of witches had a very creditable
knowledge of the art of poisoning: aconite and deadly nightshade or
belladonna are two of the three most poisonous plants growing freely in
Europe, the third is hemlock, and in all probability 'persil' refers to
hemlock and not to the harmless parsley, which it resembles closely.
The other ingredients have no marked toxic action, unless 'berle' and
'ache' refer not to the harmless water parsnip but to the poisonous water
hemlock or cowbane. The baby's fat and bat's blood would of course have no
action.
Aconite was one of the best-known poisons in ancient times; indeed it was
so extensively used by professional poisoners in Rome during the Empire
that a law was passed making its cultivation a capital offence. Aconite
root contains about 0.4 per cent. of alkaloid and one-fifteenth of a grain
of the alkaloid is a lethal dose. The drug has little effect upon the
consciousness, but produces slowing, irregularity, and finally arrest of
the heart.
The use of belladonna as a poison was also known in classical times;
fourteen of the berries have been known to produce death; a moderate dose
will produce wild excitement and delirium.
Hemlock is also a well-known and ancient poison; the fruit may contain as
much as 0.9 per cent. of alkaloid, and 1/4 grain of the alkaloid may
produce death. The action of hemlock usually is to produce a gradual motor
paralysis, consciousness being unimpaired, and death being caused by
paralysis of respiration, but sometimes hemlock may produce delirium and
excitement.
There is no doubt, therefore, about the efficacy of these prescriptions and
their ability to produce physiological effects. They were administered by
being rubbed into the skin, which is not an efficient way of introducing
most drugs into the body, indeed some have denied that alkaloids can be
absorbed from the unbroken skin; but there is no doubt that alkaloids can
be absorbed when rubbed into scratches or into the quick of the nails, and
it must be remembered that an unbroken skin is only possessed by those who
are free from vermin and who wash regularly, and neither of these
conditions would be likely to apply to a mediaeval witch. Cases of
poisoning associated with delirium have actually been recorded following
the application of belladonna plasters to the skin.
Of the three prescriptions the first is a watery solution and would not be
very efficacious when rubbed into the skin, but the second and third are
ointments, and if they were rubbed into the skin in sufficient quantities
definite physiological results would be produced.
The first preparation, which contains hemlock and aconite, would produce
mental confusion, impaired movement, irregular action of the heart,
dizziness and shortness of breath.
The belladonna in the second ointment would produce excitement which might
pass into delirium.
The third ointment, containing both aconite and belladonna, would produce
excitement and irregular action of the heart.
I cannot say whether any of these drugs would produce the impression of
flying, but I consider the use of aconite interesting in this respect.
Irregular action of the heart in a person falling asleep produces the
well-known sensation of suddenly falling through space, and it seems quite
possible that the combination of a delirifacient like belladonna with a
drug producing irregular action of the heart like aconite might produce the
sensation of flying.
A. J. Clark.
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