TWO more remarkable cases will, in this chapter, be made known to the
reader, to show that for hundreds of years the Devil, or rather the
belief in his existence, was a source of terror to all Christians, and
must have operated on almost every transaction in which society were
engaged. In almost every town and village, to be surrounded with wicked
beings who had entered into a contract with Satan to be empower-ed to
perform deeds of darkness which no prudence could guard against, must
have had an influence on the peace and safety of almost every family.
But now, that the delusion has nearly passed away, and mankind are no
longer subject to such terror, we may be happy to think that our lives
are exempted from the evils which afflicted our forefathers. And nothing
but an open avowal of our unbelief in all systems which in any way
sanction the existence of a Being who has made a large portion of the
human family crazy, can prevent a recurrence of past ignorance with all
its baneful consequences.
Joan of Arc, called the Maid of Orleans, an unfortunate creature,
demands our pity. Her tragical history ought to impel every humane
person to do all in his power to prevent mortals from again witnessing
scenes of so dreadful a nature.
Henry the Fifth, of England, won the decisive battle of Agincourt in the
year 1415, and some time after concluded a treaty with the reigning King
of France, by which he was recognized, in case of that King's death, as
heir to the throne. Henry the Fifth died in the year 1422, and Charles
the Sixth, of France, in less than two months after. Henry the Sixth was
only nine months old, at the time of his father's death; but such was
the deplorable state of France, that he was the same year proclaimed
King in Paris, and for some years seemed to have every prospect of a
fortunate reign. John, Duke of Bedford, the King's uncle, was declared
Regent of France. The son of Charles the Sixth was reduced to the last
extremity. Orleans was the last strong town in the heart of the kingdom
which held out in his favor; and that place seemed on the point of
surrendering to the conqueror.
"In this fearful crisis, appeared Joan of Arc, and, in the most
incredible manner, turned the whole tide of affairs. She was a servant
in a poor inn at Demremi, and was accustomed to perform the coarsest
offices, and, in particular, to ride the horses to a neighboring stream
of water. Of course, the situation of France and her hereditary King
formed the universal subject of conversation, and Joan became deeply
impressed with the lamentable state of her country, and the misfortunes
of her King. By dint of perpetual meditation, and feeling in her breast
the promptings of energy and enter-prize, she conceived the idea that
she was destined by Heaven to be the deliverer of France. Agreeably to
the state of intellectual knowledge at that period, she persuaded
herself that she saw visions and held communications with the saints.
She then had conversations with St. Margaret and St. Catherine of
Fierbois. They told her that she was commissioned by God to raise the
siege of Orleans. She then presented herself to Baudricourt, Governor of
the neighboring town of Vaucouleurs, telling him her commission, and
requiring him to send her to the King at Chinon. Baudricourt, at first,
made light of her application; but her importunity, and the ardor she
expressed, at length excited him. He put on her man's attire, gave her
arms, and sent her, under an escort of two gentlemen and their
attendants, to Chinon. Here she immediately addressed the King in
person, who had purposely hid himself behind his courtiers, that she
might not know him. She then delivered her message, and offered, in the
name of the Most High, to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct King
Charles to Rheims to be anointed.
"Desperate as was then the state of affairs, Charles and his ministers
immediately resolved to seize the occasion that offered, and put forward
Joan as an instrument to revive the prostrate courage of his subjects.
He had no sooner determined on this, than he pretended to submit the
truth of her mission to the most rigorous trial. He called together an
assembly of theologians and doctors, who rigorously examined Joan, and
pronounced in her favor. He referred the question to the Parliament of
Poictiers, and they who, previously to meeting, were persuaded that she
was an impostor, became convinced of her inspiration. She was mounted on
a highbred steed, furnished with a consecrated banner, and marched,
escorted by a body of five thousand men, to the relief of Orleans. The
French, strongly convinced by so plain an interposition of Heaven,
resumed the courage to which they had long been strangers.
"Such a phenomenon was exactly suited to the superstition and credulity
of the age. The English were staggered with the rumors that every where
went before her, and struck with a degree of apprehension and terror
that they could not shake off. The garrison, informed of her approach,
made a sally on the other side of the town, and Joan and her convoy
entered without opposition. She displayed her standard in the market
place, and was received as a celestial deliverer. She appears to have
been endowed with a prudence not inferior to her courage and spirit of
enterprise. With great docility, she caught the hints of the commanders
by whom she was surrounded, and, convinced of her own want of experience
and skill, delivered them to the forces as the dictates of Heaven. Thus
the knowledge and discernment of the Generals were brought into play at
the same time that their suggestions acquired new weight when falling
from the lips of the Heaven-instructed heroine. A second convoy arrived,
the wagons and troops passed between the redoubts of the English, while
a dead, silence and astonishment reigned Among the forces so lately
enterprising and irresistible. Joan now called on the garrison no longer
to stand upon the defensive, but boldly to attack the army of the
besiegers. She took one redoubt, and then another. The English,
overwhelmed with amazement, scarcely dared to lift a hand against her.
Their veteran Generals became, spell-bound and powerless, and their
soldiers were driven before the prophetess like a flock of sheep. The
siege was raised. Joan followed the English to a fortified town which
they fixed on as the place of their retreat, and all the English were
made prisoners. The late victorious force now concentrated themselves at
Patay, in Orleanois. Joan advanced to meet them. The battle lasted not a
moment; it was rather a flight than a combat. Fastolfe, one of the
bravest of the English Generals, threw down his arms, and ran for his
life. Talbot and Scales, the other Generals, were made prisoners.
"The siege of Orleans was raised on the eighth of May, 1429; the battle
of Patay was fought on the tenth of the following month. Joan was, at
that time, twenty-two years of age. This extraordinary turn having been
given to the affairs of the kingdom, Joan next insisted that the King
should march to Rheims, in order to be crowned. Rheims lay in a
direction expressly through the enemy's garrisons. But every thing
yielded to the marvellous fortune that attended upon the heroine. Troyes
opened its gates. Chalons followed the example. Rheims sent a
deputation, with the keys of the city, which met Charles on his march.
The proposed solemnity took place amid the ecstasies and enthusiastic
shouts of his people. It was no sooner over, than Joan stepped forward.
She said, she had now performed the whole of what God had commissioned
her to do. She was satisfied. She entreated the King to dismiss her to
the obscurity from which she had sprung.
"The Ministers and Generals of France, however, found Joan too useful an
instrument to be willing to part with her thus early, and she yielded to
their earnest expostulations.
"Under her guidance, they assailed Laon, Soissons, Chauteau, Thirry,
Provins, and many other places, and took them one after another. She
threw herself into Compiegne, which was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy
in conjunction with certain English commanders. The day after her
arrival, she headed a sally against the enemy; twice she repelled them,
but finding their numbers increase every moment with fresh
reinforcements, she directed a retreat. Twice she returned to her
pursuers, and made them recoil; the third time she was less fortunate.
She found herself alone, surrounded by the enemy, and having performed
prodigies of valor, she was compelled to surrender herself a prisoner.
This happened on the twenty-fifth of May, 1430. It remained to be
determined what should be the fate of this admirable woman. Both friends
and enemies agreed that her career had been attended with a supernatural
power. The French, who were so infinitely indebted to her achievements,
and who owed the sudden and glorious reverse of their affairs to her
alone, were convinced that she was immediately commissioned by God, and
vied with each other in reciting the miraculous phenomena which marked
every step in her progress. The English, who saw all the victorious
acquisitions of Henry the Fifth crumbling from their grasp, were equally
impressed with the manifest miracle, but imputed all her good fortune to
a league with the Prince of Darkness. They said, that her boasted
visions were so many delusions of the Devil. They determined to bring
her to trial for the tremendous crimes of sorcery and witchcraft.
"They believed that if she were once convicted and led out to execution,
the prowess and valor which had hitherto marked their progress, would
return to them, and that they should obtain the same superiority over
their disheartened foes. The Devil, who had hitherto been her constant
ally, terrified at the spectacle of the flames that consumed her, would
instantly return to the infernal regions, and leave the field open to
English enterprise and energy, and to the interposition of God and his
saints. An accusation was prepared against her, and all the solemnities
of a public trial were observed. But the proofs; were so weak and
unsatisfactory, and Joan, though oppressed and treated with the utmost
severity, displayed so much acuteness and presence of mind, that the
court, not venturing to proceed to the last extremity, contented
themselves, with sentencing her to perpetual imprisonment, and to be
allowed no other nourishment than bread and water for life. Before they
yielded to this mitigation of punishment, they caused her to sign with
her mark a recantation of her offences. She acknowledged that the
enthusiasm which had guided her was an illusion, and promised never more
to listen to its suggestions.
"The hatred of her enemies, however, was not yet appeased. They
determined in some, way to entrap her; They had clothed her in a female
garb; they insidiously laid in her way the habiliments of a man. The
fire, smothered in the bosom of the maid, revived at the sight; she was
alone, she caught up the garments, and; one by one adjusted them to her
person. Spies were set to watch for this even; they burst into her
apartment. What she had done was construed into no less offence than
that of a relapsed heretic. There was no more pardon for such confirmed
delinquency. She was brought out to be burned alive; in the market place
of Rouen, and she died embracing a crucifix, and in her last moments
calling upon the name of Jesus. A few days more than twelve months had
elapsed between the period of her first captivity and her execution."
The preceding history of Joan of Arc, is taken from "Godwin's Lives of
the Necromancers." Reader! we see in this tragical account, the dreadful
effects of human credulity. The unfortunate; Maid of Orleans, who so
well deserved a monument for her patriotism, was thus cruelly put to
death. Her hard fate fully shows how superstition fortifies the mind
against compassion and the dictates of common sense. In that the of
religious intolerance, whole nations, had caught this theological fever.
Kings and Parliaments, Judges and Generals, from the highest to the
lowest, were alike the subjects of that awful contagion. Justice was
banished from the earth, and humanity had no existence. From whence
proceeded this state of savage barbarism? The answer is presented to us
in bold relief. It was the effects of human credulity. It was brought on
by believing without examination; and, in the New Testament, faith is
urged as the thing most pleasing to God, and unbelief as the greatest
sin. The existence of the Devil, and his enmity, to God and man, being
supported by the New Testament, to be guilty of forming a contract with
the Prince of Darkness was considered a horrid crime. The origin of
sorcery, (which consisted in holding a communion with beings from the
fabulous world of spirits,) is lost in the night and darkness of
antiquity, but all ancient-nations and people were believers in its
reality.
It was of heathen origin, yet the Jews practised it, and individuals
followed it for a livelihood, as, for instance, the witch of Endor.
Christians have also been believers in it in connection with all the
different branches of magic.
But that which has established its truth among Christians, is the part
performed by Jesus during his ministry. By his own temptation by the
Devil, the Existence of the Devil is put beyond all doubt And when Jesus
was about to cast out a devil, the devil is reported to have cried out
to the Saviour, "_We know who thou art, and art thou come to torment us
before the tinte?_" This mode of expression to Jesus by the Devil who
was about to be cast out, implies that when the Devil was ejected, he
had to return to hell, his native place of torment. It would lead us to
infer that devils were permitted to leave their dread abodes, and take
possession of men or animals, as a cessation of torture; but when cast
out, they had to return home, their vacation being run out Admitting
this to be warranted by the New Testament, we can account for those
devils whose names were "Legion," petitioning to _be permitted to enter
the herd of swine_. So, then, it appears that the devils had other
motives in taking possession of human beings than to rebel against God,
or to torment men. It was a fine holiday to blow off the soot and ashes,
and to get fresh air. At any rate, Jesus, by pretending to cast out
devils, fully admitted their existence. And by the temptation of Christ,
is proved a desire on the part of the Devil to enlist persons into his
service.