The judgements of Joan of Arc. Her trial and execution were but the beginning. In the centuries since, the Maid has continued to provoke anger and adoration. The first “revision” was the posthumous Rehabilitation trial…
The Rehabilitation was conducted in such a manner as to minimize the opening of old sores, the reawakening of old controversies. There was no general indictment of those who conducted Joan’s trial; a number of them, in fact, testified at the Rehabilitation and showed as much zeal in 1456 as they had in 1431. Only certain scapegoats were selected, and those safely dead, beyond the reach of judicial recrimination.
—
Title:
Joan of Arc, 1865
Artist:
Sir John Everett Millais
…
Publisher:
Bridgeman Art Library
Copyright:
© Bridgeman Art Library / Private Collection / Photo © Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries, London —Some people try to brand Jeanne d’Arc as a proto-feminist, but nothing could be farther from the truth. First, let me clarify that her last name was not really “d’Arc” but “Darc.” The apostrophe between the “d” and the “a” was later added to give Joan a “noble” name, especially since she had been ennobled by Charles VII of France. It remains a fact, however, that her father was Jacques Darc, a peasant from Domremy in Lorraine. She learned spinning and needlework and all the domestic tasks girls in her state of life had to learn. Joan was a very feminine woman and only wore male attire when with the soldiers, for the sake of her chastity. Otherwise, in private and at home, she wore a dress. When in prison, she insisted upon keeping on her masculine clothing so that the English would not rape her, because that is what the guards tried to do when she did put on a dress. Also, although she carried a sword, she never actually fought in any of the battles, as she made clear at her trial.—Read More:http://fountainofelias.blogspot.ca/2010/05/was-st-joan-feminist.html
Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais,was dead, as were most of the judges; the Promoter, Jean d’Estivet, a personage of the second rank, was also deceased; and the Vice-Inquisitor, Jean le Maistre, could not be found. These men were saddled with the whole responsibility for the assumed miscarriage of justice in the case of Joan of Arc; and influential living ecclesiastics, such as Courcelles, were thus protected. Nobody appeared to defend the accused judges. Nobody, therefore, had any reason to fear or hinder the commission of inquiry; in fact, quite the contrary. Joan’s judges and assessors had been unanimous in their verdict; but the Rehabilitation record contains evidence of sympathy and support for Joan which is not at all apparent in the original trial record. No doubt time, and changing political circumstances, mellowed the memories of Joan’s judges. One judge even denied participation in Joan’s trial although his name figured in its “proces-verbaux” and in the registers of the indemnities paid to the judges.
—Jules Eugene Lenepveu “Jeanne d’Arc in Orleans”—Read More:http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/lenepveu-jules-eugene/jeannedarcinorleans.html
The Pope, Calixtus III, apparently would have liked to protect that devout servitor of the Church, Pierre Cauchon, from infamy. Representing him as having been duped by the false reports of D’Estivet, he called him a bishop of good memory. It proved impossible, however, to rehabilitate Joan while at the same time salvaging the reputation of Cauchon. He appears in the Rehabilitation proceedings as an inhuman brute, with an aspect in utter contrast to that which he bore in his lifetime. When Warwick says, “The King is ill-served, since Joan has escaped us,” Cauchon’s reply, as alleged, is, “Be of good cheer we shall catch her yet.” Joan’s second judgement was really the judgement of her judges.
In general, the Rehabilitation proceedings are very sparing of miracles, and more than one theological quagmire is deftly skirted. No doubt the judges did not wish to ask of the Pope any more than they could help, fearing reluctance and opposition; they made the minimum claim upon the pontiff in an Italy in which Renaissance scepticism was already at high tide. Some of the wonderful stories which enshroud Joan’s memory had not yet had time to form.
ADDENDUM:
Patti Smith: ‘Jeanne d’Arc’
I feel like
I feel like shit
I need a
I need a drink
and not vinegar neither
I don’t want to die
I feel like a freak
don’t let me cut out
I wasn’t cut out
to go out virgin
I want my cherry
squashed man
hammer armour
love me
live me
hour to death
what the hell
hour to death
am I doing here
am I ending here
hour of death
and I feel so free
feel like fucking
feel so free
fell like running
got no hair
weighing me
cut so close
scalp is nicked
look like shit
hour of darkness
and I look like shit
hour to death and I feel so free
hour to death and I feel so free
turnkey turnkey
play with my pussy
lick my little
scull bait head
get it get it
get it in
get the guard to
beg the guard to
need a guard to
lay me
get all the guards to lay me
if all the guards would lay me
if one guard would lay me
if one guard would lay me
if one god would lay me
if one
god
Apart from their chronological sequence, what enjoins these poems is their obvious sexual references and metaphors. Whilst the poet hides be
a phallic metaphor in ‘dog dream’, she is far more explicit in the poem ‘jeanne d’arc’. It is a poem of colourful sexual language and its construction is explained in an interview between Victor Bokris and Patti Smith that concludes the formers biography of the latter. Responding to a question about ‘the poetry of performance’ Patti, maintaining her use of colourful sexual language, explains:
‘The Joan of Arc poem is almost total rhythm masturbation but it puts Joan of Arc in a new light, it puts her forth as a virgin with a hot pussy who realises that she’s gonna get knocked off before she gets the chance to come. So there is a concept there that made the rhythm worth of being frozen.’ Read More:http://www.freewheelin-on-line.info/takes/take19/missionarytimes.htm
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