JOAN OF ARC. 343 tensions were regarded as of sufficient importance to warrant in- vestigation. Long were the debates. Prelates and doctors of theology, jurists and statesmen examined her for a month, and one by one they were won over by her simple earnestness, her evi- dent conviction, and the intelligence of her replies. This was not enough, however. In Poitiers sat Charles's Parlement and a Uni- versity composed of such schoolmen as had abandoned the angli- cized University of Paris. Thither was Joan sent, and for three weeks more she was tormented with an endless repetition of ques- tioning. Meanwhile her antecedents were carefully investigated, with a result in every way confirming her good repute and truth- fulness. Charles was advised to ask of her a sign by which to prove that she came from God, but this she refused, saying that it was the divine command that she should give it before Orleans, and nowhere else. Finally, the official conclusion, cautiously ex- pressed, was that in view of her honest life and conversation, and her promising a sign before Orleans, the king should not prevent her from going there, but should convey her there in safety ; for to reject her without the appearance of evil would be to rebuff the Holy Ghost, and to render himself unworthy the grace and aid of God.*
- Proems, pp. 471, 475, 478, 482, 485.— Chronique, pp. 428, 454— Gorres, pp.
37-9. — Thomassin, pp. 537, 538. — Christine de Pisan (Buchon, p. 541). — Mons- trelet, Liv. n. ch. 57. — Dynteri Chron. Due. Brabant. Lib vi. eh. 234. Much has been recorded in the chronicles about the miracles with which she convinced Charles's doubts — how she recognized him at first sight, although plainly clad amid a crowd of resplendent courtiers, and how she revealed to him a secret known only to God and himself, of prayers and requests made to God in his oratory at Loches (Chronique, pp. 429, 455 ; Jean Chartier, Hist, de Charles VII. Ed. Godefroy, p. 19; Gorres, pp. 105-9). Possibly some chance ex- pression of hers may have caught his wandering and uncertain thoughts and made an impression upon him, but the legend of the Pucelle grew so rapidly that miracles were inevitably introduced into it at every stage. Joan herself on her trial declared that Charles and several of his councillors, including the Due de Bourbon, saw her guardian saints and heard their voices, and that the king had notable revelations (Proces, p. 472). She also told her judges that there had been a material sign, which under their skilful cross-examination developed, from a secret revealed to him alone (p. 477), into the extraordinary story that St. Michael, accompanied by Catharine and Margaret and numerous angels, came to her lodgings and went with her to the royal palace, up the stairs and through the doors, and gave to the Archbishop of Reims, who handed it to the king, a
