[The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) by Anatole France]@TWC D-Link bookThe Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) INTRODUCTION 67/136
She represented herself as a devout damsel inspired by God. There was nothing incredible in that.
When she announced that she had received revelations touching the war from my Lord Saint Michael, she inspired the men-at-arms of the Armagnac party and the burghers of the city of Orleans with a confidence as great as could have been communicated to the troops, marching along the Loire in the winter of 1871, by a republican engineer who had invented a smokeless powder or an improved form of cannon.
What was expected from science in 1871 was expected from religion in 1428, so that the Bastard of Orleans would as naturally employ Jeanne as Gambetta would resort to the technical knowledge of M.de Freycinet. What has not been sufficiently remarked upon is that the French party made a very adroit use of her.
The clerks at Poitiers, while inquiring at great length into her religion and her morals, brought her into evidence.
These Poitiers clerks were no monks ignorant of the world; they constituted the Parliament of the lawful King; they were the banished members of the University, men deeply involved in political affairs, compromised by revolutions, despoiled and ruined, and very impatient to regain possession of their property.
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