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Read Ebook: The Story of Joan of Arc the Witch-Saint by Mangasarian M M Mangasar Mugurditch
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 80 lines and 12757 words, and 2 pagesTHE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC THE WITCH--SAINT Lecturer Of The Independent Religious Society From "The Rationalist," October, 1913 PAST NUMBERS OF THE RATIONALIST. No. 1. St. Francis, the Second Christ. No. 2. Marcus Aurelius. No. 3. Ships that Sink in the Night; or, God and the Titanic. No. 4. What has Christ Done for the World? No. 5. Lyman Abbott on Immortality. No 6. Voltaire in Hades. No. 7. The Gospel of Sport--What Shall I Do to Be Saved? Play! No. 8. A Poet's Philosophy of Happiness--Omar Khayyam. No. 9. A Rationalist in Home. Part 1 No. 10. A Rationalist in Rome. Part 2 No. 11. A Rationalist in Rome. Part 3 No. 12. Jew and Christian According to Shakespeare. No. 13 and 14. Christian Science and Common Sense. No. 15. A Message From Abroad. No. 16. The First Modern Man. No. 17. The Monk and The Woman in The Garden of Allah. No. 18. The High Cost of Living and the Higher Cost of Superstition No. 19. The Debate between Three Clergymen and a Rationalist. No. 20. Rationalism and Crime. No. 21. Women and Crime. No. 22. Was Jesus a Socialist? No. 23. The Catholic Church and the Socialist Party. No. 24. What is the Trouble with the World? The above 24 lectures will be sent to any address upon receipt of Volume 2 No. 1. Who Made the Gods? No. 2. Marriage and Divorce, According to Rationalism. No. 3. The American Girl. No. 4. The Catholic Church in Politics. No. 5. Christian and Turk. No. 6. The Gospel According to Bernard Shaw. No. 7 and 8. Morality Without God. No. 9. A Letter to My Flock. No. 10. A Missionary's Convert. No. 11. The Ex-Priest in Paris. The Rationalist Is published by the Independent Religious Society semi-monthly. Each number is to consist of a lecture by M. M. Mangasarian. Price of subscription, per annum, .00. Orders should be sent to The Independent Religious Society, 922 Lakeside Place, Chicago JOAN OF ARC This lecture on Joan of Arc, delivered some time ago, provoked a great deal of criticism in Chicago. The people who protested against it and wanted to punish its author were, naturally enough, the Roman Catholics. What interests me in Joan of Arc is not the fact that the story of her martyrdom and subsequent canonization could be used as a weapon against the Church of Rome, but because the story in itself is so very compelling. It is quite true that the story also illustrates how far from infallible the Catholic Church has been in its dealings with the Maid of Orleans--first, burning her at the stake as a witch, and, five hundred years later, beatifying her as a saint. The statement in my lecture which caused the greatest displeasure was to the effect that the same church which had burnt Joan of Arc as a witch in fourteen hundred thirty-one had sainted her in nineteen hundred and nine. The Catholics deny that they were at all responsible for the terrible death of the deliverer of France. This lecture will throw some light on that question. As related in a former lecture, it was at her shrine, in the Church of the Sacred Heart, in Paris, last summer, that I promised myself the task of presenting to the American people the truth about Joan of Arc. I shall speak very plainly in this lecture, but, I am sure, without any trace of bitterness in my heart toward anyone. I shall speak with feeling, of course, for it is impossible not to be moved to the depths by the events which brought a girl of nineteen to the stake--but my passion is free from anger or prejudice. I can weep for this young woman without gnashing my teeth on her fanatical persecutors. I am sure I can tell the truth without lying about the Catholic Church. But I do not wish to be sentimental, either. I have not forgiven the unrepentant destroyers of the innocent. To convert a heretic into a saint by trying to prove that she was not a heretic at all is not repentance; it is sophistry. To deny that Joan suffered death at the hands of, and by the authority of, the Vicar of Christ on earth is not a sign of regret for the past, but a defiance of history. When the Catholics shall admit that, through ignorance, and urged on by circumstances they could not control, they committed the act which they have since atoned for by offering her a heavenly crown--when, I say, the Catholics shall shed over her body tears as genuine as those which black Othello shed over the woman he had smothered--then we will forgive them. But the Catholic Church will have to choose between securing our forgiveness and retaining her infallibility. If she should repent of a single act ever committed by her officially, she would lose her claim to infallibility--for how can the infallible err? If, on the other hand, she should hold to her infallibility, how can she be sorry for anything she has ever done? If I had any influence with the Catholics I would advise them to sacrifice infallibility for the respect of humanity. It is much more divine to say, "I am sorry," than to say, "I am infallible." But the Catholic Church will not take my advice. The shrine of Joan in the Paris church is almost as eloquent as her stake in Rouen. I have seen them both--that is to say, I have seen the spot on which she was consumed, marked by a white slab; and I have seen the marble figure of Joan, as a girl, in the attitude of prayer, now in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Paris. As I stood at her shrine in this great white church it seemed to me that, even though Joan of Arc has, at last been made a saint, there was still a prejudice against her on the part of the people, as well as of the priests. This is only an impression, and I hope I am mistaken. But let me present the evidence on which I base my misgivings: In the first place, Joan is not given the preference in the shrine set apart for her. St. Michael, whoever he might be, occupies the whole front of the altar, and only on the windows and the side walls do we find any mention of Joan and the events of her heroic career. There is also, at one end of the enclosure, as intimated before, a small marble figure of Joan on her knees. Why does St. Michael usurp the place of honor over the altar? Who is he? What has he done for France? In the second place, there was not a single lighted candle at her shrine. St. Mary's altar, a little distance off, was ablaze. St. Joseph's, too, was honored by lighted candles. But no one was on her knees and no flame twinkled before the sainted Joan of Arc. They say that it is almost impossible to outlive the charge of heresy. In former times, quite frequently, even heretics who repented of their heresies were put to death, nevertheless. To have ever been accused, even, or suspected of heresy, is an unpardonable crime. Joan was suspected, at least, of rebellion against Rome, and it seemed to me, as I reflected upon what I observed in the church, that the Catholics had canonized this village maid reluctantly, and only under pressure, and after five hundred years of dillydallying. But before I left the Church of the Sacred Heart there was a lighted candle upon her altar. I lighted it. Approaching one of the candle tables, of which there are half a dozen in the building, I purchased a long, tapering candle, white as the lily, and I touched it with fire--I kindled it and set it in one of the sockets to burn before the kneeling Joan. I left my flaming candle in the Church of the Sacred Heart! I, a non-Catholic, offered my fire to Joan, not because she had been canonized--for I never wait for the consent or the approval of the Pope before paying homage to anybody--but because her sweet, sad story is one of the most moving of modern times, and her vindication one of the most stupendous conquests of modern thought. I am not going to speak this morning of the Chevalier de La Barre, to commemorate whose memory the nationalists of France have erected this monument, close to the Church of the Sacred Heart. He will be my theme on another occasion. In this lecture I shall confine myself to the story of Joan of Arc. And a strange story it is! A young girl of seventeen marches at the head of a dilapidated and demoralized army, and leads it on to victory against the best fighters of the world, the English, who, in the fifteenth century, were trying to annex France to England; she is captured by traitors, sold to the enemy for ten thousand pounds; and then she is handed over to the church to be tried for heresy. She is tried, convicted, and sentenced to be burned alive. This sentence, the most revolting on record, is carried out in all its literalness, and in broad daylight, and under the shadow of the Christian cross, and at the very doors of a great cathedral. All this transpired in the city of Rouen, on the thirtieth day of May, fourteen hundred thirty-one. With my head upon my pillow during that first night I spent in Rouen, I tried to penetrate into the motives for the persecution of Joan. This brave girl was feared because she was superior to her age. She provoked the jealousy of her inferiors. Her independence and originality alarmed both the Church and the State. Her ability to take the initiative, and her courage to disagree with her spiritual teachers was a menace to the authority of the priest with the keys, and the king with the sword. The English would not admit that a mere girl, a Domremy peasant, tending her father's cows, could have the genius to whip them--the most powerful warriors of Europe. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, would not forgive Joan for distinguishing herself without their help. For a woman to eclipse the Holy Church and humiliate a powerful State, was a crime punishable by death. Still imagining myself in Rouen, in the year fourteen hundred thirty-one, I said to myself, "I must arise early in the morning and go to the old market place to catch a glimpse of the wonderful woman when she leaves the tower for the stake." As the picture of what I would see on the following day arose before my closed eyes, I trembled. "I will not let them burn her," I cried passionately. But, alas, what could one man do against king, pope, and the mob! And I tossed in my bed like one in a cage who is conscious of his helplessness against iron bars. Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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