over the child in all its
literal fulness, but we notice the custom as one of the numerous signs
of the Church's invincible mistrust of woman.

[Footnote 158: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 393, _passim_. S. Luce, _Jeanne
d'Arc a Domremy_, vol. xvi, p. 357.]

[Footnote 159: A. Monteil, _Histoire des Francais_, 1853, in 18mo,
vol. ii, p. 194.]

[Footnote 160: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 46. Jean Minet was a native of
Neufchateau.]

According to the custom then prevailing the child had several
godfathers and godmothers.[161] The men-gossips were Jean Morel, of
Greux,[162] husbandman; Jean Barrey, of Neufchateau; Jean Le Langart
or Lingui, and Jean Rainguesson; the women, Jeannette, wife of
Thevenin le Royer, called Roze, of Domremy; Beatrix, wife of
Estellin,[163] husbandman in the same village; Edite, wife of Jean
Barrey; Jeanne, wife of Aubrit, called Jannet and described as Maire
Aubrit when he was appointed secretary to the lords of Bourlemont;
Jeannette, wife of Thiesselin de Vittel, a scholar of Neufchateau. She
was the most learned of all, for she had heard stories read out of
books. Among the godmothers there are mentioned also the wife of
Nicolas d'Arc, Jacques' brother, and two obscure Christians, one
called Agnes, the other Sibylle.[164] Here, as in every group of good
Catholics, we have a number of Jeans, Jeannes, and Jeannettes. St.
John the Baptist was a saint of high repute; his festival, kept on the
24th of June, was a red-letter day in the calendar, both civil and
religious; it marked the customary date for leases, hirings, and
contracts of all kinds. In the opinion of certain ecclesiastics,
especially of the mendicant orders, St. John the Evangelist, whose
head had rested on the Saviour's breast and who was to return to earth
when the ages should have run their course, was the greatest saint in
Paradise.[165] Wherefore, in honour of the Precursor of the Saviour
or of his best beloved disciple, when babes were baptised the name
Jean or Jeanne was frequently preferred to all others. To render these
holy names more in keeping with the helplessness of childhood and the
humble destiny awaiting most of us, they were given the diminutive
forms of Jeannot and Jeannette. On the banks of the Meuse the peasants
had a particular liking for these diminutives at once unpretentious
and affectionate: Jacquot, Pierrollot, Zabillet, Mengette,
Guillemette.[166] After the wife of the scholar, Thiesselin, the child
was named Jeannette.