of the great university doctor
in exile. The Maid's victory gladdened the last days of his life. With
his dying voice he sings the Song of Miriam. But with his rejoicings
over this happy event are mingled the sad presentiments of
keen-sighted old age. While in the Maid he beholds a subject for the
rejoicing and edification of the people, he is afraid that the hopes
she inspires may soon be disappointed. And he warns those who now
exalt her in the hour of triumph not to forsake her in the day of
disaster.

His dry close reasoning does not fundamentally differ from the ampler,
more flowery argument of Jacques Gelu. One and the other contain the
same reasons, the same proofs; and in their conclusions both doctors
agree with the judges of Poitiers.

For the Poitiers doctors, for the Archbishop of Embrun, for the
ex-chancellor of the University, for all the theologians of the
Armagnac party the Maid's case is not a matter of faith. How could it
be so before the Pope and the Council had pronounced judgment
concerning it? Men are free to believe in her or not to believe in
her. But it is a subject of edification; and it behoves men to
meditate upon it, not in a spirit of prejudice, persisting in doubt,
but with an open mind and according to the Christian faith. Following
the counsel of Gerson, kindly souls will believe that the Maid comes
from God, just as they believe that the head of Saint Denys may be
venerated by the faithful either in the Cathedral Church of Paris or
in the abbey-church of Saint Denys in France. They will think less of
literal than of spiritual truths and they will not sin by inquiring
too closely.

In short neither the treatise of Jacques Gelu nor that of Jean Gerson
brought much light to the King and his Council. Both treatises
abounded in exhortations, but they all amounted to saying: "Be good,
pious and strong, let your thoughts be humble and prudent," Concerning
the most important point, the use to be made of Jeanne in the conduct
of war, the Archbishop of Embrun wisely recommended: "Do what the Maid
commands and prudence directs; for the rest give yourselves to works
of piety and prayers of devotion." Such counsel was somewhat
embarrassing to a captain like the Sire de Gaucourt and even to a man
of worth like my Lord of Treves. It appears that the clerks left the
King perfect liberty of judgment and of action, and that in the end
they advised him not to believe in the Maid, but to let the peopl