It was not until after Normandy had been conquered that Charles VII. made the slightest effort to wipe out the stain cast on his name by the sentence of 1431. In 145o he instituted a preliminary enquiry, but nothing further was done until the arrival in France of Cardinal d' Estouteville, the legate of Pope Nicolas V. The first attempt was checkmated, owing to the English protesting to the Holy See. Charles VII.'s Government found a way out of the difficulty by giving place as petitioner to Joan's family. Her mother, Isabelle Romee, who was living in retirement at Orleans with her two sons, Pierre and Jean du Lys, obtained from Calixtus III. permission to draw up the case. To this end the pope appointed Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, arch bishop of Reims, Guillaume Chartier, bishop of Paris and Richard Olivier, bishop of Coutances, to act in concurrence with the grand inquisitor of France. It was admitted that the uni versity of Paris had been led into error by the fraudulent drawing up of the 12 articles. All the blame for this was cast on the dead bishop of Beauvais. Enquiries were held at Domremy, at Orleans, in Paris and at Rouen, and evidence was given by all the surviv ing witnesses of Joan's early days and of her gallant deeds (Dunois, Jean d'Aulon, the duke of Alencon, etc.). Their state ments, though made long after the event, are extremely interest ing. The grand inquisitor, Jean Brehal, published a long memoran dum establishing Joan's orthodoxy. On June 16, 1456, the judgment of 1431 was annulled.
No authentic portrait of Joan can be traced to-day, although contemporary drawings were in existence. At Arras, for instance, she saw in the hand of a Scotsman a painting in which she was shown kneeling and presenting a letter to the king. The little pen drawing by the clerk Fauquembergue on May io, 1429, on a register of the parlament of Paris is simply a note which served him as a reference. The contemporary German tapestry which shows her mounted and in armour is of value only for the cos tume. The charming drawing of a helmeted head in the museum at Orleans, is a Saint Maurice; the ex voto in the museum at Versailles, a Catalan painting, has nothing whatever to do with Joan of Arc; the equestrian statue in the Cluny museum is a Saint George or a Saint Maurice to which the inscription has been added. We know, however, from contemporary testimony that Joan was handsome, well-built, with a bright and smiling face, and that she had dark hair cut short like a soldier's. (One of her hairs could still be seen at the beginning of the 19th cen tury in the waxen seal of a letter which she wrote to the people of Riom.) She was courtesy itself, liked a good horse and a good sword and fine clothes. She was indifferent to pain and fatigue, and was always ready to run physical risks.
Her heroic and charming figure was soon surrounded by legend, as may be seen from the chronicles of Morosini and Eberhardt von Windecke. She is the heroine of the Mystere du Siege d' Orleans which dates from the end of the reign of Charles VII., or the beginning of that of Louis XI. Chapelain (1656) made her the subject of a fine poem, and Voltaire, when he wrote La Pucelle (1756), did not perhaps intend to give the impression of cynicism which it conveys. His article in the Dictionnaire philosophique is more respectful. Shakespeare has represented
her as a witch in his Henry VI. Schiller's celebrated romantic play (1802) has elements drawn from both Shakespeare and Vol taire. The only two dramatic authors who have made the figure of Joan interesting on the stage are Charles Peguy (1897) and Bernard Shaw (1924).
The true Joan of Arc is not to be found in works of imagina tion, but in the authentic story of her life, first put together by Edmund Richer, head of the Faculty of Theology of Paris in the 17th century (a work for many years kept in manuscript at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris fr. 10,448, and published in 1911 by Ph. H. Dunand) ; then by Lenglet Du Fresnoy (1753), and finally by the learned Jules Quicherat 0841-40, who has put together the records of the two trials, and all the evidence relating to Joan. Since this publication, Germain Lefevre-Pontalis has published the journal of Morosini a Venetian merchant, and the German testimony of Eberhardt von Windecke. Noel Valois has published a document from the Vienna library regarding her mission (Un nouveau temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc, 1907). Finally Father Denifle has searched the archives of the Vatican, and dis covered several unknown documents regarding the judges of Joan of Arc (Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensi IV.).
Joan was beatified in Rome in 1909 and canonized by Benedict XV. in 1920. The festival of Joan of Arc was kept annually on May 8, the anniversary of the procession commemorating the capture of the Tourelles. from 143 The local festival was re-established by Bonaparte in the year X and was declared a fête rationale in 1920: "The French Republic will celebrate yearly the fete of Joan of Arc, a festival of patriotism." (P. C.) innumerable works on the history of Joan of Arc are listed by Ulysse Chevalier in his Jeanne d'Arc, Bibliographic (1878) ; Lanery d'Arc, Le Livre d'Or de Jeanne d'Arc, Bibliographic (1894) and Memoirs et consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc (1889) ; A. Molinier, Les sources de l'Histoire de France, iv. (Igo'. etc.). The documents relating to Joan have been collected by Jules Ouicherat, Proces de condamnation et de rehabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc (5 vols., Soc. de l'Hist. de France 1849). Pierre Champion has published the text and a translation of the Proces de Condamnation, with a substantial introduction and notes (1921). The papers relating to the canonization may be found in the Sacra rituum congregatione (1907-11). A. Marty, in L'Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc (19o7), has pub lished a collection of facsimiles of Joan's letters and the documents concerning her portraits.
The most important works on Joan of Arc are: G. Gorres, Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1835) ; Vallet de Viriville, Histoire de Charles VII., vol. ii. (1863) ; H. Martin, Jeanne d'Arc (1856) ; H. Wallon Jeanne d'Arc (186o) ; M. Sepet, Jeanne d'Arc (1868) ; Dufresne de Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII. vol. ii. (1882) ; S. Luce, Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy (1886) ; J. Michelet, Jeanne d'Arc 1412-1432 (1888) ; Canon P. Dunand, Jeanne d'Arc (1899) ; A. France, Vie de Jeanne d'Arc (1907) ; A. Lang, The Maid of France (1908) ; G. Hano taux, Jeanne d'Arc (i9ii) ; G. Goyau, Sainte Jeanne d'Arc (192o); see also A. B. Paine, Joan of Arc (1927) ; H. Belloc, Joan of Arc (1929).