FRANCE'S SAINTED MAID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

FRANCE'S SAINTED MAID.

MAN WHO TRIED JOAN. ARCHBISHOP CAUCHON'S COFFIN OPENED AFTER 500 YEARS. The body of Bishop Cauchon, Joan of 'Arc's chief enemy, has been seen after nearly 500 years at Lisieux, a town in Normandy far too beautiful, the Children's Kewspaper remarks, to wish to have anything to do with one of the world's bad men. The coffin was opened in the presence of men of the Church and the State. It was with very strange feelings that they looked at all that was left of the man who had beeri so notorious in his day, who, at such bitter pain to herself, had kid the foundation of Joan's sainthood. During those terrible months of her trial this was the man Joan dreaded most to see. She knew that he was false to the core. While they were trying her for Leresy and the sin of wearing men's clothes and the other absurd charges the Church trumped up against her to excommunicate her and deliver her over to the " secular arm," it was this man's face that told her of her d coin. They had chosen him to preside at the trial. He hu<l had plenty of practice in law, plenty of practice in what are termed 'shady cases." He had dealt very deeply himself in treachery. The citizens °f Beauvais, where he had been bishop, had turned him out of the town because °f his treachery. If he succeeded in getting rid of the Maid ho would be able to avenge himself on Beauvais, for it had been whispered in his ear that the Archbishopric of Rouen was vacant for a man who showed his skill and weight in this Crisis. Joan died hearing her Voices in the Soaring flames, and would not have been comforted by knowing that for all time *he would stand on the page of history. ■And the man* who could have saved her got the reward of his crime. He became ■Archbishop of Rouen, and in his gorgeous vestments passed down the chancel of the cathedral conscious as a peacock that all must admire him. But they did not admire Cauchon. Before a year had passed Joan had become to the mass, of French people a true prophet, a daughter of God. The men who had judged her became objects of *®° rn , derision, and hatred. The grand ■Archbishop of Rouen found that it was flot comfortable to ride through the streets of his province. There were too many, pointing 'fingers, too many dark whispers and gestures. Jt was said aloud that his end would come soon. Ihe end caino. The Archbishop died Suddenly, mysteriously, when his barber •^ as in attendance on him, and people Were actually joyous because the evil man '*' as no more in their midst. They would "ot have his body in Rouen. There are ®tories of his burial service. Had there , een letters or records the world might Now the reason why, in this coffin opened Lisieux, there is no trace of tho garments in which it was fitting that an archbishop should be buried. In super--8 'tion and in fear of the Church the Pastoral ring had been left on his finger. Joan s ashes were scattered over the eine to make sure that she was dead, j, e y B a ve this evil man holy burial, he is scorned—a blot on ihe page history. He died but Joan can be said i- Ver to have died at all, for from the oment the fires consumed her she has ceased to live in the hearts of men.