THE LONDON TIMES ON THE VENERABLE JOAN OF ABC.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 1, 4 May 1894, Page 29

THE LONDON TIMES ON THE VENERABLE JOAN OF ABC.

By tbe decision of Pope Lm XIII., acting upon the formal recommendation of the Cardinals who compose the Congregation of Bites, Joan of Arc is bencif jrth included in the noks of those whom the Roman Catholic Church bails as " venerable." Although the '• introduction of the Apostolic process, ' as it is technically styled, does not necessarily lead to Canonisation, or even to the minor honours of Beatificatioo, it marks a distinct step forward iv that very prolonged procedure, and its attainment shows that, at all events, a preliminary and conditional claim to sanctity has been established on behalf of tht candidate. While the Roman Catholic admirers of the Maid of Orleans mvs 1 , therefore, content themselves for tbe present with paying her tbe lesser sort of homage assigned to the grade into which she das been admitted, they cay look forward with good hope to th c day when they will be permitted to salute her with tbe full honours of Sainthood. Whan that dty comes, even those who deny or derid* the claims of Borne to pronouoce on sucb matters at all will allow Chat few more noble figures have ever been held up to the veneration of their fellows. la the wlole history of the Middle Ages there is do story more simple snd more splendid, no tragedy more mournful than that of the '' poor little shepherdess," the paupereula bergereta ,

who by her passionate faitb raised her country from the depths of degradation and dejection, to die the crudest and most shameful of all deaths at the hands of her enemies. The elevation and the moral beauty of Joan's character have won the hearts of all men. One of the very greatest of German dramatists has made her the heroine of uot the least nobie of hia tragedies, aod Englishmen have long Bioce learnt to lo >k back with shame on the crime of which she wu the victim, and on the travesty of her career which Shakespeare items to have nceeped for truth. Frenchmen naturally are inclined to fix their attention on one eide only of Joan's nature. They see in her the embodiment of the exalttd patriotism which swept away the invader from their Boil. She is to them, above all things, the liberator of Orleans, the intrepid ally of Duuois, the conqueror of Talbot, the victor of Patay. To some of them, indeed her virtues and her memory apparently are dear chiefly as pretexts fjr the indulgence of race hatreds and even of those party animosities against which her life was so signal a protest. Bui it is not for the love of coun'ry, nor for her prowess in arm?, nor for her mystic visions, that tht world at large does honour to Joan of Arc. It is becauße in a dark and cruel time she proved, by her words and by her acts, that the trne spirit of Christian womanhood still lived amongst the humblest and most downtrodden of the people, and still bore in profusion, even in the most untoward conditions, it j own fair fruits. It is the trutb, the tenderness, the purityi and the deep piety of her nature, that appeal most to those who lore her story. The nature, and the "objective" reality, of the Divins voices which she heard, and which guided her throughout her active career, may be .left by Englishmen to the consideration of the ''Devil's Advocate" and the tribunal bafore which he pleads. To her, at least, they were Divine ; and from the hoar that they bade her quit her father's cottage under the shadow of the village church at Domremv, until her head sank on her eboulder with th« sacred name upon her lips, in the market-place of Rouen, she felt that she must do their bidding. The task set her was a hard one, for she loved her home. Her life was that of a simple, modest, and devout peasant girl, as those who knew her best bore witness. Her mother taught her her peasant's faith as the girl sat at home and learnt to sew and spin. She loved lo pray ; to visit the village church, and to listen to its bells. She nursed the sick, and knew how to win the hearts of little children. It is touching to find her boasting before her judges, that do woman in all Bouen could teach her to spin ; or to hear of her in the midst of her campaigns, entering the country churches and asking the children to ptay for her. It seem?, indeed, to have been an immense pity for the sufferings she bad seen, and even to some degree experienced, amongst ber people, rather than any more chivalrous conception of patriotism or loyalty, which most deeply moved her. The misery of those wars waged by such monsters as Oilles da Beth and La Hire is indescribable, and it was by depicting the pit eons plight of the kingdom of France that the Archangel nrged her to undertake its rescue. On the story of her martial career it if> needless to dwell. English and French at the time seem to have agreed that her victories were preternatural. The only point on which they differed was whether it was a giod or an evil spirit tb»t inspired bar. Vat there were circumstances of a tolerably obvious kind which go a long way to explain her first great success. Occe that was achieved, and her reputation as aome'hing more than human accepted on both sides, her other victories followed naturally enough. The true miracle was the rapidity and the completeness wi h which Joan established her ascendency over all those of her own countrymen with whom she came into conUct. Even before she had obtained access to the King or first laised her standard, the people everywhere believed in ber. Tbe strength of ber will, the loftiness of her views, anJ the intensity of her enthusiasm, bore down all opposition. The same qualities which enabled her to impose her own convictions upon others, enabled her to accomplish the yet harder duty of remaining true to herself. To the prisoners and tbe woucded she is gentle and tender. Even for the English, her soul is often filled with pity. She invites them to join her in a great crusade against the common enemy of Chris tendom ; and when, with the help of some of her own recreant countrymen, they at last drew the net around her and condemned her to a horrible death, her last words are words of pardon to her persecutors. In taking steps to beatify Joan of Arc the Roman Church is honouring a type to which not one nation only, but all the world, will gladly pay homage — the type of pure and tender womanhood in a sensual aod merciless age.

The late Mrs Elizabeth Oa'es Smith, poet and prose- writer, was one of the pioneer woman suffragist?, and bad very pronounced theories and practice on the subject of womtn-preachen, etc, differing with Ht Paul, as a woman suffragist of a later day flippantly put it. Bat she had sound commoo sense on some phases of tbe woman question., " She was inclined," writes Bara A. Underwood in the Christian Register, "to be rather severe in her criticism of women in general. "We have much to learn," she says, "and this elaborate record of what some have done seems utterly cbilditb. . . . . Ibis showing up what women do and have done is a terrible expose of our general incompetence.