the devil, and that
they called him "the wronged one." It was told that as works of piety
they committed all manner of fornication. Every Bohemian was said to
be possessed by a hundred demons. They were accused of killing
thousands of churchmen. Again, and this time with truth, they were
charged with burning churches and monasteries. The Maid believed in
the God who commanded Israel to wipe out the Philistines from the face
of the earth. But recently there had arisen Cathari who held the God
of the Old Testament to be none other than Lucifer or Luciabelus,
author of evil, liar and murderer. The Cathari abhorred war; they
refused to shed blood; they were heretics; they had been massacred,
and none remained. The Maid believed in good faith that the
extirpation of the Hussites was a work pleasing to God. Men more
learned than she, not like her addicted to chivalry, but of gentle
life, clerks like the Chancellor Jean Gerson, believed it
likewise.[1919] Of these Bohemian heretics she thought what every one
thought: her opinions were those of the multitude; her views were
modelled on public opinion. Wherefore in all the simplicity of her
heart she hated the Hussites, but she feared them not, because she
feared nothing and because she believed, God helping her, that she was
able to overcome all the English, all the Turks, and all the Bohemians
in the world. At the first trumpet call she was ready to sally forth
against them. On the 23rd of March, 1430, Brother Pasquerel sent the
Emperor Sigismund a letter written in the name of the Maid and
intended for the Hussites of Bohemia. This letter was indited in
Latin. The following is the purport of it:

[Footnote 1919: Lea, _A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages_,
vol. ii, p. 481 (1906).]

JESUS [cross symbol] MARIE

Long ago there reached me the tidings that ye from the true
Christians that ye once were have become heretics, like unto
the Saracens, that ye have abolished true religion and
worship and have turned to a superstition corrupt and fatal,
the which in your zeal to maintain and to spread abroad
there be no shame nor cruelty ye do not dare to perpetrate.
You defile the sacraments of the Church, tear to pieces the
articles of her faith, overthrow her temples. The images
which were made for similitudes you break and throw into the
fire. Finally such Christians as embrace not your faith you
massacre. W