; Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains_, Evreux, 1888, in 8vo, p. 89.]

King Charles read the Commander of Vaucouleur's letters, and had the
damsel's escort examined before him. Of her mission and her miracles
they could say nothing. But they spoke of the good they had seen in
her during the journey, and affirmed that there was no evil in
her.[643]

[Footnote 643: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273. _Journal du siege_,
p. 46.]

Of a truth, God speaketh through the mouths of virgins. But in such
matters it is necessary to act with extreme caution, to distinguish
carefully between the true prophetesses and the false, not to take for
messengers from heaven the heralds of the devil. The latter sometimes
create illusions. Following the example of Simon the Magician, who
worked wonders vying with the miracles of St. Peter, these creatures
have recourse to diabolical arts for the seduction of men. Twelve
years before, there had prophesied a woman, likewise from the
Lorraine Marches, Catherine Suave, a native of Thons near Neufchateau,
who lived as a recluse at Port de Lates, yet most certainly did the
Bishop of Maguelonne know her to be a liar and a sorceress, wherefore
she was burned alive at Montpellier in 1417.[644] Multitudes of women,
or rather of females, _mulierculae_,[645] lived like this Catherine and
ended like her.

[Footnote 644: _Parvus Thalamus_, ed. Archaeological Society of
Montpellier, p. 464. Th. de Beze, _Histoire ecclesiastique_, 1580,
vol. i, p. 217. A. Germain, _Catherine Suave_, Montpellier, 1853, in
4to, 16 pages. H.C. Lea, _A History of the Inquisition in the Middle
Ages_ (1906), vol. ii, p. 157. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. x.]

[Footnote 645: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
502.]

Certain ecclesiastics briefly interrogated Jeanne and asked her
wherefore she had come. At first she replied that she would say
nothing save to the King. But when the clerks represented to her that
they were questioning her in the King's name, she told them that the
King of Heaven had bidden her do two things: one was to raise the
siege of Orleans, the other to lead the King to Reims for his
anointing and his coronation.[646] Just as at Vaucouleurs before Sire
Robert, so before these Churchmen she repeated very much what the
vavasour of Champagne had said formerly, when he had been sent to Jean
le Bon, as she was now sent to the Dauphin Charles.

[Footnote 646: _Tria