er. Otherwise they
might have held it to be trespassing on the rights of the Church, who,
as the guardian of the Holy Books, is their jealous interpreter, and
does not suffer the authority of Scripture to be set up against the
decisions of Councils.[764] What were those books, which without
having read she judged to be contrary to those of Our Lord, wherein
with mind and spirit she seemed to read plainly? They would seem to be
the Sacred Canons and the Sacred Decretals. This child's utterance
sapped the very foundations of the Church. Had the doctors of Poitiers
been less zealously Armagnac they would henceforth have mistrusted
Jeanne and suspected her of heresy. But they were loyal servants of
the houses of Orleans and of France. Their cassocks were ragged and
their larders empty;[765] their only hope was in God, and they feared
lest in rejecting this damsel they might be denying the Holy Ghost.
Besides, everything went to prove that these words of Jeanne were
uttered without guile and in all ignorance and simplicity. No doubt
that is why the doctors were not shocked by them.

[Footnote 764: Le Pere Didon, _Vie de Jesus_, vol. i, Preface.]

[Footnote 765: Juvenal des Ursins, _Histoire de Charles VI_, p. 359.]

Brother Seguin of Seguin in his turn questioned the damsel. He was
from Limousin, and his speech betrayed his origin. He spoke with a
drawl and used expressions unknown in Lorraine and Champagne. Perhaps
he had that dull, heavy air, which rendered the folk of his province
somewhat ridiculous in the eyes of dwellers on the Loire, the Seine,
and the Meuse. To the question: "What language do your Voices speak?"
Jeanne replied: "A better one than yours."[766]

[Footnote 766: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 204.]

Even saints may lose patience. If Brother Seguin did not know it
before, he learnt it that day. And what business had he to doubt that
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who were on the side of the
French, spoke French? Such a doubt Jeanne could not bear, and she gave
her questioner to understand that when one comes from Limousin one
does not inquire concerning the speech of heavenly ladies.
Notwithstanding he pursued his interrogation: "Do you believe in God?"
"Yes, more than you do," said the Maid, who, knowing nothing of the
good Brother, was somewhat hasty in esteeming herself better grounded
in the faith than he.

But she was vexed that there should be any question of her belief in
God, who had sent her.