Note 85 — INTRODUCTION

Le P. Ayroles, La vraie Jeanne d'Arc, 5 vols. in large 8vo, Paris, 1894-1902. Writing of this book in a study of L'Abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc (Paris, 1902, pp. 7 and 8, note), Canon Ulysse Chevalier, author of a valuable Répertoire des sources du moyen âge, displays boldness and sound sense. "From the dimensions of these five volumes," he says, "one might expect this work to be the fullest history of Jeanne d'Arc; it is nothing of the sort. It is a chaos of memoranda translated or rendered into modern French, reflections and arguments against free-thought as represented by Michelet, H. Martin, Quicherat, Vallet de Viriville, Siméon Luce, and Joseph Fabre. Two headings will suffice to give an idea of the book's tone: The Pseudo-theologians, executioners of Jeanne d'Arc, executioners of the Papacy (vol. i, p. 87); The University of Paris and the Brigandage of Rouen (p. 149). The author too often judges the fifteenth century by the standards of the nineteenth. Is he quite sure that if he had been a member of the University of Paris in 1431 he would have thought and pronounced in favour of Jeanne, and in opposition to his colleagues?"