Medieval Christianity: Joan of Arc

This acclaimed work on the life and legacy of Joan of Arc is considered by many historians as one of the most well researched, convincing and best written accounts of the maid of Orleans. Stolpe vividly creates the contemporary situation in France, evaluates the latest research in her life, and arrives at a highly original and yet completely believable portrait which is also a work of literature. Stolpe sees Joan of Arc as primarily a mystic, and her supreme achievement and lasting significance not in a mission to deliver France, though important, but in her share in the passion of Christ. By shifting the emphasis from the national to the universal, he brings the saint closer to the modern reader. His scholarship is informed by a profound understanding and sympathy for the Maid that gives this essentially sober work the absorbing interest of a novel. As one critic stated, "Stolpe succeeds in producing a very tense interest, so that it is impossible to lay it aside until the last word is reached." It should do much to present a new evaluation of the life and significance of St. Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans.

Famous medievalist, archivist, paleographer and historian, Regine Pernoud delves into historical documents to bring to light the life of the Maid of Orleans from the standpoint of witnesses and Joan of Arc herself.

Very few know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English. A remarkably accurate biography of the life and mission of Joan of Arc told by one of this country's greatest storytellers.

"Joan of Arc arrived at the French court claiming to be sent by God to come to the aid of the dauphin Charles at the nadir of French fortune: the moment when the dauphin was at the greatest risk of losing the monarchy to the English forever. But the Maid's assertion that she was sent by God, the most controversial aspect of her career, has until now either been taken for granted or overridden by claims of her employment for political expediency; little attempt has been made to bring the theological principles of the Catholic doctrine of discretio spirituum (the discernment of spirits) to her case." "This book seeks to answer the question of whether contemporaries thought that Joan was diabolically or divinely inspired, a crucial but almost completely neglected issue. The author gathers and examines the extant theological documents indicating the presence of a genuine theological debate about Joan's mission, and also takes into account the two major literary works dealing with her, Christine de Pizan's Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc and Martin Le Franc's Le champion des dames, as well as Joan's own letter to the English, while the appendices offer translations of pertinent Latin and French texts."--Jacket.

In this text, scholars reveal why veterans of Joan of Arc's military campaigns found her to have been a remarkable comander and why so many of her contemporaries and near-contemporaries, churchman and poets alike, found it possible to accept the validity of her mission and her voices.

Where previous works have concentrated on the religious and feminist aspects of Joan's career, this is the first to address the vital issue of what it was that made her the heroine she became. Why did the soldiers of France follow a woman into battle when no troops of the Hundred Years War had done so before and how was she able to win? The English called her whore, and believed her to be possessed, but her own troops trusted her without any proof of her abilities. And she did have very great abilities - in particular her remarkable prowess as a military leader of men. A new angle on one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures of history, "Joan of Arc: A Military Leader" is a must have book for anyone interested in the Middle Ages and the phenomenon of the girl warrior.