THE END
ment of His Church to Saint Peter and his successors,
forbidding them in the future to accept anyone who
presented himself in His name unless accredited by His
words. . . .
"Or suppose that, when you were with your king,
some knight or other, born in his domain, rose and said,
CI will not obey the king or submit to his officers,'
Would you condemn him? Then what do you, who
were received into the Faith of Christ by the sacrament
of baptism, who became a daughter of the Church, a
bride of Christ, say of yourself for not obeying His
officers, the prelates of the Church? . . ."
It was just the sort of appeal to excite her imagination.
The analogies were so apt . . . could it be true, she
asked herself for the first time, that in accepting the
Voices so readily she had really betrayed God's trust,
instead of receiving it as she had thought? Had she
done in ignorance what she so greatly blamed in Philip
the Good and the other rebels to their lawful lord?
While she pondered, Maurice went on—and if the man
was insincere, then the glow of his words came from a
passion greater than himself: "Amend your errors, return
to the way of truth, submit yourself to the judgment of
the Church ... if you refuse, know that your soul will
be swallowed up in damnation; and I fear the destruction
of your body as well. May Jesus Christ preserve you
from it." He waited for Joan to answer.
She was moved, shaken, but she was not yet ready to
deny the wonderful experience with which she had lived
day and night for nearly six years. They painted for
her in gruesome detail the building of the fire, the
executioner binding her to the stake, the slow torment
of her body, but she still shook her head and replied,
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