The Grand Inquisitor a trap had laid
By which he cunningly sought to ensnare
His prey with tricky questions put to her
That would convict of Heresy the Maid.

"Speak up Joan! - "Speak!"-" was it your fancy's flight
Imagination? - visions, voices, and all
That came to you and made you heed the call
To take up arms and lead for France the fight?"

Saint Catherine appeared to you - we see;
St. Michael told you: "Courage! Courage! Joan"
Did he have flesh and bone? - had clothing on?
Did both these saints appear at Domremy?"

With stake and anathema threatening
Tell us why you so obstinately cling
To visions of your vain imagining
"Speak! let your voice before your judges ring!

To all of this the intrepid Maid replied:
"Imagination Sires, - of course it is!-
It is the gentle ways and means wherewith
The Lord will prod at first,- and then provide".!

© Elizabeth Dandy

Feast of St. Joan of Arc May 30 2005

Like the gods about whom Homer sang, Saints have been known to take a partisan interest in mortals' politics, as when in the year 1426, the 89th year of the 100 year war that St, Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine decided to assist the Valois party of Charles of Orleans against his rivals, the Burgundians and their English allies.

As prophesied, a young farm teenager, was the instrument of Divine intervention
She led the French army as per her voices and visions victoriously, but was captured at Campiègne by the Burgundians and sold to the English.
Her own king, - true toad, - did nothing to either ransom or, had no interest to rescue her, in spite of the fact that she had crowned him King of France at the Cathedral of Rheims, and after her refusal to deny her voices at the famous trial of Joan of Arc. she was burned at the stake as a heretic under the Bishop Cochon of Beauvais. (the French then coined a new word in their vocabulary - Cochon = (swine)
Canonized in 1921, many cathedrals are dedicated to St. Joan of Arc.

Notice the difference between “Invent”, i.e. the Latin “Invenire”. i.e., - coming upon something.
and fancifully “fabricate” somethingm- Big difference.!