“I have answered it already. I refer to what is written. And as to the signs, if those who asked for them were not worthy, I could not help it. Many a time did I pray that it might please God to reveal it to some of this party. It is true, that to believe in my revelations I asked neither Bishop, Priest, nor any one else. I believe it was Saint Michael, from the good teaching he shewed me.”
“Did Saint Michael say to you: ‘I am Saint Michael’?”
“I have answered before.”
As to the concluding part of the Article, she answered: “I refer me to Our Lord.... As firmly as I believe Our Saviour Jesus Christ suffered death to redeem us from the pains of hell, so firmly do I believe that it was Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret whom Our Saviour sent to comfort and to counsel me.”[[278]]
Article XLIX. On the foundation of this fancy alone Jeanne hath venerated spirits of this kind, kissing the ground on the which she said they had walked, bending the knee before them, embracing them, kissing them, paying all sorts of adoration to them, giving them thanks with clasped hands, taking the greatest familiarities with them; when she did not know if they were good or evil spirits, and when, by reason of all the circumstances revealed above, these spirits should have been rather considered by her as evil. This worship, this veneration, is idolatry: it is a compact with demons.
“What have you to say on this Article?”
“I have already answered; for the conclusion, I refer me to Our Lord.”[[279]]
Article L. Every day and many times daily Jeanne doth invoke these evil spirits and consult them on what she should do,—notably on the manner in which she should answer in court. This seems to constitute, and doth in effect constitute, an invocation of demons.
“What have you to say on this Article?”
“I have already answered it; I shall call them to my help as long as I live.”