Mother of a Saint

Isabelle Romée (1377 - 1458) grew up in Vouthon-Bas and move to Domrémy when she married Jacques d'Arc, a wealthy farmer who had inherited 50 acres and a stone house from his father. Her surname is unusual, and may have been used because of a pilgrimage to Rome. Whatever the case, she was a devout Roman Catholic who raised her five children (Jacquemin, Jean, Catherine, Jeanne, and Pierre) to be devout Catholics.

Her daughter, Jeanne (we know her as Joan of Arc), claimed to have visions that inspired her to get involved in the Hundred Years War and the French civil war that prevented the Dauphin (son of Charles VI) to be enthroned. Jeanne's involvement helped the Dauphin become Charles VII. Unfortunately, that made Jeanne many enemies, and she was eventually captured and put on trial for (among other things) heresy, after which she was burned at the stake.

Jeanne's father died shortly after, some say of grief. Isabelle had a different reaction: she would fight to clear her daughter's name. Isabelle moved to Orléans, where a city grateful for her daughter's work offered Isabelle a pension.

Her first move was to send a petition to Pope Nicholas V to re-open the case. An inquiry was begun in 1449, and the chief inquisitor for heresy in France took it on in May 1452. Investigations dragged on, and Isabelle went to Paris to speak to the new pope, Calixtus III. Calixtus gave the chief inquisitor, Jean Bréhal, his support and three assistants. Bréhal presided over the re-trial in November 1455, at which the 70-year-old Isabelle gave a moving speech. 115 witnesses were questioned (many of whom had been part of the first trial). Bréhal declared in June 1456 that Jeanne had died a martyr, and he posthumously excommunicated the head of the original trial, Bishop Pierre Cauchon, as a heretic who pursued a secular vendetta. Calixtus confirmed the excommunication.

The illustration above shows Isabelle and two of her children kneeling in the lower right, facing Jean Bréhal dressed as a Dominican, with the pope and others presiding. Bréhal wrote two books about his investigations and the retrial. He was present at a public burning of the articles of the original trial.

A victorious Isabelle died on 28 November 1458.

There is another member of the family that we know about: Jeanne's brother, Pierre. Why more information about him has made it to the historical record is not necessarily commendable, however. Little brothers can be annoying, and Jeanne's little brother did something selfish and bad. I'll explain next time.

The Loving Pope Pius II

Pius II was the only pope to write an autobiography while he reigned. Lest you think he probably sanitized his life so that it seemed more appropriate for a pope, in this case he included events that were quite the opposite. He was an author of more than an autobiography: he also wrote Historia de duobus amantibus ("A Tale of Two Lovers"; see the illustration), and others.

Born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini to a soldier, he was one of 18 children (many of whom did not live long). He worked at the family farm until the age of 18, when he left to study at Siena, where he settled as a teacher. In 1431 he left teaching to be secretary to a bishop who was on his way to the Council of Basel, but changed jobs when that bishop ran out of money. He then went to Scotland on a secret mission, where he had a dalliance and fathered a child, who died young. He described Scotland as "wild, bare and never visited by the sun in winter."

Back in Basel, he was offered a diaconate, but disliked the obligation of abstinence. He was sent to Strasbourg, where he fathered another child (who died at 14 months). Later, at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, he was named court poet for his cleverness and facility with language. While there, it is believed that he observed events that were turned into the "Tale of Two Lovers."

Enea did not care much for morals or strictness, but he realized that the way to power lay in the Church. His diplomatic skills working for Pope Eugene IV impressed those around him, so Eugene's successor Nicholas V made him Bishop of Trieste, and later Bishop of Siena. Now he wanted to advance, and desired to become a cardinal. He thought his chance came in 1455, but then Pope Calixtus III wanted to promote his own nephews first, and so Enea did not become a cardinal until 1456.

That meant, however, that he was part of the papal conclave on 10 August 1458, right after Calixtus died. Enea did his best to work his diplomatic skills among the cardinals and, although there were many with more experience and better ethical reputations, he managed to gather the votes so that a second ballot elected him unanimously.

According to his own writing, he did not rise above the desires of the flesh, but he did not neglect papal duties, and was keen on spreading Christianity, calling for a crusade against the Turks, who had taken Constantinople in 1453 and were now a strong presence in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and successful Crusades sometimes required allying oneself with potentates you would not normally work with. Pius reached out to a voivode ("chief military leader") of a region in Romania called Wallachia, whose position north of the Turks would make him a helpful ally in surrounding them. Tomorrow, I'll talk about the link between Pius and a few other people mentioned in this blog, and then about his alliance with someone who had never before been mentioned: Dracula.

See you then.