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CHAPTER XLVI

Joan Through The Vista of The Years

Like all true fame, this everlasting and unparalleled personification of virtue, religion, patriotism, loyalty, and noble war, has grown greater with the years. She was at the heart of the social and political life of a great people, and her France never can forget, and never has forgotten. She was always glorified by Catholics, and even by Protestants. Her Rehabilitation was really the foundation of her canonization. Orleans, the freed, honored her annually by a solemn festival and procession. She was venerated as a Saint in local martyr-ologies. The question has often been asked, why was she not canonized sooner? Rome does not introduce causes of canonization unless solicited; she moved when France petitioned. The fame and power of the University of Paris, the reconciliation of Burgundy with the king, unwillingness to offend Catholic England, the character of the court and courtiers of Charles VII—all contributed to the delay. It was only in our own day the question of Joan's canonization was really taken up. In 1869 Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, supported by twelve other Bishops, petitioned Pope Pius IX to canonize the peerless Joan.

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The movement spread and deepened, due not a little to the advocacy of Bishops Pie and Freppel. In 1886 hundreds of bishops from many countries urged the cause of Joan at Rome. Cardinal Howard succeeded Cardinal Bilio as ponent of the beatification of the warrior Maid.