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Joan of Arc’s real genius was her ability to wield the epistemological ideas that overturned the backward axioms of the Middle Ages and create a Renaissance. As historian Gabriel Hanotaux wrote:

“Joan of Arc saved France; she also helped save Christianity out of the crisis where the moral unity of the world had become in great danger of failing. It is fitting, therefore, that the Church erect her on its altar, as it is fitting that France and humanity celebrates her for all times to come.”               Gabriel Hanotaux, Jeanne d’Arc.

JOAN OF ARC AND EPISTEMOLOGY

One of the most fascinating discoveries I had the pleasure of making while translating Gabriel Hanotaux’s Jeanne d’Arc, (Edition Hachette, 1911) has been the constant revelations he made to the strategy of the Anglo-Burgundian policy; that is to say, the references to the alliances between the Duke of Burgundy and the “Lotharingian Empire”, which the Duke Philip the Good was determined to reconstruct for his own benefit; however, an axiomatic intervention from Heaven thwarted the full realization of such an evil plan…

As a former Foreign Affairs Minister of the French Government, Gabriel Hanotaux knew perfectly well that in the wake of the Sudanese Fashoda incident and its resulting 1904 Alliance Cordiale between France and the United Kingdom, the British were preparing France for a new war against Germany. This means that the 1911 publication of JEANNE D’ARC was a very timely event bringing the French people together in the spirit of Joan of Arc in an attempt to steer France away from war.

However, the French oligarchy did not see fit to welcome this book with great enthusiasm because of its previous commitment with England. The publication of this book was very untimely for the so-called “Alliance Cordiale.” The British-French “friendship” could not afford to be troubled by an historian who was digging up the truth about the Lotharingian Empire out from under the feet of Perfidious Albion. The present report will tell you why.

JOAN OF ARC’S BATTLE AGAINST THE LOTHARINGIAN EMPIRE

Lyndon LaRouche said:

“The lesson to be learned from those and my other successes in long-range forecasting, is, that the ability to forecast long-range economic trends, depends upon a correct identification of the set of definitions, axioms, and postulates, which underlie the way in which successive, even radical changes in policy-making will be shaped over the relevant period ahead.

“The only cause for the cyclical forms of financial crashes, is that influential people swindle governments, other economic institutions, and the population more widely, into blind faith in a certain “generally accepted” set of definitions, axioms, and postulates, a set of axiomatics which is, in fact, not only false, but, ultimately, more or less fatally so.”

LYNDON LAROUCHE, HOW TO TELL THE FUTURE, 1999

The reason why some people have difficulties dealing with anomalies is because they observe them without having a clue as to what the basis for their observation should be about; that is, they are not looking for what’s not there.

When you find an anomaly, either in physics, in the world strategic situation, or in artistic composition, I recommend you follow Einstein’s advice, which is: “It is the theory which decides what can be observed.”

HOW TO DEAL WITH ANOMALIES

            The following translation of Gabriel Hanotaux’s JEANNE D’ARC, includes three selections of texts which are relevant to understanding the principle of axiomatic change that Joan of Arc embodied in the accomplishment of her historical mission of saving France and Christianity during a short period of less than two years of deployment, from 1429 to 1431.

            What Gabriel Hanotaux was looking for in his investigation of Joan was the anomaly that caused the change, the paradoxical idea that transformed the whole of Europe and created the French Renaissance; that is, the dominating idea that captured the imagination of the entire French population and caused millions of people to change in a very short period of time.

            Hanotaux focused on those events that demonstrated the transformative principle of change which caused the demise of the entire civil and clerical aristocracy of France and kicked the English out of France. That principle was identified very clearly on the standard that Joan of Arc carried with her into battle, which can be summarized as: The Paradox of the Announcement and its Accomplishment.

The question this raises for us today is: how can a similar idea cause a renaissance during our own time? The entire success of Joan of Arc’s mission resided in answering that question by effectively establishing that paradox as coinciding with the spirit of her time. Can we do the same today?

JOAN OF ARC: THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROMISE