December 10 Monday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to Henry M. Alden of Harper & Brothers asking to see his proofs of JA, after discovering he’d made “two or three mistakes.”
One is important: I have charged her assassination upon the “Holy Roman Church” — too broad a statement, & not true. It was an ecclesiastical political court, carefully packed in the English interest, & sitting within walls which had flown the English flag for three centuries. It was a lynch-court with a definite function to perform & no way to get around it.
If proofs could not be sent, he might be able to make the corrections by letter. He’d been in bed a month and was just now getting around the house. After his signature, he wrote, “P.S. Sho! I can make that correction now. Thus:” and enclosed a sheet which is lost [MTP].
Sam’s gout disappeared “all of a sudden” about this day [Dec. 16 to Rogers].
From: Olivier Ladous
Date: 10/9/25, 09:33
On December 10, 1894, Sam wrote to Harper that he wanted to make some changes to the book:
One is important: I have charged her assassination upon the “Holy Roman Church” — too broad a statement, & not true. It was an ecclesiastical political court, carefully packed in the English interest, & sitting within walls which had flown the English flag for three centuries. It was a lynch-court with a definite function to perform & no way to get around it.
1. Which part of the text did he modify?
On December 10, 1894, he was about to begin writing Book 3 of Joan of Arc: the trial. In Books 1 and 2, the only part where the trial is mentioned is the Translator's Preface. In my opinion, the modified part is the following:
And for all reward, the French King whom she had crowned stood supine and indifferent while French priests took the noble child, the most innocent, the most lovely, the most adorable the ages have produced, and burned her alive at the stake.
I think the original version must have resembled something like:
And for all reward, the French King whom she had crowned stood supine and indifferent while the Holy Roman Church...
This is a typical idea of that era: Joan betrayed by her King and killed by the Church. Moreover, Book 3 is filled with remarks about the ingratitude of the King and the French, nothing against the Roman Church.
2. What made Twain change his mind?
On January 27, 1894, after twenty years of proceedings, Pope Leo XIII declared Joan Venerable and solemnly ordered the opening of the canonization trial.
In April 1894, Bishop Ricard's book on Joan of Arc was published, written precisely from the historical dossier submitted for the canonization trial. It is, in a sense, a popularization of the official history of Joan of Arc for the Church.
Now, this work by Ricard is among the 11 works that Twain cites as historical authority; it is the most recent of the 11; the only one published after he began writing the novel; and finally, it is the only one from which he quotes a passage in one of his rare Translator's notes.
Therefore, I think what made Twain change his mind was: the intellectual climate created by the opening of the trial and his reading of Bishop Ricard's work.