The Fiery Trial of Joan of Arc: Heresy or Martyrdom?
History's Greatest Crimes 🏛️🔪
The execution of Joan of Arc on May 30, 1431, stands as a harrowing testament to the complexities of justice and power in 15th century France. Accused of heresy, witchcraft, and defying gender norms, this young woman became both a symbol of national hope and an embodiment of societal fears. As the flames engulfed her at the stake, the question loomed: was she a criminal deserving of death, or a victim of an egregious miscarriage of justice? We explore the multifaceted narrative surrounding her life, her divine claims, and the political machinations that led to her trial and execution. In this discussion, we unravel the layers of her story, examining how the very definitions of crime and justice were manipulated by those in power, leaving us to ponder the true meaning of her legacy.
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Takeaways:
- Joan of Arc was executed for alleged heresy, witchcraft, and defying gender norms, raising questions about justice.
- The Hundred Years War created a desperate context that allowed Joan's claims of divine guidance to resonate.
- Her trial was rife with irregularities, lacking impartiality, and aimed at discrediting her and Charles VII.
- Despite her execution, Joan's legacy was rehabilitated posthumously, influencing perceptions of faith and authority.
- Her story embodies a complex interplay of gender, power, and faith, challenging societal norms of her time.
- Joan's journey from condemned heretic to canonized saint illustrates the evolving nature of historical narratives.
Transcript
A young woman, barely 19, stands chained to a stake in the old market Square.
Speaker A:Flames lick her feet.
Speaker A:Her crime?
Speaker A:Heresy.
Speaker A:Witchcraft.
Speaker A:Dressing as a man.
Speaker A:But as the smoke rises, so too does a question that has haunted history for centuries.
Speaker A:Was Joan of Arc truly a criminal or the victim of one of history's most calculated and cruel injustices?
Speaker B:Welcome to history's greatest crimes.
Speaker B:I'm Elena.
Speaker A:And I'm Michael.
Speaker A:Today we delve into the fiery ordeal of a figure who became a legend.
Speaker A:Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans.
Speaker B:Witnesses to her execution describe a scene of both horror and profound piety.
Speaker B:One such account from those present note her final moments.
Speaker B:Quote, she listened calmly to the sermon read to her, but then broke down weeping during her own address, in which she forgave her accusers for what they were doing and asked them to pray for her.
Speaker B:Several eyewitnesses recalled that she repeatedly screamed the holy name of Jesus and implored the aid of the saints until her head drooped and she was gone.
Speaker A:The executioner himself, a man named Geoffrey Terrage reported, quote, greatly feared being damned because he had burned a saint.
Speaker A:This immediate reaction, this fear from the man tasked with her death tells us something profound.
Speaker A:The English authorities, nervous about the sentiment, quickly moved to punish those who spoke in her favor.
Speaker A:It suggests that the official narrative of Joan as a justly condemned heretic wasn't universally accepted.
Speaker A:Not even in moments following her death.
Speaker A:The crime was contested from the very smoke and ashes of her pyre.
Speaker B:This sets the stage for our entire inquiry.
Speaker B:Was the crime Joan's alleged heresy?
Speaker B:Or was the true criminality embedded in the very process that led to the St?
Speaker A:To understand Joan and the crime she was accused of, we have to plunge into the brutal realities of 15th century France.
Speaker A: s of England and France since: Speaker A: t was destined to go on until: Speaker A:In total, this was the longest and widest ranging military conflict since Rome's wars with Carthage in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
Speaker B:Now to be clear, the Hundred Years War wasn't a continuous war in which people fought without stopping.
Speaker B:Rather, it was a series of occasional battles that took place between varying lengths of truces between France and England both.
Speaker B:But even though it wasn't continuous, the war was still a big deal to people who experienced it.
Speaker A:So what caused this super long war then?
Speaker A:Elena?
Speaker B:In short, the Hundred Years War was about power and land.
Speaker B: In the: Speaker B: Eleanor of Aquitaine back in: Speaker B: But fast forward to the: Speaker B:The current King, Edward of England, was actually the deceased French king's closest male relative.
Speaker B:But there was no way the French nobility was going to stand for an English king on the French throne.
Speaker B:Instead, they chose a French relative, more distantly related.
Speaker B:This was Philip VI to be the new King of France.
Speaker A:Let me guess.
Speaker A:King Edward of England wasn't happy with this turn of events.
Speaker B:That would be correct, Michael.
Speaker B:King Edward of England refused to recognize the authority of the new French king, which prompted King Philip of France to seize Gascony and announce that it now belonged to the Kingdom of France.
Speaker B:And King Edward of England declared war on France in response.
Speaker A:But the war was over 100 years old.
Speaker A:Were the kings and their kingdoms real still angry about everything even at that point?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:While the war started out as a dynastic struggle between England and France, the governments on both sides actively worked to frame it as a battle between entire kingdoms and their peoples.
Speaker B:They used extensive propaganda that demanded loyalty and sacrifice from the people.
Speaker B:And it was actually during this war that nobility that the nobility and kings and queens in England began to turn away from speaking French as their first language and and started promoting the use of English for each side.
Speaker B:Their identity was shaped by their stance and opposition to the other kingdom.
Speaker A: By the early: Speaker A:This is somewhat unexpected, since the kingdom of France was actually richer and had a larger population than that of England.
Speaker A:But the English won battles because their soldiers were better disciplined and trained, and they relied heavily on the longbow.
Speaker B:That's right, Michael.
Speaker B:The longbow was used by archers to shoot arrows at the enemy.
Speaker B:And as indicated by its name, it was quite large, between 5 and 6ft long, some even longer.
Speaker B:This bow could fire arrows almost 300 yards.
Speaker B:Furthermore, English archers were able to fire around 20 arrows per minute, and each arrow delivered somewhere between 90 and 130 pounds of force.
Speaker B:This was often enough to slide through a knight's armor like a knife in Jello.
Speaker A: Jean II in battle in the year: Speaker A:6.
Speaker A:The Lords of France ultimately gave the English a lot of money to get their king back, and they also had to give even more French territory to the English.
Speaker B:That's pretty bad.
Speaker A:Yep, and it got only worse from there.
Speaker A: In: Speaker A:As a result, the current king of England, now Henry V, forced the current French king to give Henry his daughter in marriage and name Henry heir to the French throne.
Speaker B:That's bad news for the former French king's son, Charles of Valois, who was no longer heir to the throne as a result.
Speaker B:And he couldn't do much about it because his treasury was so depleted.
Speaker B:It was said to hold less than four Equus at one point.
Speaker A:In short, France was a fractured kingdom, a land desperate for a savior, for a sign of hope, any hope.
Speaker A:The suffering of the common people was immense, as described by a Parisian diarist of the time lamenting how many had been, quote, turned out of their homes, thrust forth as if they were animals.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker B:This profound political and military despair created a unique psychological landscape.
Speaker B:When a society is in such deep crisis, when conventional solutions have failed, it becomes fertile ground for the acceptance of extraordinary claims for figures who seem to offer a divine way out.
Speaker A:And to add to that, the 15th century was already a period where belief in prophecy, mysticism and direct divine intervention was strong.
Speaker A:The widespread suffering and perceived moral failings on all sides led many to believe that God's justice would ultimately manife, perhaps through unexpected means.
Speaker A:Jones emergence, therefore, wasn't just a random event.
Speaker A:It was in part a symptoms of France's desperation and its readiness to believe in a divinely sent rescuer.
Speaker B:I absolutely agree.
Speaker B:Into this cauldron of chaos and yearning stepped Jean Dark, aka Joan of Arc.
Speaker B: Born around: Speaker B:She was the daughter of tenant Fr.
Speaker B:Farmers Jacques d' Arc and Isabella Rome, and by all accounts grew up an ordinary, illiterate, but deeply pious young woman devoted to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Speaker A:But around the age of 13, Joan began to experience something far from ordinary.
Speaker A:She described it herself during her trial, words that would later be used to condemn her.
Speaker A:She stated that, quote, when I was of the age of 13 years or thereabouts, she did with her bodily eyes see St.
Speaker A:Michael come to comfort her.
Speaker A:And from time to time, also St.
Speaker A:Gabriel, sometimes also.
Speaker A:She had seen a great multitude of angels since then, St Catherine and St Margaret have shown themselves to her in bodily form.
Speaker A:These were not fleeting impressions.
Speaker A:She claimed to see them, to hear their voices daily, even to kiss and embrace them, to touch them physically.
Speaker B:The messages from these celestial visitors evolved.
Speaker B:Initially, they focused on personal piety.
Speaker B:As Joan testified, her first voice told her to, quote, govern her herself well and go to church often, end quote.
Speaker B:But as Frances situation worsened, the messages grew more urgent, more specific and profoundly political.
Speaker B:She recounted that, quote, the voice told her twice or thrice a week that she must leave home and go to France, meaning to the Dolphins court, and that her father knew nothing of her departure.
Speaker A:Her divine mission, as she came to perceive it, was monumental.
Speaker A:To save France by expelling its enemies and to install Charles as its rightful king.
Speaker A:This conviction and a divine mandate, while extraordinary, resonated with a segment of the French population.
Speaker A:As scholar Jane Marie Pinzino notes, there was a prevailing belief that victory in battle issued from divine justice rather than military power.
Speaker B:The evolution of this mission is striking.
Speaker B:It began with personal spiritual guidance and transformed into a detailed plan for national salvation, perfectly aligning with the desperate political needs of the dauphines cause as the English laid siege to Orleans and central France, a strategic keystone, Joan's voices specifically commanded her to save that city and then lead Charles to Reims for his coronation.
Speaker A:While Joan's personal sincerity is largely accepted by historians, the interpretation and framing of her mission, both by herself and by those who rallied to her, were undeniably shaped by this critical political juncture.
Speaker A:The very claims of divine revelation that would later form the core of her crime were initially the primary reasons for her astonishing rise.
Speaker A: es in Chenon, France in early: Speaker A:A teenage peasant girl, dressed in men's clothes for the protection on her perilous journey arrived, claiming she had been sent by God to save the kingdom.
Speaker A:She had to be incredibly persistent.
Speaker A:Robert de Baudricourt, the local magistrate, initially dismissed her.
Speaker A:But Joan didn't give up.
Speaker A:And according to historical accounts, she began attracting a small band of followers who believed her claims to be the virgin who was destined to save France.
Speaker B:Prophecy was potent currency in the 15th century, and the ones that existed laid a fertile ground for Joan.
Speaker B:A contemporary play, La Mystere du siege d' Orleans, vividly portrayed this cultural expectation of prophetic intervention in times of national crisis.
Speaker B:With God himself dispatching the Archangel Michael to find a pucella, a maid, AKA a young unmarried woman, presumably a virgin, to save France.
Speaker B:Joan, it seemed to a desperate few fit this prophetic mold.
Speaker B:She even reportedly convinced Baldricourt, the local magistrate, by accurately predicting a French defeat near Orleans before official news arrived.
Speaker A:After an 11 day journey across enemy territory, Joan finally gained an audience with Charles.
Speaker A:Eyewitnesses from the court later recalled her demeanor.
Speaker A:Quote, most illustrious Lord Dauphin, I have come and I am sent in the name of God to bring aid to you in the kingdom.
Speaker A:The most famous story, the one that seemed to have swayed Charles, was her revelation of a secret prayer he had made to God.
Speaker A:Details only he could know.
Speaker A:One account stated.
Speaker A:After hearing her, the king appeared radiant.
Speaker B:These signs were critical in a society where divine intervention was considered a tangible reality.
Speaker B:Such proofs lent immense credibility to her claims, except especially for a leader as beleaguered as Charles.
Speaker B:The court theologians, though cautious, found nothing inherently heretical in her initial statements and seeing little to lose, suggested sending her to Orleans as a test of her divine mission, the very thing that would later be twisted into heretical crime.
Speaker B:Her claim to divine revelation was, in this initial phase, her greatest asset.
Speaker A:Charles, against the advice of most of his counselors, took the gamble.
Speaker A:He granted Joan an army.
Speaker A:She was equipped with white armor.
Speaker A:She also had an ancient sword that was famously discovered through Joan's direction, buried beneath an altar in the local church.
Speaker A:And she had a white banner emblazoned with the names of Jesus and Mary and an image of Christ in judgment.
Speaker A: In late April: Speaker B:Wow, what a mental image.
Speaker B:And just as today, the people at the time were also astonished at this vision of a woman who would supposedly save France.
Speaker A:And Joan's image and impact was electric.
Speaker A:Contemporary accounts describe her presence galvanizing the demoralized French troops.
Speaker A:Joan was no mere figurehead.
Speaker A:She was an active participant, demanding offensive action from seasoned commanders like Jean, Count of Dunois, the bastard of Orleans, as his nickname suggested, he was related to the royal family through illegitimate means, but he held considerable influence with Prince Charles.
Speaker B:So that was a pretty ballsy attitude for a young peasant woman to assume towards those who were superior to her in societal status.
Speaker A:Absolutely, Elena.
Speaker A:And this confidence is also evident in the first ultimatum she issued to English commanders around March 22, before her armies even reached Orleans and faced the English armies.
Speaker B:I love the wording of her ultimatum.
Speaker B:It said, quote, king of England and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the kingdom of France, render account to the King of heaven.
Speaker B:Surrender to the maid who is sent here by God, the King of heaven.
Speaker B:The keys of all the good towns that you have taken and violated in France.
Speaker B:King of England, if you do not do these things, I am the commander of the military, and in whatever place I shall find your men in France, I will make them flee the country.
Speaker B:She comes sent by the King of heaven to take you out of France.
Speaker A: By that time, in mid March: Speaker A:Located in central France south of Paris, the city of Orleans was the last obstacle for the successful English campaign into central France.
Speaker A:And many believe that whoever controlled Orleans, the English or the French, that's who, would win the war.
Speaker A:So this was an incredibly important battle.
Speaker B: th of: Speaker B:During the decisive assault on the English, Joan, true to her own prediction, was wounded by an arrow between her neck and shoulder.
Speaker B:Apparently, she had told her confessor the day before that quote, tomorrow blood will flow from my body above my breast.
Speaker B:Yet she apparently quickly returned to fight, her banner in hand, her famous cry, quote, in God's name, charge.
Speaker B:Boldly inspiring the French to a stunning victory.
Speaker A:Joan's primary military contribution, particularly at Orleans, seems to have been less about conventional tactical genius and more about her extraordinary ability to inspire and embody divine approval.
Speaker A:In an era where battles were often viewed as trials by combat subject to God's will, a figure believed to be divinely sent, leading the religious symbols and unshakeable conviction had an immeasurable psychological impact.
Speaker A:Her wounding and ability to continue fighting could also have been interpreted as sent by God and miraculous.
Speaker B:This success, however, made her an even greater abomination to the English.
Speaker B:English leaders did not deny Joan's supernatural power, but they attribute it to the devil rather than God and his saints.
Speaker A:Orles was a monumental victory, but for Joan, it was only the first step.
Speaker A:Her divine mission, as she understood it, included seeing Charles formally crowned at Reims, the traditional site for the consecration of French kings.
Speaker A:Located deep within now enemy held territory in northeastern France, this was not just a military objective, but a profoundly symbolic act of legitimization.
Speaker B:The Loire campaign was the first step towards that goal.
Speaker B:As French armies moved northward, volunteers of men and supplies swelled the French army eager to serve under Joan of Arc's banner.
Speaker B:One by one, English strongholds fell.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:An English reinforcement army rushed from Paris to stop Joan and her forces.
Speaker A:But the English army suffered a paralyzing defeat during which their Framed longbowmen were overwhelmed.
Speaker A:This was the first significant field victory for French forces in many years.
Speaker A:The English commanders, the Earl of Suffolk and Lord Talbot, were taken prisoner.
Speaker B:In this campaign, Joan's influence was again pivotal.
Speaker B:She persuaded a hesitant Prince Charles to press the advantage and advance on Reims.
Speaker B:When many of his counselors advised caution.
Speaker A:The march to reams became a triumphal procession.
Speaker A:City after city yielded to siege or simply opened its gates to the Dauphine, Auxerre, Troff, Chalon and Reims itself.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:The contemporary poet Christine de Pizan, who had been writing from the seclusion of an abbey, broke her long silence to compose the Tale of Joan of Arc, the only significant literary work about Joan written during her lifetime.
Speaker B:It captures the elation and wonder of the moment.
Speaker B:Quote and you, Charles, now the King of France, the seventh king of that great name who earlier suffered such mischance, you thought the future held more shame and but by God's grace, now look how Joan has raised your fame on high oc your enemies before you bow.
Speaker B:This is a welcome novelty.
Speaker A:End quote the coronation at Reims was a symbolic apex of Joan's perceived mission.
Speaker A:It powerfully legitimized Charles VII as the King of France.
Speaker A:And by direct extension, the coronation also validated Joan's divine guidance in the eyes of a significant portion of the French populace.
Speaker B:However, this very triumph solidified her status as an intolerable political and ideological threat to the English.
Speaker B:If Joan was truly sent by God, as her string of victories seemed to indicate to the French, then the English cause was by implication opposed by God.
Speaker B:This made discrediting Joan and the divine source of her power an urgent political necessity for her enemies.
Speaker B:Her crime, therefore, had to be framed as an offense against God and the Church and to undermine the very legitimacy she had bestowed upon Charles VII of France.
Speaker B:Indeed, a key English motive for her later trial was precisely to illegitimize King Charles crowning by associating him with a heretic.
Speaker B: In July of: Speaker B:The French armies, with Joan at the lead, had been successful in multiple important battles, and the French prince had been crowned King Charles vii.
Speaker A:After the coronation at Reims, Joan, brimming with confidence, urged an immediate attack on the city of Paris, which was still under the control of the English and their allies.
Speaker A:But King Charles vii, now crowned, began to Waver.
Speaker A:Some of the king's courtiers warned him that Joan was becoming too powerful, perhaps too independent.
Speaker B: ault on Paris in September of: Speaker B:Joan herself was wounded in the thigh by a crossbow bolt while trying to rally her men.
Speaker B:This defeat significantly damaged her prestige.
Speaker A:One contemporary chronicle, reflecting a pro English Parisian viewpoint, offered a scathing account of the aftermath.
Speaker A:The anonymous author writes that the retreating French soldiers cursed their maid bitterly, for she had promised them that Paris would certainly fall to their assault, that she would sleep there that night, and so would they all, that they would all be made rich with the city's wealth, and anyone who resisted would be cut down or burned in his house.
Speaker A:She broke promises, and this fueled disillusionment.
Speaker B:Despite the setback, Joan continued to fight.
Speaker B: In the spring of: Speaker B:It was currently being besieged by Burgundian forces under Philip the Good, who was allied with the English.
Speaker B:On May 23, during a daring sortie from the town, Joan was cut off.
Speaker B:Accounts suggest that the town's drawbridge may have been raised prematurely.
Speaker B:Whether by mistake or design is debated, but this trapped her and her rear guard.
Speaker B:Outside, she was pulled from her horse by a Burgundian archer and captured.
Speaker A:One Burgundian chronicler recorded the elation of Joan's captors.
Speaker A:The English and Burgundians were quote, rejoiced and more pleased than if they had taken 500 other combatants, for they dreaded no other leader or captain so much as they had hitherto feared the maid.
Speaker B:In stark contrast, King Charles vii, the man whose crown Joan had helped to secure, made no attempts to save her.
Speaker A:Charles VII's failure to ransom or even attempt to rescue Joan speaks volume about the brutal political calculus of the era.
Speaker A:Having served her primary purpose, his coronation, Joan, with her claims of direct divine authority and her immense popularity, may have become then politically inconvenient, maybe even a threat to the king and his council.
Speaker B:The Archbishop of Reims, Renauld de Char, who had initially supported her, even now accused her of acting willfully and rejecting counsel.
Speaker B:After her capture, it seemed that the crime Joan was about to be tried for by her enemies was in a way facilitated by that calculated inaction of those she had so fervently served.
Speaker B:And her capture was a golden opportunity for the English to neutralize a potent symbol and a feared military adversary.
Speaker A:Joan was initially a prisoner of war held by John of Luxembourg, a vassal of the Duke of Burgundy, ally of the King of England.
Speaker A:But the English wanted her and they wanted her tried by the Church.
Speaker A:The University of Paris, at the time a staunchly pro English institution, quickly wrote to the Duke of Burgundy urging him to turn Joan over to the Inquisition or to Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais.
Speaker B:Bishop Conchon was a key figure.
Speaker B:He was a zealous supporter of the English cause, and Joan had been captured within his ecclesiastical diocese of Beauvais in northern France, giving him a claim to jurisdiction.
Speaker B:He would ultimately be the chief presiding judge in her trial.
Speaker A: rg to the English in November: Speaker A:She was then transferred to their main administrative and military headquarters in France, the city of Rouen, located on the northwestern France near the Normandy coast.
Speaker B:And the English motive for this ecclesiastical trial was transparently political.
Speaker B:English authorities wanted to discredit Charles VII by demonstrating that he owed his coronation to a witch, or at least a heretic.
Speaker B:Bishop Cauchon himself, in the opening of the trial, declared his intent to inquire into acts quote contrary to the orthodox faith, not only in our diocese, but in many others committed by Joan.
Speaker B:This trial was from its inception, a political weapon meticulously disguised as a pursuit of religious justice.
Speaker B:The ecclesiastical court provided the necessary veneer of legitimacy for what was in essence, a state sponsored character assassination designed to achieve a predestined outcome.
Speaker A:The charges against Joan, after months of preliminary investigation, were eventually distilled into 12 articles of accusation.
Speaker A:These articles weren't primarily about her actions on the battlefield, but about the very nature of her faith, her claims of divine revelation, and her perceived defiance of church authority and societal norms.
Speaker B:Some of these Articles of Accusation noted Joan's certainty of future events and occult knowledge through her saints revelations, such as identifying unknown men or a hidden sword.
Speaker B:Others questioned Joan's preference for wearing men's clothes.
Speaker B:Joan had apparently claimed that she was wearing such clothing by God's command, refusing to wear female attire even to receive the Eucharist.
Speaker A:Yes, the accusations in the 12 articles are a bit all over the place.
Speaker A:They emphasized her act of signing her name with Jesus Maria and a cross, and of sometimes warning that those who disobeyed her would be killed by divine blows, claiming to act only by God's revelation.
Speaker A:They also criticized her very action of leaving her parents against their wishes at the age of 17 to die, join the prince and wage war.
Speaker B:The last article reveals how much Joan's confidence and refusal to submit to their authority frustrated church leaders and theologians.
Speaker B:Apparently, Joan continued to reiterate refusal to do anything contrary to God's commands, and would not submit her revelations to the judgment of the Church only to God.
Speaker A:In essence, the charges painted Joan as a dangerous heretic who listened to demonic voices, arrogantly defied the authority of the Church, and grotesquely transgressed against established gender norms, all of which were capital offenses punishable by death.
Speaker A:The opening of the trial recorded itself, framed her actions as utterly disregarding what is honorable in the female sex, breaking the bounds of modesty and forgetting all female decency.
Speaker A:And directly following that statement, it further condemns her, stating that Joan, quote, had disgracefully put on the clothing of the male sex a striking and vile monstrosity contrary to the Catholic faith, end quote.
Speaker B:This construction of her crime was strategically brilliant for her accusers.
Speaker B:It cleverly wove together accusations of theological heresy, such as claiming direct, unmediated revelation from God and challenging the Church's interpretive authority.
Speaker B:And it also noted charges of profound social transgression, most notably her adoption of male attire and her role as a military leader.
Speaker A:This dual approach broadened the perceived basis of her condemnation and aimed to alien her from various segments of society.
Speaker A:Her gender transgression, in particular was explicitly linked to heresy by the theologians of the court.
Speaker A:The crime was not a single act, but a pattern of behavior that fundamentally challenged the patriarchal and ecclesiastical power structures.
Speaker A:The 15th century.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:Picture this scene.
Speaker B:A young woman, barely 19, uneducated in the complex subtleties of theology and canon law, facing a formidable assembly of learned doctors, bishops, abbots and lawyers.
Speaker B:In all, some 131 assessors participated, almost all French, but all firmly aligned with the English cause.
Speaker B:Jones stood alone.
Speaker B:She had no lawyer to advise or defend her.
Speaker A:Despite the immense psychological pressure, the lack of counsel, and the overtly hostile environment, Jones responses, meticulously recorded in the trial transcripts, reveals astonishing courage, native wit, and an unwavering conviction in her mission and her faith.
Speaker B:When asked the loaded question of whether she knew whether she was in God's grace, a question designed to trap her into either presumption or despair, she famously replied, if I am not, may God place me there.
Speaker B:If I am, may God so keep me.
Speaker B:I should be the saddest in all the world if I knew that I were not in the grace of God.
Speaker A:Regarding her voices and visions, she was unshakable.
Speaker B:Joan reportedly stated that all I have done is by our Lord's command.
Speaker B:I have done nothing in the world but by the order of God.
Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker A:When repeatedly pressured about submitting her words and deeds to the judgment of the Church, Joan made a crucial distinction.
Speaker B:She affirmed, quote, I believe surely that our Lord, the Pope of Rome, the bishops and other clergy are established to guard the Christian faith and punish those who are found wanting therein.
Speaker B:But as for me, for my doings, I submit myself only to the heavenly church, that is to say, to God, to the Virgin Mary, and to the saints in paradise, end quote.
Speaker A:On the contentious issue of her male attire, she remained resolute.
Speaker B:She explained that, quote, I would rather die than revoke what God has made me do, end quote.
Speaker A:She also offered a starkly practical reason for her clothing.
Speaker A:A chilling indictment of her captors.
Speaker B:She said, quote, while I have been in prison, the English have molested me when I was dressed as a woman.
Speaker B:I have done this to defend my modesty, end quote.
Speaker A:This claim of attempted sexual assault in prison was a serious matter, highlighting the dangers she faced.
Speaker B:Joan also presented a remarkably sophisticated theological stance for being an unlettered peasant girl.
Speaker B:She refused to submit unconditionally to the Church, that is the earthly institution represented by the very court trying her.
Speaker B:But she continued to affirm her submission to God, Christ and the saints in heaven.
Speaker A:This was, in fact, a sophisticated stance, and, as you noted, Elena, but it was also an incredibly perilous stance.
Speaker A:By drawing this distinction, she implicitly challenged the absolute authority of Bishop Cauchon's court to judge the matters that she believed were directly ordained by God.
Speaker B:If individuals could bypass the earthly Church and appeal directly to divine authority, then the Church's role as the sole intermediary and arbiter of faith was fundamentally undermined.
Speaker B:This, from the court's perspective, was the very essence of heresy.
Speaker B:Her intelligence and what her judges called skillfully evasive answers clearly frustrated and angered her accusers.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Modern scholars like Daniel Hobbins, in his work the Trial of Joan of Arc, emphasized this, and a review of his book bluntly states that Bishop Cauchon, quote, violated every canon of a fair trial and abused his office, end quote.
Speaker B:The list of procedural irregularities and violations of canon law is extensive.
Speaker B:There was a clear lack of impartiality.
Speaker B:The court was packed with pro English and Burgundian clerics.
Speaker B:Bishop Cauchon himself had deep political and financial ties to the English.
Speaker B:Jones suffered illegal prison conditions and accused of heresy.
Speaker B:She should have been held in a church prison guarded by nuns to protect her modesty and ensure fair treatment.
Speaker B:Instead, she was kept in a secure military prison, chained and guarded by English soldiers, exposing her to constant threat and abuse.
Speaker A:We also can't forget that despite Joan's youth and ignorance of complex legal and theological arguments, she was effectively denied legal counsel.
Speaker A:When Bishop Cauchon offered Joan a choice of advisor from among the very assessors who were part of the prosecution, Joan perhaps wisely refused, stating she relied on the counsel of her lord.
Speaker B:During the trial, questions were often designed as theological traps, too subtle even for some of the judges.
Speaker B:There's evidence that notaries were pressured, and the official record itself may have been selectively edited.
Speaker B:One examiner, who reportedly tried to counsel Joan Fairley, incurred Bishop Cauchon's wrath and was actually forced to flee the city of Rowan.
Speaker B:And Joan apparently repeatedly requested that her case be taken to the pope, right under canon law.
Speaker B:But this appeal was consistently ignored or denied by Bishop Cauchon.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:After being forced to listen to a public sermon and under direct threat of immediate execution by burning, Joan signed a form of abjuration, a document renouncing her visions and her male clothing.
Speaker B:The exact content of what she signed and whether she fully understood it is heavily debated.
Speaker B:As noted before, Joan was mostly illiterate.
Speaker B:Some sources even suggested that the document read to her was different from the one she marked.
Speaker A:Just days later, Joan found herself once again wearing men's clothing in her cell.
Speaker A:Joan stated she resumed them to protect herself from sexual assaults by the guards, or that her female clothing had been taken away.
Speaker A:Some accounts even suggest the male clothes were deliberately left by the guards to entrap her.
Speaker B:Upon this relapse, Bishop Cauchon reportedly exclaimed to the English commander, the Earl of Warwick, farewell.
Speaker B:Be of good cheer.
Speaker B:It is done.
Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker B:A chilling indication that a trap had been successfully sprung.
Speaker A:This charge of being a relapsed heretic was the legal linchpin for her execution.
Speaker A:Under canon law, the first time heretic who abjured could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Speaker A:But a relapsed heretic faced certain death.
Speaker A:The entire sequence, the intense pressure to abjure, the highly suspicious circumstances of her resuming male attire, and the swift final condemnation strongly suggests a carefully orchestrated legal maneuver designed to ensure her death while maintaining the facade of a due process.
Speaker B:The argument that her gender transgression, wearing men's clothes was central to her condemnation as a heretic is kind of compelling.
Speaker B:Theologians at the trial cited Deuteronomy, which forbids women from wearing men's apparel, and argued that to claim God commanded such an act was blasphemy.
Speaker B:Her defiance of traditional gender roles was seen as an affront to the natural and divine order, a visible sign of her alleged inner heresy.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:As the church itself did not carry out death sentences, the University of Paris, which had been instrumental in her prosecution, had already determined that if she persisted in her errors, she would be her inevitable fate of death.
Speaker B:And as we recounted at the beginning of our episode, Joan's execution in the old market square of Rowan was a public spectacle intended to serve as a grim warning and to solidify the verdict of heresy in the public mind.
Speaker A:The bailiff, who had served as the executor of Ritz during the trial and accompanied Joan to the stake later testified at her nullification trial.
Speaker A:He described her deep piety in her final moments.
Speaker A:She repeatedly asked for a cross, and an English soldier, moved by pity, quickly fashioned a small one for her out of two pieces of wood, which she kissed and placed in her bosom.
Speaker A:A formal crucifix was also brought from a nearby church and held before her.
Speaker B:As the flames rose, eyewitnesses, including some of the judges and English soldiers, were reportedly moved to tears by her courage and her final prayers.
Speaker B:She died, it is said, with the name of Jesus repeatedly on her lips.
Speaker A:To prevent the gathering of any relics that might foster a cult of martyrdom, her body was ordered to be burnt three times and her ashes were collected and thrown into the Sin River.
Speaker B:But the story doesn't end in the ashes.
Speaker B:Twenty years later, the political landscape of France had dramatically shifted.
Speaker B: nd France officially ended in: Speaker B:Charles VII was firmly established on the French throne, and the English had been largely driven out of France.
Speaker B:It was in this new context that a process began to re examine Joan's condemnation.
Speaker A: Trial, formally initiated in: Speaker A:It was prompted by a petition from Joan's elderly mother Isabelle Rome and her two brothers and and authorized by Pope Calixtus iii.
Speaker A:The express purpose, as stated in the records, was quote to investigate whether the trial of condemnation and its verdict had been handled justly and according to ecclesiastical law.
Speaker B:An extensive investigation was undertaken.
Speaker B:Around115 witnesses were interviewed.
Speaker B: veral members of the original: Speaker B:Their testimonies painted a picture of Joan that was starkly different from the one constructed by her accusers.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A: They stated that the earlier: Speaker B:The court found the original trial to be tainted by, quote, fraud, calumny, iniquity and contradiction, and manifest errors of fact and of law.
Speaker B:End quote.
Speaker B:Joan of Arc was officially cleared of all charges and her honor restored.
Speaker A:The nullification trial meticulously documented the numerous errors of the first trial, the blatant partiality of the judges, particularly Bishop Cauchon, the violent and intimidating conditions of Joan's imprisonment, the malevolent behavior of her guards, the use of insidious and trapping questions, the falsification of articles of accusation, and the abjuration obtained through extreme duress and likely deceit.
Speaker A:A key finding was that the condemnation trial had deliberately excluded or suppressed eyewitness testimonies that would have been favorable to Joan, a grave procedural violation.
Speaker B:The nullification trial was not merely about correcting a past judicial error for Joan's sake or for her families.
Speaker B:It was also an act of profound political significance for King Charles vii.
Speaker B:His reign had been irrevocably legitimized by Joan's victories, which were attributed to divine sanction.
Speaker B:Her condemnation as a heretic and a witch, therefore cast a dangerous shadow on his own piety and his right to rule.
Speaker B:Thus, clearing Joan's name was also essential for clearing any stain from his own.
Speaker A:Joan of Arc's journey from condemned heretic to recognized saint was a long one.
Speaker A: ied by the Catholic Church in: Speaker A: ,: Speaker B:Her legacy is extraordinarily complex and has been claimed by an astonishingly diverse array of groups across the centuries.
Speaker B:She is, of course, a preeminent national heroine of France, a potent symbol of French unity, patriotism and resistance against foreign invaders.
Speaker A:And French politicians from across the political spectrum, from the left to the far right, have invoked her image to support.
Speaker B:Their causes beyond France.
Speaker B:She's often viewed as an early feminist icon, a young woman who shattered the oppressive gender roles of her time, leading armies and directly advising kings.
Speaker B:Her contemporary, the pioneering female writer Christine de Pizan, celebrated Joan as having a heart quote greater than any man's Historian.
Speaker A:Helen Castor, in her biography of Joan, observes that Joan of Arc is a hero championed by such vastly different religious and political groups that her story becomes both deeply unique and universally resonant.
Speaker B:Yet Castor also wisely notes that it becoming all things to all people, the complex, often contradictory human girl has sometimes been lost to myth.
Speaker B:Joan was, as Castor quotes from one perspective, quote, a symbol, not a savior, end quote.
Speaker B:A phrase that captures the endearing tension between her perceived divine role and the harsh political realities that ultimately consumed her.
Speaker A:This enduring power of ambiguity and reinterpretation is perhaps the key to her lasting fascination.
Speaker A:Joan's story, her motivations, the true nature of her visions, these remain subjects of debate and wonder.
Speaker A:Was she divinely inspired?
Speaker A:Well, Joan clearly thought so.
Speaker A:Did she suffer from some neurological condition?
Speaker A:Some have speculated that might have been the case.
Speaker A:Even you, maybe, dear listeners.
Speaker A:But most scholars find little evidence for such claims, noting she displayed none of the typical objective symptoms?
Speaker A:Or was she simply a young woman of extraordinary conviction and courage in a time that desperately needed both?
Speaker B:The last one seems the most likely to me, but maybe it was a little of all three.
Speaker B:We'll never fully know.
Speaker A:The crimes she was accused of heresy, witchcraft, defying the church, wearing men's clothing are not static.
Speaker A: For her accusers in: Speaker A:So for later generations, the crime might be seen as the profound injustice she suffered or her courageous defiance of oppressive conventions.
Speaker A:Her story continues to force each era to confront its own definitions of faith, authority, gender and justice.
Speaker B:Her story, raw and resonant even after six centuries, forces us to ask fundamental questions.
Speaker B:Who defines what a crime is?
Speaker B:And when the powerful twist laws and religion to serve their own ends, who then are the true criminals in history's unforgiving gates?
Speaker A:That's all for now.
Speaker B:Until next time.
Speaker A:Stay curious.
Speaker A:Sat.
