The Trials of Joan of Arc

A detailed Summary of The Trials of Joan of Arc

Jeanne d'Arc, better known as Joan of Arc, was the Maid of Orleans. She was a great heroin of the Hundred Years War for the French and was the spirit of the army. She was only a teenager when she heard the voices of Saint Catherine, Saint Michael, and Saint Margaret. The voices told her to march with the French army to drive out the English and place Charles VII on the throne. She provided support and spirit to the troops and shaped them up into better soldiers. She had successful victories like Orleans and at Patay, but was defeated and captured by the Burgandians while defending Compiegne. The Burgundians sold her to the English who had long been after her. She would be tried for witchcraft and heresy by the ecclesiastical court of Rouen led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

The court was judged by the Bishop along with his assessors. The trial consisted of six public examinations, 9 private examinations, and several readings of articles. In the first public examination, Jeanne made it clear to the bishop and the forty-two assessors present that she would only tell the things she was allowed to tell even if it meant death upon her own oath instead of what the English wished her to. "'Of my father and my mother and of wha

Nearly twenty years later, Charles VII reopened Jeanne's case. He had several witnesses come speak for her. Cardinal-Bishop Guillaume d'Estouteville represented the request of Jeanne's mother. Isabelle wanted the name of her daughter cleared up as well as the restoration of the family to the position they had lost by the imputation of heresy cast on them in the person of one of their number. "When Isabel d'Arc threw herself at the feet of the Commissioners, showing the Papal Legit Rescript and weeping aloud, while her Advocate, Pierre Maugier, and his assistants prayed for justice for her and for the memory of her martyred daughter, so many of those present joined aloud in the petition, that at last, we are told, it seemed that one great cry for justice broke from the multitude." Jeanne d'Arc was canonized in 1920 and her feast falls upon the day of May 30.

On May 29, 1431, the end of the fourteen month trial resulted in Jeanne being convicted of witchcraft and heresy. In the sentencing speech, the Pope regarded, "And also, because that often, very often, not only by Us on Our part but by Doctors and Masters learned and expert, full of zeal for the salvation of thy soul, you have been duly and sufficiently warned to amend, to correct thyself and to submit to the disposal, decision, and correction of Holy Mother Church, which you have not willed, and have always obstinately refused to do, having even expressly and many times refused to submit thyself to our Lord the Pope and to the General Council; for these causes, as hardened and obstinate in thy crimes, excesses and errors, WE DECLARE THEE OF RIGHT EXCOMMUNICATE AND HERETIC; and after your errors have been destroyed in a public preaching, We declare that you must be abandoned and that We do abandon thee to the secular authority, as a member of Satan, separate from the Church, infected with the leprosy of heresy, in order that you may not corrupt also the other members of Christ; praying this same powe

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