February 21st, 1431. Rouen Castle
"Do you swear to speak the truth in answer to such questions that are put to you?"
asks Bishop Kishan
"I do not know what you wish to examine me on." responds Joan "Perhaps you might ask such things I would not tell."
"Will you swear to speak the truth upon those things which are asked of you concerning your faith?"
"Which you know."
"Concerning my father and mother and what I've done since I took the road to France, I will gladly swear to tell the truth
But concerning my revelations from God
these I have never told or revealed to anyone save only to Charles, my King and I will not reveal them to save my head."
It's the first day of Joan's inquisitional trial for heresy
She is both the defendant and the only witness and she's arguing for her life
(Musical Introduction)
Joan survived the leap from the tower landing on a soft patch of Earth
But the fall had gone badly and she laid injured until her jailers collected her her voices whispering comfort
But her worry came to pass their Burgundian sold her to the English and there would be a trial for witchcraft and heresy
Conducted by her enemies as they prepared Joan languished in prison
English and Burgundian Lords visited to leer at and grope her. She was constantly alone with male soldiers
She still wore men's clothing though for it was a greater defense against assault than a dress
outside her cell the inquisitional trial was taking shape at its head was Bishop Pierre Cauchon a
Clergyman, who'd been a long supporter of English interests in France. In fact, he'd personally negotiated Joan's sale to the English
So this trial was not exactly
fair. Because you see after
Joan got Charles crowned at (Crowned in Reims). The English, not to be outdone
had rushed their boy king, Henry the VI, into the country in order to crown him King of France
But Charles was still claiming through Joan that God supported his claim
However, if Cauchon could prove in court that Joan was either a heretic, a witch, or a liar
It would go a long way toward undercutting Charles's claim to the throne
It was a trial designed to discredit Joan in her visions yet. Cauchon knew it couldn't be an obvious hit job
Everyone knew the English and Burgundians hated Joan and expected a slanted court. Therefore the verdict must be
unimpeachable
Cauchon insisted on following strict procedure enlisting some of the finest theological minds in France to serve as examiner's
Every questioning session, every move by the court, every piece of evidence would be recorded
He wanted everyone to know how they'd come to their conclusions yet, his initial background investigation wasn't promising.
An investigator sent to Domrémy to dig up dirt came back empty handed. And a group of English Nobel women confirmed
Joan was a virgin meaning she wasn't lying about being a maid, but that still left the charge of heresy.
Of harboring beliefs that differed from established church doctrine and if Joan refused to recant that was a death sentence. So the dance began.
Joan insisted that they let her take Mass.
The prosecutor for his part insisted that she could not hear Mass while dressed as a man.
and Joan countered that her garments protected her.
Then the questioning portion of the trial opened with Joan standing in a castle hall amid fifty or sixty churchmen.
Now
She had an audience
Joan began sparring with the court over her oath to be truthful
She agreed to answer questions about her past and her faith, but not her visions
it was an argument that would repeat every day and
over the next week and a half the court would probe her about her past, her beliefs, and
every step of her journey since leaving Domrémy.
They asked about whether she had disobeyed her parents by leaving.
About obscure village folk beliefs, and of course, about her visions
Her examiners were learned men versed in theology and with decades of education in canon law
Joan, by contrast was an illiterate peasant who had only recently learned to sign her name on the letters she dictated.
Yet
She pushed back. Her voices told her to be bold to argue to challenge and though not traditionally schooled
she had a sharp mind and had absorbed much in her years as a devoted Catholic.
On the third day when the inquisitors asked her whether she believed she would go to heaven the court held its breath
Because uh, yes Thank You Admiral. It was a trap. If Joan said no, she would be admitting a state of sin
But if she said yes, she would contradict Church doctrine that humans could not truly know whether they were in grace
So either way it would be an admission of heresy. "If I am not in his grace" she answered
"May God put me there, and if I am may God, so keep me. I should be the saddest creature in the world"
"If I knew I were not in His grace." her eloquence on the issues stunned the court questions of faith
She batted away with ease that puzzled her questioners and Joan reveled in this performance, but when speaking of visions though
She evaded, circled,
Outright refused. And this was wise because she was not as well-versed in church doctrine involving
spiritual beings and if she spoke about it might unknowingly create an opening.
For days Cauchon and the inquisitors hammered at her
"Who told you to wear men's clothing. Why did you do it?"
"Despite the fact the old testament forbids it!"
"Name the voices, convince us you've seen the saints"
He urged Joan to describe her visions beyond seeing light and hearing voices
Was it the voice of god, saints, or angels?
If saints, did they give her a sign to convince others that her visions were real?
This too was a snare.
You see church doctrine held that saints and angels were beings of pure spirit
And they had no corporeal bodies. So if Joan describes seeing them in the flesh...
You get where he was going?
He took away her audience and began questioning her in private in her cell
The cracks began to show.
She said the voices were the Archangel Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret
And that they appeared to her, solid as her inquisitors, and she knew them by the symbols they carried
And when pressed
Joan described a vision she'd had at Charles's court where an angel walked into the audience hall and placed a jeweled crown on the Dauphin's head
But she's still refused to reveal exactly what she'd said to the Dauphin in private and
A finally Cauchon considered using torture and indeed
He showed Joan the implements hoping the sight of these tools of pain would force a confession
But they did not. However Joan was already ill and they did worried that if they tortured her she might die in custody
So tabling torture they drew up their findings and read them to her.
Twelve charges.
She would need to answer them the next day
May 24th, 1431
Joan stands on a scaffold in a graveyard formally charged with heresy the
The prosecutors had determined that either she had fabricated the visions or they were demons
Then a surprise if she doesn't answer these charges they say, they will execute sentence immediately
Joan's voices had promised that they'd deliver her from captivity, but now time was up she gave in to fear and confessed
The Inquisitors had not expected that, but they were delighted, after all the best outcome of a heresy trial was one where the accused
recanted and was welcomed back into the church. Joan would live, just in captivity.
They shaved her head, put her in the dress she'd so resisted.
But two days later. Cauchon got a message
He rushed to Joan's cell. She was back in men's clothes, agitated.
One story said her guards had assaulted her, another claimed they'd forced her into her old clothing.
She babbled, her voices were angry that she had recanted out of fear
and she worried God would turn her away
A confessed heretic could live, but one who returned to their sin must die.
And so the next day they burned her in the old marketplace
One English soldier held across high so she could look at it as the flames consumed her, and the executioner
insured that nothing was left. No bones, the faithful could venerate and finally
They threw her ashes into a river.
Cauchon spread the transcripts across Europe to show they've been right to convict her.
King Charles, reportedly swore vengeance for her death, but he made no public statements
In fact, he already had a new Holy Youth, a shepherd boy that showed the stigmata, in time the English killed him too
But if the English had hoped that Joan's death would change the course of the war. They were wrong.
In 1449, 18 years after Joan's execution, Charles entered the English capital of Rouen in victory.
The English were well on the way to being driven out of France.
where the father had been known as Charles the Beloved and Charles the Mad
The son would be known as Charles the Victorious.
And part of that victory was to instigate a retrial, just as politically motivated as the first, that cleared Joan in 1453
Because in the 22 years since the first trial politics had changed a great deal,
With the Armagnac and Burgundian at peace
Everyone was eager to rewrite history
Recasting the war as one of French against English
And of course Charles's continued success seemed to vindicate Joan's visions
Even people who had participated in the first trial
Emerged to denounce it as corrupted by politics
Joan was no long a champion for the Armagnac's-- this soldier from a bitter civil war was now seen as a
champion of all of France and her status as a national symbol would only grow over the centuries.
And in 1920 the same church that had condemned Joan as a heretic
Officially declared her a saint
the girl who had defended Orléans
Taken the Loire castles, and failed outside the walls of Paris had made one final conquest, for now
She'd stormed the gates of heaven
(Musical rise)
Special thanks to educational tier patrons Ahmed Zeon Turk and Joseph play
(Musical Out Sequence)