Joan of Arc

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Joan of Arc

At a young age she began to hear “voices”—those of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. When she was about 16, the voices exhorted her to bear aid to the king to be. Joan won the aid of Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the king forces in Vaucouleurs in obtaining an interview with the dauphin. She made the journey in male attire with six companions. When she met the king to be she conquered his skepticism as to her divine mission. Theologians at Poitiers examined her, and afterward Charles furnished her with troops. Her leadership provided spirit more than military help. In May 1429, she succeeded in raising the siege of Orleans, and in June she took other English posts on to other places and defeated the English at Patay. After a lot of persuasion the dauphin agreed to be crowned at Reims. Joan stood near him at his coronation.
In September 1429 Joan unsuccessfully overtook paris. The following spring she went to let Compiegne go, but she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English who were eager to destroy her influence by putting her to death. Charles VII made no attempt to secure her freedom. In order to escape responsibility, the English turned her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen. She was tried for heresy and witchcraft before Pierre Cauchon.
Her most serious crime was the claim of direct inspiration from God. In the eyes of the court this refusal to accept the church hierarchy constituted heresy. Throughout the long trial and imprisonment she fought her enemies. Only at the end of the trial did she repent. She was condemned to life imprisonment. Shortly afterward she took back her apology and was turned over to the secular court as a heretic and was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 in Rouen. Charles VII made late recognition of her services by a rehabilitation trial in 1456 that annulled the proceedings of the original trial.
Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonized i...