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100 Unit 3, Chapter 14

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PRIMARY SOURCE Joan of Arc’s TrialIn 1429, 17-year-old Joan of Arc led French troops to victory over England. Ayear later, she was captured by English allies and sent to Rouen, a city ruled bythe English king. She was tried by a Church court for heresy. Although given achance to take back her testimony and live, she chose death. As you read thisportion of the trial record, think why the judges gave her the sentence they did.

Section 4

“Therefore before us your competent judges,namely Pierre by divine mercy bishop of

Beauvais and brother Jean Le Maistre, vicar in thiscity and diocese of the notable master JeanGraverent, Inquisitor of Heretical Error in thekingdom of France, and especially appointed byhim to officiate in this cause, you, Jeanne, com-monly called The Maid, have been arraigned toaccount for many pernicious [evil] crimes and havebeen charged in a matter of the faith. And havingseen and examined with diligence the course ofyour trial and all that occurred therein, principallythe answers, confessions and affirmations which youmade, after having also considered the mostnotable decision of the masters of the Faculties ofTheology and Decrees in the University of Paris, inaddition to that of the general assembly of theUniversity, and of the prelates, doctors and menlearned in canon and civil law and in theology whowere met together in a great multitude in this townof Rouen and elsewhere for the discussion andjudgment of your statements, words and deeds;having taken counsel and mature conference withthose zealots of the Christian faith, and having seenand weighed all there is to see and weigh in thismatter, all that we and any man of judgment andlaw could and should observe: We, having Christand the honor of the orthodox faith before oureyes, so that our judgment may seem to emanatefrom the face of Our Lord, have said and decreedthat in the simulation [pretending] of your revela-tions and apparitions [ghosts] you have been perni-cious, seductive, presumptuous, of light belief,rash, superstitious, a witch, a blasphemer of Godand His saints, a despiser of Him in His sacraments,a prevaricator of the divine teaching and the eccle-siastical sanctions, seditious, cruel, apostate, schis-matic, erring gravely in our faith, and that by these

means you have rashly trespassed against God andthe Holy Church.

“Moreover, although you have very often, not byUs only but also by certain learned expert mastersand doctors full of zeal for the salvation of your soul,been duly and sufficiently admonished to amendand reform yourself, and to submit to the disposition,decision and correction of Holy Mother Church,you would not, and cared not to do so, and even inthe hardness of your heart stubbornly and obsti-nately declared that you would not, and on manyoccasions expressly refused to submit to Our HolyFather the Pope and the holy General Council.Therefore, we declare you of right excommunicateand heretic, being stubborn and obstinate in yourcrimes, excesses and errors; and we pronounce itmeet [necessary] to abandon you and do abandonyou to the secular justice as a limb of Satan, infect-ed with the leprosy of heresy, cut off from theChurch, in order to prevent the infection of theother members of Christ; praying this same poweron this side of death and the mutilation of yourlimbs to moderate its judgment towards you, and iftrue signs of penance appear in you to permit thesacrament of penance to be administered to you.”

from Norman F. Cantor, ed., The Medieval Reader (NewYork: Harper Perennial, 1994), 261–262.

Discussion QuestionsRecognizing Facts and Details1. What “learned expert masters” examined Joan?2. Why did the judges accuse Joan of being a witch

and a blasphemer?3. Making Judgments Based on your reading of

this excerpt, do you think Joan was more politicalthan religious? Explain your answer.

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