Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle): Difference between revisions

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A prime actor in and beneficiary of those entanglements was the priest Pierre Cauchon who became Joan's chief persecutor at Rouen. Cauchon was allied with the Duke of Burgundy, and so where went the Duke, went Cauchon. He had participated in negotiations between the French King Charles VI and the Vatican in 1407 in an attempt to end the schism between a French-supported papal claimant (Avignon antipope) and the Pope at Rome.<ref>The English supported the Roman pope, so the French support for the Avignon antipopes was, among reasons, in opposition to the English. As Charles VI dropped his support for the Avignon antipope, which cleared the way for an ultimate resolution in 1415 with the resignation of Pope Gregory XII and ultimate election of Martin V whom Cauchon personally supported.</ref> In 1420, after holding various positions, such as dean at the University of Paris, chaplain of the Duke of Burgundy, archdeacon of Chartres and, in 1420, Bishop of Beauvais, the position under which he would exercise jurisdiction over Joan's Trial of Condemnation.<ref>Cauchon fled Rheims as the French Army, led by Joan of Arc, approached to make way for the coronation of Charles VII, "the Dauphin" of Joan's divine mission. Tight with the English, Cauchon moved to Rouen, where Joan would be tried. The excuse for Cauchon's ecclessiastical juridisdiction over her trial was that she had been captured in Compiėgne, which lay withing the Diocese of Beauvais.</ref> That same year, Cauchon helped negotiate the Treaty of Troyes, which granted to English King Henry V inheritance to the French throne following Charles VI. Cauchon's career took off as a primary liaison between the English and the Burgundians. He escorted the English royal claimant, Henry VI to France in 1430 and acted as Henry's personal counsellor at Rouen,<ref>Most of this section is from [[wikipedia:Pierre_Cauchon|Pierre Cauchon - Wikipedia]]</ref> the English administrative center in France.

~~Had~~ the English managed to push south of Orléans, an Armagnac stronghold and seat of the normal heir to the French throne, the Duke of Orléans (who was imprisoned in England at the time), they would have very likely taken all of France and enforced the Treaty of Troyes, which gave French succession to the English. Defending Orléans was the Duke's half brother, John the Bastard<ref>More elegantly In French, ''le'' ''bâtard d'Orléans.'' Fighting for the Armagnacs in 1418, he was captured by the Burgundians and released in 1420. He remained loyal to the Dauphin and was one of Joan's most reliable and loyal generals. Charles VII made him Count of Dunois in 1439 after he played an important role in the defeat of the English in the north of France, including Normandy.</ref>, who arrived to the city in October of 1428. He huddled the people inside the city walls, abandoning buildings and churches outside the boundaries. A deal was proposed, not by the Bastard, but by terrified citizens of Orléans, to the Duke of Burgundy that would yield the city to him while upholding its neutrality. Ordered by the English, the Duke refused it. Meanwhile within Orléans, desperation set in, especially following the French humiliation at the Battle of the Herrings on February 12 (the outcome of which Joan had predicted to Captain Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs).

Self-defeating, crossed ambition created the twisted scenario the young Joan was sent to fix in 1429, a crisis and cause hardly unique in history. Joan made it unique. She elevated the Hundred Years War to a higher purpose for the French, settling the issue of French royal succession. Doing so, she resolved the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war by staking it upon the larger war with the English and forcing the Burgundian hand: you're either French or not. By upholding "France" as a concept and not just a territory or deigned monarch, Joan diluted the Burgundian claim on both France and the Low Countries.<ref>The Burgundian state ended in 1482 when the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was killed at the battle of Nancy while at war with the Swiss Confederation and the Duke of Lorraine. Charles' daughter oversaw the incorporation of the Burgundian Netherlands into the Holy Roman Empire. (If you ever wondered how the Spanish got hold of the Dutch, there you have it.) France assumed control of the Burgundian lands that lay within the Kingdom of France. </ref>

Like so many rulers of young political entities, the Valois Burgundians<ref>Recalling that Philip the Bold was son of the Valois French King, John II, who granted the Duchy to him. </ref> sought expansion and autonomy, attempting to create an independent power to rival England and France. However, the Burgundian dukes, who were themselves French, having beholden themselves to England starting with the 1419 assassination of John the Fearless, depended on their hold on Paris to make themselves useful to the English.<ref>Barker observes, "Paris was a Burgundian city and the English had held it only because the duke was their ally and allowed them to do so. Though the kingdom’s administration was based in the city, most of its employees were French and few native Englishmen had actually taken up residence there." (Conquest p. 240)</ref> However, when French appeasement of the Burgundians ended with the 1432 arrest of the scheming minister Georges de La Trémoille by Joan of Arc's compatriot from the crucial Battle of Patay, Arthur de Richemont.<ref>Richemont, the Duke of Brittany, was one of the most notorious warlords in France, and was hated by the French for having jumped sides previously. Joan, however, welcomed the Duke and his 2,000 troops over the objections of the French military leadership.</ref>

While Trémoille had tried vainly to negotiate with the Duke of Burgundy to join the French cause, the Duke tried to turned it around and get Richemont, who had done so before, to jump sides to the English. But in 1435, after unleashing Joan's former commanders, La Hire and the Bastard of Orleans, Jean Dunois, to roam Normandy, Richemont instead got the Duke of Burgundy himself to switch to the French.<ref>Barker notes, "The military resurgence of the Armagnacs, and the increasingly brutal tactics they employed, were part and parcel of a campaign of terrorism which was planned to coincide with the renewal of peace talks.: Conquest, p. 220 </ref> The English cause was now lost. In a year Paris was recovered by France, along with it the University of Paris, whose clerics had so hated Joan of Arc for having interfered with their English gravy train.<ref>One might say that the Armagnac prelates had similarly tied their fates to the Dauphin. </ref> And so too began the decline of the Burgundian project, which, like the English-hold on small parts of France, was eventually worn down, succumbing entirely to a more cohesive and national France that arose around its renewed center, Paris.

Back in 1429, had the English managed to push south of Orléans, an Armagnac stronghold and seat of the normal heir to the French throne, the Duke of Orléans (who was imprisoned in England at the time), they would have very likely taken all of France and enforced the Treaty of Troyes, which gave French succession to the English. Defending Orléans was the Duke's half brother, John the Bastard<ref>More elegantly In French, ''le'' ''bâtard d'Orléans.'' Fighting for the Armagnacs in 1418, he was captured by the Burgundians and released in 1420. He remained loyal to the Dauphin and was one of Joan's most reliable and loyal generals. Charles VII made him Count of Dunois in 1439 after he played an important role in the defeat of the English in the north of France, including Normandy.</ref>, who arrived to the city in October of 1428. He huddled the people inside the city walls, abandoning buildings and churches outside the boundaries. A deal was proposed, not by the Bastard, but by terrified citizens of Orléans, to the Duke of Burgundy that would yield the city to him while upholding its neutrality. Ordered by the English, the Duke refused it. Meanwhile within Orléans, desperation set in, especially following the French humiliation at the Battle of the Herrings on February 12, the outcome of which, it was said, Joan had predicted to Captain Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs.<ref>The sources for this story is debatably accurate. On the affirming side is that it was written not long after the events; on the other side, it may have been one of many stories about Joan flying about. For the (see Murray p. 11, fn 2). Baudricourt died before the Rehabilitation Trial, so we don't hear his side. His lieutenants don't mention it. </ref>

Soon after the Battle of Herrings, as things seemed to be falling apart, the Bastard received news of a mysterious "maid" who was going to rescue the city of Orléans. He was curious. He had received some reinforcements, but the situation was dire. He wrote, <blockquote>It is told that there had lately passed through the town of Gien a maid [''une pucelle''], who proclaimed that she was on her way to Chinon to the gentle Dauphin, and said that she had been sent by God to raise the siege of Orléans and take the King to his anointing at Reims.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19488/19488-h/19488-h.htm The Life of Joan of Arc (Contents), by Anatole France (Project Gutenberg)], p. i.143.</ref> </blockquote>So he sent emissaries to the King's court to see what was going on.

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For the English, there was no need to play around with words: Joan was a witch. For Beaupère, at best, we can take literally his accusation that Joan was "cunning" or "deceitful," but the word choice, emphasized by its repetition, "subtle with the subtlety of a woman" was intended to be damning.

Eight days before her execution at Rouen, the Bishop of Erard admonished Joan in a public sermon, which Manchon recalled as his having lamented,<ref>Murray, p. 170</ref> <blockquote>Ah! noble House of France, which hath always been the protectress of the Faith, hast thou been so abused that thou dost adhere to a heretic and schismatic? It is indeed a o great misfortune. </blockquote>Another priest Ysambard de la Pierre similarly recalled the scene,<ref>Murray, 188</ref> <blockquote>I was at the sermon of Maître Guillaume Érard, who took as his theme, <nowiki>''</nowiki> A branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the Vine," saying that in France there was no monster such as this Jeanne: she was a witch, heretic, and schismatic; and that the King who favoured her was of like sort for wishing to recover his kingdom by means of such an heretical woman. </blockquote>It's precisely what Beaupère meant all along: God would never have chosen a girl for this purpose, much less this girl who wasn't just a liar, she was seduced by demons.

When Joan first appeared at Chinon in 1429, these same prejudices guided her reception. The Archbishop of Embrun, Jacques Gélu, warned the Dauphin to be careful with a peasant girl from a class that is "easily seduced." After Orleans, the Bishop had a change of heart. ~~Applying~~ the formula of the Evangelist, "by their fruits ye shall know them," he wrote,<blockquote>We piously believe her to be the Angel of the armies of the Lord.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/maidoffrancebein00languoft/page/146/mode/2up?q=Gelu The maid of France; being the story of the life and death of Jeanne d'Arc : Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912] (archive.org)</ref></blockquote>~~and~~ he advised the Dauphin,<blockquote>do every day some deed particularly agreeable to God and confer about it with the maid.<ref>Pernoud, Joan of Arc: her story; p. 184</ref></blockquote>To save France is one thing, but to do it on behalf of God is something altogether different. As historian Deborah Fraioli observes, the situation of France in 1429 was, from the historical point of view, debatably not so dire as the French themselves believed at the time. (I hold that the situation was rather dire,) However, Fraioli ~~says~~, from a theological point of view, "the situation takes on a different hue." Thus the theologians asked to investigate her on behalf of the French King, the Dauphin Charles, needed to consider that God wanted France saved at all, and even if it was correct to petition him for it. The problem facing them was that recourse to the divine must not precede man's own attempts at resolution. That is, did France justifiably need divine intervention at all?

When Joan first appeared at Chinon in 1429, these same prejudices guided her reception. The Archbishop of Embrun, Jacques Gélu, warned the Dauphin to be careful with a peasant girl from a class that is "easily seduced." After Orleans, the Bishop had a change of heart. Again mirroring what the Bishop or Erard would say two years later, Gélu applied the formula of the Evangelist, "by their fruits ye shall know them." Thus, he wrote,<blockquote>We piously believe her to be the Angel of the armies of the Lord.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/maidoffrancebein00languoft/page/146/mode/2up?q=Gelu The maid of France; being the story of the life and death of Jeanne d'Arc : Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912] (archive.org)</ref></blockquote>And he advised the Dauphin,<blockquote>do every day some deed particularly agreeable to God and confer about it with the maid.<ref>Pernoud, Joan of Arc: her story; p. 184</ref></blockquote>To save France is one thing, but to do it on behalf of God is something altogether different. As historian Deborah Fraioli observes, the situation of France in 1429 was, from the historical point of view, debatably not so dire as the French themselves believed at the time. (I hold that the situation was rather dire,) However, Fraioli points out, from a theological point of view, "the situation takes on a different hue."

~~All they had before them was~~ Joan~~'s own assertion that~~ God ~~had sent her to save~~ France~~. Joan was most uncomplicated in the declaration~~, and ~~when pressed~~ to ~~show a "sign", she replied~~ that ~~Orleans would be~~ the ~~sign~~, ~~but they'd have~~ to ~~send her there with~~ the ~~army~~.

As such, the theologians asked to investigate Joan on behalf of the French King needed to consider if God wanted France saved at all, and even if it was correct to petition him for it.<ref>Note that the Bishop of Erard answered this question in reverse, saying that Joan was a punishment upon France.</ref> The problem facing them was that recourse to the divine must not precede man's own attempts at resolution. That is, did France justifiably need divine intervention at all?

~~>>here~~ God ~~chooses~~ the ~~weak<ref>From the Sentence of Rehabilitation:~~

All they had before them was Joan's own assertion that God had sent her to save France. Joan was most uncomplicated in the declaration, and when pressed to show a "sign", she replied that Orléans would be the sign, and to see it they'd have to send her there with the army first.

~~That our present Judgment may come as from the Face of God Himself~~, ~~Who weigheth~~ the ~~spirits, Who alone infallibly knoweth His revelations~~, and ~~doth hold them always at their true value. Who bloweth where He listeth, and doth often choose the weak~~ to ~~confound~~ the ~~strong, never forsaking those who trust in Him, but being their Support in their sorrows and their tribulations Murry p~~. ~~325</ref>~~

Whatever reservations the French clerics had held about her before Orléans turned after the battle either to acknowledgement of her as emissary of God, such as we see from Gélu and his fellow Bishop, Jean Gerson, who immediately wrote an ''apologia'' for the Maid, or, in the case of the Archbishop of Reims and newly installed Chancellor of France, Regnault de Chartres, acquiescence to events that were beyond his control.

Self-defeating, crossed ambition created the twisted scenario the young Joan was sent to fix in 1429, a crisis and cause hardly unique in history. Joan made it unique. She elevated the Hundred Years War to a higher purpose for the French, settling the issue of French royal succession. Doing so, she resolved the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war by staking it upon the larger war with the English and forcing the Burgundian hand: you're either French or not. By upholding "France" as a concept and not just a territory or deigned monarch, Joan diluted the Burgundian claim on both France and the Low Countries.<ref>The Burgundian state ended in 1482 when the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was killed at the battle of Nancy while at war with the Swiss Confederation and the Duke of Lorraine. Charles' daughter oversaw the incorporation of the Burgundian Netherlands into the Holy Roman Empire. (If you ever wondered how the Spanish got hold of the Dutch, there you have it.) France assumed control of the Burgundian lands that lay within the Kingdom of France. </ref>

Like so many rulers of young political entities, the Valois Burgundians<ref>Recalling that Philip the Bold was son of the Valois French King, John II, who granted the Duchy to him. </ref> sought expansion and autonomy, attempting to create an independent power to rival England and France. However, the Burgundian dukes, who were themselves French, having beholden themselves to England starting with the 1419 assassination of John the Fearless, depended on their hold on Paris to make themselves useful to the English.<ref>Barker observes, "Paris was a Burgundian city and the English had held it only because the duke was their ally and allowed them to do so. Though the kingdom’s administration was based in the city, most of its employees were French and few native Englishmen had actually taken up residence there." (Conquest p. 240)</ref> However, when French appeasement of the Burgundians ended with the 1432 arrest of the scheming minister Georges de La Trémoille by Joan of Arc's compatriot from the crucial Battle of Patay, Arthur de Richemont.<ref>Richemont, the Duke of Brittany, was one of the most notorious warlords in France, and was hated by the French for having jumped sides previously. Joan, however, welcomed the Duke and his 2,000 troops over the objections of the French military leadership.</ref>

While Trémoille had tried vainly to negotiate with the Duke of Burgundy to join the French cause, the Duke tried to turned it around and get Richemont, who had done so before, to jump sides to the English. But in 1435, after unleashing Joan's former commanders, La Hire and the Bastard of Orleans, Jean Dunois, to roam Normandy, Richemont instead got the Duke of Burgundy himself to switch to the French.<ref>Barker notes, "The military resurgence of the Armagnacs, and the increasingly brutal tactics they employed, were part and parcel of a campaign of terrorism which was planned to coincide with the renewal of peace talks.: Conquest, p. 220 </ref> The English cause was now lost. In a year Paris was recovered by France, along with it the University of Paris, whose clerics had so hated Joan of Arc for having interfered with their English gravy train.<ref>One might say that the Armagnac prelates had similarly tied their fates to the Dauphin. </ref> And so too began the decline of the Burgundian project, which, like the English-hold on small parts of France, was eventually worn down, succumbing entirely to a more cohesive and national France that arose around its renewed center, Paris.

== Saint Joan's moment ==

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 A prime actor in and beneficiary of those entanglements was the priest Pierre Cauchon who became Joan's chief persecutor at Rouen. Cauchon was allied with the Duke of Burgundy, and so where went the Duke, went Cauchon. He had participated in negotiations between the French King Charles VI and the Vatican in 1407 in an attempt to end the schism between a French-supported papal claimant (Avignon antipope) and the Pope at Rome.<ref>The English supported the Roman pope, so the French support for the Avignon antipopes was, among reasons, in opposition to the English. As Charles VI dropped his support for the Avignon antipope, which cleared the way for an ultimate resolution in 1415 with the resignation of Pope Gregory XII and ultimate election of Martin V whom Cauchon personally supported.</ref> In 1420, after holding various positions, such as dean at the University of Paris, chaplain of the Duke of Burgundy, archdeacon of Chartres and, in 1420, Bishop of Beauvais, the position under which he would exercise jurisdiction over Joan's Trial of Condemnation.<ref>Cauchon fled Rheims as the French Army, led by Joan of Arc, approached to make way for the coronation of Charles VII, "the Dauphin" of Joan's divine mission. Tight with the English, Cauchon moved to Rouen, where Joan would be tried. The excuse for Cauchon's ecclessiastical juridisdiction over her trial was that she had been captured in Compiėgne, which lay withing the Diocese of Beauvais.</ref> That same year, Cauchon helped negotiate the Treaty of Troyes, which granted to English King Henry V inheritance to the French throne following Charles VI. Cauchon's career took off as a primary liaison between the English and the Burgundians. He escorted the English royal claimant, Henry VI to France in 1430 and acted as Henry's personal counsellor at Rouen,<ref>Most of this section is from [[wikipedia:Pierre_Cauchon|Pierre Cauchon - Wikipedia]]</ref> the English administrative center in France.
-Had the English managed to push south of Orléans, an Armagnac stronghold and seat of the normal heir to the French throne, the Duke of Orléans (who was imprisoned in England at the time), they would have very likely taken all of France and enforced the Treaty of Troyes, which gave French succession to the English. Defending Orléans was the Duke's half brother, John the Bastard<ref>More elegantly In French, ''le'' ''bâtard d'Orléans.'' Fighting for the Armagnacs in 1418, he was captured by the Burgundians and released in 1420. He remained loyal to the Dauphin and was one of Joan's most reliable and loyal generals. Charles VII made him Count of Dunois in 1439 after he played an important role in the defeat of the English in the north of France, including Normandy.</ref>, who arrived to the city in October of 1428. He huddled the people inside the city walls, abandoning buildings and churches outside the boundaries. A deal was proposed, not by the Bastard, but by terrified citizens of Orléans, to the Duke of Burgundy that would yield the city to him while upholding its neutrality. Ordered by the English, the Duke refused it. Meanwhile within Orléans, desperation set in, especially following the French humiliation at the Battle of the Herrings on February 12 (the outcome of which Joan had predicted to Captain Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs).
+Self-defeating, crossed ambition created the twisted scenario the young Joan was sent to fix in 1429, a crisis and cause hardly unique in history. Joan made it unique. She elevated the Hundred Years War to a higher purpose for the French, settling the issue of French royal succession. Doing so, she resolved the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war by staking it upon the larger war with the English and forcing the Burgundian hand: you're either French or not. By upholding "France" as a concept and not just a territory or deigned monarch, Joan diluted the Burgundian claim on both France and the Low Countries.<ref>The Burgundian state ended in 1482 when the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was killed at the battle of Nancy while at war with the Swiss Confederation and the Duke of Lorraine. Charles' daughter oversaw the incorporation of the Burgundian Netherlands into the Holy Roman Empire. (If you ever wondered how the Spanish got hold of the Dutch, there you have it.) France assumed control of the Burgundian lands that lay within the Kingdom of France. </ref>
+Like so many rulers of young political entities, the Valois Burgundians<ref>Recalling that Philip the Bold was son of the Valois French King, John II, who granted the Duchy to him. </ref> sought expansion and autonomy, attempting to create an independent power to rival England and France. However, the Burgundian dukes, who were themselves French, having beholden themselves to England starting with the 1419 assassination of John the Fearless, depended on their hold on Paris to make themselves useful to the English.<ref>Barker observes, "Paris was a Burgundian city and the English had held it only because the duke was their ally and allowed them to do so. Though the kingdom’s administration was based in the city, most of its employees were French and few native Englishmen had actually taken up residence there." (Conquest p. 240)</ref> However, when French appeasement of the Burgundians ended with the 1432 arrest of the scheming minister Georges de La Trémoille by Joan of Arc's compatriot from the crucial Battle of Patay, Arthur de Richemont.<ref>Richemont, the Duke of Brittany, was one of the most notorious warlords in France, and was hated by the French for having jumped sides previously. Joan, however, welcomed the Duke and his 2,000 troops over the objections of the French military leadership.</ref>
+While Trémoille had tried vainly to negotiate with the Duke of Burgundy to join the French cause, the Duke tried to turned it around and get Richemont, who had done so before, to jump sides to the English. But in 1435, after unleashing Joan's former  commanders, La Hire and the Bastard of Orleans, Jean Dunois, to roam Normandy, Richemont instead got the Duke of Burgundy himself to switch to the French.<ref>Barker notes, "The military resurgence of the Armagnacs, and the increasingly brutal tactics they employed, were part and parcel of a campaign of terrorism which was planned to coincide with the renewal of peace talks.: Conquest, p. 220 </ref> The English cause was now lost. In a year Paris was recovered by France, along with it the University of Paris, whose clerics had so hated Joan of Arc for having interfered with their English gravy train.<ref>One might say that the Armagnac prelates had similarly tied their fates to the Dauphin. </ref> And so too began the decline of the Burgundian project, which, like the English-hold on small parts of France, was eventually worn down, succumbing entirely to a more cohesive and national France that arose around its renewed center, Paris.
+Back in 1429, had the English managed to push south of Orléans, an Armagnac stronghold and seat of the normal heir to the French throne, the Duke of Orléans (who was imprisoned in England at the time), they would have very likely taken all of France and enforced the Treaty of Troyes, which gave French succession to the English. Defending Orléans was the Duke's half brother, John the Bastard<ref>More elegantly In French, ''le'' ''bâtard d'Orléans.'' Fighting for the Armagnacs in 1418, he was captured by the Burgundians and released in 1420. He remained loyal to the Dauphin and was one of Joan's most reliable and loyal generals. Charles VII made him Count of Dunois in 1439 after he played an important role in the defeat of the English in the north of France, including Normandy.</ref>, who arrived to the city in October of 1428. He huddled the people inside the city walls, abandoning buildings and churches outside the boundaries. A deal was proposed, not by the Bastard, but by terrified citizens of Orléans, to the Duke of Burgundy that would yield the city to him while upholding its neutrality. Ordered by the English, the Duke refused it. Meanwhile within Orléans, desperation set in, especially following the French humiliation at the Battle of the Herrings on February 12, the outcome of which, it was said, Joan had predicted to Captain Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs.<ref>The sources for this story is debatably accurate. On the affirming side is that it was written not long after the events; on the other side, it may have been one of many stories about Joan flying about. For the (see Murray p. 11, fn 2).  Baudricourt died before the Rehabilitation Trial, so we don't hear his side. His lieutenants don't mention it. </ref>
 Soon after the Battle of Herrings, as things seemed to be falling apart, the Bastard received news of a mysterious "maid" who was going to rescue the city of Orléans. He was curious. He had received some reinforcements, but the situation was dire. He wrote, <blockquote>It is told that there had lately passed through the town of Gien a maid [''une pucelle''], who proclaimed that she was on her way to Chinon to the gentle Dauphin, and said that she had been sent by God to raise the siege of Orléans and take the King to his anointing at Reims.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19488/19488-h/19488-h.htm The Life of Joan of Arc (Contents), by Anatole France (Project Gutenberg)], p. i.143.</ref> </blockquote>So he sent emissaries to the King's court to see what was going on.
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 For the English, there was no need to play around with words: Joan was a witch. For Beaupère, at best, we can take literally his accusation that Joan was "cunning" or "deceitful," but the word choice, emphasized by its repetition, "subtle with the subtlety of a woman" was intended to be damning.
 Eight days before her execution at Rouen, the Bishop of Erard admonished Joan in a public sermon, which Manchon recalled as his having lamented,<ref>Murray, p. 170</ref> <blockquote>Ah! noble House of France, which hath always been the protectress of the Faith, hast thou been so abused that thou dost adhere to a heretic and schismatic? It is indeed a o great misfortune.   </blockquote>Another priest Ysambard de la Pierre similarly recalled the scene,<ref>Murray, 188</ref>  <blockquote>I was at the sermon of Maître Guillaume Érard, who took as his theme, <nowiki>''</nowiki> A branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the Vine," saying that in France there was no monster such as this Jeanne: she was a witch, heretic, and schismatic; and that the King who favoured her was of like sort for wishing to recover his kingdom by means of such an heretical woman. </blockquote>It's precisely what Beaupère meant all along: God would never have chosen a girl for this purpose, much less this girl who wasn't just a liar, she was seduced by demons.
-When Joan first appeared at Chinon in 1429, these same prejudices guided her reception. The Archbishop of Embrun, Jacques Gélu, warned the Dauphin to be careful with a peasant girl from a class that is "easily seduced." After Orleans, the Bishop had a change of heart. Applying the formula of the Evangelist, "by their fruits ye shall know them," he wrote,<blockquote>We piously believe her to be the Angel of the armies of the Lord.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/maidoffrancebein00languoft/page/146/mode/2up?q=Gelu The maid of France; being the story of the life and death of Jeanne d'Arc : Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912] (archive.org)</ref></blockquote>and he advised the Dauphin,<blockquote>do every day some deed particularly agreeable to God and confer about it with the maid.<ref>Pernoud, Joan of Arc: her story; p. 184</ref></blockquote>To save France is one thing, but to do it on behalf of God is something altogether different. As historian Deborah Fraioli observes, the situation of France in 1429 was, from the historical point of view, debatably not so dire as the French themselves believed at the time. (I hold that the situation was rather dire,) However, Fraioli says, from a theological point of view, "the situation takes on a different hue." Thus the theologians asked to investigate her on behalf of the French King, the Dauphin Charles, needed to consider that God wanted France saved at all, and even if it was correct to petition him for it. The problem facing them was that recourse to the divine must not precede man's own attempts at resolution. That is, did France justifiably need divine intervention at all?
+When Joan first appeared at Chinon in 1429, these same prejudices guided her reception. The Archbishop of Embrun, Jacques Gélu, warned the Dauphin to be careful with a peasant girl from a class that is "easily seduced."  After Orleans, the Bishop had a change of heart. Again mirroring what the Bishop or Erard would say two years later, Gélu applied the formula of the Evangelist, "by their fruits ye shall know them." Thus, he wrote,<blockquote>We piously believe her to be the Angel of the armies of the Lord.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/maidoffrancebein00languoft/page/146/mode/2up?q=Gelu The maid of France; being the story of the life and death of Jeanne d'Arc : Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912] (archive.org)</ref></blockquote>And he advised the Dauphin,<blockquote>do every day some deed particularly agreeable to God and confer about it with the maid.<ref>Pernoud, Joan of Arc: her story; p. 184</ref></blockquote>To save France is one thing, but to do it on behalf of God is something altogether different. As historian Deborah Fraioli observes, the situation of France in 1429 was, from the historical point of view, debatably not so dire as the French themselves believed at the time. (I hold that the situation was rather dire,) However, Fraioli points out, from a theological point of view, "the situation takes on a different hue."
-All they had before them was Joan's own assertion that God had sent her to save France. Joan was most uncomplicated in the declaration, and when pressed to show a "sign", she replied that Orleans would be the sign, but they'd have to send her there with the army.
+As such, the theologians asked to investigate Joan on behalf of the French King needed to consider if God wanted France saved at all, and even if it was correct to petition him for it.<ref>Note that the Bishop of Erard answered this question in reverse, saying that Joan was a punishment upon France.</ref> The problem facing them was that recourse to the divine must not precede man's own attempts at resolution. That is, did France justifiably need divine intervention at all?
->>here God chooses the weak<ref>From the Sentence of Rehabilitation:
+All they had before them was Joan's own assertion that God had sent her to save France. Joan was most uncomplicated in the declaration, and when pressed to show a "sign", she replied that Orléans would be the sign, and to see it they'd have to send her there with the army first.
-That our present Judgment may come as from the Face of God Himself, Who weigheth the spirits, Who alone infallibly knoweth His revelations, and doth hold them always at their true value. Who bloweth where He listeth, and doth often choose the weak to confound the strong, never forsaking those who trust in Him, but being their Support in their sorrows and their tribulations  Murry p. 325</ref>
 Whatever reservations the French clerics had held about her before Orléans turned after the battle either to acknowledgement of her as emissary of God, such as we see from Gélu and his fellow Bishop, Jean Gerson, who immediately wrote an ''apologia'' for the Maid, or, in the case of the Archbishop of Reims and newly installed Chancellor of France, Regnault de Chartres, acquiescence to events that were beyond his control.
-Self-defeating, crossed ambition created the twisted scenario the young Joan was sent to fix in 1429, a crisis and cause hardly unique in history. Joan made it unique. She elevated the Hundred Years War to a higher purpose for the French, settling the issue of French royal succession. Doing so, she resolved the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war by staking it upon the larger war with the English and forcing the Burgundian hand: you're either French or not. By upholding "France" as a concept and not just a territory or deigned monarch, Joan diluted the Burgundian claim on both France and the Low Countries.<ref>The Burgundian state ended in 1482 when the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was killed at the battle of Nancy while at war with the Swiss Confederation and the Duke of Lorraine. Charles' daughter oversaw the incorporation of the Burgundian Netherlands into the Holy Roman Empire. (If you ever wondered how the Spanish got hold of the Dutch, there you have it.) France assumed control of the Burgundian lands that lay within the Kingdom of France. </ref>
-Like so many rulers of young political entities, the Valois Burgundians<ref>Recalling that Philip the Bold was son of the Valois French King, John II, who granted the Duchy to him. </ref> sought expansion and autonomy, attempting to create an independent power to rival England and France. However, the Burgundian dukes, who were themselves French, having beholden themselves to England starting with the 1419 assassination of John the Fearless, depended on their hold on Paris to make themselves useful to the English.<ref>Barker observes, "Paris was a Burgundian city and the English had held it only because the duke was their ally and allowed them to do so. Though the kingdom’s administration was based in the city, most of its employees were French and few native Englishmen had actually taken up residence there." (Conquest p. 240)</ref> However, when French appeasement of the Burgundians ended with the 1432 arrest of the scheming minister Georges de La Trémoille by Joan of Arc's compatriot from the crucial Battle of Patay, Arthur de Richemont.<ref>Richemont, the Duke of Brittany, was one of the most notorious warlords in France, and was hated by the French for having jumped sides previously. Joan, however, welcomed the Duke and his 2,000 troops over the objections of the French military leadership.</ref>
-While Trémoille had tried vainly to negotiate with the Duke of Burgundy to join the French cause, the Duke tried to turned it around and get Richemont, who had done so before, to jump sides to the English. But in 1435, after unleashing Joan's former  commanders, La Hire and the Bastard of Orleans, Jean Dunois, to roam Normandy, Richemont instead got the Duke of Burgundy himself to switch to the French.<ref>Barker notes, "The military resurgence of the Armagnacs, and the increasingly brutal tactics they employed, were part and parcel of a campaign of terrorism which was planned to coincide with the renewal of peace talks.: Conquest, p. 220 </ref> The English cause was now lost. In a year Paris was recovered by France, along with it the University of Paris, whose clerics had so hated Joan of Arc for having interfered with their English gravy train.<ref>One might say that the Armagnac prelates had similarly tied their fates to the Dauphin. </ref> And so too began the decline of the Burgundian project, which, like the English-hold on small parts of France, was eventually worn down, succumbing entirely to a more cohesive and national France that arose around its renewed center, Paris.
 == Saint Joan's moment ==