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

“I know nothing about it. It was a great joy to see him; it seemed to me, when I saw him, that I was not in mortal sin. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret were pleased from time to time to receive my confession, each in turn. If I am in mortal sin, it is without my knowing it.”</blockquote>Always deferring to another topic when the prior line of questioning got them nowhere, and seizing on any point Joan made that could be twisted or used against her, her interrogators must have nearly jumped from their seats in glee at this one:<ref>Jeanne D‘arc, by T. Douglas Murray_The Trials_The Project Gutenberg eBook.pdf, p. 43</ref><blockquote>When you confessed, did you think you were in mortal sin?</blockquote>But they were up against a Saint. Joan replied,<blockquote>I do not know if I am in mortal sin, and I do not believe I have done its works; and, if it please God, I will never so be; nor, please God, have I ever done or ever will do deeds which charge my soul!</blockquote>The next day, they went straight at her visions. The scribe noted that she had previously testified that Saint Michael "had wings" but nothing about the forms of Saints Catherine and Margaret. The scribe noted,<ref>Jeanne D‘arc, by T. Douglas Murray_The Trials_The Project Gutenberg eBook.pdf, pp. 45-46</ref><blockquote>Afterwards, because she had said, in previous Enquiries, that Saint Michael had wings, but had said nothing of the body and members of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, We asked her what she wished to say thereon.</blockquote>Joan responded,<blockquote>“I have told you what I know; I will answer you nothing more. I saw Saint Michael and these two Saints so well that I know they are Saints of Paradise.”

“Did you see anything else of them but the face?”

“I have told you what I know; but to tell you all I know, I would rather that you made me cut my throat. All that I know touching the Trial I will tell you willingly.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The point of all this focus on the clothing and bodies of the Saints was to prove heresy by stating that she physically interacted with the Saints, when the Church held that angels and saints were not corporeal. From the charges filed against her by the Rouen court,<ref>Murray, p. 355</ref> <blockquote>Article XLI I. Jeanne hath said and published that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and Saint Michael have bodies — that is to say, head, eyes, face, hair, etc. ; that she hath touched them with her hands ; that she hath kissed them and embraced them. </blockquote>Skeptical historians make much of Joan's testimony on the physicality of her Saints and the Archangel Michael, saying that it was a theological trap that the ignorant girl fell into, as if she should have molded her testimony to match their doctrine. Then, they say that she made it all up to feed the judges imagined details to throw them off... of? It's unclear what they would have wanted her to do here, except not have had her experiences at all. Again, it ignores the record. Augustinian Bishop Jean Lefevre told the examiners at the Trial of Rehabilitation,<ref>Murray, p. 210, from May 9, 1452</ref> <blockquote>Jeanne answered with great prudence the questions put to her, with the exception of the subject of her revelations from God : for the space of three weeks I believed her to be inspired. She was asked very profound questions, as to which she showed herself quite capable ; sometimes they interrupted the enquiry, going from one subject to another, that they might make her change her purpose. The Examinations were very long, lasting sometimes two or three hours, so that the Doctors present were much fatigued. </blockquote>Lastly, the historians claim that she made it up since the [[Poitiers Conclusions]] don't mention the Saints or the Archangel, only that she had instructions "from God." To draw that conclusion, they have to ignore extensive witness testimony from the Trial of Rehabilitation stating that prior to Orleans Joan never mentioned them. Several pieces of evidence point to the contrary.