Archbishop at Rheims should be considered a criminal offence by the
Bishop of Beauvais? As regards the question of her submission to the
Church, Joan of Arc replied, when asked if she would submit to its
will, in these words: 'You speak to me of the "Church Militant" and of
the "Church Triumphant." I do not understand the signification of
those terms; but I wish to submit myself to the Church as all good
Christians should do.' What more could be required of her than this
entire submission to the Church? She had made that answer to the
doctors and clergy at Poitiers, and it had entirely satisfied those
men. What Joan of Arc had a clear right not to do was to submit
herself to her arch-enemy the Bishop of Beauvais. When she asked what
Cauchon and his judges called the 'Church Militant,' she was told it
consisted of the Pope and the prelates below him. She thereupon
exclaimed she would willingly appear before him, but that she would
not submit to the judgment of her enemies, and particularly not to
Cauchon. 'In saying this,' adds M. Wallon, 'she displayed her usual
courageous spirit. How eagerly had she,' he remarks (when told that if
she would submit herself to the Council then sitting at Bale, where
she would find some judges of her party among the English), 'appealed
to be allowed to bring her case before that Council; and it will be
remembered how Cauchon cursed the lawyer who had brought forward the
suggestion during the trial.' On that occasion escaped from the
prisoner's lips the cry which showed how well she knew the
unscrupulousness of her judges. On learning that her wish to appeal to
the Council of Bale by Cauchon's order was not to appear in that day's
report of the trial, she said, 'You write down what is against me, but
you will not write what is favourable to me.' Along with the twelve
articles, Cauchon enclosed a letter to the lawyers in Paris asking for
their opinion on what he calls the facts submitted to them, 'whether
they do not appear to be contrary to the orthodox faith, to the
Scriptures, and to the Church of Rome, and whether the learned members
of the Church and doctors do not consider such things as stated in
these articles as scandalous, dangerous to civil order, injurious and
adverse to public morals.' In every way Cauchon's letter was worthy of
its author.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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