Doctors of the University of Paris in session, in a French illuminated manuscript of the early 16th century; the university’s theologians had helped condemn Joan in 1431Image: Étienne Colaud · Public domainJoan of Arc is cleared, 25 years after her execution
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431, after a church court in English-held Normandy, led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, found her guilty of heresy. Her conviction was an embarrassment to Charles VII, the king she had helped crown at Reims. Once his armies had retaken Rouen, he ordered an inquiry, and in 1455 Pope Callixtus III allowed a new hearing, formally brought by Joan’s elderly mother, Isabelle Romée, and her brothers. The judges took evidence from well over a hundred witnesses, among them villagers from Domrémy, soldiers who had fought beside her and clerics who had sat through the first trial. On 7 July 1456, in the archbishop’s palace at Rouen, the sentence was read out: the earlier trial had rested on false charges, and it was declared null and void. A copy of the articles of accusation was torn up in public. Joan was canonised in 1920 and is now one of the patron saints of France.
Source: Vatican: Benedict XVI, general audience on Saint Joan of Arc (26 January 2011) ↗
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