Miracles of the Gods: A New Look at the Supernatural (89 page)

regardless of the cost. They knew that France would no longer have a force to drive her to unity without Joan (and her visions!). The English regarded their prisoner of war as a magician. For safety's sake they put the maid in an iron cage!

The trial began on 21st February, 1431, under the Bishop of Beauvais. The records [20] show that Joan's visions and voices were an essential part of the evidence.

22nd February, 1431 - a castle at Rouen.

The cross-examiner:
when did you first hear voices?

Joan:
I was thirteen years old when a voice from God rang out to help me to live righteously.

The cross-examiner:
Did the voices often haunt you?

Joan:
Two or three times a week they said to me: 'Thou shalt leave your village and go to France.'

The cross-examiner:
What else was revealed to you?

Joan:
I was told that I should raise the siege of Orleans ...

The vision gave Joan what was clearly a political task! When they threatened her with torture on 28th March in order to sentence her as a heretic, she abjured her visions.

Joan:
Since the Church asserts that my visions and revelations are unbelievable and cannot be supported, I do not wish to insist on them.

On 2nd April she retracted the recantation that had been wrung from her:
The Bishop:
Have you heard the voices of St. Katherine and St. Margaret since Thursday?

Joan:
God told me through the blessed ladies what miserable treason I had committed when I abjured and recanted in order to save my life.

On 30th May, 1431, lay executioners set fire to the stake with the tacit approval of the Christian judges. Joan died crying 'Jesus! Jesus!'

Twenty years later a court usher stated in evidence that Joan's heart had remained undamaged, although the rest of her body was completely destroyed.

It is no use puzzling or making far-fetched interpretations, the figures in Joan's visions wanted to achieve political goals. What kind of interest could the 'blessed in heaven' have in them?

In 1456 the Church saw its chance to lead both a saint and a national heroine back into the fold. The