The Trial of Jeanne d’Arc

A standard reference source for historical research on Joan of Arc, this volume is an English translation of one of the Latin copies of the first trial of Joan of Arc—also known as the “condemnation trial”—where the English-supporting Inquisition found Joan guilty of heresy and condemned her to death at the stake. The trial record demonstrates astounding intellect from the 19-year-old Christian girl with a peasant background. When asked under oath whether she was in God’s grace, she answered: “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me,” thus evading the scholarly trap they had set for her. If she had simply answered “no,” she would have confessed her own guilt; if she had said “yes,” she would have convicted herself of heresy (Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God’s grace).