The Hundred Years’ War between the English and the French would go on until 1453, but by leading Charles VII to his anointing at Reims, Joan had changed the dynamics of public opinion. In December 1431, the English staged an elaborate coronation for Henry VI at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, but it was too late and in the wrong city. Charles had been crowned at Reims and anointed with oil from the Holy Ampulla, proof enough that Charles, not Henry, was the true king of France.
The next big setback for the English came in 1435 with the Treaty of Arras that reconciled Philip of Burgundy and Charles VII. French forces took Paris the next year, and in 1440, the duke of Orleans returned from English captivity. On November 10, 1449, Rouen fell to the French. One of Charles VII’s first acts was to order an investigation into the 1431 proceedings that had condemned Joan of Arc to the stake.
Everyone knew that Charles VII owed his throne to the efforts of Joan of Arc, a woman who had been condemned and executed as a heretic. Although the English were in retreat, they could still claim moral superiority by pointing out that Charles had been placed on the throne by a heretic. To clear his own reputation, Charles had to clear Joan’s.
The French Inquisition, an agency of the papacy, had tried Joan. Charles VII had to proceed cautiously because he was not on easy terms with Rome. In a document known as the Sanction of Bourges (1438), he had challenged the authority of the pope in French ecclesiastical matters. Reopening Joan’s trial could place the king in an unwanted position of supplication, but Charles could not afford to be seen as owing his throne to a heretic. On February 15, 1450, he ordered Guillaume Bouille canon of Noyon to inquire into Joan’s trial.
Bouille was a theologian at the University of Paris. His inquiry was hampered by the fact that the university had played a major part in Joan’s condemnation. Bouille summoned seven witnesses but did not have time to examine all the trial documents before King Charles ordered him to break off the investigation in March. The war with the English was still going on, and men who had been instrumental in Joan’s death now occupied positions of power on the French side. In his report, Bouille advised the king that the matter was one that should be pursued.
A second inquiry into Joan’s trial was initiated by Guillaume d’Estouteville, a papal legate who was related to Charles VII. D’Estouteville’s family had lost property as a result of the English occupation of Normandy and had been staunch supporters of Charles VII. As the representative of Pope Nicholas V, d’Estouteville had a responsibility to uphold the rights of the papacy, but as a Frenchman and a kinsman of the French king, he had reason to want to clear him of heresy by association. On May 2, 1452, d’Estouteville began an inquiry that lasted until May 22. The conclusion was that Joan’s trial in Rouen by the Anglo-Burgundian sympathizers was “null and void.”
The results of the second inquiry should have been enough to put to rest the concerns of Charles VII, but d’Estouteville was not finished. He returned to Rome, leaving the inquisitor Jean Brehal to continue the investigation by collecting information and opinion regarding Joan’s trial. Two years later, in the spring of 1455, Joan’s mother and brothers, represented in Rome by d’Estouteville, came forward as plaintiffs. They addressed a petition to the new pope, Calixtus III, demanding that the injustice that had condemned Joan to the stake as a heretic be redressed. The pope appointed three French prelates to cooperate with Brehal in addressing the petition from the d’Arc family. Witnesses were called, and the third inquiry into Joan’s condemnation began.
The inquiry of 1455-56 used to be called the Rehabilitation Trial, but it did nothing to “rehabilitate” Joan. The witnesses testified to her goodness and military ability, but the only conclusion reached by the judges was that the trial of 1431 had not been conducted legally. In a symbolic gesture, pages containing Cauchon’s charges were burned by the public hangman in the square at Rouen and the verdict of heresy was annulled. The inquiry is now referred to as the Nullification Trial. Although 150 witnesses testified to Joan’s orthodoxy and goodness, nothing in the final judgment refers to whether or not she was innocent of heresy. The people of Orleans were given permission to continue their annual procession in Joan’s honor and to build a commemorative statue. Otherwise, the veneration of Joan of Arc was officially discouraged, with the express warning that “images and epitaphs” must not be set up at Rouen or elsewhere. As far as the church was concerned, Joan of Arc could be tolerated as the local heroine of Orleans, but she was no saint. Nearly 500 years would pass before the Catholic Church would change its official position, but its neglect did nothing to prevent Joan of Arc from developing into a phenomenal icon of popular culture.
World History
