reat Schism of the Catholic Church had been mended when Joan was only a young child. During the Schism, opposing factions within the Church supported either a pope residing in Rome, or one in Avignon, France (Pernoud 4). The Schism had allowed the University’s faculty members to become a great independent political power because they had dominated the former councils called by the Avignon popes (Lucie-Smith 208). To preserve their position, the University supported the concept that a General Council should rule the Church together with the Pope. This was similar to the manner in which the English crown and parliament functioned (Pernoud 106). The University faculty was a dictatorial body that demanded that heritage and faith be accepted without question, that men only believe what their appointed authorities told them to believe, and that belief in the supernatural was not reasonable. The doctors at the University considered themselves to be the experts in these matters. If Joan’s visions and voices were accepted to be fact, it would seriously undermine their authority and credibility. Additionally, Joan’s unsuccessful assault on Paris in September of 1429 had scared them and caused them to consider her to be a great threat to their power base (Lucie-Smith 208-209). The trial began on January 9, 1431, and took five months to complete (Pernoud 105). To lend legitimacy to the event, Cauchon requested that an officer of the Inquisition help officiate at the proceedings (Michelet 73). The Inquisition was a special council established by the Catholic Church to discover and investigate heretics. It was necessary to have a representative of the Inquisition be present whenever a bishop conducted a trial for heresy (Lucie-Smith 226). However, the local vice-inquisitor, a Dominican friar named Jean Lemaitre, did not want to be involved in the trial. He argued that he did not have jurisdiction to preside since the alleged heresy ...
