e. Established procedures for the Inquisition permitted a lawyer to represent the accused, but Joan stood alone without a lawyer to help her (Pernaud 109). The trial began with Joan refusing to swear to tell the truth since she did not know what they intended to ask her. She was finally persuaded to swear to tell the truth about her religious beliefs (Pernoud 109). For days she was asked questions about her youth, her voices, and her activities prior to her meeting with Charles. The judges continually badgered and tried to confuse and entrap her with trick questions (Thurston). There were six public interrogation sessions conducted by the court. Joan’s strength, honesty, and her ability to remember the answers she had given previously to the questions she had been asked impressed witnesses to these sessions. Joan was a “tough nut to crack”, and Cauchon became worried about the outcome of the trial. For this reason, he decided to stop the public sessions and continue the trial by conducting future interrogations in private (Lucie- Smith 241-242). There were nine interrogation sessions conducted behind the closed doors of the prison. The legal experts, after a review of the transcripts, were not impressed with these proceedings. There were criticisms that the proper procedures were not followed, sessions were held in secret, and the judges were not free to express their own opinions. They also felt that it was unfair to expect an uneducated peasant girl to answer the questions she was being asked without the benefit of a lawyer (Michelet 85-86). However the theologians saw things differently. A thorough review of the transcripts by them resulted in seventy propositions of Joan’s crimes. These were extracted from the answers she had given to questions, but their meanings were twisted and most were taken out of context. These propositions were used as the basis for twelve accusations against her (Michelet 86-87). The...
