ABSTRACT

According to the scribe who annotated the final interrogation of Joan of Arc that occurred on May 28, 1431, what ultimately sent her to the stake as a relapsed heretic was her "fatal reply" that she had again heard her divine voices. The ecclesiastical case against Joan of Arc gradually narrowed to the central charge of idolatry. Joan was condemned for worshipping false gods, the saints of her visions, and for making herself into an idol of masculinity— a " false lie"— by wearing male attire. The denouement of Joan's judicial ordeal, her execution as a relapsed heretic, an idolater, was neither abrupt nor arbitrary; the final act was in the making for months as the trial passed through its various phases. Joan's transvestment was relentlessly scrutinized. Valerie R. Hotchkiss counts more than thirty appearances of the charge in the trial text's preliminary lists of accusations and admonishments.