Joan Examined at Poitiers

1429

Before accepting Joan's offer of military service, Charles VII's theologians spent three weeks interrogating her at Poitiers about her voices, her chastity, and her orthodoxy. They found nothing heretical. The university cleared her to ride to Orleans. Medieval bureaucracy had performed its one great anti-bureaucratic act. The theologians concluded her prophecies could be tested at Orleans, a remarkably pragmatic verdict for a medieval ecclesiastical commission.