Joan of Arc was burned as a heretic. Now she is a saint. How does the Roman Catholic Church explain this? It turned out that the Roman Catholic Church has murdered its own saint? Has any logical explanation ever been offered for this?
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How can common believers be sure that the Church's decisions are correct and not erroneous? – brilliant May 01 '12 at 06:29
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3It gets complex here as to whether execution is murder, especially when talking about military campaigns... – Marc Gravell May 01 '12 at 08:32
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@Marc - Well, let's then just change "murder" to "end the life of" – brilliant May 01 '12 at 08:44
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Also in fiction there's the play, Saint Joan, by George Bernard Shaw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joan – Walter Mitty May 01 '12 at 10:42
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She was burned by the English clergy who denied her appeal to the Pope near the end of the Hundred Years War and she was cleared of all charges only 30 years after her death (even though it took almost 500 years to canonize her).
And yeah, there's been extensive research and analysis of what happened. The trial and the aftermath is all amazingly well documented and worth reading; or if you prefer historical fiction Mark Twain has an awesome book about her.
Thomas Shields
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