Revived Thoughts Deep Dive (Preview): Joan of Arc

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by the worth your time podcast for your host, that's me, Erica Anderson. brings you unique and interesting conversations with Christian women working in the intersection of faith, politics, and culture. See you there! Hey everybody, Joel here at the top of the show.

[00:00:16] Troy and I are excited to be bringing another deep dive. This one on Joan of Arc, and if you're new to Revived Thoughts, occasionally everyone's from on Troy and I will do what we call these deep dive episodes, which are usually a two-hour

[00:00:28] episode where we just focused on the history of a moment in time and church history. We've done a one on the Salem Witch Trials. We've done one on the first crusade and now. We're doing one on Joan of Arc.

[00:00:41] We like to pick topics that you know you're probably aware of, but maybe you don't know all the details about it. While the full two-hour episode is only available for patrons and the Patreon feed,

[00:00:50] we like to put out kind of an bridge virgin here on the main feed to make people aware of what the content is like. So give this a listen, hopefully you'll learn a thing or two about Joan of Arc and if

[00:01:01] you find it interesting, consider becoming a part of our Patreon team supporting us. I'm curious, how much do you know about Joan of Arc off the top of your head? Is it something that you took a fascination in and have done some research yourself

[00:01:13] or is it just something that's kind of something that you're aware of based on just pulp culture through the years? I asked some people around me what they knew about Joan of Arc. She died. She was a ranch. She led a group of people in battle.

[00:01:35] I don't know, she's actually there in the battle. Joan of Arc, they made a movie a better. She believed she was told I got to lead an army. She was like, oh, really young and she did it. It still existed at 18. She was young.

[00:01:52] Young peasant girl who had a vision from the Lord to help the French revolt against an uncoming enemy and later it was deemed as saint and burnt to stake. I don't remember. The English, I feel like it's always the English fighting the French. So I think Catholic.

[00:02:12] No, yep. Well, it's good that she went Catholic again. Do you have a secret mine? Joan of Arc? I think she had like short brown hair. What else? All right. We're going to jump in here. It's this is about an hour into the episodes.

[00:02:28] So we've literally spent probably about 50 minutes setting up the era. This is taking place in the 1300s. It's during one of the worst centuries of all time. You have the black death. You have the worst famines the world has ever seen.

[00:02:43] And it's all happening during what we call the 100 years war where France and England were at war. So there might be some things in here that we mentioned that are implied because we've talked about them already in the full episode,

[00:02:54] but I still think it's very informative and a lot of fun even in this specific context of us pulling out what we're starting right at the beginning of Joan's story. She comes on the scene here in the 1300s. And this is how she's introduced to the world here.

[00:03:13] Joan of Arc. Steps into this situation and changes everything. Fourteen twelve. She's born. There are questions about her upbringing. The story has always gone that she was a peasant, but I did see some academic saying, no, no, she can't be a peasant. She could write horses.

[00:03:30] She could speak to lords with persuasion. She could lead armies. Her family had to be higher up. But there's no evidence that she was anything other than the peasant and besides the conjecture of academic saying, well, we just don't think she could. There's no evidence that they're right.

[00:03:46] If you automatically exclude the supernatural or anything special happening with humans, you have to explain those very answers where did she learn to write horses? Why could she speak to lords and convince them what's going on? And why was she able to lead armies?

[00:04:01] I understand why academic people want to say that she is a higher class family, but the problem is, all the evidence shows she was born to peasant. In fact, we know who those peasant swerer her brothers will be around for a long time after she dies.

[00:04:12] We know the family. And so it's really hard to say she was born to hire a family. We already know where she came from. We talked about it a bit, but pezons are not considered very important and they're down on this whole

[00:04:24] century of the 1300s that lead into the 1400s, the people who took it, the hardest, or the pezons. They could not leave the land of their lords easily. That's what being a peasant is. You're tied down to the land and you're stuck.

[00:04:36] You basically could not leave because if you left, you had to have a job on the other side of that fence, wherever you were going, or you would starve because there was no real other way to make money.

[00:04:46] Sadly, because the English raids had often happened on these towns and France. Many people were just having a hard time even getting a spot to get a job. In fact, Joan of Arx owned village would be burnt down and would be rated a couple different times

[00:04:59] in a, especially at one point, burnt down. As the English were targeting the villages and the pezons to demoralize the French and to take away their food, she did not have what you would call an ideal childhood.

[00:05:10] And we know this. This is not, again, conjecture like maybe she was a higher family. We know where she was. Before this next part, though, it's important to explain this a little bit about how we know, Joan of Arx. You're saying, okay, we know this.

[00:05:23] Well, how do we know this? Right? It was this medieval tale that was passed to us. Where were we getting all this from? Some have said that she is the most written about woman from medieval history.

[00:05:34] What we know actually comes about from the testimonies given an English court of law, which you'll hear about in a little bit at the end of the episode. This meant lawyers, and judges, and security cards, prosecutors, all that stuff,

[00:05:46] are cross-examining and arguing and witnesses are called into verifier, not verifying what we know about what happened. It doesn't mean that it was perfect. We see in the Salem witch trials that, you know, courts can definitely get it wrong.

[00:05:59] But it also shows this isn't just hearsay or, you know, the home, the the iliator, something where just some story is made up and everyone goes, that sounds great. So, and this would look back at the people of the past and say, you know,

[00:06:08] these people are kind of stupid. They don't know what they're doing. But remember, they knew how to conduct courtrooms. We learned courtrooms from them. They knew about crazy people too. They had, it was not like something they had never heard of.

[00:06:18] They had people who had mental challenges as well. And they were aware of those situations. And they were aware of conniving, conmen as well. They know about these things just as much as we do. What we have is written down and still can be read and preserved.

[00:06:30] This story, this testimony is actually held in the library of France exactly as well as we had the originals. Which means that this is why this is a story is, this is the official state sanctioned version of events. This is France has gone through and said,

[00:06:42] this is how it happened. We don't understand maybe. But this is what we have on the record. It is officially what happened according to the English. These aren't even the good guys. Okay? Like the French would want Joan of Art to be cool. The English are saying,

[00:06:56] this is how we think it happened. And they're the bad guys. Like this would be Joan of Art's enemies saying, all these miracles we say are they are happening. But we just don't think there were God's miracles or something like that. Yeah, but they don't think she's crazy.

[00:07:10] Exactly. Which is important. The English do not accuse her of being crazy. They accuse her of heresy. They accuse her of things. But they do not accuse her of being out of her mind.

[00:07:19] So as you go through this story and want to say, but I should be crazy, right? Well, that's not what the English her enemies were saying. And if they could have proven she was crazy,

[00:07:28] they had a lot of reason to do so because she was very popular. And if you can say, look, she's a mad woman. We proven it. Well, there you go. You've ruined her testimony and you've

[00:07:36] ruined that whole movement behind her. This is not just some strange story someone told this is the royal courts that were figuring out trying to find out was Joan? Was there something

[00:07:48] divine happening? Yeah, and this is this type of stuff that Troy and I like love to talk about the debate of Mike essentially it all just boils down to this moment in her life when she was

[00:07:58] 13 years old Joan of Arc began to hear voices that she believed were from God and that God was sending her on a mission to save France for God. And this is the question that this episode

[00:08:12] centers around, right? Troy mentioned that that's what people wanted to know was Joan of Arc crazy was she making up these voices or is it possible that God was communicating to her with specific tasks and specific information that the rest of the people didn't have was she

[00:08:29] crazy was she skits a fronic? You know, as she had a mental disorder that was creating these voices was she putting on an act? And as we go throughout this episode, Troy and I, you know, well, we'll

[00:08:39] speculate. We'll give our opinions on it. But it's also something that we try to approach approach as non bias as we can because this kids fuzzy, we have a lot of if you start with the perspective

[00:08:54] right. Nobody can hear a voice from God then you've already tainted the water because you've already said the spiritual doesn't exist. Right. As Christians, we know that spiritual does

[00:09:03] so we try to step back even more and be a little more neutral than that and say okay well if it can happen what would it look like? Yeah, Troy and I want to be very careful that we never

[00:09:11] say that something God didn't happen. We don't want to discredit God's work that he's working here but as we said at the beginning of the show, it also doesn't mean that you know just because

[00:09:21] someone says something was of God doesn't necessarily mean that it was for sure you could be making it all up. But we want to entertain the idea that God is at work and does use people through it

[00:09:33] and it's it's again, it's kind of something fun to theorize and debate about we do see a lot of instances throughout Church history, Augustine heard voices from God when he got converted. John G. Patton heard voices of Pacific Islanders begging him to come to them during his

[00:09:51] dreams and also throughout the day St. Patrick had a dream of many voices crying out to him to come to Ireland St. Francis believed that he heard a voice of God talking to him to change his

[00:10:03] lifestyle. Harriet Tubman famously thought that she heard God's voice telling her to flee the south and you might say okay well they heard God to speak to them on a specific occasion, a specific mission. Joan of Arc she claimed she regularly heard voices in her head but people

[00:10:20] often talk about Martin Luther having these arguments with the devil. There's this famous story of him throwing an inkwell at what he supposed to be claims was the devil tormenting him as he was

[00:10:33] working on translating the Bible and there's a stain on the wall of his study where that ink splashed up against the wall and you can supposedly go see it to this day. But I don't think

[00:10:42] anyone would claim Martin Luther is crazy or schizophrenic and again we're not saying one way or another at this moment whether Joan of Arc was in talks with God or not but the point we're trying

[00:10:54] to make is if we're going to write someone in history off for one thing we want to be consistent to write other people off for the same thing and we don't write Martin Luther off in history.

[00:11:06] So what are things about Joan of Arc you know was it because she was Catholic that she gets rid of as crazy but while there were kind of pre-reformers definitely in this era for sure

[00:11:16] this is over a hundred years before Luther came on this and this is a hundred years before the great reformation as we think of it took place. Luther I mean he technically he was a Catholic

[00:11:26] when the Lord started using him there and you know he obviously started a huge move and that led to our Protestantism and everything along those lines but God uses people in all types of places.

[00:11:38] What's interesting in her story specifically is that no one ever accuses her of being crazy throughout the story which is kind of shocking to see because she was tested and as Troy says the royal

[00:11:51] cards that the lojons of the day challenged her and tested her with extreme bias, with prejudice trying to prove that she was a reticular that these voices that she was hearing were not supernatural

[00:12:06] in some way and most of these people would end up joining her coming to her side coming along side her and believing in who she was as a person. Think about this is kind of a fun thought

[00:12:18] experiment here what if you know we would look at this and say like God doesn't speak people and voices you know in today's day and age why would we think that what if because that's how people

[00:12:32] thought that God communicated with people back in that day that that's how God chose to communicate with people in that day because that's how you know people's perception that's how they thought that

[00:12:40] God would communicate with them he yeah he is if he goes okay you think I speak to you directly and this case I need some history to move. I'm not ready for France to become an English territory

[00:12:52] that doesn't fit in with my grand scheme. So what if I am going to do exactly what they know maybe we don't do it today because God is speaking and using things a little differently but in this case

[00:13:02] he did exactly what they were expecting him to do. Yeah so again Troy we'll get into our opinion. Is she crazy is there something supernatural going on here that remains to be talked about

[00:13:15] that remains to be thought about that remains to be seen in the grand scale of eternity whether she was actually crazy or not but when it comes to how we look at the information when it comes

[00:13:24] to how we analyze it again Troy and I want to try to look at this from an objective point of view and we don't want to have double standards. We want to be careful we don't doubt how the Holy Spirit

[00:13:34] works and how the Holy Spirit moves while also maintaining good theology and testing it against what we've seen in the Bible you know I have scripture tells us to do. Yeah and maybe one or

[00:13:44] fun to final thoughts on this as I think important. A to be fair to the supernatural I get these voices could be demot and you gotta just put it out there like you know if there are supernatural

[00:13:55] things that can speak God is on the table but you do have to include the other side could also we have an say as well and the other thing we will say is that interestingly Joan of Arc

[00:14:04] originally rejects the voices she told the voices which were urgent her to do good and do the king and say them and she said I'm an illiterate peasant girl I don't have a ride horses I don't

[00:14:13] have a fight I'm not going to do this basically and she says according to her testimony it took her three years before she just finally gave up and said okay God if you want me to do this I will do

[00:14:22] this I will listen to what I'm being told to do but she does not originally go oh cool I'm gonna go save France let me run off and do it about the age of 15 she tells her parents in the

[00:14:32] village that she grew up and you know the village I've been burned down she's been there her whole life peasant girl like all the rest of them and says I'm being told by God that I have to go save

[00:14:41] France and I and that these voices are telling me and so at first people mock laugh they tell her yeah you're crazy but by the end of the year the village is behind her and her uncle will be the person who

[00:14:53] escorts her to a local land a local lord to help her we don't know what she did to convince him that she wasn't crazy but she did manage to convince the entire village to stand behind her and to you know

[00:15:06] escort her off that is in of itself just quite a feat imagine what it would take to convince your home town you know you were on a mission from God your friends your family or neighbors that is no

[00:15:18] small task and she's able to do it in a couple months the noble lord he rejects her at first the first time she comes he goes hey I'm here to I'm here to help win France we got to we got some

[00:15:27] things we gotta do no I don't think you are but she spends time just kind of going up to the guards of this noble man pretty much every day just saying I really need to speak to the lord can you

[00:15:37] get him to give me a second chance and over time they go you know I think the lord got the wrong this guy got the wrong impression of her she's not a witch she's not feeble minded she's a quiet

[00:15:46] in their own words it was that she's just kind of quiet firm believer she just really blues she sent by god to save France so they they kind of get moved towards her they get they get convinced

[00:15:55] of her mission too so she goes look I can help win the war effort I can get us to victory and he says can you give me some kind of sign that you are being sent on a mission from god if this is

[00:16:05] a mission from god show me some evidence that you're from god and so she says okay I want you to know that Oralins is currently losing the siege to the English and you're gonna hear of it very

[00:16:16] soon a few days later a report comes from some messengers rides in and they tell him exactly what Joan has said that we're losing Oralins and it's not very much long or before that city has gone

[00:16:28] to English too and he remembers what Joan said he can send some minder her and says okay you know I don't know what's going on here but I'm gonna go ahead and escort you to the king

[00:16:37] let the king kind of deal with you you did do what you said you were gonna do and saw him and accept that too so he sends her to the king in the man that's supposed to be king on the French side a man named

[00:16:47] Charles Charles is a very important person in the story in some ways you can't have a Joan without Charles and he is the person that Joan believes she is sent to help he had not yet been crowned

[00:17:01] king of the French you know one of the biggest reasons was the oil that was always used to crown the kings of France was in one part of the country rhymes very far away and that it was deeply

[00:17:13] in English controlled and without that oil or trying to go get that oil and getting attacking any defeated on the way without that you really couldn't have the king of France but without any

[00:17:23] way to get to it you didn't see had this guy supposed to be king he's not crowned nothing special happening he is just on the outskirts of society and that is who Joan is going to be sent

[00:17:32] too yeah like it it's like an annoying to know oil not like a not like a crude oil yeah this isn't a petroleum for his car like yeah like an annoying to know so Joan was given a warhorse by the

[00:17:44] Lord of the land despite not knowing how to ride a horse and she hopped on and rode it perfectly which is kind of a big point in the story peasants were not given horses to ride and train on

[00:17:56] to be able to ride a horse like this out of the gate it's like throwing your keys at someone who's never driven a car and they take off no problem in managed a 12 day road trip but no prior experience

[00:18:06] oh and also she's riding through enemy infested territory that will happily you know take off your head if they find you so she's having to maneuver the horse very specifically ride through towns

[00:18:19] be stealthy at times it takes a lot of towns so that's one of the one of the first things we're like how does this girl know the horse like that and on the way there Joan dawned on the men's

[00:18:29] war gear and cut her hair short trying to balloon den with other soldiers of that era and this whole concept of Joan of Arc cross dressing in air quotes is something that we will talk about it's

[00:18:43] a part of her story it's part of her controversy and we'll get more into that and our thoughts on that but when Joan was getting close this this peasant girl that was sent by God when the king

[00:18:55] himself heard that this lady was riding on her way to come and meet him he set up a decoy he hid in the crowd and he put a decoy keen on the throne dressed him in all of his royal guards

[00:19:09] and he put on plain clothes and hid among other nights and counselors and nobility in the court room there and when Joan arrived on the scene a woman who had never seen the king herself she marked

[00:19:23] straight up to the king in his plain clothes hunched over on the side with trying to balloon den with the crowd and she took a knee before him and said God grant you a long life and the plane dressed

[00:19:37] man pointed to the throne and said you mean the king over there and she said no it is you the king ask her asked her what she wanted and she said my name is Jean the maid Jean the maid Jean is

[00:19:49] actually what her actual like that's how we would call her now that's what her name translates to in our English and the maid being just a peasant right so she's Jean the maid we call her Joan

[00:19:59] of Arc she's got a cool title in retrospect Jean the maid didn't catch on like you know all right Jean the maid and the king of heaven speaks unto you by me saying that you shall be anointed and

[00:20:12] rhymes the city that they and this was the city that he gets you with that that anointing oil to crown the the king of France so he naturally wanted to know what he needed to do and she said

[00:20:23] sin her center to lead the armies at orlines and the victory would be theirs the nobles and the people scoffed and laughed at a woman leading an army but the king granted it and an army was being

[00:20:36] sent to orlines and Joan was tasked to lead it but this wasn't all of a sudden she went through rigorous questioning a lot of questioning she was taken to accountus who made sure that she was

[00:20:51] a virgin and not a witch she then had Francis greatest theologians questioner and they all gave her a clear bill of sanity you know there was no heresy found in her testimony in our claims and this

[00:21:06] was out of time again where the church was really trying to rebuild its reputation the Catholic church again I would say as an all-time blow as far as how the public viewed them and their corruption

[00:21:17] so they didn't want heresy within the church if there was something that they thought was red flag with Joan of Arc I feel like they would it would have they thought it would have been in their best

[00:21:29] interest to pull her from that position even did like a what we would consider like a background check except it's like a medieval version of a background trek where they sent scribes to her home village

[00:21:40] and interviewed everyone and questioned everyone and nothing came back crazy no no one ever no one said she was great in fact everyone vouched for everyone as a fan of Joan everyone believed

[00:21:51] Joan and her story in her testimony by the way I didn't actually write this in the my notes but I'm just listening to the story I mean just imagine Europe hasn't curled at the age of 14

[00:22:00] 15 16 maybe you're just imagine your girl at 16 or whatever or what you were doing at 16 you're this is the first time you've ever seen a king it's the first time you've ever been kind of an

[00:22:08] appallous like situation I mean how nervous would you be would you speak with such confidence I mean she's just doing things so differently than I think you just we talked about like what we're talking

[00:22:18] about like well what is she actually sent on divine mission but just as a human as a teenager you were a peasant you know you were a peasant and farm and or whatever you know a few months ago

[00:22:30] suddenly you're in a balance for the first time of your life that experience alone is easy to miss in all this but this is exactly what happens here at this point she's been tested by the king

[00:22:40] she was tested by that noble lord from before she was tested by those captain of the guards that were around the no one she was tested by the theologians she's tested by the countest she

[00:22:48] was tested back home and in her village that's a lot of people and they all come to the same conclusion she's not crazy in fact we think we believe in her now this idea that we kind of came up with

[00:22:59] the last hundred years to write her office crazy some people were saying oh she's epileptic or she skits a frenic and just doesn't really pass the test in a meaningful way because it just it's

[00:23:07] like a modern way to explain something we don't understand and again it just makes the story stranger she was allowed at this point to pick some people to join her so she gets a squire she adds her brothers

[00:23:18] to a military team she can't you know come on guys and she's given some armor by the king um they asked her do you need a weapon as she says no no I don't need a weapon there's an ancient cathedral

[00:23:27] over here and i'm gonna take a sword from over there and people kind of laugh it off but they but they send some people over there and look for an ancient sword and they find one and it's

[00:23:36] in pretty good condition some finding condition that have been buried under the dirt so they go well you were right there is a sword over here here you go that's her sword it's actually

[00:23:45] as his armor she makes this banner and it just was the name of the Lord Jesus on it that will be her symbol throughout the war we have you know paperwork and letters that we believe are written

[00:23:53] by her and it's just this banner is the judgment seat of Christ that the name of Christ on it and that's what she would use as her official symbol um and she would write to the front and

[00:24:02] of the armies and wave it as she's in different battles and so she would write at the very front of this reinforcement army headed to Orleans and if nothing else you can definitely say that Joan

[00:24:11] was not hiding that she's saying this is not this is a mission from Christ that's what I'm about I got the judgment seat on my symbol I'm wearing a banner that says his name that's that's what's

[00:24:20] going on here now some questions some historians question of whether she was seen as a symbol of hope to a failing regime maybe she's kind of like a mascot you know like we need something let's tell the

[00:24:29] people gods on our side others say that maybe it was a belief maybe she was actually sent from God maybe that's why Charles picked it nothing else was working perhaps maybe she is what goddess sending

[00:24:41] and I think about it from the Kings perspective for a second you have failed every way left and right for 100 years to stop English you were on the edge of the end you can't even be crowned

[00:24:51] you're losing your last city um Orleans yet another city that's going through a siege you've seen already how this story plays out things are desperate what kind of condition or you in as the king

[00:25:02] if you allow a farm girl to lead your army if you go this is our last hurrah let's just put this girl who came into my palace five minutes ago to run the stage are you gonna do that if you're

[00:25:15] not pretty sure or at least there's a real chance she's being used by god in the same time you are very desperate you're at your wits and maybe you're praying and hoping for a miracle maybe

[00:25:25] you're just hoping maybe this is actually from God and he's asking me to trust something that makes no sense and so I'm just gonna do that because I have nothing else nothing else is worked for

[00:25:34] 100 years our strength as France has ended let's just try it this way and maybe God will do something great and maybe we'll be remembered she promised something back when the theologians questioner

[00:25:44] she said the proof can't come from your questioning of me the proof has to come from the battle of Orleans everything for her was writing on whether she could win in Orleans whether she could do what

[00:25:55] was not able to be done by the soldiers and for her that required them to actually listen to her so when she gets there the leaders of Orleans see this woman showing up and they're I'm from god

[00:26:04] and they go you know you're not okay so the first none of them listen to her and that you can see why that would happen she was told that they could not win without more soldiers and they

[00:26:15] she was told that she know she's like I want to go attack and I know we need more soldiers we can't possibly attack them right now we're barely hanging on with what we had and so she kind of

[00:26:24] puts us around for a week she tells the soldiers what she's about she's encouraging them she's trying to get a battle started trying to get people excited but there's just nothing working and one day she's meditating was suddenly she stands up she throws her arm around

[00:26:36] she grabs her sword that ancient you know cathedral sword and says to everyone around her it's time to fight I got to get to the fight and from where they were in the city no one even knew

[00:26:45] of fight was happening but she just takes off running and they find on the other side of the city there is a fight occurring actually an English for just outside the city there is a little bit

[00:26:53] of a battle happening so she arrives she said we're going to take this for and they do they take that fort and the next day she passes out a letter of defiance to the English and she says hey we're

[00:27:01] going to win this for kind of a war pamlet people are getting fired up they're liking this girl and they're liking what she's saying she's saying something wanted to hear the next day she's you

[00:27:08] know goes to another fort they charge it but when they get there the English retreat to a better force they actually take a fort without even having to fight it and then they go to the other

[00:27:15] fort we're no one's expecting them and they take that one too she's she's actually pulling it off and soon the leaders are listening to her and she's starting to call some shots because

[00:27:23] she's been successful now tried and true historians do not know what to make of this part of the story they go on the one hand they had just been changing up strategies that she just kind

[00:27:32] of get lucky and swinging there we're on the other hand it just seemed like they're actually taking some orders from her and listening to her and saying no there's something too what she's

[00:27:40] saying now she promised two things at the battle of Orleans first that she would give proof but second that she would get injured there one night she took she had a monk with her at

[00:27:48] the time and she looks at them and goes stay close to me the next day because you're going to see me bloody and in the middle of the fight the next day she's leading the charge and she gets hit

[00:27:56] with a crossbow she gets it fixed up she she recovers from this crossbow hit doesn't kill her doesn't it doesn't even permanently injure in fact later on that night she's back in there in

[00:28:04] the battlefield she picks up her banner her judgment seat of Christ thing and waves it around kind of been dropped into the ditch and when they see her back they knew she had been injured they

[00:28:13] see her back they see her wave in the fly everyone gets excited and they go you know what we can do this and once again they take another fort and all these victories start piloting up and soon

[00:28:21] the English go you know what we're not winning this fight fight this is the first time the French are kind of pushing us back they retreat they don't really know what to do so they leave

[00:28:29] or lanes and suddenly both things that she had promised that she was going to take or elings and that she was going to be injured but survived came true and it kind of changes the game

[00:28:41] yeah so or lanes is now recaptured by the French part of her quest part of her mission was to get this king of France anointed as king in rhymes that's the city they needed to get to do that and so

[00:28:56] Joan of Arc spends a little bit more time there around Orleens cleaning up things running off any rebellion groups that are around the area and she eventually returns to the

[00:29:06] king and says all right now is our time when you need to get to rhymes you need to get anointed as king does not want to do it he saw no real motivation because rhymes is again an enemy hands right now

[00:29:19] Paris is half the distance he said why don't we go to Paris why don't we do Paris Paris isn't nearly as overrun within a means as rhymes is we could we could do like a little makes shift

[00:29:32] a crowning ceremony in Paris but Joan convinced him no we have to go to rhymes and this was mostly due to the lords and generals that were with Joan of Arc and the testimonies that they

[00:29:45] had saying hey we are actually fully behind this Joan go on now you should do what she says they had all of these stories of how she saved their lives there was one that was about to get hit by

[00:29:56] cannon that was going off but Joan warned him there was another that was about to get crushed by a stone that was hitting his head but Joan pulled them out of the way and saved him from that as well so

[00:30:07] she has this reputation as being for the people caring for the people saving the people and leading them to victory in that and so with the testimony of the generals the king said all right

[00:30:18] we're gonna go to rhymes and he gathered 12,000 men and they set out for this long march and by this point the English we're starting to get sick of her reputation was starting to become

[00:30:29] known throughout the enemy army of her home country of France and they saw this is starting into a religious war right god is on France's side in the in the English being a godless

[00:30:44] country a godless side of the war and so they said that she was being possessed by the devil after all why wouldn't god be on the side of the English side which is a fun question to ask you know we've the

[00:30:58] retrospect hindsight 2020 it's interesting to look at you know why would god be on one side but not the other both were Christian countries both had the same Catholic church in both places why would cut peace specifically for France and not specifically also for the English at the time

[00:31:18] I don't know we don't have any we like the English want to know yeah on the way to rhymes they encountered an English army and Joan commanded the army to pursue the English army and

[00:31:32] the English were obliterated they tried to retreat but they failed to do so and they ended up destroying what they found out to be one of the last large major mobile English armies that was

[00:31:44] active in France then you ended up being a huge victory that they kind of stumbled across just on their travels but it ended up really crippling the English army and the responsiveness that they had

[00:31:55] in France but soon they ran into another problem there supplies were low food was scarce they hadn't left the north for a while so this was something that they had really prepared for

[00:32:07] again this had been going on for generations where they were kind of at a as a sand slot this lock here so when you're journing into enemy territory the supply chain was not something they really had

[00:32:18] put in place there was a city nearby name Trois and they decided they need to take it to gather supplies from a food and supplies from it the town had no interest in surrendering to them but

[00:32:31] the town sent a preacher an apocalyptic man to test Joan of Arc and to see what she was up through what her motivations were and this preacher was fairly popular in France during this time

[00:32:43] he came back a pretty big fan of Joan who's in this girl checks out everything she's talking about checks out but the city ignored this preacher because they didn't want to give up their

[00:32:56] supplies and it wanted to give up their town to help this army that was outside so Joan of Arc they had no choice but to take the town by force and so they invaded they took it and inside the

[00:33:07] city they found lots and lots of beans and there shouldn't normally have been this much beans in the town this was abnormal to have this big of a stockpile of beans but that apocalyptic

[00:33:22] preacher that Joan had those conversations with he was convinced that the world was going to come to an end later that year and so that they needed to stockpate he thought army get was coming

[00:33:33] and I guess in some ways you could forget how to get a what as that army getting for that town but the city had been stockpiling lots and lots of beans so that they could withstand a siege

[00:33:46] again didn't go well for that town but it did feed an army that would later retake France so could you see it could you see it working out it could it could be divine you know sort of strategy

[00:33:59] there is a you have to say something about the fact that the only food they could have possibly had was there and an abundance and enough to feed the entire army the rest of the way that is and then it was

[00:34:09] planted there by a famous preacher who had convinced the town to plant it that is just one of the weirdest coincidences of all time and there are a lot of weird coincidence that's why that's why

[00:34:23] the story sticks out as that debate is there supernatural stuff happening or is this just a series of really impressive coincidence being town was one of the things that really for me for a long time

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[00:35:33] how do we navigate the choppy waters of partisan politics how do we engage with culture honorably as Christian professionals I know you don't have a lot of time and that's why I make

[00:35:44] every second worth it on this show you'll hear from women that aren't on every other Christian podcast and we get really real because I don't know how to function any other way. Episode Strop every other Tuesday hope to see you there.