The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 6, Issue 1, Winter 2017 | Page 32

wish to antagonize the English. In 1452, Cardinal Guillaume d’Estouteville re-
opened the investigation, but the new round of inquiries also ended without result.
Joan’s family petitioned the Pope, and in 1455, Pope Calixtus III agreed to the
family’s request. The Trial of Nullification ended in 1456 with a sentence of
rehabilitation—in essence, voiding the conclusions of the original trial. The
findings stipulated that the processes and sentences of the previous trial were “full
of cozonage, iniquity, inconsequences, and manifest errors, in fact as well as in
law; . . . they have boon, are, and shall be-as well as the aforesaid Abjuration, their
execution, and all that followed-null, non-existent, without value or effect.”
Furthermore, the court declared that, “[Joan] and her relatives, Plaintiffs in the
actual Process, have not, on account of the said Trial, contracted nor incurred any
mark or stigma of infamy; we declare them quit and purged of all the consequences
of those same Processes; we declare them, in so far as is necessary, entirely purged
thereof by this present.” 6
The nullification trial removed the charges of heresy; it did not establish
evidence of holiness, nor consider her death to be that of a martyr. No cult
developed to advocate for her sanctity nor were any miracles attributed to Joan
until almost five centuries following her death. Yet, Pius II beatified Joan in 1909
and Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920. The reasons for this are worthy
of investigation. Church historian Larissa Juliet Taylor claims that complex French
and Vatican politics played a role in Joan’s canonization, although it did follow
proper Church procedures, including the research and testimony of several of the
Sacred Congregation’s Devil’s Advocates. Taylor claims that Joan’s cause célèbre
lay dormant until the mid-nineteenth century when historians, particularly Jules
Michelet and Jules Quicherat began to research Joan, who had become a symbol
for both the republican and monarchists of a much-divided France. Taylor notes
that Félix Dupanloup, a French scholar and priest, began his role as Bishop of
Orléans with “an encomium of Joan that attracted international attention,” 7 as he
hoped to return France to its religious roots. Dupanloup became Joan’s champion,
introducing “the cause for her beatification [to Rome], and [raising] the first funds
towards a new monument in her honor.” 8
Devil’s Advocate Augustine Caprara contended, “[T]his praise of sanctity
has come to her only in our own time,” 9 and that “no miracles or cult was
attested.” 10 According to Taylor, Pope Pius II “asked the cardinals and consultants
of the Sacred Congregation of Rites to pray with him ‘in so difficult a manner’.” 11
The Pope approved Joan’s cause for beatification to proceed on 6 January 1904.
Shortly thereafter, the Sacred Congregation approved three miracles that occurred
through her intercession, and Pope Pius X declared Joan “Blessed” on 11 April
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