Saint Joan

Meanwhile in the English camp, Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick, and the chaplain John de Stogumber converse about the recent English defeat at Orléans. Stogumber claims that they lost because of witchcraft. Warwick is less concerned, claiming that Dunois’s military prowess is the bigger threat. While Stogumber is furious at the French witch, Warwick promises that the French will likely sell The Maid out to the Burgundians eventually, at which point they can pay her ransom and take her prisoner. Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais and an ally of the English claim to France, arrives to discuss Charles VII’s imminent coronation by The Maid. Stogumber repeats his claim that Joan is a witch and should be burnt, espousing nationalist sentiments that make him despise the French. Cauchon denies that Joan is a witch, reminding them that she does not worship the devil, but claims to pray to God. Cauchon, therefore, sees her as a heretic, even more dangerous than a witch. As such, his goal is to get her to repent and renounce her heresy, not to burn her. Stogumber, still eager to see Joan burned, reminds him that Inquisition courts have burned people in the past, although Cauchon replies that only the secular authorities have the right to execute someone—the Church merely excommunicates the sinner.