In one scene of Bernard...
Illustration
In one scene of Bernard Shaw's play, Saint Joan, Shaw portrays Joan of Arc's inquisition. Tried as a heretic, accused of going against the teachings of the church, Joan adamantly defends her faith. While she may have acted contrary to convention by donning soldier's armaments and joining the battle, and though she may have heard voices which others did not hear, still she only followed her God.
In answer to the charges, Joan declares: "If you command me to declare that all that I have done and said, and all the vision and revelations I have had, were not from God, then that is impossible. I will not declare it for anything in the world. What God made me do I will never go back on; and what he has commanded or shall command I will not fail to do in spite of any man alive."
Just before leading her off to the pyre, one inquisitor taunts her, "You wicked girl; if your counsel were of God would he not deliver you?" to which Joan responds: "His ways are not your ways. He wills that I go through the fire to his bosom; for I am his child, and you are not fit that I should live among you. That is my last word to you."
A fitting example of enduring all.
In answer to the charges, Joan declares: "If you command me to declare that all that I have done and said, and all the vision and revelations I have had, were not from God, then that is impossible. I will not declare it for anything in the world. What God made me do I will never go back on; and what he has commanded or shall command I will not fail to do in spite of any man alive."
Just before leading her off to the pyre, one inquisitor taunts her, "You wicked girl; if your counsel were of God would he not deliver you?" to which Joan responds: "His ways are not your ways. He wills that I go through the fire to his bosom; for I am his child, and you are not fit that I should live among you. That is my last word to you."
A fitting example of enduring all.
