The good and just bishop

« Evêque, c’est par vous que je meurs ! » — Jeanne d’Arc, le 30 mai 1431
"Bishop, it is through you that I die!" — Joan of Arc, 30 May 1431

Pierre Cauchon was born in Reims in 1371. Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in Domremy. In 1420 Cauchon became the lawful bishop of Beauvais. At the time, France was occupied by English and Burgundian armies. Cauchon propagandised for the English. When Joan of Arc and the French army were approaching Beauvais, the people removed Cauchon. He ran to the English at Rouen.

The Burgundians captured Joan on 23 May 1430. The good bishop, Cauchon, negotiated for her purchase. He sold and gave her to the English.

Pierre Cauchon: How do you become the judge of Joan of Arc. Jean Favier. 2010.

Joan was captured at Compiègne. Cauchon who studied canon law claimed the right to judge Joan, since Compiègne was in his bishopric. He sentenced her to death. Yes, the bishop declared her a witch and heretic, and had her burned to death. Yes, the bishop burned a saint, and he knew it. He wanted to be rewarded with the archbishopric of Rouen. He got the bishopric of Lisieux.

drawing by François Roger de Gaignières *1642, 1715† of the portrait formerly on Cauchon's tomb, formerly at the cathedral of Lisieux