“Do you think that after that revelation you could be able to commit mortal sin?”
“As to that, I do not know. My hope for salvation is in holding fast to my oath to keep by body and my soul pure.”
“Since you know you are to be saved, do you think it necessary to go to confession?”
The snare was ingeniously devised, but Joan’s simple and humble answer left it empty:
“One cannot keep his conscience too clean.”
We were now arriving at the last day of this new trial. Joan had come through the ordeal well. It had been a long and wearisome struggle for all concerned. All ways had been tried to convict the accused, and all had failed, thus far. The inquisitors were thoroughly vexed and dissatisfied.
However, they resolved to make one more effort, put in one more day’s work. This was done—March 17th. Early in the sitting a notable trap was set for Joan:
“Will you submit to the determination of the Church all your words and deeds, whether good or bad?”
That was well planned. Joan was in imminent peril now. If she should heedlessly say yes, it would put her mission itself upon trial, and one would know how to decide its source and character promptly. If she should say no, she would render herself chargeable with the crime of heresy.
But she was equal to the occasion. She drew a distinct line of separation between the Church’s authority over her as a subject member, and the matter of her mission. She said she loved the Church and was ready to support the Christian faith with all her strength; but as to the works done under her mission, those must be judged by God alone, who had commanded them to be done.