Rescript Opening the Review of Joan of Arc’s Condemnation (Humilibus supplicum votis)
The letter in which Pope Callixtus III, on the petition of Joan of Arc’s mother and brothers, appointed three French prelates to hear the case for the nullity of her condemnation.
The rescript is addressed to the archbishop of Reims and the bishops of Paris and Coutances and is dated at Saint Peter’s in Rome on the third day before the ides of June 1455, in the first year of Callixtus III. It was read aloud when the trial opened, and so stands in the court’s record.
Most of it restates the petition of Isabelle, the mother of Joan of Arc, and of her brothers Pierre and Jean: that Joan had held no heresy; that the bishop of Beauvais and a friar claiming to act for the inquisitor proceeded against her on a false report; that she had asked for anything suspect in her words to be referred to the Apostolic See; and that the sentence was null and unjust. The pope does not himself decide these points. He orders the three prelates, with an inquisitor, to summon the other side, hear both and give judgment without appeal. See the Trial of Joan of Arc.
Cited in
- 30 May 1431, firm date