A fiery day. St Joan of Arc (above) was burned at the stake today in 1431 in Rouen, at the age of 19. She believed she had been called by God to expel the English from France, but the English, who were not as excited about this idea as the French, put her visions and voices down to demons and burnt her as a witch. In the 19th century, notes, trial transcripts and letters from the time of Joan were rediscovered, which gave fresh life to the cause of making her a saint – which she was finally declared in 1920, by Pope Benedict XV, almost 500 years after her execution.
‘His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love. In His strength I will dare, and dare, and dare, until I die.’ Joan, in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan
Also burned to death today for believing the wrong things were Jerome of Prague, the Czech theologian and reformer, and John Warne, an upholsterer from Walbrook, London. Jerome heard the teachings of John Wycliffe when he was a student in Oxford, and took them home to Bohemia where they were championed by his friend Jan Hus. Jerome was burned as a heretic a month before Hus, in 1416. Meanwhile, John Warne was burned in Smithfield in 1555 after refusing to recant his Protestant faith: ‘I am persuaded that I am in the right opinion, and I see no cause to recant; for all the filthiness and idolatry lies in the Church of Rome.’
Josephine Butler, the 19th century English feminist and reformer who worked to improve the lives of women in voting, marriage and education, and who campaigned against child prostitution, trafficking and the mistreatment of sex workers, is celebrated today by the Church of England. She pursued her campaign against the trafficking of young girls into Europe, and her campaign against the forced examination of prostitutes into the British Raj.
The celebrated English poet and satirist Alexander Pope died today in 1744. Pope, a Catholic, had been limited all his life by anti-Catholic legislation (for example, he could not live within 10 miles of London, and his formal education ended when he was 12 years old). Despite this, he became one of the greatest English poets of his time. On the day of his death, his physician announced that his pulse was very good. ‘Here am I,’ quipped Pope, ‘dying of a hundred good symptoms.’
Vital spark of heav’nly flame!
Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling’ring, flying,
Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!
Alexander Pope, The Dying Christian to His Soul
Image: Saint Joan of Arc Superstar