I have been looking at the trial of Joan of Arc for the second time. And I think it is perhaps the most disturbing document I have ever seen outside of the Guide of the Rambam. It is hard to know which one bothers me more and for what reasons.

The Rambam I have not looked at for some time so for now perhaps I will limit myself to a few random thoughts on the trial.
I think the most disturbing part of it is that some of the approach of the church authorities seems true.
If it would be all cut and dry--a righteous girl sentenced by evil judges, then there would be nothing more to contemplate.
The worries about schismatics seems that she herself agreed with. Of everything that they said to her there seems to be little that she herself would not agree to--except the point that the judges did not accurately represent the way things are in heaven.

The way Western Civilization has gone down the tubes since then seems to indicate at lot of what they were saying is true. Visions can come from the Sitra Achra.[The dark realm].  The worry about the weakening of faith in the church has led to an  atheistic Europe and USA and a protestant church that seems to be problematic- to say the least. At least one can say that nothing Luther did led anyone to be a better human being. If anything it led to a complete destruction of faith. And Joan would be the first person to jump up and agree with me.

From a strictly halachic point of view, it is clear that the Catholics preserved Divine Simplicity. The schism that produced the Protestants clearly is uninterested in that. [That is Catholics believe like us that God is simple and not a composite and has no material aspect or substance. They have  a hard time defending this but they still try to.]



{I am not saying the Catholics got everything right. Rather they are the closest to belief in the Torah. The better approach is of course the Litvak yeshiva.}