Credibility of the Rehabilitation Witnesses
Some additional proofs of the witnesses' general credibility
include the following examples relating to the
subject of English involvement (to take one topic among many that
could be used):
- Their statements about the English Council's involvement
in the trial (and hence the manipulation of it) are confirmed
not only by the fact that the chief judge (Bishop Cauchon) and certain
of the assessors were themselves members of the English Council,
but also further confirmed by
(pro-English) Burgundian sources and by English
government records which bluntly show that it was they who
ordered the trial, summoned the judges
and assessors, and paid those who convicted her. Kenneth has responded to this
by a) first denying it entirely, then b)
finally admitting that Cauchon et al. were members of the English Council or faction,
while simultaneously claiming that this doesn't prove that there
was any involvement by the English
Council (!). Again, he knows better than this.
- When
the witnesses discussed the English fear of Joan in relation to their
motives for engineering her death, this is confirmed
by English government decrees against the numerous soldiers who were trying to
flee back to England due to, quote, "fear of the Maiden" (her standard
nickname). Kenneth used to deny this fact as
well, citing a) pop authors who claim that the English never had any reason to fear her
because she supposedly never led an army against them in the first
place - one of the more unusual theories on the subject; and b) the
equally baseless idea that the above English government decrees are
supposedly false because the English wouldn't have had any reason
to fear her that late into her campaigns - despite her later victories
near Lagny-sur-Marne (not long before she was captured) and despite the
short lapse of time from her more spectacular victories only a few
months earlier.
- Similarly, when the witnesses say that the English wanted her
dead before they laid siege to Louviers - since English
troops believed that she could supernaturally influence events on
the battlefield even while being held in prison - this can again
be confirmed: only a few days after her death, English government
documents record the authorization of funds to begin the
siege. This is not coincidence, and the delay
corresponds to the descriptions provided by the witnesses.
Many other examples can be cited on various subjects, but the point is simply this:
if witnesses are proven credible on so many basic points, the standard
procedure is to accept their details as credible unless proven
otherwise by concrete evidence.