Scott Alexander (author/host)

I like this response because one is not allowed to declare a living person a saint.

The saints are the people in heaven.

According to Catholic theology, a living person might at any point use his God-given free will to do evil and not repent of it.

This is therefore about as close as they can get, and it's pretty far.

On the other hand, we all see the other side of the story, right?

The desperate gambler who realises that his stack's almost out and he might as well bet against the odds he'll make a flush, because probably he won't, but if he folds, he's out anyway, right?

Since the Dauphin wasn't quite desperate enough to risk his soul to win, he also had her checked over by women of his wife's household to confirm that she was a virgin, both because of the belief at the time that virginity was a sign of sainthood, and because if she's lying about that, she's clearly just full of shit on every other topic too.

She passed the test, of course.

Joan's opinion on the multi-pronged inquiry into her origins and character was that, quote, she was not pleased with all these interrogations and that they were preventing her from accomplishing the work for which she was sent and that the need and time were come to act, end quote.

Once again, fair enough.

Footnote, one of the recurring elements I find in the biographies of great generals is how insanely pissed off they are whenever politics deprives them of an opportunity to exploit military opportunities.

Back to the text.

And it seems to be only at about this point that the Dauphin Charles has Joan given basic training in the arts of a soldier and of a captain, which she has never had the opportunity to get before.

But he can't get her much of it, because she shows up in February or March and goes to the front in late April, giving about a month to teach her how to move in armour, fight with the sword, ride a warhorse, command infantry, command cavalry, command artillery.

Fortunately, she appears to already know most of this, or something.

Footnotes here.

The first, after she never had the opportunity to get this training before.

It's plausible she learned to ride a plough horse as a child, since Lorraine is horse country, but riding a war horse is a specialised skill, and it's plausible she had a month or two at Vaucouleur to practice swordsmanship, but I don't think there was anyone at Vaucouleur to teach her command.

And another footnote, after artillery...

Wait, artillery?