Scott Alexander (author/host)

If she'd confessed to the entire conspiracy, that she was trained up by their enemies, that she'd faked all her miracles, that she was lying from the start, she could have saved her life and probably gotten pretty heavily paid, as one of our sources testified.

It certainly looks like Cochon is stretching her death out so this very thing will happen.

And it doesn't.

Charolais.

Martyrs do go gladly to their deaths, sometimes.

Basilica.

For something they believe in.

In this period, that's the Catholic faith.

Or the Muslim faith.

Or the Cathar faith.

Or the Hussite faith.

They don't die for nothing.

Charolais.

Personally, as an atheist, I'm inclined to say that most martyrs die for it would be really embarrassing not to after I've gone this far, occasionally mixed with to hell with these people in particular.

Basilica

Read the records of the day of her death.

If she surrendered to Cauchon, she might have lived.

If she tried to whip the mob into a frenzy, she might have lived.

Instead, she asked them to forgive her murderers.

This is not the behavior of a fraud, but of a sincere believer.