An interesting supposition in light of Joan d’Arc’s fate, for myself I wonder if she had not been burned at the stake if she would have had the place in history she currently occupies?
What baffles me is she was offered Communion before being executed, if she were a heretic then why offer her a Sacrament right before the same body doing the offering is going to put her into the fire?
Therein is the peril of politics and religion, the Church should not have involved itself in such a trial as the proper verdict would have been “not guilty” the proper political verdict was “guilty” and the politic won the day.
Luc Beson’s Joan of Arc is a fantastic film on this subject.
Joan was convicted by one corrupt bishop in the pay of the English. Her trial violated all sorts of canonical norms, and was therefore illegitimate. It would have been right to overturn her conviction on procedural grounds alone. Blaming her conviction on "the church" is like blaming "the government" or the Constitution for the illegal acts of one corrupt official.