Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

VirginityillThe Maid, as a living emblem of resistance, was so dangerousto the English that they actually “ had a woman burnt alive,simply for having spoken well of her. ” 16Succumbing to the monumental pressure, which includedthe threat of an embargo, and then being well paid for capitulating,the Burgundians turned Joan over to the Inquisition inNovember 1430. Against the Church’s own rules, she was keptin a civil prison, guarded by English soldiers, male, who sleptin her cell. She was kept in chains. There is some evidence thatshe was put in a special iron cage too small for her to stand in;and there is the word of a locksmith who said that he built aniron cage “ in which she was kept standing, chained by herneck, her hands and her feet. . . ” 17 [italics mine] Accordingto the rules of the Inquisition, she had a right to be in a Churchprison, guarded by women.The Inquisitors, no doubt, felt justified. Imprisoned by theBurgundians for nearly seven months, Joan had tried to escapetwice from two different prisons. In her second escape, she hadjumped from a castle tower in which she was imprisoned. Duringher trial, the Inquisitors tried to make this second escapeinto a suicide attempt or to show that she was a witch becauseshe expected to be able to fly. The Inquisitors tried to elicit apromise from her that she would not try to escape again; thisshe refused to give, saying it was her right to try to escape.On January 9, 1431, the judges assembled to evaluate herand her case, a process that took over a month, during whichJoan languished in jail. On February 21 Joan was brought intoopen court. She had no advocate at any point. Indeed, anyonewho tried to help her in any way was threatened or punished.One of the clergy, allowing Joan to make the sign of the cross ina chapel on the way to her interrogation, was told: “Truant,