There are some figures in church history that you know exactly where they stand.

You could put on them a white hat. There are others in church history that you know

exactly where they stand. They just stand on the other side of the divide and you could put on them a black hat if you will.

And then there are those figures that come to us in church history or in history

that we're not quite sure what to do with.

Well, that is the figure of this week's episode

of five minutes in church history,

and that is Joan of Arc, a very colorful person not only in church history but in history.

Joan was a farmer. She was born into a family in a small town in France.

She was born in the year 1412. This is 105 years before Martin Luther is going to post his 95 theses.

This is right at the height of the latter Middle Ages,

and Joan is every bit the part of her context and of her times.

She was not literate like most peasant farmers would have been in 1412, in fact like most peasant farmers would have been in 1412. In fact, like most people were in 1412.

She could not reach, could not write, but she was raised in a very pious home and she was a very pious individual. Now we need to back up and take a look at the bigger picture.

There was the 100-year war going on between England and France and at this time as Joan is growing up and moving

into her teenage years we enter Henry the 5th he had been victorious and through a treaty that was signed he was

now made king of both England and France. And then Henry the 6th his son

ascended to the throne and as he began to move into those

villages in northern France, many of the residents of Jones Village fled, and it was

at this time in 1425 as Joan was turning 13 years of age

that she by her own testimony started hearing voices.

And she was told, she was called to save France

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