Myths and legends surrounding the Papacy: Encyclopedia II - Myths and legends surrounding the Papacy - Pope Joan

Myths and legends surrounding the Papacy - Pope Joan

The claim that a woman, often called Pope Joan, became pope first appeared in a Dominican chronicle in 1250. It soon spread Europe-wide through preaching Friars. The story grew in embellishment but centred on a set of claims.

The time period for this is traditionally given as AD 855-858, between the reigns of Leo IV and Benedict III. However, this is very unlikely, since Leo IV died on 17 July 855, and Benedict III was elected as his successor on 29 September of the same year.

Jean de Mailly, a French Dominican at Metz, places the story in the year 1099, in his Chronica Universalis Mettensis, which dates from approximately 1250 and gives what is almost certainly the earliest authentic account of the woman who became known as Pope Joan. His compatriot, Stephen of Bourbon, acknowledges this, by placing her rule at approximately 1100. Also, Rosemary and Darrell Pardoe, authors of The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan. The First Complete Documentation of the Facts behind the Legend, are assuming that a more plausible timeframe would be 1086-1108, when there were a lot of antipopes, and the reign of the legitimate popes Victor III, Urban II and Paschal II was not always established in Rome, since this city was occupied by Emperor Henry IV, and later sacked by the Normans.

Generally, there are two versions of the myth.

• In the first, an English woman called Joan, went to Athens with her lover and studied there.
• In the second, a German woman called Giliberta was born in Mainz.

"Joan" disguises herself as a monk, called John Angelicus. In time, she rose to the highest office of the church, becoming a pope.

After two or five years of reign, Pope Joan became pregnant, and during an Easter procession, she gave birth to the child on the streets when she fell off a horse. She was publicly stoned to death by the astonished crowd, and according to the legend, removed from the Vatican archives.

As a consequence, popes throughout the mediaeval period were (supposedly) required to undergo a procedure wherein they sat on a special chair with a hole in the seat. A cardinal would have the task of putting his hand up the hole to check whether the pope had testicles.

In a seventeenth-century study, Protestant historian David Blondel argued that 'Pope Joan' is a myth. The story may well be a satire that came to be believed as reality. This view is generally accepted among historians.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pope Joan", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki