Pope Joan: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

According to medieval legend, Pope Joan was a female pope who reigned from 853-855.

Pope Joan is generally regarded by historians as a myth, possibly originating as an anti-papal satire which gained a degree of plausibility due to certain genuine elements related in the story.

Overview

According to the legend, an English woman, educated in Mainz, dressed as a man and, due to the convincing nature of her disguise, became a monk under the name of Johannes Anglicus. She was elected after the death of Pope Leo IV (term January, 847 - July 17, 855) at a time when the method of selecting popes was haphazard. She took the name Pope John VIII.

She was sexually promiscuous and became pregnant by one of her lovers. During an Easter Procession near the Basilica of San Clemente, over-enthusiastic crowds pushed around the horse which was carrying the Pontiff. The horse reacted, almost causing an accident. The trauma of the experience led "Pope John" to go into premature labour.

Pope Joan was dragged feet-first by a horse through the streets of Rome, and stoned to death by the outraged crowd. She was buried in the street where her identity had been revealed, between the St. John Lateran and St. Peter's Basilicas. This street was (supposedly) avoided by subsequent papal processions - though when this latter detail became part of the popular legend in the 14th century, the Papacy was at Avignon, and there were no papal processions in Rome.

Joan was reportedly succeeded by Pope Benedict III, who reigned only briefly but made sure that his predecessor was omitted from the historical record. Benedict III is otherwise considered to have reigned from 855 to April 7, 858. Joan's ordinal name was later assumed by another Pope John VIII (term December 14, 872 - December 16, 882).

Supposedly, since her time, any candidate for the pope undergoes an intimate examination to ensure he is not a woman (or eunuch) in disguise. This involved sitting on a chair which has a hole in the seat. The most junior deacon present then feels under the chair to ensure the new Pope is male: "And in order to demonstrate his worthiness, his testicles are felt by the junior present as testimony of his male sex. When this is found to be so, the person who feels them shouts out in a loud voice testiculos habet ("He has testicles") And all the clerics reply Deo Gratias ("Thanks be to God"). Then they proceed joyfully to the consecration of the pope-elect" - Felix Hamerlin, De nobilitate et Rusticate Dialogus (c. 1490), quoted in The Female Pope, by Rosemary & Darroll Pardoe (1988).

As with myths generally, an amount of truth exists, embellished with layers of fiction. Such a seat did exist; when a pope took possession of his cathedral, St. John Lateran in Rome, he traditionally sat on two ancient chairs of porphyry, the sedia stercoraria. Both had holes. The reason for the holes is disputed, but as both the seats and their holes predated the Pope Joan story, and indeed Catholicism by centuries, they clearly have nothing to do with a need to check the sex of a pope. It has been speculated that they originally were Roman bidets or imperial birthing stools, which because of their age and imperial links were used in ceremonies by popes intent on highlighting their own imperial claims (as they did also with their latin title, Pontifex Maximus).

The myth of Pope Joan was discredited by David Blondel, a mid-17th century Protestant historian. Blondel, through detailed analysis of the claims and suggested timings, argued that no such events could have happened. Among the evidence discrediting the Pope Joan story, is

• Papal processions did not travel down the processional route where the supposed birth took place at Easter.
• No archival documentation exists of such an event.
• The 'testicle seat' which popes supposedly sat on to have their masculinity ascertained long predates the era of 'Pope Joan' and has nothing to do with a requirement that a pope have his testicles checked. (As explained above.)
• Pope St. Leo IV reigned from 847 until his death in 855 (whereupon Pope Benedict III succeeded him within a matter of weeks), making it impossible for her to have reigned from 853-855.

The timing of the first appearance of the story coincides with the death of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who had been in conflict with the papacy. The general consensus of historians is that the 'Pope Joan' story is an anti-papal satire timed to link with the papacy's clash with the Holy Roman Empire, centring on three mediæval Catholic fears;

• a sexually active pope;
• a woman in a position of dominant authority over men;
• deception at the very heart of the Church.

However, what may have started as satire--featuring in carnivals throughout Europe--ended up accepted as reality, to such a scale that "Pope Joan" was referred to by such notables as William of Ockham and featured in some lists of popes, notably in Siena Cathedral, where 'her' image features among real popes. The legend acquired some support from the confusion over the ordinals given to popes John; because John is the most widely used papal name, and some Johns were antipopes, there was confusion over what number belonged to which valid Pope John. Official Vatican lists do not include a Pope John XX.

Some suggest that the High Priestess card in the Tarot pack (called La Papesse in French) is a depiction of Pope Joan.

A film Pope Joan was released in 1972 with Liv Ullmann as Joan, and also starring Olivia de Havilland and Trevor Howard as Pope Leo.

See Also Myths and legends surrounding the Papacy, Marozia

• Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross, Ballantine Books, ISBN 0345416260

• Rosemary and Darrell Pardoe, The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan. The First Complete Documentation of the Facts behind the Legend Crucible, 1988. Complete text available here