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From: imunro@scunix4.harvard.edu (Ian Munro)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: female pope
Date: 12 Jul 1996 17:06:56 GMT

shane (shane@globalx.net) wrote:
: I've got angry friends. How was this UL disproven?

To let everyone know what we're talking about, here's part of what Brewer's has to say:

Pope Joan. A mythical female pope first recorded in the 13th century ....It was widely and long accepted....Passing under the name of Johannes Anglicus, her wide learning gained her election to the papacy in 855 as John VIII. She was supposed to have died in childbirth during a solemn procession.

"Died in childbirth" is perhaps a bit polite; many versions end with Joan being stoned to death by the surrounding mob. Anyways, the Catholic Encyclopedia website has a long and very informative entry under "Joan, Popess" (http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/08407a.htm). It does an excellent job of tracing the history of the story in all its variations, debunking it, and discussing the rationale behind the tale's popularity. It's a wonderful bit of work; maybe Jason and Emily could stick a link into TAFKAC.

The basis for the debunking is exactly what you would expect. To paraphrase the above article:

1. There are no contemporary historical accounts for what must have been the story of the century. Nor is there anything in the church records.
2. Although the incident allegedly happened in the 10th century, no mention of it appears until the 13th century.
3. There's no place in the papal chronology where Joan could fit in.

The article also mentions another, ancillary legend that's usually linked to Joan:

Further it was noticed that, on the occasion of his formal inauguration in front of the Lateran Basilica, the newly-elected pope always seated himself on a marble chair. This seat was an ancient bath-stool, of which there were many in Rome; it was merely made use of by the pope to rest himself. But the imagination of the vulgar took this to signify that the sex of the pope was thereby tested, in order to prevent any further instance of a woman attaining to the Chair of St. Peter.

It's not mentioned in the article, but I remember some sort of Latin tag involving testicles being involved in this story. Does anyone remember this bit?

Ian "Latin tag is a dangerous game" Munro