The POPE Encyclopedia
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POPE JOAN
A famous legend about a woman who supposedly was elected pope, reigning as Pope John VIII from around 855 to 858, between the pontificates of Leo IV (847-855) and Benedict III (855-858); another version has her winning election in 1100. The story of Pope Joan is almost universally discounted by scholars, but the legend was extremely popular during the Middle Ages, was mentioned by Petrarch and Boccaccio, and was used by leaders of the Protestant cause in the sixteenth century to stir up antipapal sentiment. While disproved in the seventeenth century by a Protestant scholar, Maurice Blondel (1590-1655), it was still repeated by anti- Catholic bigots and propagandists as late as the nineteenth century. Joan was supposedly a very talented scribe in Rome who disguised herself as a man and took a position in the service of the papacy. She was advanced steadily through the Curia and finally received election as pope in large part because of the brilliance of her lectures. Her reign proved brief, however, for she gave birth to a child in a narrow street near the Colosseum, during a procession to the Lateran. (Popes supposedly avoided the street ever after.) Once discovered, she was stoned to death.
THE POPE ENCYCLOPEDIA - Matthew Bunson Published by Crown Trade Paperbacks 201 East 50th Street, New York New York 10022, USA ISBN 0-517-88256-6
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