Is it true that the Pope was a woman? Joanna Popess

The history of the pope is quite well known. She was born into the family of an English missionary in the German city of Mainz at the end of the first millennium. Since childhood, the girl was distinguished by great abilities and a thirst for knowledge. At the age of 12, he became involved with a wandering priest and ran away with him to Greece. Dressed in a man's cassock, the girl spent several years in Athens, then moved to Rome. Thanks to her learning, she achieved great authority in the Eternal City, entered the highest circles of the church and was elected Pope under the name John. Her reign was quite prosperous, but one day, while leading a solemn church procession on horseback, she fell to the ground and began to writhe in labor pains. From under the papal cassock the squeak of a newborn baby was heard. According to some sources, the priests, enraged by the deception, immediately tore the mother and child to pieces; according to others, they both died from a fall from a horse and premature birth; according to others, both survived, and Joanna’s grown son even became a bishop.

Pope Joan gives birth to a child (Illustration from Giovanni Boccaccio’s book “On Famous Women”).

Is this a legend, or did a certain woman really occupy the papal throne? No evidence of contemporaries of Joanna's reign has yet been found. The earliest mention of a female Pope dates back to the beginning of the 13th century. Dominican friar Jean de Mailly told the story of the pope in his chronicle of the papacy, written in Latin. Mayi did not name the pope, but described her death in detail. According to him, after the Pope was suddenly “relieved” of the burden, an indignant crowd tied him/her to a ponytail, dragged him/her throughout Rome and stoned him to death. The unfortunate woman was buried at the site of her terrible death and wrote on the grave: “Oh, Peter, Father of Fathers, expose the birth of a son by a pope.” According to de Maia, all this happened in 1099. True, in the margins of his chronicle the author left a note “require” (“should be checked”).

A little later, the story told by de Moye was repeated in his book “The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit” by his student Stephen de Bourbon, also a Dominican monk. He, however, attributed the death of the nameless pope to 1104. Around the same time, a mention of a female Pope appeared in the “Mediolan Chronicle” - a history of Milan compiled by Godfried of Busser: “In the year A.D. 784, Pope John was a woman, and he was a Teutonic, and as a result it was established that no one else The Teutons cannot be pope.”

Pope Joanna. Engraving by unknown author.

Martin Polonus, also known as Martin of Opava, brought greater clarity to the history of the female Pontiff. He was a priest of Polish origin from the city of Opava. He achieved a high position in the Vatican: in 1261 Martin became chaplain to Pope Alexander IV and held this post under several subsequent Popes. He was admitted to the Vatican libraries and archives, and using them, he wrote the Chronicle of Popes and Emperors in the 1270s. In his work, sequentially listing the heads of the Catholic Church, Martin also mentioned Pope Joan. He placed it after Pope Leo IV, who died in 855. In the third edition of his work, Martin wrote: “After Leo IV, the Holy See was occupied by the Englishman John from Mainz for 2.5 years. He was allegedly a woman. Even as a child, this woman was brought by her lover to Athens in men's clothing and there she showed such success in her studies that no one could compare with her. She arrived in Rome, began teaching science there, and thereby attracted the attention of learned people. She was highly respected for her excellent conduct and erudition and was eventually elected Pope. Having become pregnant by one of her faithful servants, she gave birth to a child during the procession from the Cathedral of St. Peter's to the Lateran, somewhere between the Colosseum and the Basilica of St. Clement. She died almost at the same moment, and they say she was buried in that very place. Now the Popes avoid this road in their processions; many people think it's because of disgust. She is not on the official list of Pontiffs due to her gender and impious behavior."

Pope Joan gives birth to a baby during one of the processions

The authority of such a chronicler as Martin Polonus was so great that everyone believed in the story about Pope John. Indeed, it is unlikely that the papal chaplain and confessor, admitted into the Holy of Holies of the Vatican, would invent or repeat fables. True, there are discrepancies in the various lists of Martin’s Chronicle. For example, in one of the versions you can find a mention that Joanna survived after a public birth. She was deposed and served penance in a distant monastery for the rest of her life, and her son grew up and became the bishop of Ostia.

Pope Joanna with her child. Engraving from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.

The fact that Joanna pretended to be a man and became Pope in this guise was not very condemned by Catholics. In the end, among the women recognized as saints by the church, about twenty became famous under the guise of men. For example, Pelagia of Antioch, who lived in the 4th century, was a dancer in the world and was famous for her easy behavior. Having believed in Jesus, she distributed all her property to the poor and retired to a monastery, and a men’s one at that. There she, calling herself a man's name, took monastic vows. The “beardless monk” became famous throughout the area for his piety and pious behavior. The fact that he was a woman became known only during the washing of the body, but did not prevent canonization. There are also cases where women dressed as men reached high church positions. True, this did not happen in Rome, but in Constantinople, which competed with it. Pope Leo IX in the middle of the 11th century was indignant that “the Church of Constantinople saw eunuchs, and even women, on the episcopal throne.” Thus, priests and ordinary Catholics condemned not so much the fact that Joanna was a woman, but her fall and adultery.

The very fact of Joanna’s existence was not questioned by anyone. For example, Jan Hus, denouncing papal power at the Council of Constance in 1414, cited the story of Pope Joan as one of his arguments: “The church was without a head and without a leader when a woman papated for two years and five months... The Church must be impeccable and unsullied, but can Pope John, who turned out to be a woman who publicly gave birth to a child, be considered impeccable and unsullied? None of the dozens of cardinals and bishops, as well as the hundreds of theologians present at this debate, objected to this argument.

Portrait of Martin Polonus.

Disputes surrounding the existence of the popess flared up only during the Reformation, when the first Protestant preachers began to portray Joanna in the image of the Babylonian harlot and prove that her reign interrupted the unbroken series of church fathers, that is, the continuity of Catholic Pontiffs from St. Peter was broken. Finding no counterarguments, Catholic theologians simply began to destroy the memory of John. In the collection of medieval manuscripts in Mainz there is a list of the “Chronicles” of Martin Polonus, dated to the 16th century, in which, instead of Pope Joan, a male Pope named John appears in the same time period. True, in the margin of the manuscript, an unknown champion of truth left a note in Latin: “The Pope was a woman.”

In 1601, Pope Clement VIII, by a special papal bull, decided to consider Pope Joan a fiction. Around the same time, the bust of Joan, which for several centuries had quietly occupied its place in the gallery of portraits of Pontiffs in the Cathedral of Siena, was “remade” into a portrait of Pope Zacharias. Subsequently, any mention of the pope was considered by the Vatican to be an insult to the feelings of believers. The French writer and anti-clerical Leo Taxil sneered in the 19th century: “The main argument of Christian writers who persistently denied the existence of Pope Joan is based on the fact that God would never allow such a blatant disgrace and therefore the throne of St. Peter, established by Jesus himself, could not be occupied by a dissolute girl. The argument is, of course, solid.”

Jan Hus at the Council of Constance. (Painting by Karl Friedrich Lessing).

Most modern scientists believe that the story of Pope Joan is still a legend. Their main argument is that the official chronology of the popes lacks a time gap between the reigns of Leo IV, who died in 855, and Benedict III, who ascended the throne in the same year. Skeptical historians are trying to find “prototypes” of the pope. For this purpose, all the Popes who bore the name John and reigned in the 8th-11th centuries have already been selected. John VIII, whose contemporaries noted certain “feminine weaknesses,” is most suitable for this role.

Supporters of the existence of the pope have counter-arguments. They claim that the reign of Benedict III was preceded by some kind of unrest, which was mentioned more than once in the chronicles. Is it connected with the reign of Joanna? There is nothing impossible in the career of a smart girl from Mainz, many researchers of church history believe. A medieval woman could easily pass herself off as a monk. A wide cassock with a hood and long sleeves hid the features of the figure, the too thin neck and arms. If a woman had a low voice, then the deception was difficult to detect. Frequent and strict fasts changed the physiological cycles of the female body: nuns in monasteries with the strictest regulations often stopped menstruating. “Supporters” of the pope also answer the question: “Why did the sudden birth come as a surprise to Joanna herself?” Despite her scholarship, she was unlikely to be aware of the structure of her own body. In the Middle Ages, sex life and its consequences were discussed only in narrow women’s circles, to which Joanna, naturally, had not been a member since childhood. She could not find the answer to the question of what was happening to her in the last months of her life in books.

Pope Joan as the Whore of Babylon. Engraving by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the Lutheran Bible. 1534

According to the “papisists,” there is also material evidence that proves the reality of Joanna. The Vatican houses the so-called “coronation chair” - a marble throne with a hole 21 centimeters in diameter in the seat. There is information that until the middle of the 16th century, each new Pope underwent a unique gender determination procedure using this chair. A special deacon, through a hole, determined by touch the gender of the future pontiff and loudly announced: “Our Pope is a man,” which was greeted by those present with prayers of gratitude. This whole procedure, unpleasant for the Popes, allegedly appeared after the scandal with Joanna and was carried out to avoid its repetition. Opponents of the existence of Joanna declare all evidence about this ritual to be fiction and claim that a chair with a hole in the seat is nothing more than a luxurious toilet seat. Indeed, in the Middle Ages, the royal palaces had a wide variety of, including luxurious, devices for the management of natural needs, but no one anywhere except the Vatican thought of calling the ancient toilet a “coronation chair.” And the hole is too small for big needs.

Coronation chair in the Vatican Museum.

Joanna also left her mark on the map of medieval Rome. In the 9th century, the route from the papal residence of the Lateran Palace to St. Peter's Basilica ran along a street that later received the name Via Papessa. It is believed that it was on this occasion that Joanna, unexpectedly for everyone, was delivered from her burden. In order not to once again remember her fall from grace, the traditional route of the papal cortege was changed from the 12th century. Near the place where the pope ended her days, a small sanctuary in memory of her still remains. If you believe Martin Polonus, then Joan’s grave was located here. For the last half century, however, this room has been locked with a heavy padlock. But, in the notes of travelers who visited Rome in the 17th-19th centuries, there is a mention of a statue of a woman standing there in papal clothing with a child in her arms.

Pope Joan at the Last Judgment (Engraving from John Wolfe's book "Memorable and Forgotten Lessons of History", 1600).

The final answer to the question of whether Pope Joan existed in reality or not is kept in the still inaccessible Vatican archives. But in any case, the image of a woman who led the Catholic Church for perhaps two and a half years has haunted the minds of writers, artists and feminists for almost a thousand years.

Pope Joan is a legendary figure, a woman (Secular name: Gilberte or Joan) who allegedly occupied the papal throne under the name John VIII, between Leo IV (died 855) and Benedict III (died 858). In the currently accepted list of popes, the name John VIII was borne by the real pope, who reigned somewhat later - in 872-882.

Female Pope as the Whore of Babylon

Her story is one of the most famous medieval legends. According to one version, Joanna was a native of Mainz, according to another, she was English. Dressed in men's clothing, together with her lover she headed to Athens, where she learned many sciences. She then moved to Rome, where she became a teacher of liberal arts and achieved wide fame. Thanks to her talents, she made a quick church career, becoming first the secretary of the Curia, and then a cardinal and pope. A few years later, Joanna became pregnant. As the Easter procession moved from St. Peter's Basilica to the Lateran Palace through a narrow alley between the Church of St. Clement and the Colosseum of Nero, Joan went into labor and fell from her horse to her death. According to another version, she was killed by the believers themselves, whose religious feelings were offended.

Followers of the legend claim that after this story, every newly elected pontiff until Leo X underwent a gender determination procedure using a slotted chair known as Sella Stercoraria(lat. dung chair); the procedure supposedly included the expression Mas nobis dominus est!(lat. Our chosen husband!). This chair is still kept in the Vatican Museum.

The ritual of confirming the gender of the elected pope and the chair that was used for this

There is no information about Pope John in any source of that time. The first mention of a woman on the papal throne was in the middle of the 13th century. Dominican monk Jean de Mailly in the book "Chronica Universalis Mettensis", but he attributed this story to 1099. Somewhat later, the chronicler Martin Polyak from Opava in the "Chronicle of Pontiffs and Emperors" transferred it to the middle of the 9th century. The legend was firmly rooted in the minds of contemporaries and was considered a true story. For a long time, popes avoided the direct route from St. Peter's Basilica to the Lateran Palace through the place where Joan allegedly died.

In 1601, Pope Clement VIII, by a special decree, declared the legend of Pope John a fiction. In the middle of the 17th century. Protestant historian David Blondel finally dispelled the myth, regarding it as a satire on the reign of Pope John XI.

VARIATIONS OF THE LEGEND

First version: Jean de Mai

The first writer to learn about the legend was the Dominican chronicler Jean de Mailly, from whom another Dominican, Etienne de Bourbon, borrowed it for his work on the “Seven Gifts” of the Holy Ghost").

According to this version, the supposed pope lived around 1104, but her name is not indicated. According to the text, an extremely talented woman, dressed as a man, became a notary in the Curia, then a cardinal and eventually the pope; one day she had to ride out on horseback, and on this occasion she gave birth to a son; then they tied her to a horse's tail, dragged her around the city, stoned her to death and buried her where she died. During her reign, as the legend adds, four three-day fasts appeared: three days each in winter, spring, summer and autumn, called “papes fasts” in her honor.

However, Godfried of Busser, who had no doubt about the reality of the character, places it 100 years earlier: “In the year A.D. 784, Pope John was a woman, and he was a Teutonic, and as a result of this, it was established that no more Teutons could be pope "

Second version: Martin Polyak

Another version, appearing in the third edition of Martin Poliak's Chronicle of Popes and Emperors, may have been inserted by the author himself and not by a subsequent copyist. Through this very popular work the legend was most widely spread in the following form:

"After Leo IV, the Holy See was occupied by the Englishman John from Mainz for 2 years, 5 months and 3 days. He was allegedly a woman. Even as a child, this woman was brought by her friend to Athens, in men's clothing, and there she showed such success in her studies that no one could compare with her. She arrived in Rome, began teaching science there, and thereby attracted the attention of learned people. She was highly respected for her excellent behavior and erudition and was eventually elected pope. Having become pregnant by one of her faithful servants, she gave birth to a child during the procession from the Cathedral of St. Peter's to the Lateran, somewhere between the Colosseum and the Basilica of St. Clement. She died almost at the same moment, and they say she was buried in that very place. Now the popes avoid this road in their processions; many people think it's because of disgust."

According to legend, Pope Joan gave birth to a child while participating in the procession

Here the name “John” appears for the first time, which is still attributed to the pope. Martin Polyak lived at the Curia as a papal chaplain and penitentiary (confessor) (d. 1278), so his papal history was widely read and the legend received universal recognition. One of the manuscripts of his chronicle tells a different story about the fate of the pope: after giving birth to John, she was immediately deposed and served penance for many years. Her son, it is added, became bishop of Ostia and buried her after her death.

Later versions

Subsequent chroniclers gave the pope a maiden name: some call her Agnes, others Gilberta. Even more distant variations are found in the works of various chroniclers, for example, in the “Universal Chronicle of Metz” and in later editions of the book “Miracles of the City of Rome”. According to the latter, the pope had a vision in which she was asked to choose either temporary dishonor or eternal punishment; she chose the latter and died in childbirth in the middle of the street.

POPE JOHN - TRUE OR MYTH?

In the XIV-XV centuries, the pope was considered a historical character whose existence no one questioned. She took her place among the carved busts that stood in the Siena Cathedral. At the request of Clement VIII, it was remade into Pope Zechariah. Jan Hus, defending his doctrine before the Council of Constance, referred to the pope, and no one suggested challenging the fact of its existence. “Without a head and without a leader,” Hus declared, “there was a church when a woman papated for two years and five months,” and further: “The Church must be impeccable and unsullied, but can Pope John, who turned out to be a woman, be considered impeccable and unsullied? who publicly gave birth to a child? Not one of the 22 cardinals, 49 bishops and 272 theologians present at the meetings of the Council of Constance protested against this exile, confirming by their silence the existence of this legendary figure. However, she is absent from the Book of Pontiffs and from the papal portraits in St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome.

Female Pope in Medieval Illustrations

In the 15th century, some scholars began to point out the unsubstantiated nature of the story about the pope. Since the 16th century, Catholic historians began to deny its existence.

The main evidence of the complete mythical nature of the pope is as follows:

1. Not a single contemporary historical source - among all the histories of the papacy - knows anything about her; Moreover, there is not a single mention of it until the middle of the 13th century. Now it is unthinkable to imagine that the appearance of the “pope,” even if it were a historical fact, turned out to be overlooked by all historians of the 10th-13th centuries.

2. There is no place in the modern history of the papacy where this legendary figure could fit. Between Leo IV and Benedict III, where Martin Polyak places it, it cannot be inserted, since Leo IV died on July 17, 855, and immediately after his death Benedict III was elected by the clergy and the Roman people. However, with one caveat - if her stay on the throne was not super-short, like for example Sisinnius or John Paul I.

3. It is even less likely that the popess could be placed in the list of popes around 1100, between Victor III (1087) and Urban II (1088-99) or before Paschal II, as is suggested in the chronicle of Jean de Mailly.

What do Protestants think about a woman father?

Some Protestants also admitted that the pope never existed. Many, however, used this plot in their attacks on the papacy. Even in the 19th century, when the inconsistency of the legend was determined by all serious historians, some of the Protestants tried, driven by an anti-Roman sentiment, to prove the historicity of the pope.

What could serve as the basis for the legend of the woman-dad

The plot of the Roman pope apparently has an earlier counterpart in Constantinople. Indeed, in a letter to Michael Cerularius, Leo IX says that he cannot believe what he heard, namely, that the Church of Constantinople saw eunuchs, and even women, on the episcopal throne.

Various hypotheses have been proposed regarding the origin of the entire legend about Pope John.

It is possible that the much-reproached feminine weaknesses of Pope John VIII in relations with the Greeks could grow into this legend. In letters and chronicles of that time, this pope is three times pointedly called either “courageous” or “masculine.”

Other historians point to the degradation of the papacy in the 10th century, when many popes bore the name John; Therefore, such a name, one feels, is quite suitable for the legendary pope. Some see the story as a satire on John IX; others - a satire on John XI, and still others try the story on John XII. Some talk about the harmful influence of women on the papacy in the 10th century. at all.

It is also possible that the plot about Pope John is an echo of old Roman fairy tales, originally associated with certain ancient monuments and peculiar customs. An ancient statue dug up during the reign of Sixtus V on the street near the Colosseum - a figure with a child - was popularly accepted as an image of the pope. It was also noticed that the pope does not walk along this street during the ceremonial procession (possibly due to its small width). It was further noted that during the formal inauguration in front of the Lateran Cathedral, the newly elected pope sat down on a marble chair. This chair was nothing more than an ancient bath-stool, of which there were many in Rome; sometimes it was used by dad for relaxation. But the popular imagination saw in this a sign that in this way they were supposedly checking the sex of the pope, in order to henceforth prevent a woman from ascending to the throne of St. Petra.

Bertrand Russell in “The History of Western Philosophy” points out that the legend is based on the story of Marotia, the daughter of the Roman senator Theophylact, from the family of counts of Tusculum, who were the most influential Romans at the beginning of the 10th century, in whose family the title of pope became almost hereditary. Marozia changed several husbands in a row and an unknown number of lovers. Her grandson was John XII, who became pope at the age of 18 and with his dissolute life and orgies, the site of which soon became the Lateran Palace, completely undermined the authority of the papacy.

September 22, 2018

It is possible that somewhere in the Vatican archives lies the true story of the woman who occupied the papacy for more than two years, which has been kept secret for a whole millennium. The Vatican does not admit this fact, but legends say that Pope Joan is not a fiction. From time to time they begin to talk about her and even make films (“Pope Joanna” 1972 and “John the Woman on the Papal Throne” 2009), but there is no evidence of her real existence.

It is argued that the first evidence that the female pope was a real character could be found in the works of one of the curators of the papal library as early as the 11th century. Next was the Dominican Jean de Mailly, then the baton was intercepted by Stefan de Bourbon, who borrowed the idea from his predecessor. But the most popular is the version that arose in the 13th century thanks to the medieval chronicler and historian Martin Polyak (Martin Opawski), who took the post of chaplain in 1261. It is interesting that his detailed story about John in the Chronicle of Popes and Emperors, written at the request of one of the popes, was not refuted by anyone for two centuries.

Pope Joanna

The veracity of the story about Pope John was first criticized and disputed in the 15th century, and already in the mid-16th century the Catholic Church and historians had no doubts - such a woman did not exist, and the stories about her are fiction. But many still believe that the truth is hidden, and that the courageous and intelligent woman actually left her mark on history.

Legends about Pope John could have been born as a result of chronological inaccuracies associated with the date of the enthronement of Benedict III after Pope Leo IV, who died in 855. According to some assurances, at least two years passed between the reigns of the two pontiffs, and the time period was shifted in order to remove from history the mention of the possible existence of a female pope. Another historical incident is the absence of the papal name John XX in the chronology. It is not clear whether he was removed too quickly, or there was a mix-up, which is unlikely, or there was a need to “hide” one of the popes. In fact, there are many mysteries.

A sculpture embodying the image of a legend

Opponents of Joanna's existence under the name of Pope John VIII tend to think that the rumors about the woman arose due to a period associated with the enormous influence and, in some way, dominance of the fairer sex at the court of some of the popes. But who would deny the fact of the existence of a special chair, on which for a long time, starting in 857 and ending with the first half of the 16th century, candidates for the papal throne were examined to determine whether they were male. Although there are those who claim that such chairs were used as toilet fixtures.

Legend, fiction or reality

Each chronicler interprets the story of Pope Joan in his own way., but there are still common points. No one disputes the fact that she was born around 818 in the family of an English missionary during the period when he carried out his Christian preaching in Germany. After the death of her mother, the girl’s father took her with him on her travels, where she was able to show her oratorical talent, telling listeners about Christianity. For safety reasons, Joanna was already dressing in men's clothing at that time.

After the death of her parent, the girl ended up in a monastery, where she met a young monk and fell in love with him. They left the monastery and, going on a journey, ended up in Athens. Here Joanna received her education, after which she decided to get to Rome. She ended up in a monastery, where no one suspected the disguised girl, who introduced herself as a young monk, of deception. Her intelligence and desire to engage in science drew the attention of the then Pope Leo IV. He offered the “monk” the position of secretary, and after a while he even elevated Joanna to the rank of cardinal.

Thanks to her talents and broad outlook, the woman was able to quickly win universal respect and favor among the cardinals. Moreover, Leo IV appointed the "cardinal" as the sole successor. After the death of the head of the Catholic Church, a woman was unanimously elected to the papal throne, which no one knew about. She received the name of Pope John VIII, whose reign turned out to be short and humane, and whose death was terrible.

Pope Joan as the Whore of Babylon

In the list of popes, another pontiff appears under the name John VIII. The years of his reign fall on 872-882.

The year 857 turned out to be tragic for the pope. Not only were robbers rampant on Roman roads, coastal cities were subject to constant raids by enemies, crops in the fields were destroyed by hordes of locusts, and the city was threatened by an epidemic, Joanna’s personal life presented its own difficulties. As a result of falling in love or, according to another version, from fear of exposure, the woman showed weakness, the result of which was the expectation of the birth of a child. Pope Joan wanted to keep everything a secret(the wide folds of the liturgical robe perfectly hid her belly) and even left for Ostia before giving birth, pretending that she was ill. But the inhabitants of the Eternal City were indignant, thinking that Pope John VIII had abandoned the believers at the most difficult moment and that he was not as powerful as he wanted to appear.

Pope Joan decided to return to Rome and hold a religious procession to reassure and support the townspeople. On that fateful day, walking at the head of the procession, she could hardly move her legs, so cardinals supported her on all sides. The legend says that a thunderstorm suddenly began and thunder struck, during which Pope John VIII screamed heartbreakingly and fell... giving birth to a child. It was a shock to those around him.

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For two years, five months and four days, the Pope was... a woman. One of the most famous medieval legends arose in the middle of the 13th century, and in the next two centuries no one questioned this fact. However, starting from the 15th century, alternative versions arose, and by the middle of the 16th century, historians no longer doubted: the story was fictitious.

Some believe that the legend arose during the period of female dominance at the papal court, which lasted from John X to John XII inclusive (919-963). Others move the existence of a female pope forward several centuries, when in 1276, after the death of Adrian V, the new head of the Catholic Church took the name John XXI, and not XX, as followed by the official chronology.

It has been suggested that the “disappearing pope” was removed by opponents immediately after his election. Or he turned out to be a woman, so they tried to forget about him. But John XXI, for some reason, considered it necessary to restore the chronology and enter the “missing number” into the list.

Supporters of Joanna's existence point to many ancient documentary sources in which she is mentioned as evidence. The earliest evidence is found in the work of the custodian of the papal library, Anastasius (9th century).

In subsequent generations, the story of John became widespread. Stephen of Bourbon (died 1261), in his work “On the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit,” also confirmed the fact of this event. The most popular version was that of Martin Polyak, a papal chaplain and historian who lived in the mid-13th century.

He wrote the Chronicle of Popes and Emperors, in which he included a detailed story about John. Each chronicler presented the events that happened in ancient times in his own way, and if we summarize all the versions of the legend and exclude discrepancies, the story about the woman on the papal throne sounds approximately as follows.

FROM MISSIONARY TO POPE

This happened in the 9th century. Joanna was the daughter of an English missionary preacher. After the death of her mother, she traveled with her father preaching Christianity. Possessing a sharp mind and outstanding oratorical talent, the 12-year-old girl read sermons to the pagan Saxons no worse than her father.

Joanna was 15 years old when her father died and she settled in the monastery of Blitruda, whose abbess appointed her keeper of the library, which consisted of 66 books and was considered one of the richest libraries of that time.

Here, in the monastery, Joanna met a young monk who was sent from another mission. He was instructed to rewrite the message of the Holy Apostle Paul on parchment in gold letters. When the work was finished, Joanna changed into a man's monastic dress and left the monastery together with the young man.

For a long time, young people wandered, reading sermons, until they ended up in Greece, where they led a righteous lifestyle, devoting themselves to study and prayer. After graduation, they went their separate ways; a girl dressed as a man went to Rome. For two years, Joanna lived in the monastery of St. Martin under the name of John Langlois, continuing to preach and study science: she intensively studied theology and philosophy.

The fame of Joanna’s talents grew, and soon Pope Leo IV drew attention to the “young monk” and, having appointed her as his secretary, elevated her to the rank of cardinal, whose responsibilities included managing the papal office, finances, accepting petitions, and maintaining connections with foreign courts.

Intelligent and quick-witted, with a broad theological and scientific outlook, the cardinal soon won everyone's favor. It is not surprising that before his death the pope named Joanna his only successor. On June 17, 855, Leo IV died. After his burial, Cardinal John, who received the name John VIII, was unanimously elected as the new head of the Catholic Church.

The historian of the papacy Lavicomgerius comments on this fact: “The incident, which for a very long time was considered a fable, actually took place; Plenty of evidence confirms its authenticity. In 854, after the death of Leo, a woman appeared on the papal throne, performing divine services, appointing bishops, and letting princes and nations kiss her feet.”

The reign of John VIII was short, gentle and humane.

"PAPISSAE PRODITO PARTUM"

The descriptions of subsequent events by all historians and chroniclers coincide. Joanna became pregnant. It is unknown who the child's father was. Perhaps it was her friend who came from Athens. Or the father could be Florus, the nephew of Pope Leo IV, who, for security reasons, was on duty at night near the papal bedroom. Although, most likely, the woman entered into an affair under fear of exposure.

For a long time, Joanna managed to hide her pregnancy under the wide folds of her cassock. However, the moment of childbirth was approaching. Under the guise of illness, she left Rome for Ostia.

In 857, the prosperity of the inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula was disrupted by a series of tragic events. Coastal cities were attacked by Saracens. On the outskirts of Rome, gangs of robbers raged on the caravan routes and main roads. Panic fear gripped the Roman citizens. Countless hordes of locusts descended on fertile lands, devastating crops. Rome was threatened by an epidemic. It seemed that the Creator had turned his back on the inhabitants of the Eternal City, bringing down his punishment on their heads.

The situation in the city was becoming critical. Under the weight of difficult circumstances, exhausted and exhausted, Joanna returned to Rome, promising the people to hold a religious procession to save them from the surging disasters.

On November 20, the residents of Rome poured into the streets to participate in the celebration. John VIII, supported on all sides by cardinals, could barely move his legs. As the procession from St. Paul's Cathedral moved toward the Lateran Square, the pope suddenly fell in the passage between the Colosseum and the Church of St. Clement. Joanna went into labor.

According to one version, an angry crowd stoned a woman and a child, and at the site of their death they erected a stone slab on which was inscribed: “Petre, Pater Patrum, Papissae Prodito Partum” (“O Peter, Father of Fathers, expose the birth of a son by the pope.” ). According to another version, the mother and child died during childbirth, and a chapel was built on this site, which was later ordered to be destroyed.

According to the third, the boy survived, was sent to be raised in a monastery and eventually became the Bishop of Ostia. There is another version: Joanna remained alive and was sent to a monastery, where she lived in honor and died of old age.

“WE HAVE OUR MAN FOR OUR LORD”

The story didn't end there. Beginning in 857, compulsory sexual examination of applicants for the post of head of the Catholic Church was introduced. For this purpose they even invented a special chair with a hole in the seat. In the presence of the people, two worthy witnesses examined the future pope and with the words “Mas nobis dominus est” (“We have a man as our Lord”) loudly announced that he was male. Only in 1520 did Pope Leo X abolish this humiliating procedure.

Thanks to Martin Polyak, until the 15th century, Joanna was considered a real historical character. At the XVI Ecumenical Council in Constance, the Bohemian preacher Jan Hus, convicted of heresy, defending his reform doctrines, declared: “The church was without a head and without a leader when a woman papated for two years and five months... The Church must be flawless and undefiled , but can Pope John, who turned out to be a woman who publicly gave birth to a child, be considered impeccable and unblemished?

Not one of the 22 cardinals, 49 bishops and 272 theologians present at the meeting protested against this statement, indirectly confirming the existence of Joanna by their silence.

However, the Book of Pontiffs says nothing about it. In 1601, Pope Clement VIII, by a special decree, declared the legend of John VIII a fiction. And in the middle of the 17th century, the Protestant historian David Blondel tried to dispel the myth of the female pope, arguing that this legend was just a satire on the reign of Pope John XI.

It is worth noting that in 1400, a bust with the inscription “John, woman of England” adorned the walls of the cathedral in Siena and stood for 200 years, until under Clement VIII the figure was remade into an image of Pope Zechariah.

As further evidence, supporters of Joan's existence point to a statue of a woman and child erected in a narrow street between the Colosseum and the Church of St. Clement, where the papal procession was interrupted by childbirth in 857. This statue was removed only by Sixtus V at the end of the 16th century. And during the processions, the Roman popes for a long time avoided the direct path from St. Peter’s Cathedral to the Lateran Palace through the place where Joan allegedly died.

It is also interesting that one of the tarot cards depicts a woman with a papal tiara on her head and this card is called “Popesses”.

The intriguing plot of Joanna's life and death was widely used by both religious and secular writers. So, this story attracted the attention of Pushkin. In 1835, he made sketches of a play in three acts, “Pope Joanna,” in French. However, the poet did not have time to realize his plan.

In 1866, the novel “Papes Joanna” by the Greek writer Emmanuel Roidis was published, which was subsequently translated into all European languages. In 1972, British director Michael Anderson made a film of the same name. A later film, Joanna, a Woman on the Papal Throne, based on the novel of the same name by Donna Woolfolk Croe, was released in 2010.

So was the woman really the Pope? Maybe. History knows many curious cases. However, modern scientists, citing the lack of evidence of the story, deny the possibility of its real existence. The position of the Vatican is equally clear.

Olga PERUNOVSKAYA, journalist (St. Petersburg)

And, finally, by the Pope, but during one procession she gave birth and after that she died (or was killed by participants in the procession who were offended in their religious feelings).

Followers of the legend claim that after this story, every newly elected pontiff until Leo X underwent a gender determination procedure using a slotted chair known as Sella(option: Sedes) Stercoraria(lat. manure chair); the procedure supposedly included the expression Mas nobis nominus est!(lat. Our chosen husband! ).

The veracity of the story of the female pope, repeated since the 13th century, was first challenged in the 15th century. Starting from the middle of the 16th century, historians no longer doubted the legendary nature of this story. The legend probably arose as a mockery of pornocracy - the period of female dominance at the court of the pope, starting from John X to John XII (-).

Variations of the legend

First version: Jean de Mailly

The first writer to learn about the legend was the Dominican chronicler Jean de Meilly (Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichte, xii, 17 sq., 469 sq.), from whom another Dominican is Stephen de Bourbon (Etienne de Bourbon, d. 1261) - borrowed it for his work on the “Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost”.

According to this version, the supposed pope lived around 1100, but her name is not indicated. According to the text, an extremely talented woman, dressed as a man, became a notary in the Curia, then a cardinal and eventually pope; one day she had to ride out on horseback, and on this occasion she gave birth to a son; then she was tied to a horse's tail, dragged through the city, stoned to death and buried where she died, and the inscription on her grave reads: "Petre pater patrum papissae prodito partum." And during her reign, as the legend adds, four three-day fasts appeared (Ember days, three days each in winter, spring, summer and autumn), named in her honor as papal fasts (“fasts of the popess”). However, Godfried of Busser, who had no doubt about the reality of the character, places her 100 years earlier and is listed in the Mediolan Chronicle for the year 784

In the year A.D. 784, Pope John was a woman, and he was a Teutonic, and as a result of this it was established that no other Teutonic can be pope.

Second version: Martin Polyak

Another version, which appeared in the third edition of Martin Polyak's Chronicle of Popes and Emperors. Martin of Troppau, lat. Martinus Polonus), perhaps inserted by the author himself rather than by a subsequent copyist. Through this very popular work, the legend most widely spread in the following form: After Leo IV (847-55), the Holy See was occupied by the Englishman John of Mainz for 2 years, 5 months and 3 days. John of Mainz, lat. Johannes Anglicus, natione Moguntinus ). He was allegedly a woman. Even as a child, this woman was brought by her friend to Athens, in men's clothing, and there she showed such success in her studies that no one could compare with her. She arrived in Rome, began teaching science there, and thereby attracted the attention of learned people. She was highly respected for her excellent behavior and erudition, and was eventually elected pope. Having become pregnant by one of her faithful servants, she gave birth to a child during the procession from the Cathedral of St. Peter's to the Lateran, somewhere between the Colosseum and the Church of St. Clement. She died almost at the same moment, and they say she was buried in that very place. Now the popes avoid this road in their processions; many people think it's because of disgust.

Here the name “John” appears for the first time, which is still attributed to the pope. Martin Polyak lived at the Curia as a papal chaplain and penitentiary (confessor) (d. 1278), so his papal history was widely read and the legend received universal recognition. One of the manuscripts of his chronicle tells a different story about the fate of the pope: after giving birth to John, she was immediately deposed and served penance for many years. Her son, it is added, became bishop of Ostia and buried her after her death.

Later versions

Subsequent chroniclers gave the pope a maiden name: some call her Agnes, others Gilberta. Even more distant variations are found in the works of various chroniclers, for example, in the Universal Chronicle of Metz, written c. 1250, and in later editions of the book of the XII (?) century. “Miracles of the City of Rome” (“Mirabilia Urbis Romae”). According to the latter, the pope had a vision in which she was asked to choose either temporary dishonor or eternal punishment; she chose the latter and died in childbirth in the middle of the street.

Early assessments of the legend

Trusting Acceptance

In the XIV-XV centuries. the pope was already considered a historical character whose existence no one questioned. She took a place among the carved busts that stood in the Siena Cathedral. At the request of Clement VIII, it was remade into Pope Zechariah. The heretic Jan Hus, defending his doctrine before the Council of Constance, referred to the pope, and no one proposed to challenge the fact of its existence. “Without a head and without a leader,” Hus declared, “there was a church when a woman papated for two years and five months,” and further: “The Church must be impeccable and unsullied, but can Pope John be considered impeccable and unsullied, who turned out to be a woman who gave birth to a child publicly? Not one of the 22 cardinals, 49 bishops and 272 theologians present at the meetings of the Council of Constance protested against this exile, confirming by their silence the existence of this legendary figure. However, she is absent from the LP and from the papal portraits in St. St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome.

In the 15th century, after historical criticism began to develop, some scholars, such as Aeneas Silvius (Epist., I, 30) and Platina (Vitae Pontificum, No. 106) pointed out the unsubstantiated story of the pope . From the 16th century Catholic historians began to deny the existence of the pope: for example, Onofrio Panvinio (Vitae Pontificum, Venice, 1557), Aventinus (Annales Boiorum, lib. IV), Baronius (Annales ad a. 879, n. 5) and others.

Protestant assessment

Some Protestants, for example Blondel (Joanna Papissa, 1657) and Leibniz (“Flores sparsae in tumulum papissae” in “Bibliotheca Historica”, Göttingen, 1758, 267 sq.), also admitted that the pope never existed. Many Protestants, however, used this plot in their attacks on the papacy. Even in the 19th century, when the inconsistency of the legend was determined by all serious historians, some of the Protestants (for example, Kist, 1843; Suden, 1831; Andrea, 1866) tried, driven by an anti-Roman sentiment, to prove the historicity of the pope. Even Hase ("Kirchengesch.", II, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1895, 81) could not resist making a remark on this matter, caustic and completely unrelated to history.

Variations of the inscription

"Petre pater patrum papissae prodito partum" is an inconsistent set of Latin words ending in: "I betray what is born." Stephen of Bourbon gives another text: "Parce, Pater Patrum, Papisse Prodere Partum." Chronica Minor XIII century. (more precisely, a late insertion into it), as well as Flores Temporum (1290) and the historian Theodoric Engelhusius (1426) give the third option: “Papa, Pater Patrum, Papisse Pandito Partum.” Another variant is known, the origin of which is unclear: “Papa Pater Patrum Peperit Papissa Papellum” (also meaningless).

Evidence of mythicality

The main evidence of the complete mythical nature of the pope is as follows:

• Not a single contemporary historical source - among all the histories of the papacy - knows anything about her; Moreover, there is not a single mention of it before sir. XIII century Now it is unthinkable to imagine that the appearance of the “pope,” even if it were a historical fact, turned out to be overlooked by all historians of the 10th-13th centuries.
• There is no place in the history of the papacy where this legendary figure could fit.
  • Between Leo IV and Benedict III, where Martin Polyak places it, it cannot be inserted, since Leo IV died on 17.7.855 and immediately after his death Benedict III was elected by the clergy and the Roman people; but due to the appearance of an antipope in the person of Cardinal Anastasius, who had been removed from office, he was not ordained until September 29. There are coins depicting Benedict III with Emperor Lothair, who died on September 28; consequently, Benedict was recognized as pope before this date. On October 7, Benedict III wrote a charter to Corvey Abbey (Northern Germany). Hincmar, Archbishop. Reims, informed Nicholas I that the envoy he was sending to Leo IV had learned on the way about the death of this pope, and therefore handed his petition to Benedict III, who made a decision on it (Hincmar, ep. xl in P.L., CXXXVI, 85 ). All this evidence proves the correct dates given for Leo IV and Benedict III - there was no interval between them, so there was no place for a pope.
  • It is even less likely that the popess could be placed in the list of popes around 1100, between Victor III (1087) and Urban II (1088-99) or before Paschal II (1099-1110), as is suggested in the chronicle of Jean de Meilly.

Origin of the legend

The plot of the Roman pope apparently has an earlier counterpart in Constantinople. Indeed, in a letter to Michael Cyrularius (1053), Leo IX says that he cannot believe what he heard, namely, that the Church of Constantinople saw eunuchs, and even women, on the episcopal throne (Mansi “Concil.”, XIX, 635 sq.).

Various hypotheses have been proposed regarding the origin of the entire legend about Pope John.

• Bellarmine (De Romano Pontifice, III, 24) thinks that the story came to Rome from Constantinople.
• Baronius (Annales ad a. 879, n. 5) suggests that the much-reproached feminine weaknesses of Pope John VIII (872-82) in relations with the Greeks may have grown into this legend. Mai showed (Nova Collectio Patr., I, Proleg., xlvii) that Photius of Constantinople (De Spir. Sanct. Myst., lxxxix) three times significantly calls this pope either “courageous” or “masculine” ( “the Manly”), as if removing the stigma of femininity from him.
• Other historians point to the degradation of the papacy in the 10th century, when many popes bore the name John; Therefore, such a name, one feels, is quite suitable for the legendary pope. So, Aventine sees in the story a satire on John IX; Blondel - a satire on John XI, Panvinio (notae ad Platinam, De vitis Rom. Pont.) adapts the story to John XII, while Leander (Kirkengesch., II, 200) understands it as an assessment of the harmful influence of women on the papacy in X century at all.
• Other researchers are trying to find a more definite basis for the origin of the legend in various incidents and reports. Leo Allatius (Diss. Fab. de Joanna Papissa) connects her with the false prophetess Theota, condemned at the Synod in Mainz (847); Leibniz recalls the story of how Johannes Anglicus, supposedly a bishop, arrived in Rome and was recognized there as a woman. The legend was also associated with false Isidorean decretals, for example, Karl Blascus (“Diatribe de Joanna Papissa”, Naples, 1779) and Gfrörer (Kirchengesch., iii, 978).
• Döllinger's explanation met with much greater approval ("Papstfabeln", Munich, 1863, 7-45). He regards the plot of Pope John as a relic of some Roman folk tales, originally associated with certain ancient monuments and peculiar customs. An ancient statue, dug up during the reign of Sixtus V on the street near the Colosseum, - a figure with a child - was popularly accepted as an image of the pope. On the same street, a monument was excavated with an inscription ending with the famous formula “P.P.P.” (proprie pecunia posuit) and with a name at the beginning, read as: Pap. (?Papirius) pater patrum. This could easily have given rise to the inscription indicated by Jean de Meilly (see above). It was also noticed that the pope does not walk along this street during the ceremonial procession (possibly due to its small width). It was further noted that during the formal inauguration in front of the Lateran Cathedral, the newly elected pope sat down on a marble chair. This chair was nothing more than an ancient bath-stool, of which there were many in Rome; sometimes it was used by dad for relaxation. But the popular imagination saw in this a sign that in this way they were supposedly checking the sex of the pope, in order to henceforth prevent a woman from ascending to the throne of St. Petra.
• Bertrand Russell in “The History of Western Philosophy” points out that the legend is based on the story of Marotia, the daughter of the Roman senator Theophylact, from the family of counts of Tusculum, who were the most influential Romans at the beginning of the 10th century, in whose family the title of pope became almost hereditary. Marozia changed several husbands in a row and an unknown number of lovers. She made one of her lovers a pope under the name of Sergius II (904-911). Her son from this connection was Pope John XI (931-936); her grandson was John XII (955-964), who became pope at the age of 16 and with his dissolute life and orgies, the site of which soon became the Lateran Palace, completely undermined the authority of the papacy.

The plot of Pope John in works of literature

The plot of Pope John has been repeatedly developed in world literature. He also attracted the attention of A. S. Pushkin, who supposedly in 1835 wrote outlines of the plot for the play “Pope Joanna” in three acts. These sketches were in French.