is the reign of Pope Benedict III.  The story of Joan is one of a woman who is vaulted to pope, masquerading as a man.  This is also a love story of a Pope who becomes pregnant, and goes into labor between the Pope's residence and the cathederal, giving birth to a stillborn child on the Via Sacre (sacred street) which is known in Rome in the vernacular as the "Shunned Street".

 

The tragic end of Pope Joan, known as John, and of English decent, is that she died soon after the birth either through blood loss, or being tied to the tail of a horse and dragged through the streets.  The story of Pope Joan was accepted for three hundred years until the church proclaimed it as a peice of reformation propoganda.

 

Interestingly, for six hundred years after the time of Pope Joan a ceremony was performed on any candidate for the papacy known as Sella Stercoraria...a chair with a hole in the seat where an examination took place.  Finding the proper gender "Mas nobis nominus est" (Our candidate is a man) was proclaimed. 

 

There is a movie, made in 1972 "Pope Joan" starring Liv Ullman as Joan, Olivia De Havilland, Leslie Ann Down and Trevor Howard in other leading roles.  This movie was panned by critics, but remains available.  There is also a long-running play and an opera based on the story of Pope Joan. 

 

Was she...or was she not? 

I've seen the film, and it's actually very interesting. couldn't say how true the story is though.

 

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

Legend has it that in the ninth century Pope John, after a two-year reign, was suddenly exposed to be a woman, Pope Joan. In modern times many dismiss the story as a myth... but some still believe it is based on truth. How and why could a woman disguise herself in this way and rise to the ultimate power of the Papal throne? In this historical novel, the author has given life to the story and created a remarkable heroine who is able to overcome numerous obstacles in the male dominated and religiously zealous world in which she lived.

 

Yes the popessa did exist. The dating of the male pope and the next male pope do not coincide with dates of death of the male popes. I have read the book mentioned.

She did not exist. There are no gaps between any of the 9th century Popes. Certainly not between Pope Leo IV who died on 17 July 855 and his successor, Benedict III who was elected later that same month. She is entirely fictitious.

A couple of years ago I read a novel called Pope Joan.  I am not sure if this is the same one mentioned.  I looked in my personal library as I usually keep all my books (I have an extensive collection), but every once in a while I loan them out and I must have done that with this one, because I can not find it.  At the time I remember thinking this was too outrageous to be real so I did some research, but I  found nothing but conflict.  I am  unsure where to stand on this as I have learned in all my many years of research, outrageous in history can very often turn out to be factual.  On the same token, outrageous just as often can turn out to be fantasies contrived by anyone wishing to slander someone or somthing, or just for some sort of notoriety. 

The best thing to do is consult a list of 9th century Popes and you'll see that there were no gaps between any of them longer than a few months, certainly not years in which Pope Joan could have reigned.

I had found sites in support of Pope Joan and sites stating she is a myth.  I found that a 12th or 13th century Dominican friar named Martin of Troppau places her between Leo IV and Benedict III calling her John III from 853 to 855.  He has her know as John Anglicus or John of Mainz.  His story was believed to be true from his time through the 17th century - mainly by Protestants after the Reformation.  However, no contemporary sources have been sited.

 

I also found other Dominican Friars named Jean de Mailly and Etienne de Bourbon also from  the 13th century.  Etienne de Bourbon's tale "Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost" places her around 1100 and gives her no name.  He states a very talented woman disguised as a man became a Notary to the Curia, then became a Cardinal and finally a Pope.  She was discovered when she gave birth to a son while horse riding.  She was dragged behind a horse and stoned to death, then buried where she died. 

I then did as you suggested.  As I don't have any books in my personal library that deal directly with the history of the papacy, and it is late at night, I did the next best thing - I googled and found a site called History of the Roman Catholic Papacy and Church by Austin Cline. 

 

He states that Leo IV died July of 855 and Benedict III was elected almost immediately, although he was not consecrated until September of 855.  That leaves no time for Joan to have been Pope at this time - providing these records are correct.

 

I then checked the time line for Etienne de Bourbon's story and found 3 possible times she could have been.

 

1)Leo IX died April 19, 1054.  A full year went by before Victor II became Pope on April 13, 1055

 

2)  Gregory VII died May 25, 1085.  A full year went by before Victor III became Pope on May 24, 1086.

 

3)  Victor III died September 16, 1087.  6 months went by before Urban II became Pope on March 12, 1088. 

 

There is room for speculation as history was written exclusively by men in that era and the Church would have had ample reason to strike this story from the records.

 

Food for thought.

 

 

 

 

 

I've never heard of Pope Joan being placed in the 11th century. As you said the story supposedly places her in the middle of the 9th century, but as Pope Leo IV was succeeded by Benedict III in the same month (July 855) her existence is obviously false.

A striking piece of historical evidence is found in the well-documented 1413 trial of Jan Hus for heresy. Hus was condemned for preaching the heretical doctrine that the Pope is fallible. In his defense Hus cited, during the trial, many examples of Popes who had sinned and committed crimes against the Church. To each of these charges his judges, all churchmen, replied in minute detail, denying Hus’s accusations and labeling them blasphemy. Only one of Hus’s statements went unchallenged: "Many times have the Popes fallen into sin and error, for instance when Joan was elected Pope, who was a woman." No one of the 28 cardinals, four patriarchs, 30 metropolitans, 206 bishops, and 440 theologians present charged Hus with lying or blaspheming in this statement.

There is also circumstantial evidence difficult to explain if there was never a female Pope. One example is the so-called chair exam, part of the medieval papal consecration ceremony for almost six hundred years. Each newly elected Pope after Joan sat on the sella stercoraria (literally, "dung seat"), pierced in the middle like a toilet, where his genitals were examined to give proof of his manhood. Afterward the examiner solemnly informed the gathered people, "Mas nobis nominus est" -- "Our nominee is a man." Only then was the Pope handed the keys of St. Peter. This ceremony continued until the sixteenth century.

http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/popejoan.htm