In Rome today is the street known as Vicus Papissa, ‘the street of the woman pope’. In that avenue is an alcove in which it is said an image of Joan once stood, in memory of the spot where she gave birth. The street runs between St Peter’s and the Lateran to the Coliseum and was part of the processional route of all popes in Rome until the 13th Century, when it was suddenly redirected away from the location of Joan’s legendary procession. Some scholars believe that the official route was changed so that the new pope wouldn’t have to pass the notorious site.
No contemporary 9th century accounts of a female pope exist, but with no conclusive proof to the contrary, the possibility remains that a talented woman could have risen to become Bishop of Rome? The words of the first writer to account for Joan, Jean de Mailly, resound even more loudly today than they did centuries ago; next to his story of Joan, he wrote the words, ‘to be verified’.
Dr. Craig Rustici - Associate Professor of English at Hofstra University
Dr. Craig Rustici is an Associate Professor of English at Hofstra University. He received his B.A. from Lafayette College and his M. A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His presentation "Glass Houses: Why the Subjects of Queen Elizabeth Avoided the Subject of Pope Joan" was chosen as Hofstra's Fall 2001 Distinguished Faculty Lecture and included on the 2003-2005 program for New York State Speakers in the Humanities. His book The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Pope Joan Legend in Early Modern England has been published by the University of Michigan Press.
Henrietta Leyser - Senior Research Fellow in History at the Univeristy of Oxford, England
Henrietta Leyser, BLitt MA Oxf, is Senior Research Fellow in History at the Univeristy of Oxford, England.
Her publications include Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500. Hermits and the New Monasticism: A Study of Religious Communities in Western Europe, 1000-1150 and Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages: Studies Presented to Henry Mayr-Harting.
Peter Stanford - Writer, journalist and broadcaster and former editor of the Catholic Herald
Peter Stanford is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. A former editor of the Catholic Herald (1988-1992), he writes for papers including The Independent on Sunday, Observer and Daily Telegraph His books have been translated into ten languages and include His books include The Devil: A Biography, Heaven: A Traveller's Guide, The She-Pope: The Legend of Pope Joan and Catholics and Sex.
Rosalind Miles - Author of Women and Power and Danger! Men at Work
Rosalind Miles is author of Women and Power and Danger! Men at Work. She has previously worked as Head of the Centre for Women’s Studies at Coventry University, England as welll as a consultant on women’s career development and equal opportunities programmes. She is author of The Women’s History of the World
Sam Riches - Cultural Historian of the late medieval period with special interests in pseudo-historical saints
Sam Riches is a cultural historian of the late medieval period with special interests in pseudo-historical saints, gender, monstrosity and the interplay between these areas. She is currently based at Lancaster University, where she is Director of Studies for History and Archaeology in Continuing Education.
Pope Joan
Pope Joan, legendary female Pope
Joan’s Mystery Lover
Marcus Polonius
Detailed the existence of Pope Joan
Allegedly, Pope John XX in 1276 ordered an official search of the Papal records. From this he changed his title to John XXI in official recognition of Joan's reign as Pope John VIII.
Joan's statue is reported to have stood alongside those of other Popes in the Cathedral of Siena until 1601, when during the reign of Pope Clement XII it suddenly "metamorphosed" into a bust of Pope Zacharias.
The tale of Pope Joan is featured in numerous medieval sources. The Polish chronicler, Martin of Opava citied in his 13th centaury text Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatum the tale of the two chairs that were used to in the coronation of a new Pope. Each chair had a hole on its seat base where a Vatican official could check the sex of a newly appointed Pope. According to Martin of Opava the chairs were introduced after a woman managed to become Pope
Within Rome today, down a small side street near the Vatican, exists a shrine to the female Pope. Strangely enough the current location of this shrine lies directly over the ancient processional route that would have been in use during Joan’s apparent existence.
From the mid-13th century onwards, the legend was widely disseminated and believed. Bartolomeo Platina, was a scholar and a prefect of the Vatican Library. In his 1479 publication, ‘Vitæ Pontificum Platinæ historici liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum qui hactenus ducenti fuere et X’, Platina depicts the histories of all previous Popes including that of a Pope John: ‘Pope John VIII: John, of English extraction, was born at Mentz (Mainz) and is said to have arrived at Popedom by evil art; for disguising herself like a man, whereas she was a woman, she went when young with her paramour, a learned man, to Athens, and made such progress in learning under the professors there that, coming to Rome, she met with few that could equal, much less go beyond her, even in the knowledge of the scriptures; and by her learned and ingenious readings and disputations, she acquired so great respect and authority that upon the death of Pope Leo IV (as Martin says) by common consent she was chosen Pope in his room. As she was going to the Lateran Church between the Colossean Theatre (so called from Nero's Colossus) and St. Clement's her travail came upon her, and she died upon the place, having sat two years, one month, and four days, and was buried there without any pomp.’
There are no comments yet