A Female Pope?
Time: Around 855a.d.
Place: Rome/The Vatican
http://catholic.org/pope_slide/4.html
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/pope.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_139.html
In a history class on the Italian Renaissance I heard a story about a Pope that was discovered to be a woman after she gave birth, and was then killed by angry Catholics. Consequently all Papal candidates must now sit on a chair with a hole in it so that their "maleness" can be verified.
I did a small amount of research into this story and have found it to be highly disputed. Did this figure, commonly referred to now as "Pope Joan", actually exist? The biggest complaint is that there is no real official record of a female pope existing, supposedly the first written account of her existance appears 300-400 years after her death (13th century a.d.) Another strike against Joan's existence is that there doesn't appear to be a female pope in the list of popes. There are other men who ruled during the commonly chosen dates for Joan's rule.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm
Evidence for Joan's existence? Supposedly she appeared in various forms for almost 300 years before her existence was denied (16th century a.d.) Then there's the conspiracy theory, that we don't have evidence of Joan's existence because the Catholic church doesn't want us to. Make of that what you will. Another interesting consideration to me is that most of the people who held the office of Pope in the 9th century only held it for about 5 years. I read in one article that Rome was a pretty chaotic place at this time, full of intrique and manipulation and backstabbing. In that kind of environment it's easy to see how things like a Pope's sex could be overlooked or how official records could be altered or lost. The most interesting thing I've found so far is that every source I've looked at so far has a different theory about the origin of Joan. If no one can agree on a single source of the Joan "legend", then that makes me doubt all the theories so far presented. Another problem I have is that I don't know what Joan's male name was. One source I read said that she's called "Pope Joan" because her papal cover name was John, the most common Papal name. Who's to say she didn't go by another name? The pope listed for Joan's supposed reign was Pope Benedict III (855-858). How do we know that Benedict wasn't a woman? Is there evidence of Benedict III's maleness? How do we know Benedict III even existed? Is there evidence? I don't know because I haven't looked. I wonder how hard it would be for the Catholic church to go back and retroactively "create" a pope to cover for Joan's reign? But now I'm sounding paranoid.
Although I don't generally want to speak in academic terms about something I have little evidence about, I wanted to bring it up because I've talked about Joan with other people before. I also wanted to throw it out in case anyone wanted to do some more research into it.
I also don't usually plan to talk about cases where women disguise themselves as men in order to escape the patriarchy, because I consider such cases to belong in the realm of feminism and not gender studies. I'm more interested in women who become men because they think of themselves as men and men who become women because they consider themselves women. And all the flavors inbetween.
The last thing I wanted to say is that if there was no Pope Joan, why would a legend of Pope Joan persist for almost 800 years? What role does Pope Joan have in our popular consciousness? Part of me enjoys the idea that the Catholic Church, which so often seems to present itself as infallible, could be so mistaken about one of their own officials. But I also find immense satisfaction in the notion that a woman could hold one of the highest positions of power in the world (a position traditionally held by men). Perhaps that's the reason why the story of Joan persists, it stands as a sign that men and women are equal.
Thoughts?
Place: Rome/The Vatican
http://catholic.org/pope_slide/4.html
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/pope.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_139.html
In a history class on the Italian Renaissance I heard a story about a Pope that was discovered to be a woman after she gave birth, and was then killed by angry Catholics. Consequently all Papal candidates must now sit on a chair with a hole in it so that their "maleness" can be verified.
I did a small amount of research into this story and have found it to be highly disputed. Did this figure, commonly referred to now as "Pope Joan", actually exist? The biggest complaint is that there is no real official record of a female pope existing, supposedly the first written account of her existance appears 300-400 years after her death (13th century a.d.) Another strike against Joan's existence is that there doesn't appear to be a female pope in the list of popes. There are other men who ruled during the commonly chosen dates for Joan's rule.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm
Evidence for Joan's existence? Supposedly she appeared in various forms for almost 300 years before her existence was denied (16th century a.d.) Then there's the conspiracy theory, that we don't have evidence of Joan's existence because the Catholic church doesn't want us to. Make of that what you will. Another interesting consideration to me is that most of the people who held the office of Pope in the 9th century only held it for about 5 years. I read in one article that Rome was a pretty chaotic place at this time, full of intrique and manipulation and backstabbing. In that kind of environment it's easy to see how things like a Pope's sex could be overlooked or how official records could be altered or lost. The most interesting thing I've found so far is that every source I've looked at so far has a different theory about the origin of Joan. If no one can agree on a single source of the Joan "legend", then that makes me doubt all the theories so far presented. Another problem I have is that I don't know what Joan's male name was. One source I read said that she's called "Pope Joan" because her papal cover name was John, the most common Papal name. Who's to say she didn't go by another name? The pope listed for Joan's supposed reign was Pope Benedict III (855-858). How do we know that Benedict wasn't a woman? Is there evidence of Benedict III's maleness? How do we know Benedict III even existed? Is there evidence? I don't know because I haven't looked. I wonder how hard it would be for the Catholic church to go back and retroactively "create" a pope to cover for Joan's reign? But now I'm sounding paranoid.
Although I don't generally want to speak in academic terms about something I have little evidence about, I wanted to bring it up because I've talked about Joan with other people before. I also wanted to throw it out in case anyone wanted to do some more research into it.
I also don't usually plan to talk about cases where women disguise themselves as men in order to escape the patriarchy, because I consider such cases to belong in the realm of feminism and not gender studies. I'm more interested in women who become men because they think of themselves as men and men who become women because they consider themselves women. And all the flavors inbetween.
The last thing I wanted to say is that if there was no Pope Joan, why would a legend of Pope Joan persist for almost 800 years? What role does Pope Joan have in our popular consciousness? Part of me enjoys the idea that the Catholic Church, which so often seems to present itself as infallible, could be so mistaken about one of their own officials. But I also find immense satisfaction in the notion that a woman could hold one of the highest positions of power in the world (a position traditionally held by men). Perhaps that's the reason why the story of Joan persists, it stands as a sign that men and women are equal.
Thoughts?