Pope Joan (Diane Sawyer looks at FEMALE POPE)

popejoan.com ^ | 1996 [!] | Donna Cross

[theFIRMbss]

"As its title reveals, the novel is based on the life of one of the most fascinating, extraordinary women in Western history--Pope Joan, a controversial figure of historical record who, disguised as a man, rose to rule Christianity in the 9th century as the first and only woman to sit on the throne of St. Peter.

Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against the medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read and write. When her older brother is killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak and identity, goes to the monastery of Fulda, and is initiated into the brotherhood in his place. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great Christian scholar. Eventually she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest throne in Christendom.

Pope Joan is a sweeping historical drama set against the turbulent events of the 9th century -- the Saracen sack of St. Peter's, the famous fire in the Borgo that destroyed over three-quarters of the Vatican, the Battle of Fontenoy, arguably the bloodiest and most terrible of medieval conflicts. The novel is a fascinating vivid record of what life was really like during the so-called Dark Ages, as masterwork of suspense and passion that has as its center an unforgettable woman, reminiscent of Jean Auel's Ayla, Jane Austen's Emma, and other heroines who struggle against restrictions their souls will not accept."

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Donna to Appear on PrimeTime Live!
(December 2005)

Tune in Thursday, December 29, 2005 at 10PM Eastern to see Diane Sawyer of ABC News interview Donna Woolfolk Cross, author of Pope Joan, about the book, her research and more. Check your local ABC affiliate for more information.

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Movie News! (updated May 2005)

Principal photography for the movie version of Pope Joan is now scheduled to begin in Spring 2006. Casting for the most important roles is now underway.

February 2005

Pope Joan, the movie, has made progress! It is being produced by Constantine Films. Producer: Herman Weigal. Director: Academy Award Winning Volker Schlondorff. Principal photography to begin in 2006

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Pope Joan at Amazon link

[theFIRMbss]

The media seems
to be jumping on this book
in time for Christmas . . .

(Though it is not new
a librarian told me
"The DaVinci Code"

has sparked new interest
in EVERYTHING religious
if there is INTRIGUE . . .)

[Mears]

I read this book several years ago---thought it was a "has been"

[Darkwolf377]

More mental preparation for an American commander in chief?

[SedVictaCatoni]

How much more interesting this story would be if it were even vaguely close to true.

[The_Republican]

You Got it!

Mcain beats Hitlary!

[SoftballMominVA]

I read this years ago. The story is interesting, but the author is honestly not the best by any means. The story drags more than once.

According to the book there is now a chair that the newly elected popes sit on so that someone can look in on to see if there are dangling things there. Then he must announce "the Pope is a man." However, others say that the chair is nothing more than an old time toilet.

Of course when all is said and done, the movie will be nothing more than another episode in the "feminization" of society.

[BenLurkin]

St. Leo III (795-816)
Stephen V (816-17)
St. Paschal I (817-24)
Eugene II (824-27)
Valentine (827)
Gregory IV (827-44)
Sergius II (844-47)
St. Leo IV (847-55)
Benedict III (855-58)
St. Nicholas I (the Great) (858-67)
Adrian II (867-72)
John VIII (872-82)
Marinus I (882-84)
St. Adrian III (884-85)
Stephen VI (885-91)
Formosus (891-96)
Boniface VI (896)
Stephen VII (896-97)
Romanus (897)
Theodore II (897)
John IX (898-900)

[Darkwolf377]

Whoops, take two: More preparation for a female American commander in chief?

[big'ol_freeper]

And you believe do ya? R-i-g-h-t. The story of Pope Joan is a complete fabrication.

[theFIRMbss]

>I read this book several years ago

Check out the web site.
It's well made, very fancy.
It looks to my eyes

like some PR firm
is putting really big bucks
to capitalize

on "DaVinci Code"
and "The Passion" fans. I think
mainstream media

just sees "religion"
as ONE genre, without thought
that some stories are

faith-building, some are
tin foil thrillers, and some are
just exploitation.

[wagglebee]

Yeah, my first thought is why is all of this publicity being given to A FICTIONAL CHARACTER?!

[Mears]

Thanks for the link.

[theFIRMbss]

>R-i-g-h-t. The story of Pope Joan is a complete fabrication

PROOFS OF ITS MYTHICAL CHARACTER

The principal proofs of the entirely mythical character of the popess are:

1. Not one contemporaneous historical source among the papal histories knows anything about her; also, no mention is made of her until the middle of the thirteenth century. Now it is incredible that the appearance of a "popess", if it was an historical fact, would be noticed by none of the numerous historians from the tenth to the thirteenth century.

2. In the history of the popes, there is no place where this legendary figure will fit in.

Between Leo IV and Benedict III, where Martinus Polonus places her, she cannot be inserted, because Leo IV died 17 July, 855, and immediately after his death Benedict III was elected by the clergy and people of Rome; but owing to the setting up of an antipope, in the person of the deposed Cardinal Anastasius, he was not consecrated until 29 September. Coins exist which bear both the image of Benedict III and of Emperor Lothair, who died 28 September, 855; therefore Benedict must have been recognized as pope before the last-mentioned date. On 7 October, 855, Benedict III issued a charter for the Abbey of Corvey. Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, informed Nicholas I that a messenger whom he had sent to Leo IV learned on his way of the death of this pope, and therefore handed his petition to Benedict III, who decided it (Hincmar, ep. xl in P.L., CXXXVI, 85). All these witnesses prove the correctness of the dates given in the lives of Leo IV and Benedict III, and there was no interregnum between these two popes, so that at this place there is no room for the alleged popess.

Further, is is even less probable that a popess could be inserted in the list of popes about 1100, between Victor III (1087) and Urban II (1088-99) or Paschal II (1099-1110), as is suggested by the chronicle of Jean de Mailly.

ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND

This fable of a Roman popess seems to have had an earlier counterpart at Constantinople. Indeed, in his letter to Michael Caerularius (1053), Leo IX says that he would not believe what he had heard, namely that the Church of Constantinople had already seen eunuchs, indeed even a woman, in its episcopal chair (Mansi "Concil.", XIX, 635 sq.).

Concerning the origin of the whole legend of Popess Joan, different hypotheses have been advanced.

Bellarmine (De Romano Pontifice, III, 24) believes that the tale was brought from Constantinople to Rome.

Baronius (Annales ad a., 879, n. 5) conjectures that the much censured effeminate weaknesses of Pope John VIII (872-82) in dealing with the Greeks may have given rise to the story. Mai has shown (Nova Collectio Patr., I, Proleg., xlvii) that Photius of Constantinople (De Spir. Sanct. Myst., lxxxix) refers emphatically three times to this pope as "the Manly", as though he would remove from him the stigma of effeminacy.

Other historians point to the degradation of the papacy in the tenth century, when so many popes bore the name John; it seemed therefore a fitting name for the legendary popess. Thus Aventinus sees in the story a satire on John IX; Blondel, a satire on John XI; Panvinio (notae ad Platinam, De vitis Rom. Pont.) applies it to John XII, while Leander (Kirkengesch., II, 200) understands it as applicable generally to the baneful female influence on the papacy during the tenth century.

Other investigators endeavour to find in various occurrences and reports a more definite basis for the origin of this legend. Leo Allatius (Diss. Fab. de Joanna Papissa) connects it with the false prophetess Theota, condemned at the Synod of Mainz (847); Leibniz recalls the story that an alleged bishop Johannes Anglicus came to Rome and was there recognized as a woman. The legend has also been connected with the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, e.g. by Karl Blascus ("Diatribe de Joanna Papissa", Naples, 1779), and Gfrörer (Kirchengesch., iii, 978).

Döllinger's explanation has met with more general approval ("Papstfabeln", Munich, 1863, 7-45). He recognizes the fable of Popess Joan as a survival of some local Roman folk-tale originally connected with certain ancient monuments and peculiar customs. An ancient statue discovered in the reign of Sixtus V, in a street near the Colosseum, which showed a figure with a child, was popularly considered to represent the popess. In the same street a monument was discovered with an inscription at the end of which occurred the well-known formula P.P.P. (proprie pecuniâ posuit) together with a prefixed name which read: Pap. (?Papirius) pater patrum. This could easily have given origin to the inscription mentioned by Jean de Mailly (see above). It was also observed that the pope did not pass along this street in solemn procession (perhaps on account of its narrowness). Further it was noticed that, on the occasion of his formal inauguration in front of the Lateran Basilica, the newly-elected pope always seated himself on a marble chair. This seat was an ancient bath-stool, of which there were many in Rome; it was merely made use of by the pope to rest himself. But the imagination of the vulgar took this to signify that the sex of the pope was thereby tested, in order to prevent any further instance of a woman attaining to the Chair of St. Peter.

Erroneous explanations — such as were often excogitated in the Middle Ages in connection with ancient monuments — and popular imagination are originally responsible for the fable of "Popess Joan" that uncritical chroniclers, since the middle of the thirteenth century, dignified by consigning it to their pages.

[Pope Joan, The Catholic Encyclopedia]

[kellynla]

Well here is the list of all the 9th Century popes and I don't see any Pope "Joan" and I don't see any "Brother?" John Anglicus??? either.

St. Leo III (795-816)
Stephen V (816-17)
St. Paschal I (817-24)
Eugene II (824-27)
Valentine (827)
Gregory IV (827-44)
Sergius II (844-47)
St. Leo IV (847-55)
Benedict III (855-58)
St. Nicholas I (the Great) (858-67)
Adrian II (867-72)
John VIII (872-82)
Marinus I (882-84)
St. Adrian III (884-85)
Stephen VI (885-91)
Formosus (891-96)
Boniface VI (896)
Stephen VII (896-97)
Romanus (897)
Theodore II (897)
John IX (898-900)

[bnelson44]

Old story, which has been long debunked (like in the 1850s!)

If you are interested in the debunking, see:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08407a.htm

[siunevada]

a controversial figure of historical record who, disguised as a man, rose to rule Christianity in the 9th century

Mmmm. Yeah. Which version of the 'popess' tale is an 'historical' record?

[socal_parrot]

According to the book there is now a chair that the newly elected popes sit on so that someone can look in on to see if there are dangling things there.

Another jobs that Americans just won't do.

[Sans-Culotte]

I'm not even Catholic, but I have long heard that this story is bogus. Wasn't it filmed already, circa 197?

[Old Professer]

I liked the part about giving birth in the "Popemobile."

[theFIRMbss]

>Which version of the 'popess' tale is an 'historical' record?

In Diane's history, the "true" record probably will be the record that makes Catholics look most repressive, and men in general, bad.