[Alex Murphy]

Are they talking about something like this: Replica of a marble commode used in the Vatican, Europe, 1601-1900

Try again. From the article: a wooden chair with a hole in the seat which, it is claimed, was used for 600 years to establish the gender of would-be popes in the wake of the Pope Joan scandal.

If "Pope Joan" was elected Pope in 853, the deception uncovered three years later, and the chair not created/used until after the scandal, the Catholic apologist will have to produce a wooden commode that dates 856-1456.

[Petrosius]

You try again. I said "something like this." Clearly there was more than one commode in the Vatican, some would be marble some wooden. These items were not too uncommon. As for "it is claimed", who has made this claim and upon what historical evidence?

This story is pure myth. The first of a female pope was by Jean de Mailly in the 13th century and he placed the event in 1099. There are no contemporary citations from the 9th or any other century. An amusing story but only ignorance or anti-Catholic bigotry would insist that it is true.

[vladimir998]

No “Pope Joan” was ever elected let alone in 853.

Pope Leo IV was already pope in 853 and continued as such until he died in 855.

[boatbums]

What is the BIG DEAL about a historical Pope Joan??? Why is the very thought that it could have happened so maligned, denied and people who accept its possibility so condemned? Some even go so far as to say it was a “Protestant” invention even though the reformation didn’t even happen until seven centuries later!

The story was she was so intelligent that she deceived even the bishops and cardinals who ordained her. It was a deception! They didn’t do it knowingly. She was the one who did wrong. There were other MALE popes who were guilty of far worse things. Methinks they doth protest too much!!!