Pope Joan

According to medieval legend, Pope Joan was a female pope who reigned from 855 to 858.

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Pope Joan is regarded by historians as an invention, possibly originating as an anti-papal satire which gained a degree of plausibility due to certain genuine elements related in the story.

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The story of Pope Joan is known mainly from a 13th century Polish chronicler named Martin of Opava (Martin von Trappau to Germans and also known as Martin Polonus, "Martin the Pole"). In his Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatum, he writes:

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After... Leo, John Anglicus, born at Mainz, was pope for two years, seven months and four days, and died in Rome, after which there was a vacancy in the papacy of one month. It is claimed that this John was a woman, who as a girl had been led to Athens dressed in the clothes of a man by a certain lover of hers. There she became proficient in a diversity of branches of knowledge, until she had no equal, and afterwards in Rome, she taught the liberal arts and had great masters among her students and audience. A high opinion of her life and learning arose in the city, and she was the choice of all for pope. While pope, however, she became pregnant by her companion. Through ignorance of the exact time when the birth was expected, she was delivered of a child while in procession from St Peter's to the Lateran, in a narrow lane between the Colisseum and St Clement's church. After her death, it is said she was buried in that same place. The Lord Pope always turns aside from the street and it is believed by many that this is done because of abhorrence of the event. Nor is she placed on the list of the holy pontiffs, both because of her female sex and on account of the foulness of the matter.

Medieval: REDIRECTMiddle Ages...

Legend: :For other senses of this word, see legend (disambiguation)....

Pope: :This entry is about the Catholic Pontiff. For other uses of the word, see Pope (disambiguation)....

Pope Joan related Images and Photos (experimental)

Pope Joan is Condemned to the Jaws of Hell for Fornication	Joan Sims	Joan Jett	Joan Rice
Joan Jett: Sinner	Joan Jett: Sinner	Joan Jett: Sinner	Pope Leo I
Joan Leslie	Joan Collins	Joan Collins	Joan Hickson