Is pope joan a true or completely made up story?

Question

John Anglicus was a ninth century Englishman. He travelled to Athens where he gained a reputation for his knowledge of the sciences. Eventually he came to lecture at the Trivium in Rome where his fame grew even larger. He became a Cardinal, and when Pope Leo IV died in 853 A.D., he was unanimously elected pope.

As Pope John VIII he ruled for two years, until 855 A.D. However, while riding one day from St. Peter's to the Lateran, he had to stop by the side of the road and, to the astonishment of everyone, gave birth to a child. It turned out that Pope John VIII was really a woman. In other words, Pope John was really Pope Joan.

Legend says that she was tied to the back of a horse and dragged, while being stonned, till she died. Another Story says that Joan was sent to a convent to repent her sins and that her child grew up to become a biship. I just want to straiten out whether or not it happend

Answer 1

Pope Joan is regarded by most modern historians and religious scholars as fictitious, possibly originating as an anti-papal satire.
The first known reference to her occurs in the thirteenth century, 350 years after her supposed reign. Around this time her image also began to appear as the High Priestess card in the Tarot deck.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/popeJoan.html

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this popess was already counted as an historical personage, whose existence no one doubted. She had her place among the carved busts which stood in Siena Cathedral. Under Clement VIII, and at his request, she was transformed into Pope Zacharias. The heretic Hus, in the defense of his false doctrine before the Council of Constance, referred to the popess, and no one offered to question the fact of her existence. She is not found in the "Liber Pontificalis" nor among the papal portraits in St. Paul's Outside the Walls, at Rome.
This alleged popess is a pure figment of the imagination. In the fifteenth century, after the awakening of historical criticism, a few scholars like Aeneas Silvius (Epist., I, 30) and Platina (Vitae Pontificum, No. 106) saw the untenableness of the story. Since the sixteenth century Catholic historians began to deny the existence of the popess, e.g., Onofrio Panvinio (Vitae Pontificum, Venice, 1557), Aventinus (Annales Boiorum, lib. IV), Baronius (Annales ad a. 879, n. 5), and others.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08407a.htm

Donna Woolfolk Cross, like Dan Brown, has woven a truly extraordinary tale, using myth, legend and popular folk history. True? I'd say no. Too much attention was given to the legend by the Vatican itself, too much time and exhaustive research, with a negative result. The first stories of this "Popess" only began circulation 300 plus years AFTER the fact....I may be wrong, its completely possible...but my opinion? No, not true.

Answer 2

The story is false. The Church has never, nor can she ever, ordained women to the priesthood, much less elected one to the throne of St. Peter. This is not because the Church does not respect women or that women are considered to be inferior in any way. Women are highly regarded by the Church because men and women were created equal in dignity in the eyes of God. However, Jesus Christ willed to have male Apostles. Bishops are successors of the Apostles, and priests participate in the local bishop's authority. If Christ had willed women to be priests, bishops or even popes, then the Church would long ago have embraced the idea. The Catholic Church is merely being faithful to the Faith passed on to her by her Lord. Whether one agrees or not with the Church's (and therefore Christ's) position is open to debate, but at least the Church can never be accused of not being faithful to the Will of God.

I am not sure where the legend of "Pope Joan" originally arose, but it is most definitely fictitious.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

In his book "The Bad Popes," E. R. Chamberlin argues that the "Pope Joan" legend is based on Marozia Theophylact (b. ca. 890). Marozia, and her mother Theodora before her, became the senatrix of Rome, from 926 to 932. (In fact, her mother took as her lover the future Pope John X, whose career she helped.) Marosia's first child was by Pope Sergius, and she became, as a teenager, his mistress. Later, she married a professional soldier named Alberic and had a child, also called Alberic, by him. A third husband with a sizable army helped her seize both political and military control of Rome. With Marozia's backing, her son by Pope Sergius himself became pontiff ca. 931. A fourth husband, whom she planned to marry in 932, sent her son Alberic over the edge, and he led the Romans against his mother that same year. Victorious, Alberic nevertheless opted not to kill his mother, instead locking her up in the depths of Castel Sant'Angelo for the remainder of her life. He ruled Rome for 20 more years.

Marozia was not only the mistress and mother of two popes, she was also the grandmother of one, great-grandmother of two, and great-great grandmother of one.

Chamberlin explains that because Marozia held such a grip on both Roman civic and religious politics (he says, "...Their daughter [Marozia] boldly pushed the principle to its furtherest possible extent--the Papacy and the family [Theophylact] were to be one." (p. 33)), she began to be seen almost as a pope, and by the thirteenth century, the "Pope Joan" myth had arisen from her legend.

Answer 4

To the best of my knowledge this is only a legend. I have neither seen nor heard of any evidence of this story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

True.New popes are always checked out now before their coronation to make sure they have testicles.