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Pope Joan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seePope Joan (disambiguation).

Illustrated manuscript depicting Pope Joan with thepapal tiara.Bibliothèque nationale de France,c. 1560.
Depiction of "Pope John VII" inHartmann Schedel's religiousNuremberg Chronicle,published in 1493

Pope Joan(Ioannes Anglicus,855–857) was, according to legend, a woman who reigned aspopefor two years[1]during theMiddle Ages.Her story first appeared inchroniclesin the 13th century and subsequently spread throughout Europe. The story was widely believed for centuries, but most modern scholars regard it as fictional.[2][3][4]

Most versions of her story describe her as a talented and learned woman who disguised herself as a man, often at the behest of a lover. In the most common accounts, owing to her abilities she rose through the church hierarchy and was eventually elected pope. Her sex was revealed when she gave birth during a procession and she died shortly after, either through murder or natural causes. The accounts state that later church processions avoided this spot and that the Vatican removed the female pope from its official lists and crafted a ritual to ensure that future popes were male.[5][6]In the 16th century,Siena Cathedralfeatured a bust of Joan among other pontiffs; this was removed after protests in 1600.[7]

Jean de Mailly's chronicle, written around 1250, contains the first mention of an unnamed female pope and inspired several more accounts over the next several years. The most popular and influential version is that interpolated intoMartin of Opava'sChronicon Pontificum et Imperatorumlater in the 13th century. Martin introduced details that the female pope's birth name was John Anglicus ofMainz,that she reigned in the 9th century and that she entered the church to follow her lover.[8]The existence of Pope Joan was used in the defence ofWalter Brutin his trial of 1391.[9]The legend was generally accepted as true until the 16th century, when a widespread debate amongCatholicandProtestantwriters called the story into question: various writers noted the implausibly long gap between Joan's supposed lifetime and her first appearance in texts.[10][11]Protestant scholarDavid Blondelultimately demonstrated the impossibility of the story.[12][13]Pope Joan is now widely considered fictional, though the legend remains influential in cultural depictions.[14][15]

Legends

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The earliest mention of a female pope appears in theDominicanJean de Mailly's chronicle ofMetz,Chronica Universalis Mettensis,written in the early 13th century. In his telling the female pope is not named and the events are set in 1099. According to Jean:

Concerning a certain Pope or rather female Pope, who is not set down in thelist of popesor Bishops of Rome, because she was a woman who disguised herself as a man and became, by her character and talents, a curial secretary, then a Cardinal and finally Pope. One day, while mounting a horse, she gave birth to a child. Immediately, by Roman justice she was bound by the feet to a horse's tail and dragged and stoned by the people for half a league, and, where she died, there she was buried, and at the place is written: "Petre, Pater Patrum, Papisse Prodito Partum" [Oh Peter, Father of Fathers, Betray the childbearing of the woman Pope]. At the same time, the four-day fast called the "fast of the female Pope" was first established.[16]

— Jean de Mailly,Chronica Universalis Mettensis

Jean de Mailly's story was picked up by his fellow DominicanStephen of Bourbon,who adapted it for his work on theSeven Gifts of the Holy Ghost.However the legend gained its greatest prominence when it appeared in the thirdrecension(edited revision) ofMartin of Opava'sChronicon Pontificum et Imperatorumlater in the 13th century. This version, which may have been by Martin himself, is the first to attach a name to the figure, indicating that she was known as John Anglicus or John of Mainz. It also changes the date from the 11th to the 9th century, indicating that Joan reigned betweenLeo IVandBenedict IIIin the 850s. According to theChronicon:

John Anglicus, born atMainz,was Pope for two years seven months and four days and died in Rome, after which there was avacancy in the Papacyof 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, afterward 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 chosen 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 fromSt. Peter'sto theLateran,in a lane once named Via Sacra (the sacred way) but now known as the "shunned street" between theColosseumandSt 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.

— Martin of Opava,Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum

One version of theChronicongives an alternative fate for the female pope: she did not die immediately after her exposure but was confined and deposed, after which she did many years of penance. Her son from the affair eventually becameBishop of Ostiaand ordered her entombment in his cathedral when she died.

Other references to the female pope are attributed to earlier writers, though none appears in manuscripts that predate theChronica.The one most commonly cited isAnastasius Bibliothecarius(d. 886), a compiler ofLiber Pontificalis,who was a contemporary of the female Pope by theChronicon's dating. However the story is found in only one unreliable manuscript of Anastasius. This manuscript, in theVatican Library,bears the relevant passage inserted as a footnote at the bottom of a page. It is out of sequence and in a different hand, one that dates from after the time of Martin of Opava. This 'witness' to the female pope is likely to be based on Martin's account and not a possible source for it. The same is true ofMarianus Scotus'sChronicle of the Popes,a text written in the 11th century. Some of its manuscripts contain a brief mention of a female pope named Johanna (the earliest source to attach to her the female form of the name), but all these manuscripts are later than Martin's work. Earlier manuscripts do not contain the legend.

Illustration ofPope Innocent Xhaving his testicles examined, fromRoma Triumphans(1645)

Some versions of the legend suggest that subsequent popes were subjected to an examination whereby, having sat on a so-calledsedia stercorariaor 'dung chair' containing a hole, a cardinal had to reach up and establish that the new pope hadtesticlesbefore announcing "Duos habet et bene pendentes"(" He has two and they dangle nicely "),[17]or "habet"(" he has them ") for short.[18]

There were associated legends as well. In the 1290s theDominicanRobert of Uzèsrecounted a vision in which he saw the seat "where, it is said, the pope is proved to be a man". Pope Joan has been associated with marvelous happenings.Petrarch(1304–1374) wrote in hisChronica de le Vite de Pontefici et Imperadori Romanithat after Pope Joan had been revealed as a woman:

... in Brescia it rained blood for three days and nights. In France there appeared marvelous locusts, which had six wings and very powerful teeth. They flew miraculously through the air, and all drowned in the British Sea. The golden bodies were rejected by the waves of the sea and corrupted the air, so that a great many people died.

— Petrarch, Chronica de le Vite de Pontefici et Imperadori Romani

However the attribution of this work to Petrarch may be incorrect.[19]

Later development

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An untitledpopesson theRosenwald Sheetof uncutTarotwoodcuts. Early 16th-century. Now inNational GalleryinWashington, D.C.

From the mid-13th century onward the legend was widely disseminated and believed. Joan was used as anexempluminDominicanpreaching.Bartolomeo Platina,the scholar who was prefect of the Vatican Library, wrote hisVitæ Pontificum Platinæ historici liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum qui hactenus ducenti fuere et XXin 1479 at the behest of his patron,Pope Sixtus IV.The book contains the following account of the female Pope:

Pope John VIII: John, of English extraction, was born at Mentz (Mainz) and is said to have arrived at popedom by evil art; for disguising herself like a man, whereas she was a woman, she went when young with her paramour, a learned man, to Athens, and made such progress in learning under the professors there that, coming to Rome, she met with few that could equal, much less go beyond her, even in the knowledge of the scriptures; and by her learned and ingenious readings and disputations, she acquired so great respect and authority that upon the death ofPope Leo IV(as Martin says) by common consent she was chosen pope in his room. As she was going to the Lateran Church between theColossean Theatre(so called fromNero's Colossus) and St. Clement's her travail came upon her, and she died upon the place, having sat two years, one month, and four days, and was buried there without any pomp. This story is vulgarly told, but by very uncertain and obscure authors, and therefore I have related it barely and in short, lest I should seem obstinate and pertinacious if I had admitted what is so generally talked. I had better mistake with the rest of the world, though it be certain, that what I have related may be thought not altogether incredible.

Pope Joan giving birth. Woodcut from a German translation byHeinrich Steinhöwelof Giovanni Boccaccio'sDe mulieribus claris,printed by Johannes Zainer at Ulm ca. 1474 (British Museum)

References to the female Pope abound in the laterMiddle AgesandRenaissance.Jans der Enikel(1270s) was the first to tell the story in German.Giovanni Boccacciowrote about her inDe Mulieribus Claris(1353).[20]TheChroniconofAdam of Usk(1404) gives her a name, Agnes, and furthermore mentions a statue in Rome that is said to be of her. This statue had never been mentioned by any earlier writer anywhere; presumably it was an actual statue that came to be taken to be of the female pope. A late-14th-century edition of theMirabilia Urbis Romae,a guidebook for pilgrims to Rome, tells readers that the female Pope's remains are buried at St. Peter's. It was around this time that a long series of busts of past Popes was made for theDuomo of Siena,which included one of the female pope, named as "Johannes VIII, Foemina de Anglia" and included between Leo IV and Benedict III.

At his trial in 1415Jan Husargued that the Church did not necessarily need a pope because, during the pontificate of "Pope Agnes" (as he also called her), it got on quite well. Hus's opponents at the trial insisted that his argument proved no such thing about the independence of the Church but they did not dispute that there had been a female pope at all.

During the Reformation

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In 1587Florimond de Raemond,a magistrate in theparlementde Bordeaux and anantiquary,published his first attempt to deconstruct the legend,Erreur Populaire de la Papesse Jeanne(also subsequently published under the titleL'Anti-Papesse). The tract applied humanist techniques of textual criticism to the Pope Joan legend, with the broader intent of supplying sound historical principles to ecclesiastical history, and the legend began to come apart, detail by detail. Raemond'sErreur Populairewent through successive editions, reaching a fifteenth as late as 1691.[21]

In 1601,Pope Clement VIIIdeclared the legend of the female pope to be untrue. The famous bust of her, inscribedJohannes VIII, Femina ex Anglia,which had been carved for the series of papal figures in theDuomo di Sienaabout 1400 and was noted by travelers, was either destroyed or recarved and relabeled, replaced by a male figure, that ofPope Zachary.[22]

The legend of Pope Joan was "effectively demolished" byDavid Blondel,a mid-17th-centuryProtestanthistorian, who suggested that Pope Joan's tale may have originated in a satire againstPope John XI,who died in his early 20s.[23]Blondel, through detailed analysis of the claims and suggested timings, argued that no such events could have happened.[23]

The 16th-century Italian historianOnofrio Panvinio,commenting on one ofBartolomeo Platina's works that refer to Pope Joan, theorized that the story of Pope Joan may have originated from tales ofPope John XII;John reportedly had many mistresses, including one called Joan, who was very influential in Rome during his pontificate.[24][25]

Engraving of Pope Joan giving birth, fromA Present for a Papist(1675)

At the time of theReformation,variousProtestantwriters took up the Pope Joan legend in their anti-Catholic writings, and the Catholics responded with their own polemic. According toPierre Gustave Brunet,[26]

Various authors, in the 16th and 17th centuries, occupied themselves with Pope Joan, but it was from the point of view of the polemic engaged in between the partisans of Lutheran or Calvinist reform and the apologists of Catholicism.

An English writer, Alexander Cooke, wrote a book entitledPope Joane: A Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist,which purported to prove the existence of Pope Joan by reference to Catholic traditions.[27]It was republished in 1675 asA Present for a Papist: Or the Life and Death of Pope Joan, Plainly Proving Out of the Printed Copies, and Manscriptes of Popish Writers and Others, That a Woman called Joan, Was Really Pope of Rome, and Was There Deliver'd of a Bastard Son in the Open Street as She Went in Solemn Procession.[27][28]The book gives an account of Pope Joan giving birth to a son in plain view of all those around, accompanied by a detailed engraving showing a rather surprised looking baby peeking out from under the Pope's robes. Even in the 19th century, authors such as Ewaldus Kist andKarl Hasediscussed the story as a real occurrence. However, other Protestant writers, such asDavid BlondelandGottfried Leibniz,rejected the story.

Modern analysis and critique

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ThePopess tarot cardfrom theVisconti-Sforzatarot deck, c. 1450

Most modern scholars dismiss Pope Joan as a medievallegend.[29]British historianJohn Julius Norwichdismissed the myth with a logical assessment of evidence.[30]TheOxford Dictionary of Popes[23]declares that there is "no contemporary evidence for a female Pope at any of the dates suggested for her reign", but nonetheless acknowledges that Pope Joan's legend was widely believed for centuries, even by Catholics.

The 1910Catholic Encyclopediaelaborated on the historical timeline problem:

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 anAntipope,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 EmperorLothair,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 nointerregnumbetween these two Popes, so that at this place there is no room for the alleged Popess.[31]

It has also been noted that enemies of the papacy in the 9th century make no mention of a female pope. For example,Photios I of Constantinople,who becamePatriarchin 858 and was deposed byPope Nicholas Iin 863, was an enemy of the pope. He vehemently asserted his own authority as patriarch over that of the pope in Rome, and would have made the most of any scandal of that time regarding the papacy; but he never mentions the story once in any of his voluminous writings. Indeed, at one point he mentions "Leo and Benedict, successively great priests of the Roman Church".[32]

Rosemary and Darroll Pardoe, authors ofThe Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan,theorize that if a female pope did exist, a more plausible time frame is 1086 and 1108, when there were several antipopes; during this time the reign of the legitimate popesVictor III,Urban II,andPaschal IIwas not always established inRome,since the city was occupied byHenry IV, Holy Roman Emperor,and later sacked by theNormans.[32]This also agrees with the earliest known version of the legend, byJean de Mailly,as he places the story in the year 1099. De Mailly's account was acknowledged by his companionStephen of Bourbon.

Peter Stanford,a British writer and former editor ofThe Catholic Herald,concluded inThe Legend of Pope Joan: In Search of the Truth(2000) "Weighing all th[e] evidence, I am convinced that Pope Joan was an historical figure, though perhaps not all the details about her that have been passed on down the centuries are true".[33]Stanford's work has been criticised as "credulous" by one mainstream historian, Vincent DiMarco.[34] Against the lack of historical evidence to her existence, the question remains as to why the Pope Joan story has been popular and widely believed.Philip JenkinsinThe New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudicesuggests that the periodic revival of what he calls this "anti-papal legend" has more to do withfeministandanti-Catholicwishful thinking than historical accuracy.[35]

Thesedes stercoraria,the throne with a hole in the seat, now atSt. John Lateran(the formal residence of the popes and center of Catholicism), is to be considered. This and other toilet-like chairs were used in the consecration ofPope Pascal IIin 1099.[36]In fact, one is still in theVatican Museums,another at theMusée du Louvre.The reason for the configuration of the chair is disputed. It has been speculated that they originally were Romanbidetsor imperial birthing stools, which because of their age and imperial links were used in ceremonies by Popes intent on highlighting their own imperial claims (as they did also with theirLatintitle,Pontifex Maximus).[15]

Alain Boureau quotes the humanist Jacopo d'Angelo de Scarparia, who visited Rome in 1406 for the enthronement ofGregory XII.The pope sat briefly on two "pierced chairs" at the Lateran: "... the vulgar tell the insane fable that he is touched to verify that he is indeed a man", a sign that this corollary of the Pope Joan legend was still current in the Roman street.[37]

New Orleans: Mardi Gras revelers in Jackson Square, the French Quarter. A pregnant woman costumes as "Pope Joan."

Medieval popes, from the 13th century onward, did indeed avoid the direct route between the Lateran and St Peter's, as Martin of Opava claimed. However, there is no evidence that this practice dated back any earlier. The origin of the practice is uncertain, but it is quite likely that it was maintained because of widespread belief in the Joan legend, and it was thought genuinely to date back to that period.

Although some medieval writers referred to the female pope as "John VIII", a genuinePope John VIIIreigned between 872 and 882. Due to the Dark Ages' lack of records, confusion often reigns in the evaluation of events. The Pope Joan legend is also conflated with the gap in thenumbering of the Johns.[38]In the 11th century,Pope John XIVwas mistakenly counted as two popes. When Petrus Hispanus was elected pope in 1276, he believed that there had already been twenty popes named John, so he skipped the number XX and numbered himselfJohn XXI.

In 2018, Michael E. Habicht, an archaeologist atFlinders University,published new evidence in support of an historical Pope Joan. Habicht and grapho-analyst Marguerite Spycher analyzed papal monograms on medieval coins and found that there were two significantly different monograms attributed to Pope John VIII. Habicht argues that the earlier monogram, which he dates from 856 to 858, belongs to Pope Joan, while the latter monogram, which he dates to after 875, belongs to Pope John VIII.[39][40]

In fiction

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Pope Joan has remained a popular subject for fictional works. Plays includeLudwig Achim von Arnim'sPäpstin Johanna(1813), a fragment byBertolt Brecht(inWerkeBd 10) and amonodrama,Pausin Johanna,by Cees van der Pluijm (1996).

The Greek authorEmmanuel Rhoides' 1866 novel,The Papess Joanne,was admired byMark TwainandAlfred Jarryand freely translated byLawrence DurrellasThe Curious History of Pope Joan(1954). The legend also inspired Jarry's final written work before his death,The Pope's Mustard-Maker(1907), an operetta about a female pope known as Jane of Eggs, who operates under the papal name John VIII.

The AmericanDonna Woolfolk Cross's 1996historical romance,Pope Joan,was recently made into a German musical as well as the movie described below. Other novels include Wilhelm Smets'Das Mährchen von der Päpstin Johanna auf’s Neue erörtert(1829),Marjorie Bowen'sBlack Magic(1909), Ludwig Gorm'sPäpstin Johanna(1912), Yves Bichet'sLa Papesse Jeanne(2005) and Hugo N. Gerstl'sScribe: The Story of the Only Female Pope(2005).Howard Pyle'sThe Merry Adventures of Robin Hoodcontains a reference.

There have been two films based on the story of Pope Joan:Pope Joan(1972), directed byMichael Anderson,was entitledThe Devil's Imposterin the US. In 2009 it was recut to include more ofJohn Briley's original script and released asShe... who would be Pope.Also in 2009, another film with the titlePope Joanwas released, this one a German, British, Italian and Spanish production directed bySönke Wortmannand produced byBernd Eichinger,based on Cross's novel.

The 1982 playTop GirlsbyCaryl Churchillfeatured Pope Joan as a character, who was invited to a restaurant along with other historically important women in the past by a modern-day woman, Marlene, to discuss the restriction offeminismin the past.

In the 2016 video gamePersona 5,Pope Joan is referenced as the inspiration for Johanna, one ofMakoto Niijima's titular personas (manifestations of the soul used by humans to battle demons).[41]

In July 2019 a theatrical show was held inMaltaatMdinaditch featuring Pope Joan as the main character.[42][43][44][45]

Pope Joan appears as a Ruler class Servant in the mobile gameFate/Grand Order.

See also

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References

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  1. ^the span is given as 855–857; see also quotes from "The Register of Bishop Trefnan" in The Trial of Walter Brut of 1391 in Blamires, p. 259
  2. ^Boureau, Alain (2001).The Myth of Pope Joan.Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane. University of Chicago Press. p.8.ISBN0-226-06745-9.
  3. ^Rustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. p. 8.ISBN978-0-472-11544-0.
  4. ^Noble, Thomas F. X. (April 2013). "Why Pope Joan?".Catholic Historical Review.99(2): 219–220.doi:10.1353/cat.2013.0078.S2CID159548215.
  5. ^Rustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. pp. 1–2.ISBN978-0-472-11544-0.
  6. ^Noble, Thomas F. X. (April 2013). "Why Pope Joan?".Catholic Historical Review.99(2): 220.doi:10.1353/cat.2013.0078.S2CID159548215.
  7. ^Rustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. pp. 12–3.ISBN978-0-472-11544-0.
  8. ^Rustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. pp. 6–7.ISBN978-0-472-11544-0.
  9. ^Blamires, 250–260.
  10. ^Rustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. p. 14.ISBN978-0-472-11544-0.
  11. ^Noble, Thomas F. X. (April 2013). "Why Pope Joan?".Catholic Historical Review.99(2): 229.doi:10.1353/cat.2013.0078.S2CID159548215.
  12. ^David Blondel,Familier esclaircissement de la question si une femme a este assise au siege papal de Rome entre Leon IV et Benoit III(Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1647); discussed in Valerie R. Hotchkiss, "The Female Pope and the Sin of Male Disguise", inClothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe(London: Routledge, 2012), 69.ISBN1135231710
  13. ^Duffy, Eamon (1997).Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes(Third ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p.158.ISBN978-0-300-11597-0.
  14. ^Rustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. p. 2.ISBN978-0-472-11544-0.
  15. ^abNorwich, John Julius(2011).A History of the Papacy.New York: Random House. p. 63.ISBN978-0-679-60499-0.
  16. ^Breverton, Terry(2011).Breverton's Phantasmagoria: A Compendium of Monsters, Myths and Legends.Lyons Press. p. 81.ISBN978-0-7627-7023-6.
  17. ^Clément, Catherine (1999).Opera: The Undoing of Women.U of Minnesota P. p. 105.ISBN978-0-8166-3526-9.Retrieved8 March2012.
  18. ^Leroy, Fernand (2001).Histoire de naître: de l'enfantement primitif à l'accouchement médicalisé.De Boeck Supérieur. pp. 100–101.ISBN978-2-8041-3817-2.
  19. ^Chronica delle vite de pontefici et imperatori romani.University of Pennsylvania.Retrieved24 January2015.The attribution to Petrarch is doubtful. 'Cette oeuvre est généralement considérée comme apocryphe.' – Bib. Nat. cat.{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help)
  20. ^Ch. 99: "De Ioannae Anglica Papa;" it begins succinctly "Ioannes esto Vir nomine videbature, sexu tamen fœmina fuit."
  21. ^Tinsley, Barbara Sher (Autumn 1987). "Pope Joan Polemic in Early Modern France: The Use and Disabuse of Myth".Sixteenth Century Journal.18(3): 381–398.doi:10.2307/2540724.ISSN0361-0160.JSTOR2540724.S2CID165483898.
  22. ^Stanford, Peter(1999).The She-Pope: a quest for the truth behind the mystery of Pope Joan.Arrow.ISBN978-0-7493-2067-6.
  23. ^abcKelly, J.N.D. (2005) [1988].Oxford Dictionary of Popes.Oxford University Press.pp. 331–332.ISBN0-19-861433-0.
  24. ^McClintock, John; James Strong (1882).Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 4.Harper. p. 980.Retrieved23 March2011.
  25. ^Knight, Charles (1867).Biography: or, Third division of "The English encyclopedia".Bradbury, Evans & Co. p. 633.Retrieved17 July2016.
  26. ^Pierre Gustave Brunet (1880). Gay; Doucé (eds.).La Papesse Jeanne: Étude Historique et Littéraire.Brussels. p. 8.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. ^abRustici, Craig M. (2006).The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England.University of Michigan Press. p. 43.ISBN0472115448.Retrieved24 January2015.
  28. ^A present for a papist: or, The history of the life of pope Joan(2nd ed.). Cornhill, London: Olive Payne. 1740. pp. 1–88.Retrieved24 January2015.
  29. ^Lord, Lewis (24 July 2000)."The lady was a pope: A bestseller revives the outlandish tale of Joan".U.S. News Online.U.S. News & World Report.Archived fromthe originalon 24 March 2010.Retrieved22 March2010.
  30. ^Norwich, John Julius. Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy. 2011. 'Pope Joan' Chapter VI, pp. 63–70.ISBN978-0-679-60499-0
  31. ^Kirsch, J.P. (1910)."Popess Joan".The Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.Retrieved22 March2010.
  32. ^abPardoe, Rosemary and Darroll (1988)."Chapter 3: 'Did Joan exist?'".The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan. The First Complete Documentation of the Facts behind the Legend.Crucible.ISBN978-1-85274-013-9.Retrieved22 March2010.
  33. ^"Legend of Pope Joan".Publishers Weekly.Retrieved24 January2015.
  34. ^"The Medieval Popess", by Vincent DiMarco, inMisconceptions about the Middle Agesed. Stephen Harris, Bryon L. Grigsby;Routledge,18 Feb 2008, pp. 63–69, "...credulous studies include... Peter Stanford,The Legend of Pope Joan  ".At p. 68
  35. ^Jenkins, Philip(2003).The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice.Oxford University Press.p. 89.ISBN0-19-515480-0.
  36. ^Boureau, Alain (1988).La Papesse Jeanne.Paris: Aubier. p.?.
  37. ^Boureau, Alain (1988).La Papesse Jeanne.Paris: Aubier. p. 23.
  38. ^Riesman, David (Winter 1923). "A Physician in the Papal Chair".Annals of Medical History.V(4): 291–300.
  39. ^Solly, Meilan (19 September 2018)."Why the Legend of Medieval Pope Joan Persists".Smithsonian Magazine.Retrieved25 September2020.
  40. ^Habicht, Michael E. (2018).Päpstin Johanna: Ein vertuschtes Pontifikat einer Frau oder eine fiktive Legende?(in German). Berlin: epubli.ISBN978-3746757360.
  41. ^"Persona® 5".atlus.com.ATLUS.Retrieved26 April2017.
  42. ^"Dreaming of a female pope | Irene Christ on Pope Joan".MaltaToday.com.mt.
  43. ^"Pope Joan and her relevance today".MaltaToday.com.mt.
  44. ^"Pope Joan at Mdina".Times of Malta.5 July 2019.
  45. ^"Irene Christ takes on Pope Joan".independent.com.mt – The Malta Independent.

Further reading

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Primary sources

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Secondary sources

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Fiction

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