Some historians are sure that not only men occupied the throne of St. Peter in the Vatican. The only exception to this rule was a certain woman who, allegedly, in the middle of the 9th century, hiding her gender, acted as Pope for 2 years, 5 months and 4 days. She was elected to the post of pontiff, according to some medieval authors, after the death of Leo IV - in 855. She ascended the holy throne as John VIII, but is better known as “Pope John”.
The Catholic Church, of course, resolutely rejects the existence of the “papess”, and the question of the historical reliability of all these legends has not been resolved to this day.
Pope John's footprints
Indirect evidence of the possibility of a woman's stay on the papal throne unexpectedly appeared in 1276, when, after the death of Pope Adrian V, his successor took the name John XXI. Meanwhile, if you follow the official chronology of the Vatican, its "serial number" should have been "XX", and this fact, beyond doubt, is certainly very interesting. Attempts to explain it by the mistake of scribes (absolutely everyone?) Look, to put it mildly, not very convincing.
Another piece of evidence of some kind of scandal related to the sex of the popes is the strange tradition of seating the newly elected pontiff in a special marble chair with a hole in the seat (sedia stercoraria) in order to examine him for belonging to the male sex. Having received confirmation that the new pontiff had appropriate genitals, the conclave applauded. This applause, which was accompanied by shouts of "uovo" ("ovo"), was called … "standing ovation"! If you are not lazy, see how the word "uovo" is translated from Italian into Russian. This custom was abolished by Pope Leo X in the 16th century.
The procedure for testing newly elected popes for male sex is mentioned in many medieval literary sources, the most famous of which is the novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel", written by François Rabelais in the 16th century.
The device of the famous chair was described in detail by the Greek historian Laonikios Chalkonopulus in 1464. It stood for a long time in the portico of the Cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano, now it can be seen in the Vatican Museum. However, you don't have to go far right now, here is a photo of this chair, look:
In general, there is still some kind of "smoke" (without which "there is no fire") in this case. Let's try to understand the available documents.
Pope John in Historical Documents
For the first time, the name of interest to us sounded, according to some sources, back in the 9th century - the curator of the Vatican Library, Anastasius, mentioned it in his manuscript. The next time in documents it is found in the XIII century, when the Dominican monk Stephan de Bourbon (Etienne of Bourbon) in his work "De septem donis Spiritus Sancti" ("Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit"), reported that one of the popes was a woman, killed during childbirth. He did not give her name.
His brother in the Order, Jean de Mayy, in the same XIII century writes in more detail about a certain woman who, under the guise of a man, first took the office of the first notary of the Vatican, then became a cardinal, and then a Pope. During one of the public ceremonies, she began to have contractions, which ended with the birth of a boy. The Romans allegedly tied her to the tail of a horse, dragged her through the city, and then executed her. At the place of her death, a plate was installed with the inscription: "Petre, Pater Patrum, Papissae Prodito Partum" ("O Peter, Father of the Fathers, expose the birth of a son by the Pope").
Another 13th century author, Martin Polonius (also known as Martin of Bohemia or Opavsky, Martin of Tropau) in the Chronicle of Popes and Emperors (Cronicon pontificum et imperatorum), reports that after Pope Leo IV, the Englishman John was elected pontiff. (Johannes Anglicus natione), who arrived in Rome from Mainz. Martin claims that this "Englishman" was, in fact, a woman named Jeanne, who was born into a family of English emigrants in 822. After the death of her parents, she for some time, disguised as a man, lived in the Benedictine monastery of St. Blitrude, where she was in charge of the library … From there, Jeanne, accompanied by one of the monks, went to Athens, where she first studied at the theological school, and then taught there, becoming famous for her education and scholarship.
She was invited to Rome as a teacher of theology and law, for some time she, under the name of Giovanni Anglico, lived in the monastery of St. Martin. Pope Leo IV drew attention to the capable "learned monk", under whom she began to act as a secretary, and then as a notary at the papal council. According to some reports, during that period, Jeanne supervised the construction of the stone walls that still surround the Vatican. Her talents and authority were so high that she was elected pope, but, during her pontificate, she became pregnant and gave birth to a child on the road from St. Peter's Cathedral to the Lateran Basilica. Since then, according to Martin, religious processions with the participation of popes have never passed along this street. This author reports that Joanna died in childbirth and was buried at the place of her death.
There is another version of the chronicle of Martin of Bohemia, which says that John did not die, but was removed from office and sent to one of the monasteries, where she spent the rest of her life in repentance. And her son grew up and became the bishop of Ostia.
Pope John is also mentioned in ancient Russian sources. So, in the Nestorian Chronicle under 991, it is said that, having learned that Prince Vladimir turned to the Pope, the Patriarch of Constantinople wrote to him:
"It is not good to have a relationship with Rome, because Baba Anna was a pope, walking from the crosses to Epiphany, gave birth on the street and died … Pope with crosses does not walk down that street."
Some researchers quite logically assumed that in this case we are dealing with "black PR": the Orthodox patriarch could slander his Roman competitors. After all, there is a hypothesis according to which this whole legend about Pope John is of Byzantine origin. But, it may well be that the patriarch informs the prince, though incriminating Rome, but quite reliable information. It is known that, for some reason, none of the representatives of the official church authorities objected to Jan Hus when he, in 1413 at the Council in Constanta, refuting the assertion that the conclave of cardinals is an infallible instance, told the prosecutors:
"How the Church can be spotless and flawless if Pope John VIII turned out to be a woman who publicly gave birth to a child."
From this, of course, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about the real existence of Pope John. But we can safely assume that the judges of Hus read the above sources, knew from them about the pope and did not doubt her existence. The absence of objections, in general, is not surprising, because from the 13th to the 15th centuries, the fact of the existence of the “pope” John was not advertised by Rome, but it was not denied, with preference given to the version of Martin Polonius. John is mentioned in the official list of popes of that time - "Liber Pontificalis", the only copy of which is kept in the Vatican library.
It is known that in the cathedral of Siena, among the many busts of the popes between Leo IV and Benedict III, for a long time there was a female bust with the inscription "Giovanni VIII, a woman from England."At the beginning of the 17th century, Pope Clement VIII ordered to replace it with a bust of Pope Zechariah.
It was only in the 15th century that the historians of the Enea Church, Silvio Piccolomini and Bartolomeo Platina, declared the story of Pope John a legend. Their opinion eventually became the official point of view of the Vatican.
In the era of the Reformation, some Protestant writers turned to the legends about Pope John, for whom this story became an occasion to demonstrate to the whole world "the primordial immorality of the Roman high priests" and the depravity of the order that reigned at the papal court.
In 1557, Vergerio's book was published with the eloquent title "The Story of Pope John, Who Was a Depraved Woman and a Witch."
In 1582, English merchants presented Ivan the Terrible with a pamphlet about the Pope-Antichrist, which included John Bayle's story "The Life of Pope John." The Tsar ordered to translate this work into Russian, and it did not go unnoticed: Pope John is mentioned, for example, by Archpriest Avvakum.
In 1691 F. Spanheim wrote the book "The Unusual Story of the Pope Who Ruled Between Leo IV and Benedict III".
Martin Luther said that during a pilgrimage to Rome he saw a statue of Pope John.
Check out these two Roman statues - some believe they depict John wearing the headdress of the popes:
Later authors found in the chronicles of those years reports of all kinds of signs that preceded the election of the "wrong" pope. In Italy, it turns out, earthquakes, in order to prevent unreasonable inhabitants, destroyed some cities and villages. In France, the role of a sign from above was played by locusts, which first destroyed the crops, and then were driven into the sea by the south wind, but again washed ashore, where they rotted, spreading the stench that caused the epidemic. In Spain, the body of St. Vincenzo, stolen by a certain monk (an enterprising nun wanted to sell it in pieces for relics), came to the church porch at night, where it began to "loudly beg for burial in the same place." However, such stories, if desired, can be easily found in the archives - in any quantity. Which, in general, has been done repeatedly. The fact that the innocent Dutch had to pay for the rise of a new dynasty in Milan or Florence, and the Lord God punished the Portuguese or Greeks for the fact that some German electors supported Martin Luther, did not bother anyone. The Hussite movement in the Czech Republic, according to the chronicles of those years, was completely accompanied by merry night dances of the dead in cemeteries throughout Central Europe. By the way, this is mentioned at the beginning of the novel by A. Sapkowski "The Tower of Jesters":
“There was no end of the world in 1420, there was not a year later, and two, and three, and even four. Everything flowed, I would say so, in its natural order: there were wars, the pestilence multiplied, the mors nigra raged, the gladness spread. The neighbor killed and robbed the neighbor, hunger for his wife and, in general, was a wolf to him. Every now and then they staged some sort of pogrom for the Jews, and a fire for the heretics. From the new one - skeletons in amusing jumps danced in the cemeteries."
The same Etienne of Bourbon admits that "the reign of John VIII was not the worst reign of the others," and only the "disgusting female essence" let him down.
Official point of view of the Vatican
But what does the Vatican say about this?
According to the official chronology, the successor of Leo IV was Pope Benedict III (855-858), who takes the place of the hypothetical John. Numismatists even know the coin of Benedict III dated 855. Lifetime portraits of this pope have not survived, the earliest of those that have come down to our time, we can see on the engraving of the 17th century:
Some researchers believe that the years of the reign of Benedict III were "corrected" by the Vatican: they suggest the possibility of deliberately dating the year 855 of the coin issued in 857 or 858 - supposedly, in this way they could try to erase the memory of the scandal.
As for John VIII, in the currently accepted list of popes, this name belongs to the pontiff, who ruled in 872-882.
The skeptics' point of view
I must say that many researchers in this case are on the side of the Vatican, skeptical about the information about the existence of Pope John. Their arguments are also quite convincing. They consider this story a legend that arose in Rome in the second half of the 10th century as a pamphlet that ridiculed the dominance of women at the court of popes - from John X to John XII (919-963). There is a version that the countess Marotia, who was the mistress of Pope Sergius III, could become the historical prototype of the pope, ordered to blind and then strangle the captive Pope John X, and her son ascended to the papal throne under the name of John XI.
It is also known that the Byzantine patriarch Photius, a contemporary of those events, the enemy of Rome, who accused the popes of heresy, knew Benedict III very well, but never once mentioned John or John. The German historian and theologian Ignaz von Döllinger, in his book "Legends of the Middle Ages Associated with the Popes" (published in Germany in 1863, in Italy in 1866), believed that the basis of the legend about the "popes" was the discovery of a statue of "a woman in the papal tiare and holding a baby”and the inscription“Pap. Pater Patrum”. In Rome, this statue was kept in a chapel located near the temple of Santissimi Quatro, but Sixtus V (he was pope in 1585-1590) ordered to remove it from there. Where she is now is unknown.
Many believe that this statue of the “pope” was, in fact, pagan and not even female: “Pater patrum” (“Father of the Fathers”) is one of the titles of the god Mithra. Later, during excavations, archaeologists discovered the foundations of a pagan temple at the place where this statue was found.
The narrow road that runs from St. Peter's Basilica to the Lateran Basilica, on which, allegedly, John gave birth, was indeed once called Vicus Papissae. However, it is believed that, in fact, its name came from the house of a family of local rich people named Pope.
Another pope
It is curious that at the end of the XIII century there was another, much less famous "popess" - the Milanese Countess Manfreda Visconti. The fact is that a certain Guglielma of Bohemia, the founder of the Guglielmit sect, predicted then that at the end of the era women would ascend to the throne of Peter. After the death of Guglielma (1281), her followers decided that the time had come, and chose the "popess" - the very Countess Visconti. In 1300 the unfortunate countess was burned at the stake as a heretic. It is simply surprising that the names of these women are not known and not used by today's feminists.
It is interesting that the famous Lucrezia Borgia, the youngest daughter of the no less famous Pope Alexander VI, also for some time "acted" as head of the Vatican - replacing his father who was absent in Rome (by his appointment). But at that time she possessed only secular, but not spiritual power. And therefore it is impossible to call her a papess.
II main lasso of the Tarot deck
In the tarot deck there is a card (major arcana II - one of the 22 major arcana), which is usually called "Papessa". It depicts a woman in a monastic cassock, in a crown, with a cross and a book in her hands. According to one version of the interpretation, this card means consolation, according to another - high abilities combined with self-doubt.
Some try to represent the image on the map as an allegory of a truly Christian Church, but the map (like the others) received this name in 1500. At this time, gambling and all types of fortune telling were not welcomed by the official Church, to put it mildly, and therefore it was dangerous to relate the images on the "devil's invention" with Christian symbols because of the high risk of being accused of blasphemy. The drawing on this map and its name then served as a clear allusion to the legend of Pope John.
However, in other Tarot systems on the woman's head, it is not the papal tiara, but the headdress of the ancient Egyptian goddess of the moon Hathor, and this card is called the High Priestess (sometimes the Virgin), and is associated either with Isis or with Artemis.
And in the Llewellyn system, this is the Celtic goddess Keridwen (the White Lady, the goddess of the moon and death, whose children the bards of Wales called themselves children):
Pope John in modern culture
In the 19th century in Russia, Pope John almost became the heroine of A. S. Pushkin, who planned to dedicate a play to her in 3 acts, however, he wanted to transfer the action of this tragedy from the 9th century to the 15th or 16th century. In addition, in the first edition of The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, there was a scene where the old woman wished to take the throne of St. Peter in Rome:
“I don’t want to be a free queen, And I want to be the Pope …”.
Interest in the personality of the mysterious Pope John is still great enough. At one of the shows of models of women's clothing in Rome, a tall white hat, similar to a papal tiara, was once demonstrated. In the catalog, this headdress was named "papessa".
Two feature films were made about the tragic fate of Joanna. The first one, published in 1972 in Great Britain, is called “Pope John”. In this film, the heroine has a wonderful father - an itinerant priest-preacher who teaches her to read and generally gives her a good education.
In the second, filmed by the joint efforts of Italy, Spain, Great Britain and Germany in 2009 ("John - a woman on the papal throne", the script was based on the novel by Donna Wolffolk Cross), the father, on the contrary, in every possible way obstructs the education of his daughter. She has to learn from some wandering philosopher who manages to get the girl into a monastery school.
What conclusion can be drawn from the above? Evidence for the existence of Pope John, as before, can only be recognized as circumstantial. The mystery of Joanna will be solved only after the opening of the Vatican archives for researchers. Only a study of the documents stored there will make it possible to draw a final conclusion about the reality of this mysterious woman. In the meantime, the identity of the mysterious pope continues to be the subject of discussion and controversy.
