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Pope Joan

Pope Joan is a legendary figure who supposedly reigned as pope under the name John VIII from 855 to 858, between the papacies of St Leo IV and Benedict III. However, historical evidence shows that only a few weeks separated Leo and Benedict, rendering the story apocryphal. The earliest detailed account of the legend comes from the 13th-century French Dominican Stephen of Bourbon, who claimed that Joan, a brilliant scribe, concealed her gender and eventually became pope. According to this version, she was pregnant at the time of her election and gave birth during a procession to the Lateran, leading to her being dragged out of Rome and stoned to death. The story spread widely in the later 13th century, especially through interpolations in Martin of Troppau's Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum. Martin's account, which became the most widely accepted, described her as Johannes Anglicus, an Englishwoman who disguised herself as a man, eventually rising to the papacy after impressing the people of Rome with her knowledge. Her true gender was allegedly revealed when she gave birth during a procession between the Colosseum and St Clement’s, and she is said to have died on the spot, with the route later avoided in subsequent papal processions. According to another account, she was stoned to death after giving birth. By the 14th century, the name Joan became commonly associated with the pope, though other names like Agnes or Gilberta also appeared. The myth gained such traction by the 15th century that even the Council of Constance in 1415 accepted it as fact, and an inscription purportedly depicting Pope Joan was found near St Clement’s, though it was destroyed by Pope Pius VI. A statue of her remained in Siena's cathedral. Despite this, the story began to be challenged in the 16th and 17th centuries, with scholars like Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II) and Cardinal Caesar Baronius dismissing it as unfounded. By the 16th century, however, the story began to be challenged and refuted. The Calvinist scholar David Blondel made a determined attempt to disprove the legend in 1647. Some scholars speculate the tale may have originated from gossip about the influential 10th-century Roman women Marozia and Theodora, linked to the powerful Theophylact family. The myth of Pope Joan persisted in literature and folklore for centuries, remaining a striking and curious part of papal history.

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