Pope Joan

" John, of English descent, but said to 
have been horn at Mentz, obtained the Pope- 
dom by sinister arts : for she palmed herself 
upon the world as a man, when in reality 
she was a woman. In her youth she ac- 
companied a learned lover of her's to Athens ; 
and there, by attending the lectures of the 
best literary professors, she made so great 
a progress in erudition that, on her arrival 
in Rome, she had few equals and no supe- 
riors in all kinds of theological knowledge. 
By her learned lectures and by her masterly 
disputations she acquired so much esteem 
and authority that, on the death of Leo, she 
was by universal consent (as Martinus af- 
firms) created pope. 

" Some time after her elevation to the 
pontifical dignity she became criminally fa- 
miliar with one of her domestics ; and preg- 
nancy was the consequence. She took care 
by every precaution to conceal this circum- 
stance as long as possible : until at last, as 
she was walking [in public procession] to 
the Lateran Church [in Rome], she was 
suddenly seized with labour -pains, and 
brought forth her infant in that part of 
th street which lies between the Theatre 
and the Church of St. Clement. She died 
on the spot ; having held the Popedom two 
years, one month, and four days. 

"Some writers affirm that to this very 
day, whenever the pope walks in procession 
to the Lateran Church, he constantly goes 
thither by another way, to avoid reviving 
the memory of the above-mentioned detest- 
able event ; and that, in order to prevent a 
similar imposition" [i. c. in order that the 
infallible Church may not again mistake the 
sex of her popes], " the new-elected Pon- 
tiff is properly examined by the junior dea- 
con, at the time at his holiness's first en- 
thronement in St. Peter's chair ; the seat 
whereof is perforated for that purpose." 

Thus far the Nuremburgh Chronicle. 
To which I add the following indisputable 
particulars. 

1. This said Mrs. Joan (who called her- 
self John VIII.) was successor in the pope- 
dom to Leo. IV. who died, A. D. 855, and 
she herself was succeeded by Benedict III. 

2. Not only do many grave Roman Ca- 
tholic historians assert the fact; but the 



fact itself has also exercised the wits of 
more than a few ingenious poets of that 
communion. Witness the following epigram- 
matic verse : 

Papa pater patrum peperit papissapapellum. 
Not to mention those lines of Mantuan, who 
was himself a Carmelite friar, and who re- 
presents pope Joan and her lover hanging 
in the ante-chamber of hell : 

Hie pendebat adlmc sexvim mentita virilem, 
Fcemina cui triplici I'lirysiani diademate mitram 
Su.spendebat apex ; ct pontihcalis adulter. 

3. The statue of this she-pope remained 
in the cathedral church of Sienna so low 
down as until about the year 16/7 : when 
it was demohshed, in order to stifle all me- 
mory of an incident so disastrous and dis- 
honourable to the holy see. 

The reader should be apprized, that a 
wooden print representing the said lady and 
her child was inserted originally and still 
remains in the Nuremburgh Chronicle above- 
mentioned. 

Was not at least this pope the whore of 
Babylon ?