POPE
JOAN POPE
JOAN By Editor:
Blessed Quietness Journal: Steve Van Nattan
Since this is our first
issue of the journal, I am taking the opportunity to stir up some healthy controversy.
I have some material on Pope Joan, but I have seen nothing from other men
on the Narrow Way about her. I am convinced there is something to it. I
will therefore give you a starting point, and I hope someone will come forward
with help in the way of other historic evidences. This is indeed potent
stuff, but we need more proofs. Thus:
Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 2nd edition, 1778-1783-- "JOAN (Pope), called by Platina John
VIII, is said to have held the holy see between Leo IV, who died in 855, and
Benedict III, who died in 858. Marianus Scotus says, she sat two years five
months and four days. Numberless have been the controversies, fables, and
conjectures, relating to this pope. It is said that a German girl, pretending
to be a man, went to Athens, where she made great progress in the sciences; and
afterward came to Rome in the same habit. As
she had a quick genius, and spoke with a good grace in the public disputations
and lectures, her great learning was admired, and every one loved her extremely;
so that after the death of Leo, she was chosen pope, and performed all offices
as such. Whilst she was in possession of this high dignity, she was
got with child; and as she was going in a solemn procession to the Lateran church,
she was delivered of that child, between the Coliseum and St. Clement's church,
in a most public street, before a crowd of people, and died on the spot,
in 857. By
way of embellishing this story, may be added the precaution reported to have been
afterward taken to avoid such another accident. After the election of a
pope, he was placed on a chair with an open seat, called the groping chair,
when a deacon came most devoutly behind and satisfied himself of the pontiff's
sex by feeling. This precaution, however, has been long deemed unnecessary,
because the cardinals now always get bastards enough to establish their virility
before they arrive at the pontificate." (End Ency. Brit. article)
BA Editor, Steve-- Here
is the bibliography available to us as far as I can get it. I would be delighted
to receive research results from anyone who can find any of these sources in Roman
Catholic institutions. Go into these archives wise as serpents and harmless
as doves. The bibliography follows: Historians
or monks in fellowship with the Roman Church:
Anastanius Bibliothecarius
(Anastasius the Librarian), Liber Pontificalis, Gesta Pontificum Romanorum,
866 Marianus
Scotus, Long time monk and finally at abbey of St. Martin of Cologne, Chronicon,
1082 Ended his life in the abbey at Fulda where Joan lived and studied.
Chronicon was a history of all known world history, so it is interesting
that Joan got his attention in that context. Godfrey
of Viterbo, Liber memoralis, Joan was listed in many of his manuscripts,
1196 Gervase
of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, 1211. He gave just as much detail as
Martin of Troppau after him. Martin
of Troppau (Martinus Polonus or Martin the Pole), Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum
1278 I have a quote from his work, for anyone interested, regarding Pope
Joan. Ranulph
Higdon, English Benedictine chronicler, in Polychroniconab initio mindi usque
ad mortem regis Edwardi III. in septem libros dispositum, quoted from the
work of Martin of Troppau, circa 1363. Adam
of Usk, an English writer attested to Higdon's reports within forty years after
Higdon's death. Almeric
D'Anger, Nomenclature Chronologique des Eveques do Rome, Dedicated
to Urban V, Translator-- Richard Ince, 1362 Petrarch,
Title unknown, Venice, Italy, Poetry exalting the Popes, included Joan, 1374
Boccaccio,
Decameron, In his study of famous women, De Claris Mulieribus, selected
Joan to praise, 1375 John
Lydgate, Benedictine Monk and associate of Chaucer, Falls of Princes, Joan
included, 1430 Martinus
Minorita, Herrmannus Januensis, and Herrmannus Gigas, Flores Temporum,
1290 John
Huss, In his defense at the council of Constance, 1413, He tried to show that
the Church can survive without a Pope by referring to the two years and five months
"Joan occupied the see of Rome." Bartholomew
Platina, Vatican Librarian, Lives of the Popes, He included Joan,
but he complained about it. This seems to be the first descent at keeping
her memory, 1484 Caesar
Baronius, Confessor to Pope Clement VIII, Vatican Librarian, His writings,
He rejected a Protestant history of the church which included Joan.
He claimed that she was neither male nor female, but she was thrown out
of hell to bring chaos in the Church. 1607 Alexander
Cooke, Colloquy between a papist and a Protestant, Defended Joan's
reign, 1610 Father
Phillippe Labbe, Collection Generale des Conciles, Claimed that Joan was
invented by Huss, Wickliffe, Luther, and Calvin. Martin of Troppau had written
his account of Joan one hundred years previous to those Reformers! 1670
From this
point onward, the Pope's historians
and any good Catholic writer tried to
sponge Joan out of history: Various
approaches were used, from claiming that she was a demon, to, she was a satire
invented to mock a Pope, to outright denial of the accounts of history. The
masterful attack on Joan's existence was launched by: Father
Johann Joseph Ignaz Von Dollinger, Papstfabeln des Mittelalters, Papist
Fables of the Middle Ages, 1863. He concluded that Joan was the result
of ancient local folk lore in the area of Rome. He dedicated much of his
life to destroy the story of Joan. Why? Possibly because Joan was
said by some historians to be German, and Dollinger took that a bit personally.
The
inscription on the statue of Joan, which early Papists saw as no problem, on the
way to the Lateran Chapel, had the inscription, P.P.P.P.P.P. This was so
heavy on the historic memory in the 1600s and 1700s that it became a great debate.
The early Catholic chronicler, Jean de Mailly, said it stood for, "Patre
pater patrum papissae prodito partum." The cryptic use of six "P"s implies
that there is a hidden meaning, or that the meaning should be concealed from ordinary
folks. The meaning in Latin is clearly that a female Pope gave birth at
that point. That
this is possible is very obvious when it is learned that no Pope for many centuries
thereafter would pass that way to do Mass at the Lateran. Also the "groping
chair" was known history in many of the above bibliography entries, and it did
not exist until after Joan's tenure. Dollinger, who dedicated much of his
career to destroying Joan's memory, admits that there were in fact TWO groping
chairs. Modern Catholic authorities simply assume that Joan did not exist.
They have NO way to explain where the two years and five months went, and
they give no explanation for the early historians and their bold belief in Joan
the Pope. Do
you suppose John Paul II is a queen bee in disguise? The feminist movement
ought to consider Joan as a candidate to be exalted. Perhaps Joan could
be canonised and become the saint of un-wed mothers.
There you are. That
should give some research digger a start. The trick will be to confirm the
early reports. No doubt, most of the documents are buried in the Vatican basement,
but the truth has a way of getting out. Let me hear from anyone who has any material
on this subject. I am working on a pre-supposition of course. I believe
the story. It sounds just like the kind of filthy vomit that Mother Whore
was belching out on the world during the Dark Ages. In fact, it is not nearly
the worst news to come out of Rome since it turned "Holy." Try reading the
Shepherd of Hermas if you think Joan's story was racy.
LINKS:
POPE
JOAN DISCUSSED
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