G
GloriaPatri4
Guest
A friend of mine was telling me a little bit about the Urban legend of Pope Joan. Has anyone else heard of this?
usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/pope.htm
From article
The lady was a pope
A bestseller revives the outlandish tale of Joan
BY LEWIS LORD
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/graphics/pope.jpg The story is as enduring as it is dubious: A millennium or so ago in Rome, the pope was riding in a procession when suddenly she–that’s right, she–went into labor and had a baby.
Nonsense? Europeans in the Middle Ages didn’t think so. The story of a pope named Joan, writes historian J.N.D. Kelly in his Oxford Dictionary of Popes, “was accepted without question in Catholic circles for centuries.” Only after the Reformation, when Protestants used the story to poke fun at Roman Catholics, did the Vatican begin to deny that one of its Holy Fathers had become an unholy mother.
The tale faded in the 17th century but never died. While most Americans apparently have never heard of the story, it continues to fascinate people in Europe. In the last three years, 2 million Germans–and about 100,000 Americans–have bought copies of Pope Joan, a historical novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross, a New York writer who suggests that a 400-year clerical coverup kept her hero from being recognized as one of history’s most famous women. Legions of Americans likely will become believers, too, if Hollywood’s Harry Ufland, producer of The Last Temptation of Christ and Snow Falling on Cedars, shoots the Pope Joan movie he hopes to make next year. During the Middle Ages, many versions of the “popess” affair appeared. Most accounts came from friars compiling church histories, though the Vatican later would argue that Protestant forgers tinkered with the text. A few medieval chronicles said Joan’s great deception occurred in the 10th or 11th century. The report that gained the widest acceptance, written in 1265 by a Dominican friar from Poland named Martin of Troppau, set the unblessed event in the ninth century.
popejoan.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan
usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/pope.htm
From article
The lady was a pope
A bestseller revives the outlandish tale of Joan
BY LEWIS LORD
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/graphics/pope.jpg The story is as enduring as it is dubious: A millennium or so ago in Rome, the pope was riding in a procession when suddenly she–that’s right, she–went into labor and had a baby.
Nonsense? Europeans in the Middle Ages didn’t think so. The story of a pope named Joan, writes historian J.N.D. Kelly in his Oxford Dictionary of Popes, “was accepted without question in Catholic circles for centuries.” Only after the Reformation, when Protestants used the story to poke fun at Roman Catholics, did the Vatican begin to deny that one of its Holy Fathers had become an unholy mother.
The tale faded in the 17th century but never died. While most Americans apparently have never heard of the story, it continues to fascinate people in Europe. In the last three years, 2 million Germans–and about 100,000 Americans–have bought copies of Pope Joan, a historical novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross, a New York writer who suggests that a 400-year clerical coverup kept her hero from being recognized as one of history’s most famous women. Legions of Americans likely will become believers, too, if Hollywood’s Harry Ufland, producer of The Last Temptation of Christ and Snow Falling on Cedars, shoots the Pope Joan movie he hopes to make next year. During the Middle Ages, many versions of the “popess” affair appeared. Most accounts came from friars compiling church histories, though the Vatican later would argue that Protestant forgers tinkered with the text. A few medieval chronicles said Joan’s great deception occurred in the 10th or 11th century. The report that gained the widest acceptance, written in 1265 by a Dominican friar from Poland named Martin of Troppau, set the unblessed event in the ninth century.
popejoan.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan