SERIES OF WRITINGS ON THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REBIRTH.
Language: Italian.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
Italian.
Series of writings on the political, moral, and literary condition of Italy, aimed at its regeneration.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
SERIES OF WRITINGS CONCERNING THE POLITICAL, MORAL, AND LITERARY CONDITION OF ITALY, AIMING AT ITS REGENERATION.
Collectively: Italian.
G., fol. 124ʹ, is a 14th-century addition (cf. Lib. Pont., II, p. XXVI; phototypic reproduction after p. XXIV).
The sources on Pope Joan begin in the mid-13th century and can be divided into two groups. At the head of the first group is the Chronica universalis Mettensis, composed around 1250 and attributed to John of Mailly, O.P. (ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Scriptores, XXIV, p. 514). Here, after Urban II (d. 1099), a woman is introduced—unnamed—who, pretending to be a man, becomes a curial notary, a cardinal, and then pope. One day, while mounting a horse, she gives birth and is stoned to death. With minor variations, this tale is taken up by Stephen of Bourbon, O.P. (d. c. 1262), in his De diversis materiis praedicabilibus (Quétif-Echard, I, p. 367), and in the Chronica minor of a Franciscan friar of Erfurt (c. 1265), edited by O. Holder-Egger (MGH, Scriptores, XXIV, p. 184); in this version, however, Pope Joan is placed after Sergius III (d. 914).
At the head of the second group of sources is the Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum by Martin of Poland, O.P. (d. 1279; ed. L. Weiland, ibid., XXII, p. 428). It is debated whether the passage on Pope Joan is by Martin or added by others; in the latter case, the addition is not much later, since in 1312 Ptolemy of Lucca (Hist. ecc., 16, 8) states that all the manuscripts of Martin he had read contained II. In Martin of Poland’s chronicle, the legend is elaborated: after Leo IV (d. 855), an Englishman named John, from Mainz, ascends to the papal throne and occupies it for more than two and a half years; “he, as is asserted, was a woman.” As a young woman, dressed as a man, she was taken by a lover to Athens, where she became most learned, then moved to Rome, taught there, and finally was elected pope. Her sex was betrayed, and one day, while going from St. Peter’s to the Lateran, between the Colosseum and the church of St. Clement, she gave birth and, having died, was buried there. For this reason, Martin of Poland adds, it is believed that since then popes no longer pass through that route. From Martin of Poland, with some variations, depend Martin Minorita in his Flores temporum, written c. 1292 (ed. O. Holder-Egger, in MGH, Scriptores, XXIV, p. 243), and many others.
II. DIFFUSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LEGEND
Chiefly through the widespread chronicle of Martin of Troppau, the legend spread rapidly and became universally accepted from the fourteenth century until the mid-sixteenth century. In the cathedral of Siena, busts of the popes were introduced around 1400, and that of Pope Joan was also included. During the Council of Constance, John Hus appealed to the papess without anyone contradicting him. Worse still: the legend was augmented by another even stranger legend, that of the probatio sexus, the first traces of which are found as early as the end of the thirteenth century. The impudence of the family of Martin, which had been founded by Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been in contact with the family of Peter, had been in contact with the family of Peter, had been in contact with the family of Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been founded by Peter, had been founded by ###III. ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND
Various explanations have been attempted. The most probable is based on these elements: a) In the 15th century, several Popes were under the influence of three powerful women: Theodora, wife of Theophylactus, and her daughters Theodora and Marozia. In that century there were four popes named John X, XI, XII, and XIII. Of John XI (931-35), the contemporary Benedict of St. Andrew of Soratte writes in his *Chronicon*: «subiugatus est Romam potestative in manu feminae» (MGH, *Scriptores*, III, p. 714). From this, the transition to the idea of a woman ascending the papal throne was not difficult. b) Another particularly important element is the existence of a statue of a woman with a child near the church of St. Clement, and an inscription. The statue is also mentioned in the *Mirabilia* of the 14th century: «Item iuxta Coliseum in platea iacet ymago que dicitur papa femina, cum puero» (ed. G. Parthey [Berlin 1869], testo latino, traduzione e commento di I. F. Corti, Albano 1930, p. 58). According to Tomassetti, the statue, discovered during the time of Sixtus V near the church of St. Clement, might perhaps be identified with Juno suckling Hercules, now in the Chiaramonti Museum (cf. G. Tomassetti, *La statua della papessa G.*, in *Bull. della Commiss. arch. comm. di Roma*, 35 [1907], p. 90 sg.). As for the inscription, it should be noted that already in the first account of the female pope, that of the *Chronica univ. Mettensis*, the inscription allegedly placed on her tomb is reported: *Parce pater patrum papissae prodiito partum*. In Stephen of Bourbon, however, one reads instead: *Parce pater patrum papissae prodiite partum*. Two other versions are known: *Papa pater patrum papissae pandito partum*, and: *Papa pater patrum peperit papissa papellum*. Analyzing the four versions, these common elements are found: P.... pater patrum P.P.P. The title *pater patrum* was characteristic of the priests of Mithras, and precisely beneath the church of St. Clement a grand Mithraic speleum has been discovered. The abbreviation PPP is frequently found in funerary and dedicatory epigraphy, where it often means *propria pecunia posuit*. Thus the most obvious explanation is that it was a dedicatory inscription by a certain [Papiirus?], a priest of Mithras, made at his own expense. c) Finally, a third element that may have helped confirm the legend was the fact that the popes, traveling from St. Peter’s to the Lateran, avoided passing through that street, which was due solely to the fact that the street was too narrow for the papal procession.As for the second legend, that of the *probatio sexus*, the explanation is easier. In the 13th century, the custom arose that the newly elected Pope, upon taking possession of the Lateran, would sit on a perforated porphyry chair, probably from some ancient thermal building, while the verse from the psalm was sung: *et de sterore erigens pauperem*. Once the tale of the female pope was born, popular imagination gave rise to the other legend of the proof of sex, and many humanistic writers continued to spread the absurd news against the reality of the facts, as is shown, for example, by Agnolo of Scarperia, who, describing as an eyewitness the election of Gregory XII (1406), refers to the rumor he defines as «insanam vulgi fabulam» (cited by Döllinger, op. cit. in bibl., Italian ed., p. 36).
IV. SUNSET OF THE LEGEND
Doubts had not been lacking since the 13th century, but true studies capable of demonstrating the unfounded nature of the legend of Pope Joan only appeared from the mid-16th century onward. Among the earliest to deserve mention are Onofrio Panvinio (d. 1568), in the notes to the Lives of the Popes by Platina (I, Venice 1663, pp. 208–11); Cardinal Bellarmine, *De Romano Pontifice* (Ingolstadt 1586), vol. I, bk. III, ch. 24; Florimond de Rémond, *Erreur populaire de la papesse Jeanne* (Paris 1588); and the Protestant D. Blondel, *Familier esclairissement de la question, si une femme a esté assise au siège papal de Rome entre Léon IV et Benoît III* (Amsterdam 1647). Among more recent works, particular mention must be made of the study by Döllinger.A refutation of the legend today is superfluous. It suffices to note that until the 13th century no source mentions such an extraordinary event. Moreover, the series of popes as we know it today admits no gap between Leo IV and Benedict III, where Pope Joan is most commonly inserted, nor at any other date in the 11th century.