DOCSLIB.ORG

Pope Joan Discussion

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Pope Joan Discussion H-Women Pope Joan Discussion Page published by Kolt Ewing on Thursday, June 12, 2014 Pope Joan Discussion August 1996 Query From Caroline Nachman [email protected] 16 August 1996 Hello, I was recently informed of a 9th century pope, a woman named joan, who masqueraded as a man while she held office. There is a musical called "Pope Joan," whose creators insist that she really existed, it is not just legend. I would like more info on the subject. Thank you. >From Kimberli Pollard-Smith [email protected] 19 August 1996 Regarding Pope Joan--there is a bio coming out this fall on her. Unfortunately I don't remember the author or the publisher, but possibly a uc press title. >From Carolyn Brewer [email protected] 19 August 1996 It appears there really was a Pope Joan. Her biological sex was discovered when she gave birth to a child during a procession of some sort - after which I believe she was executed. There was a film on the TV recently in which her story was told - but it was included in a whole pile of other information about women in the church and I don't recall the title. Rumour has it that the biological sex of a newly elected pope has to be checked to make sure that it doesn't happen again. To do this I understand the pope-elect had to stand on a mirror. I suspect there are different examination procedures today!! >From Diana Paton [email protected] 19 August 1996 I don't know about empirical sources on Pope Joan, but take a look at Caryl Churchill's play Top Girls. Pope Joan is one of the characters. >From Patricia Lorcin [email protected] 19 August 1996 Lawrence Durrell's Pope Joan (1962) is a translation of Emmanuel Roydis' "life" of Pope Joan based on the legend that Pope John VIII was a woman. As well as being a good read, the preface might provide you with clues to further sources. Good luck. >From Jo Ann McNamara [email protected] 19 August 1996 Citation: Kolt Ewing. Pope Joan Discussion. H-Women. 07-20-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31462/pope-joan-discussion Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Women There was no such person and there never could have been such a person since popes were connected to the family politics of Rome far too intensely for an unknown person to achieve much status. The real scandal of the period (thought I personally consider it false witness) was the sexual politics of the leading women of Rome who did, in fact, seem to have had a dominant voice in the appointment of one or more popes due to their high social standing. For an account of the "Pope Joan" story as a product of the late eleventh century misogyny see Cesare OnofrioLa Papessa Giovanna (Rome: Romana Societa Editrice, 1979). For the context in which it evolved see my article, "Canossa" in Render Unto Caesar, edited by Sabrina P. Ramet and Donald Threadgold, (Washington: American U Press, 1995). >From Kathryn Wagnild Fuller [email protected] 19 August 1996 I don't have any biographical information on Pope Joan but she was among the women featured in Caryl Churchill's play "Top Girls" that came out in the early 1980s. >From Irene Stuber [email protected] 20 August 1996 In my various readings for Women of Achievement and Herstory, the authenticity of Pope Joan appears to have been an accepted part of Catholic folklore until the Reformation when the new religions took a much harder view of women and women's place. (Note the many pre-Luther paintings, etc of the trinity with Mary.) The Catholic Church then became more hard-line and began to denigrate women's place in society in keeping with the protestant philosophies of Luther, Knox, etc. My sources on this got lost with my hard drive crash of a couple of years ago so I'm going by memory. Church histories rather than women's history books should be consulted since so many of the latter are distant cousins to secondary sources. The legend of Pope Joan giving birth is obviously a male tale addition since any woman having given birth knows that such an occurrence is pretty fantastic. Only a man without experience around real women would think that giving birth is that simple. (And how did she GET pregnant without someone saying something? There weren't many doors in those days.) The proofing of a Pope's sex is not, however,far fetched in light of the Roman Catholic Church tradition of accepting that there was indeed a woman pope or person with somewhat female genitalia. >From Jo Ann McNamara [email protected] 21 August 1996 I'm sorry to do this again, but I can't say it loud enough. There was never a Pope Joan. It is unthinkable that the Catholic Church would even have accepted a woman as a priest let alone a pope. The story and the pregnancy cannot be separated. The pregnancy is the whole point of the story. It is a scurrilous tale that seems to have begun circulating late in the eleventh century. Naturally, it is set vaguely in some earlier period, usually prior to the mid-tenth century, probably to take advantage of other scurrilous stories circulated by imperialist chroniclers about the papacy before its "cleansing" by the German emperors. Those contemporary stories, however, concern the womanizing exploits of Citation: Kolt Ewing. Pope Joan Discussion. H-Women. 07-20-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31462/pope-joan-discussion Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Women various popes, particularly their putative liaisons with Roman noblewomen. The story rises out of an atmosphere of intense misogyny surrounding the investiture conflict and the imposition of celibacy on the clergy. Its purpose seems to be to warn the clergy that any impingement of females on the clerical precinct would have direst consequences. The "sexing of the popes" is another canard that seems to arise from a mistaken proto-archeologist's interpretation of a marble latrine chair found in the vicinity of the Lateran palace. I cannot imagine why feminists want to perpetuate this story or why any historians would for a moment accept a tale so completely lacking in authenticating sources. >From Maria Elena Raymond [email protected] 22 August 1996 I've noted with interest Jo Ann McNamara's emphatic denials that a person named "Pope Joan" existed. Just as Jo Ann has stated she can't believe feminists would want to perpetuate a story without any substantiation of any kind...I would like to know of substantiation showing she *didn't* exist...and I would like more reference that Jo Ann's own article...*with all due respect to Jo Ann* and her work. As a journalist, and an historian, I would like more than one source of proof...either way. FWIW, Maria Elena >From Jo Ann McNamara [email protected] 23 August 1996 The d'Onofrio book I cited in my first message is the best survey of the subject. The proof that this never happened is that no such thing appears in any contemporary source--indeed, no later source has enough specific information about the time of the so-called papacy or even the papal name that the putative Joan masqueraded under. My own article is only a background piece in regard to this subject where I use the story as evidence for the misogynistic atmosphere of the investiture period. The papacy is the world's oldest and best record keeper and they do keep track of every pop since Peter (though the first and second century entries have always been looked at with a bit of skepticism). It is also the world's oldest political football. The period in question is full of scandal concerning fornicating popes, heretical popes, simoniacal popes--nobody is doing a whitewash. The amusing thing about urban legends is that they cannot be disproved. No one has ever demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the New York sewers are not haunted by ravening alligators. No one has ever proved that inquisitive aliens do not regularly abduct nubile human women. But that does not give us license to invent history. >From Paul Halsall [email protected] 23 August 1996 Can Maria Elena *prove* that anyone *did not exist*? Rapunzel for instance, or Cinderella? The epistemological implications of arguing that historians not only have to show reasons for holding opinions, or for certifying facts, but also be willing to *disprove* any given suggested statement about the past are sufficient to bring about an immediate end to the historical enterprise and its immediate replacement with faux-mythmaking. Citation: Kolt Ewing. Pope Joan Discussion. H-Women. 07-20-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31462/pope-joan-discussion Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3 H-Women Pope Joan did not exist because the circumstances of the origin of the myth [discussed by the way, in some detail on Mediev-l a year or so ago, and available viz Alta Vista Searches of its archives] are known and explicable. >From Larry Ingle [email protected] 23 August 1996 I am no authority on the alleged "Pope Joan," but I do know that it is impossible to prove a negative.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Christopher White Table of Contents
    Christopher White Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Peter the “rock”? ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Churches change over time ...................................................................................................................... 6 The Church and her earthly pilgrimage .................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 The Apostle Peter (d. 64?) : First Bishop and Pope of Rome? .................................................. 11 Peter in Rome ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Yes and No .............................................................................................................................................. 13 The death of Peter .................................................................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2 Pope Sylvester (314-335): Constantine’s Pope ......................................................................... 16 Constantine and his imprint .................................................................................................................... 17 “Remembering” Sylvester ......................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Chronicle of the Kings of Rome, Roman Emperors, Holy Roman Emperors, and Popes in Italian, Manuscript on Paper Italy (Florence?) Between 1542 and 1549
    Chronicle of the Kings of Rome, Roman Emperors, Holy Roman Emperors, and Popes In Italian, manuscript on paper Italy (Florence?) between 1542 and 1549 50 + i paper folios, single watermark in gutter throughout of a sun with conjoined eyes and nose and six thick rays, centered over chain line, unmatched in Briquet, Piccard, or Gravell but somewhat similar to Briquet 13953 (Pisa 1576) and Gravell SUN.002.1 (Italy 1592), quires gathered in two booklets with original Arabic numeral foliation from 1- 20 and 1-30 (identified below as ‘B1’ and ‘B2’) in brown ink in upper recto corners, many blank folios but complete (i- v10), both booklets supported at spine with strips of paper with the second booklet’s strip extending into a narrow flyleaf at back, unruled and written almost from gutter to outer edge (justification c. 180 x 140 mm.) in 24-26 lines in dark brown ink by a single scribe in a rapid and imperfect Italian semi-hybrida (mercantesca), no catchwords, signatures, rubrics, nor decoration, occasional minor stains from damp, primarily at edges, and some insignificant chipping or gnawing at edges, (e.g. bottom corner of B1, f. 3), no damage to text and overall in very good condition, original folder binding made from a recycled late fourteenth- or fifteenth-century parchment folio holding an unidentified text written in a tidy Italian semi-hybrida (mercantesca) with a red and blue two-line initial on inside back cover, quires sewn together with white thread and tacketed to the folder binding at head and tail of spine with twisted parchment cord, twentieth-century stamp-sized label, partially removed, reading ‘33’affixed to front cover at bottom near spine, some small holes, tears, and gnawing at edges, but otherwise in good condition.
    [Show full text]
  • The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England Craig M
    The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England Craig M. Rustici http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=135037 The University of Michigan Press the afterlife of pope joan The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England Craig M. Rustici http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=135037 The University of Michigan Press he Afterlife of ope oan Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England Craig M. Rustici The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England Craig M. Rustici http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=135037 The University of Michigan Press Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2006 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2009 2008 2007 2006 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rustici, Craig M., 1964– The afterlife of Pope Joan : deploying the Popess legend in early modern England / Craig M. Rustici. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-472-11544-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-11544-8 (cloth : alk.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Popes in Order
    List Of Popes In Order Christy remains pubic after Jan nitrogenises deploringly or barks any crayons. Monoecious Gearard skimp very therefore while Ximenes remains transoceanic and causeless. Paraffinoid Adolph analogising some proneness after psychrometrical Spike culminate even. Religious order had managed to list of popes in order Many priests were imprisoned and killed, and many of his parishioners disappeared. Christian saints according to the list of all popes media stars, or stars. She continues to fight to make data protection an everyday reality, in defiance of intense pushback. Theodotus the Byzantium who were ruled by Theodotus and Asclepiodotus. Enter your email address to receive free newsletters from NCR. In opposition to Pope Symmachus. Biden Administration has signaled that once its COVID relief legislation passes Congress, it plans to push for a massive stimulus package that would put people to work rebuilding American infrastructure designed to combat climate change. You Might Be a Catholic. Soon after, an earthquake struck Rome, destroying the papal basilica. The terrifying threat of nuclear war had become heightened with the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. More in keeping with Petrine duties, he also confirmed the decrees of the Council of Carthage, which prevented Arian converts from being admitted to holy orders. Paul VI, and Marc Caligari. Apparently CPAC attendees missed the part of the Bible about the Golden Calf. He now coaches at his alma mater, Ohio State and is recognised as a saint by both east and west. ADDucation uses cookies to enhance your visitor experience. For in popes of rome itself as his garden of studying medicine, who must undertake the remark heard their position on nude male privilege? Gregory nor is scheduled to it is a righteous man suffers on authority of popes in order to preachers and condemned and.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Issue of the Shepherd's Flock Report!
    Special Issue of the Shepherd’s Flock Report! Teachable Moment…..Election of a pope! Inside this special Issue are Background information for catechists and activities for our students. Who is the Pope? ACTIVITY—Qualities of a Pope. The title pope, once used with far greater lati- Have the students talk about what the qualities tude (see below, section V), is at present em- of a good selection of pope should possess. ployed solely to denote the Bishop of Rome, Make a list of the things thy name. who, in virtue of his position as successor of After a few minutes read the story of the God St. Peter, is the chief pastor of the whole Shepherd and or the 23rd Psalm. (both are on Church, the Vicar of Christ upon earth. the next page) Explain the meaning of scriptures. Besides the bishopric of the Roman Dio- cese, certain other dignities are held by the Jesus is the shepherd who cares for all people. pope as well as the supreme and universal The Pope is the shepherd of the flock on earth pastorate: he is Archbishop of the Roman We are that flock. Province, Primate of Italy and the adjacent What other qualities of the pope should we islands, and sole Patriarch of the Western add to the list. Then hang the list in the hall- Church. The Church's doctrine as to the way . The list can be done on butcher paper pope was authoritatively declared in the Vatican Council in the Constitution "Pastor that is in the closet in room 6.
    [Show full text]
  • BAD POPES 4 X 48 Min
    BAD POPES 4 x 48 min. Sins of the Fathers Money, Sex, Power – All in God’s name. • An unprecedented series, never before realized in documentary form. Not that long ago, the Borgias inspired not one but two dramatic TV series that lifted a veil on this corrupt Papal dynasty. The Borgias’ long list of vices even included incest. But in some ways the Borgias were a bunch of choir boys, compared to the popes that came before and after them. God’s Representative on Earth? Sometimes they seemed to be working for the other guy! • With 266 pontiffs in 2000 years, you have to expect some rotten apples. And let us be clear. There have been plenty of honourable men who have served as the ‘Vicar of Christ’. But the bad Popes still astonish us, with their sinful and vicious conduct, their shamelessness. These Bad Popes have started wars, ordered the persecution of innocents and enriched themselves to an obscene degree. And all the while, as they preached about virtue and redemption, their personal lives were outrageous – even by today’s standards. Pope Alexander VI Pope Benedict IX Pope John XII Pope Stephen VI Pope Boniface VIII Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton BAD POPES 4 x 48 min. • The Power to Shock – Our focus will be on the Papacy during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when the Catholic Church was at its mightiest. Popes back then were much more than bishops or priests, as powerful as any Prince or Emperor.
    [Show full text]
  • Diseases and Causes of Death Among the Popes 1
    Acta Theologica Supplementum 7 2005 DISEASES AND CAUSES OF DEATH AMONG THE POPES ABSTRACT The causes of death of popes are reviewed in the light of existing knowledge, and analysed in terms of four periods: First Period (64-604) Early Middle Ages (604-1054), Late Middle Ages and Renaissance (1054-1492), and Post-Renaissance (1492-2000). Among those who died of natural causes, multi-disease pathology was commonly present as is to be expected in an older population group, and acute terminal febrile illnesses, malaria, stroke, severe heart disease, gout or poly-arthritis, terminal kidney disease, gallstones, cancer, dysentery, the plague, lung infection, gangrene of a leg, abscesses, depression or debilitating psychiatric illness. Unnatural causes comprise inter alia assassination, death in prison or in exile, casualties of war or public violence, poi- soning and stoning during street violence. This study covers the time period up to the year 2005. 1. INTRODUCTION The word “pope” is derived from the Greek for “father”, the head of the family as well as of religious congregations. Thus senior priests and bishops were also addressed by this term in ancient times. From the 5th century AD it was increasingly applied to the Bishop of Rome, and after the 8th century exclusively so. As pope, the Bishop of Rome was head of the international Christian church. With the passage of time, events such as the schism with the Eastern Church (from the 6th cen- tury), the Reformation, and the royal revolt of the English Church in the 16th century, split Christianity into factions, with the consequence that the pope ultimately became the head of what we today term the Roman Catholic church.
    [Show full text]
  • Popes from St. Peter
    POPES FROM ST. PETER (Chronological list of popes from St. Peter to Benedict XVI) Sl. No. Papal Name Photo Elected Date Died Date Place of birth Notes 1st Centuary Disciple of Jesus from whom he received the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Matthew 16:18–19 . Executed by crucifixion upside-down; feast day (Feast Bethsaida, of Saints Peter and Paul) 29 June, (Chair of 1 St Peter - 67 Galilea Saint Peter) 22 February. Recognized as the first Bishop of Rome (Pope) appointed by Christ, by the Catholic Church. Also revered as saint in Eastern Christianity, with a feast day of 29 June. Pope Saint Linus was, according to several early sources, Bishop of the diocese of Rome after Saint Peter. This makes Linus Tuscia (Central the second Pope. Linus is the only person 2t S Linus 67 76 Tuscany) specifically mentioned in the New Testament, other than Peter, considered by the Catholic Church to have held the position of Pope. Martyred; feast day 26 April. Once Probably Greece 3t S Anacletus 76 88 erroneously split into Cletus and Anacletus. Feast day 23 November. Also revered as a 4t S Clement I 88 97 Rome saint inEastern Christianity, with a feast day of 25 November. 5 St Evaristus 97 105 Bethlehem, Judea Feast day 26 October 2nd Century Also revered as a saint in Eastern Rome 6t S Alexander I 105 115 Christianity, with a feast day of 16 March. Also revered as a saint in Eastern Rome or Greece 7 St Sixtus I 115 125 Christianity, with a feast day of 10 August.
    [Show full text]
  • PRESIDENT's ADDRESS Pope Joan: a Recognizable Syndrome*
    00’21.972X/93/7601-ooO3$03.00/0 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism Vol. 76, No. 1 Copyright 0 1993 by The Endocrine Society Printed in U.S.A. PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Pope Joan: A Recognizable Syndrome* MARIA I. NEW AND ELIZABETH S. KITZINGER Department of Pediatrics, The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York 10021 My report was stimulated by a Christmas gift from my in French monasteries during the 15th century (Fig. 1). friend and colleague Patrizia Borelli: a book called La Papessa There are various accounts of how Pope Joan died: some Giovanna: Roma e Papato Tra Storia e Leggenda? (Pope Joan: authors have her torn limb from limb by the angry crowd; Rome and the Papacy between Truth and Legend) by Cesare others say she was dragged by horses through the streets of D’Onofrio. Because there was great controversy about the Rome. Petrarch (1304-1376), evidently thinking of the pla- existence of a female pope during the Middle Ages and my gues of Revelation (2), added that after her death it rained scientific interest has been directed at understanding the blood for 3 days and nights and locusts with six wings and genetic and hormonal basis for infants born with ambiguous powerful teeth appeared in France. Obviously, the idea of a genitalia, I began to search for a biological basis for the woman pope was anathema. existence of a pope who was elected as a male but unmasked What is the basis for these fantastic stories? To answer this as a female, as the legend goes.
    [Show full text]
  • Anti-Catholicism and Colonial New England" (2015)
    John Carroll University Carroll Collected Masters Essays Theses, Essays, and Senior Honors Projects Spring 2015 NEW ENGLAND’S GOD: ANTI- CATHOLICISM AND COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND Matthew .J Nowak John Carroll University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://collected.jcu.edu/mastersessays Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Nowak, Matthew J., "NEW ENGLAND’S GOD: ANTI-CATHOLICISM AND COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND" (2015). Masters Essays. 17. http://collected.jcu.edu/mastersessays/17 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Essays, and Senior Honors Projects at Carroll Collected. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Essays by an authorized administrator of Carroll Collected. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEW ENGLAND’S GOD: ANTI-CATHOLICISM AND COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND An Essay Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts & Sciences of John Carroll University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Matthew J. Nowak 2015 Introduction The Puritans left England because of Roman Catholicism. Either because of perceived threats by Catholics or Pseudo-Catholics or their detestation of the continued presence of Catholic influence in church, government, and society, Puritans believed there existed a better way of life outside the sway of Catholicism. The people who left England during the seventeenth century and founded the colonies of New England – Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, Rhode Island, and New Haven – did so in the spirit of religion and reform. Born from the turmoil of religious persecution and political experimentalism, New England Puritanism – which is the primary focus of this discussion – created a unique overarching society that focused on godliness, Biblical law, substantive justice, participation, and cohesion.
    [Show full text]
  • Pope Joan (Die Päpstin) Marcel Barsotti
    April 2010 POPE JOAN (DIE PÄPSTIN) MARCEL BARSOTTI Rating: (maximum 5 stars) Original Review by Jonathan Broxton Despite all its successes in other creative arts, German cinema has never made much of a splash on the international scene. Likewise, German film music never reaches much beyond its boundaries to the world stage, despite the efforts of composers like Niki Reiser, Klaus Doldinger, Stefan Zacharias, or its two most famous exports, Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt. I haven‟t reviewed the score for a German film since Der Untergang in 2004, but I‟m very pleased to add Pope Joan by Marcel Barsotti to the (sadly) short list of German soundtracks covered here. The film, called Die Päpstin in its native language, is a historical drama directed by Sönke Wortmann which tells the possibly fictitious story (it has never been proven either way) of a young woman called Joanna of Ingelheim who, while disguised as a man and calling herself Johannus Anglicus, fooled the Catholic church and rose to become Pope. The film stars Johanna Wokalek as Joanna, and features an eclectic multi-national supporting cast that includes David Wenham, Iain Glen, and John Goodman as Pope Sergius. The score for Pope Joan is by 46-year old Swiss composer Marcel Barsotti, who has been working in the German film industry since the mid-1990s, and has scored popular projects such as Das Wunder von Bern (2003), Kebab Connection (2004), Deutschland: Ein Sommermärchen (2006) and Wo ist Fred? (2006), but had never really made any kind of impression in the wider industry.
    [Show full text]
  • When a Female Pope Meets a Biconfessional Town: Protestantism, Catholicism, and Popular Polemics in the 1630S
    Early Modern Low Countries 3 (2019) 1, pp. 1-31 - eISSN: 2543-1587 1 When a Female Pope Meets a Biconfessional Town: Protestantism, Catholicism, and Popular Polemics in the 1630s Jan Machielsen Jan Machielsen is Lecturer in Early Modern History at Cardiff University. He completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2011. His first book, Martin Delrio. Demonology and Scholarship in the Counter-Reformation, appeared with Oxford University Press in 2015 and was shortlisted for the 2016 Royal Historical Society Gladstone Prize for best first book in non-British history. He is also the editor, with Clare Copeland, of Angels of Light? Sanctity and the Discernment of Spirits in the Early Modern Period (Leiden 2013). Abstract The early modern afterlife of Pope Joan has been remarkably little studied, perhaps because its contours have seemed familiar: Joan’s existence was embraced by Prot- estants for its challenge to the apostolic succession of the papacy and rejected by Catholics for the same reason. This role reversal, which cast Protestants as defenders of monastic chronicles and Catholics as their critics, offers ostensible proof for the mercenary use of history in confessional polemics. This article uses an overlooked 1635 defence of the popess, the longest ever written, as a case study to argue the oppo- site: debates over Pope Joan could be vehicles for popular confessional grievances and identities, and they can teach us much about the difficulties facing the Catholic and Reformed churches in the 1620s and 1630s. Written in Dutch by a German minister of the Church of England, this lengthy treatise possesses a significance well beyond the local conditions – a public disputation in a small biconfessional town in the Duchy of Cleves – that gave rise to its publication.
    [Show full text]