Did You Hear the One about the Woman Pope?
“Hey, did you hear the one about the woman pope?”
“Yeah, she reigned for two years as a man in the middle ages but was exposed going into labor during a papal procession.”
What do you think of that? Had you heard about it before? The story is real, but we aren’t sure whether “Pope Joan,” as she/he was called, ever existed. I recently heard a discussion about her on the BBC’s excellent podcast, “In Our Time,” featuring Melvin Bragg and three scholarly guests. “In Our Time” also provided a link to this page for more information: The female pope – Medieval manuscripts blog.
First, a general outline of the story.
The story is that this woman was born of English parents in the 9th or 11th centuries. (There are multiple accounts.) The woman was bright, somehow got into a university (disguised) and became very learned. The woman entered the clergy under pretexts, somehow grew in importance to rise to the papacy as “Pope John.” After two years she inconveniently went into labor during a papal procession, giving birth on the street. Some accounts have her being executed right away, others of having her imprisoned and doing penitence for many years. One account says her son from this affair became a bishop and had her interred in his cathedral on her death.
There are problems with this story, not the least of which is the only written records that exist today come from about two or three hundred years after her supposed life and death. Nonetheless, as the Wikipedia article says, “The story was widely believed for centuries, but most modern scholars regard it as fictional.”
The “In Our Time” podcast suggests that early popularity (in the 12th and 13th centuries) was in using the story as a kind of morality tale, reminding women to keep their places and know their station. (Wikipedia: “Joan was used as an exemplum in Dominican preaching.”) Later, during the Reformation, the story was circulated by Protestants to ridicule the papacy. (Wikipedia: “At the time of the Reformation, various Protestant writers took up the Pope Joan legend in their anti-Catholic writings, and the Catholics responded with their own polemic.”)
The problem with the late dates for any manuscript evidence for the story suggests that modern scholars are right to conclude the whole story is a fiction.
My purpose in this article isn’t to make an anti-Catholic screed (though we hold no briefs for Catholics). Nor am I just trying to fill our space with a strange religious curiousity. My purpose is to consider the motivation for belief in this and other stories that come across our screens in this digital age.
Why do people believe stories like this?
- In its heyday, when the story was first circulated, the story was useful to Dominican preachers (as suggested in the quote above) to preach about the place of women and proper order in society. Did such preachers believe their own story? Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. Likely, though, many ordinary people believed it. Why? Well, they had no reason to distrust their sources, and the story fit with the morality of their day. It “fit their narrative” to take a modern (or post-modern) term.
- Likewise, during the Reformation, did the Protestant preachers who used the story believe it when they propagated it? Perhaps some of them did. Certainly, the story had enough credence to lend a sting to their words which resulted in Catholic defenders vigorously arguing against it. Why did the story have credence? Well, Protestants wanted to believe everything bad they heard about the Catholic church. It would be only too rich to ridicule the Catholics for a pope who gave birth during a papal procession.
What does this say about belief today? Even more, what does it say about the kinds of things Christians believe and circulate on the internet today? I have friends who confidently share some items that sound too good to be true. They assure me that the source is impeccable. When I check the background, heaven help me if I cite some “inappropriate” source.
- “Don’t you know that Snopes is liberal?”
- “Where did you get that, MSM?”
- “You need to get your news from better sources.”
- “You’ve got to stop reading the MSM.”
- Or, my favorite, “You’ve got to quit listening to the CBC.”1 (As if I would! Good grief, what do my friends take me for??)
The political world recently has brought out a spate of wild statements, not just from the media, but from Christians — passing on the claims and assertions they’ve found somewhere on the internet as if they are true.
Often these claims have a half truth, but they are shrouded in so much inaccuracy, falsehood, and deception it is hard to believe anyone takes them credibly — yet they do. Why?
I think it is the same reason so many wanted to believe in Pope Joan through all these years. (There are probably still people today who believe in Pope Joan!) Why do they believe these stories? They want to. The stories confirm what they’ve always known about “the media” or “the Democrats” or whoever it is that’s been keeping the truth from us all these years.
When someone praises public/political figures as always right without any willingness to probe the truth of his or her assertions, I get suspicious. When someone makes surprising and fantastic claims about how “they” have been lying to you all these years, I wonder.
No one is always right. No one is above criticism. And if a story is unreported, it doesn’t always mean that’s just proof that the media is in on it. It usually, like 99.999% of the time, means there is no story there.
We should do our best to test the claims. Are they true? Is the story being peddled too simplistic to be believed? Most political issues have far more complexity than a “hot take” can give you. Politicians speak sloppily, making emotion laden statements that engender fear and call for support for their latest pronouncements.
I’ve made my own share of breathless claims through the years, I suppose. I hope I’ve learned that it is better to test everything and not jump to conclusions. I hope I’ve learned not to believe something simply because it sounds like what I want to hear.
Jesus said:
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Mt 10.16)
It is high time we check our hearts. Why do we believe what we believe? Do we want there to have been a Pope Joan?
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [↩]