The Woman Who Wasn't

Last time, we discussed the myth of the Pope Joan, the mythical female who suddenly became pope in 855. This time, let’s take a look through some of the claims made in the story and try to understand the actual history behind the time.

First off, let’s take a look at the town of Mainz. There was indeed a monastery in the town in 800. St. Alban’s Abbey was built in 798 and consecrated as a church in 805, though there are gravestones from a monastic community in the area that go back to the 600s. It would eventually be destroyed in 1552, but that’s a bit outside our timeline. St. Alban’s also excelled as a school, and even inspired the court schools of Charlemagne.

Now, let’s take a look at that papal election in 855. First, let’s take a peek at some of the major players.

Pope Leo IV. He had been pope from 847-855, when he died at the age of 65(ish). His main claim to fame was repairing churches in Rome that had been damaged by Turkish invaders.

 Anastasius. He was a priest in the middle of the 800s, and would later in life become the chief librarian of the Roman Church. He became known for being an incredibly brilliant man, one of the smartest priests at the time, and had done work translating writings from Greek to Latin. In 847, he fled the church he had been placed at. In 850, he was excommunicated, and he was again excommunicated in 853.

 Benedict. Pretty much unanimously elected pope in 855.

Okay, let’s take a step by step through what happened.

Leo IV died. He’s out of the picture. Anastasius was upset with the Roman church for excommunicating him. Benedict was very popular with the Roman people. Benedict was proclaimed the Pope in 855. However, at the time, there were two emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, Lothaire and Louis II. Anastasius intercepted the legates on their way bringing the news to the emperors. He bribed them to tell the emperors that he, Anastasius, had been chosen, not Benedict. The legates bought it and told the emperors Anastasius was pope. He returned to Rome with a small army and arrested Benedict.

Now, this is where the story gets interesting. While Benedict was in prison, the people of Rome literally revolted to the point of throwing Anastasius out of town. After being restored to the position he was rightfully elected to, Benedict actually forgave Anastasius and lifted the excommunication. Anastasius repented and would eventually (in 867) be made librarian, a very important job.

The election of 855 was VERY highly contested. It’s not exactly one where we don’t quite know what happened, and we’re just guessing. There’s absolutely no way a woman could become elected pope, reign for two years, and then cover up the entire thing, while at the same time having this (rather well documented) controversy between the emperors, the Romans, and the pope.

Given that it’s so easy to prove the 855 date entirely false, where did this story come from?

Well, it first showed up in 1250 in a writing by a Dominican monk. It got continually copied over time, because the monks who were copying simply wrote down what they saw without thinking about it. (Fun fact, that’s where Protestants got the “for thine is the kingdom, and the glory, and the power forever” bit at the end of the Our Father, a copying mistake on a version of the English Bible that eventually became the King James Version). It was actually discounted by the 1640s by, unusually, a Protestant looking to find the truth behind the story, trying to figure out how best to discredit the Papacy.

But this brings out a new question, which we’ll discuss next time. Why would do we even need a male pope in the first place?