Mat 17. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



395 



POPE JOAN. 



(Vol. 



ili., p. 265.) 



In reply to your correspondent Nemo's Query, 

 whether any such personage as Pope Joan ever 

 held the keys of St. Peter, and wore the tiara ? 

 and if so, at what period, and for what time, and 

 what is known of her personal history ? I would 

 remark that the story runs thus : that between the 

 pontificates of Leo IV , who died in tlie year 855, 

 and of Benedict III., who died in 858, a female 

 of the name of .Joan found means to cause herself 

 to be elected Pope, which post she held for a terra 

 of upwards of two years, under the title of 

 Joannes VII., according to Sabellicus, or, accord- 

 ing to Platina, of Joannes VIII. She is generally 

 said to have been an Englishwoman, the daughter 

 of a priest, who in her youth became acquainted 

 with an English monk belonging to the Abbey of 

 Fulda, with whom she travelled, habited as a man, 

 to many universities, but finally settled at Athens, 

 where she remained until the death of her com- 

 panion, and attained to a great proficiency in the 

 learning common to the time. After this she 

 proceeded to Rome, and having by the talent she 

 displayed in several disputes obtained the repu- 

 tation of a learned divine, was, on the death of 

 Leo IV., elected to fill the pontifical chair. This 

 position she held for upwards of two ye.ars, but 

 soon after the expiration of that time was deli- 

 vered of a child (but died during parturition), 

 while proceeding in a procession between the 

 Coliseum and the Church of St. Clemente. 



The first mention of this story appears to have 

 been made by Marianus Scotus, who compiled a 

 chronicle at Mnyence, about two hundred years 

 after the event is said to have occurred, viz. about 

 1083. lie was followed by Sigebert de Geni- 

 blours, who wrote about 1112 i and also by Mar- 

 tino di Cistello, or Polonus, who wrote about 1277; 

 since when the story has been repeated by num- 

 berless authors, all of whom have, more or less, 

 made some absurd additions. 



Afier the satisfactory proofs of the fictitious 

 character of the story, which have been produced 

 by the most eminent writers, both Catholic and 

 Protestant, it may appear a work of supereroga- 

 tion to add anything on the point ; yet it may 

 perhaps be permitted to observe, that in the most 

 ancient and esteemed manuscripts of the works of 

 the authors above quoted, no mention whatever 

 is maile of the Papissa Giovanna, and its introduc- 

 tion must therefore have been the work of some 

 later coj)yist. 



The contemporary writers, moreover, some of 

 whom were ocular witnesses of the elections both 

 of Leo IV. and Benedict HI., make no mention 

 whatever of the circumstance ; and it is well 

 known that at Athens, where she is stated to have 



studied, no such school as the one alluded to 

 existed in the ninth century. 



The fact will not, I think, be denied that it was 

 the practice of the chroniclers of the early ages 

 to note down the greater portion of what they 

 heard, without examining critically as to the 

 credibility of the report ; and the mention of a 

 fact once made, was amply sufficient for all suc- 

 ceeding authors to copy the statement, and make 

 such additions thereto as best suited their respec- 

 tive fancies, without making any examination as 

 to the truth or probability of the original state- 

 ment. And this appears to have been the case 

 with the point in question : Marianus Scotus first 

 stated, or rather some later copyist stated for him, 

 the fact of a female Pope ; and subsequent writers 

 added, at a later period, the additional facts which 

 now render the tale so evidently an invention. 



R. R. M. 



Pope Joan (Vol. iii., p. 265.). — You have re- 

 ferred to Sir Thomas Browne, and might have 

 added the opinion of his able editor ( Works, iii. 

 360.), who says, " Her very existence itself seems 

 now to be universally rejected by the best authori- 

 ties as a fabrication from beginning to end." On 

 the other hand, old Coryat, in his Crvdilies 

 (vol. ii. p. 443.), has the boldness to speak with 

 "certainty of her birth at a particular place, — 

 viz. at Mentz." Mosheim tells us (toI. ii. p. 300.) 

 that during the five centuries succeeding 855, 

 " the event was generally believed." He quotes 

 some distinguished names, as well among those 

 who maintained the truth of the story as amongst 

 those who rejected it as a fable. Bayle may be 

 included amongst the latter, who, in the third 

 volume of his Dictionary (Article Papesse), has 

 gone deeply into the question. Mosheim himself 

 seems to leave it where Sir Roger de Coverley 

 would have done, — "much may be said on both 

 sides." J. II. M. 



3KfjjIic;S ta fHtuor caurn'fi*. 



Robei-t Burton, his Birth-place (Vol. iii., 

 pp. 106. 157.). — A friend who has just been 

 reading the Anatomy of Melancholy, has referred 

 me to the following passage, which seems to give 

 conclusive testimony respecting the birth-place of 

 Burton : — 



" Such higli places are infinite: and two 



amongst the rest, which I may not omit for vicinities 

 sake, Olcllmry in the confines of Warwickshire, where 

 I have often looked about me with great delight, at 

 tlic foot of wliich hill I was liorn ; and Hanbiiry in 

 Staffordshire, contiguous to whicli is Falde, a pleasant 

 village, and an ancient patrimony belonging to our 

 family, miw in the possession of mine elder brother, 

 William IJurton, Escjuire." [Note on words " / wat 

 born." At Linilloy in Leceitershire, the possession 

 and dwelling place of Ilalph Burton, Esquire, my late 



