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 Was 'Pope Joan' Real, Or Merely Protestant Propaganda? By Gaylon Parsons The Legend of Pope Joan, by Peter Stanford (Henry Holt). Cloth, $25. ALL WRITERS HOPE to be equal to the stories they choose to tell; in practice, the best stories can overwhelm otherwise fine authors, leaving them to hobble along like Quasimodo after a beautiful idea. In the case of The Legend of Pope Joan, Peter Stanford has managed an elegant limp. Pope Joan, or John VIII, was a ninth-century woman of great learning and wisdom who attained the highest office in the church only to die ignobly in the street after giving birth during an Easter procession.
On the other hand, some of his more adventurous conclusions seem suspect. Could the tarot card signified "La Papesse" refer to Joan, or is it simply a version of "The High Priestess" one could logically expect to find in medieval Europe?
As with many aspects of the Pope Joan story, the evidence is
inconclusive; however, Stanford respects the possibility that
Joan existed, and examines each piece of evidence with a judicious
eye. In the age of RuPaul, after all, Pope Joan seems like a perfectly
plausible personality. Despite the book's shortcomings, a reader
interested in the legend, in modern debate over female priests,
or in the history of the Catholic Church would find this piece
of detective work informative and accessible.
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The story, more strange than beautiful, may or may not be more
than a legend. Joan may or may not be an invention of a Protestant
conspiracy; she may or may not have been a woman, dressed as a
man. Numerous versions of the story exist...so many that Stanford
muses that Pope Joan may have more in common with that modern-day
kid who died from soda and Pop-Rocks than with any verifiable
historical figure. He seems never to have resolved his doubt,
and the narrative suffers for it, usually in Stanford's timidity
and excessive care in making an assertion.
