Pope John VIII - Pope Joan and Connection To The Name John VIII

Pope Joan and Connection To The Name John VIII

According to the legend of Pope Joan, a woman reigned as pope under the name of John earlier in the 9th century. Her true sex was discovered, and she would eventually be erased from the historical record because of this. If she existed, when regnal numbering was applied to papal reigns in the 10th century, she would have been designated John VIII and the Pope John that is the subject of this article would have been John IX. However, there are no contemporary references to a female pope; the legend was apparently created during the 13th century. The historical John VIII is not otherwise connected with this legend.

According to Patrick Madrid, author of Pope Fiction, a book about the legend of Pope Joan, Pope John VIII himself may have been the origin of the legend. He writes,

He appears to have had a very weak personality, even perhaps somewhat effeminate. Cardinal Caesare Baronius, in his history Church Annals, suggests that John VIII's reputation as effeminate gave rise to the legend. Indeed, it would seem that over time, the common folk added ever more lurid embellishments until the vulgar jokes about the hapless (and certainly male) pope ballooned and metamorphosed into a female "popessa."