NIGHTSHADES POSTS #627
Why couldn't a woman be the messiah? Perhaps one should consider the life of Pope Joan. Someone that the catholics deny, and yet she is found in their histories.
"Pope Joan (a.k.a. Pope John VIII):
Born in Mainz, proclaimed Pope in A.D. 855, stoned to death by cardinals in A.D. 858 (after giving birth on the way to the altar), and declared mythical by Pope Clement VIII in 1601, Pope Joan was a (none-too-feminine) woman who passed herself off as a monk and successfully invaded the patriarchal sanctum sanctorum of the Holy See. Although Catholic scholars now deny that there was ever a female Pope, even the Church accepted Joan’s pontificate as historical fact, up to the beginning of the 17th Century. Her portrait appeared in a row of papal busts in Siena Cathedral, labeled “Johannes VIII, femina ex Anglia” (“John VIII, an English woman”). Pope Joan was first mentioned by her contemporary, Anastasius the Librarian (died 886). Scotus’ Chronicle of the Popes listed her thus: “A.D. 854, Lotharii 14, Joanna, a woman, succeeded Leo, and reigned two years, five months, and four days.”
Pope Joan’s existence is given perhaps its most persuasive corroboration by Platina, a serious historian, secretary to a reigning Pope, and librarian to the Vatican, who felt bound to include Pope Joan in the Canon of the Popes. Presumably, the force of tradition, from many sources and for many years, must have dictated this distasteful inclusion into the Church records. De Gemblours’ chronicle stated “It is reported that this John was a female, and that she conceived by one of her servants. The Pope, becoming pregnant, gave birth to a child, wherefor some do not number her among the Pontiffs.” Thomas de Elmham’s official list of the Popes said: “A.D. 855, Joannes. This one doesn’t count; she was a woman.” It seems Pope Joan’s deception was revealed when her labor pains came upon her, and she died in a street between the Lateran and St. Clement’s Church. The cardinals must have become suspicious when they saw their Pope giving birth in the course of some religious procession, and so they dragged her in the street and stoned her to death, finally burying her in an unmarked grave. Martin Polonus related that the street was ever afterward avoided by Papal processions. Joan (or John) was the only Pope ever stricken from papal records, although her pontificate was better documented than many others, especially the Popes before the 4th or 5th Centuries, many of whom had no contemporary documentation at all but were merely names inserted into later chronicles to create an illusion of unbroken succession. The official story is that there was an “Antipope” named John, enthroned by popular demand against the will of the clergy, and soon overthrown. In 1886, Emmanuel Royidis published Joan’s biography, Papissa Joanna, which was immediately banned, and its author excommunicated. Although the historicity of the female Pope is vehemently denied by the Catholic Church today, nevertheless a curious custom has arisen in the wake of the Pope Joan legend. It seems that candidates for the papacy had to seat themselves naked on a bottomless stool, to be viewed by cardinals in the room below. Before a candidate might be declared Pope, this gynecological inspection committee had to cry out its official announcement: “Testiculos habet et bene pendentes!” (“He has testicles, and they dangle nicely!”) This requirement for testicles in a man of God seems to run strangely contrary to ascetic Christian dogma, for castration was a common practice in the early days of the Church, and eunuchs abounded not only in the soprano choirs, but in the priesthood as well. There is even reason to suspect that the architect of Christianity himself — Saint Paul of Tarsus — had castrated himself and would under this initiation custom fail to qualify as a Pope."
You will note that Paul of Tarsus is credited here with being the architect of christianity.
Ahhh, another particularly nasty version of the fable of Pope Joan! My oh, my you are misguided.
It's 2008 and you can be sure that the chronological dates of each one the 265 pontificates since St.Peter have been well documented in secular history. If you don't believe me, get a copy of the Time or World Almanac and see for yourself. You'll not find "Pope Joan" listed.
This fable has been universally rejected as unhistorical and for good reason. Their is sound evidence of her never having existed. Chronology settles the question for the 2 dates assigned to her supposed pontificate are impossible. Pope Leo IV died July 17, 855 and was immediately succeeded by Pope Benedict III (855-858). We have coins with the images of Pope Benedict and the Emperor Lothair. The other date, 1100, is out of the question as Pope Paschal II reigned from 1099 to 1118.
So, sorry about that Nightshades, no...there never was and never will be a valid woman priest or Pope....why? Becasue that's the way Christ wants His Church.
