Brewer's: Pope Joan

Said to have succeeded Leo IV. Gibbon says, “Two Protestants, Blondel and Bayle, annihilated her;” but Mosheim seems half-inclined to believe there was such a person. The vulgar tale is that Joan conceived a violent passion for the monk Folda, and in order to get admission to him assumed the monastic habit. Being clever and popular, she got to be elected pope.

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