La Papesse Jeanne

One of the most controversial women of history is brought to life in Donna

Woolfolk Cross's tale of Pope Joan, a girl whose origins should have kept her

in squalid domesticity. Instead, thru intelligence, indomitability it was as if she belonged to a 3rd amorphous sex."

The status of women in the Dark Ages was little better than cattle. They were

judged inferior in every way & necessary evils in the bargain. After John is

killed in a Viking raid, Joan sees opportunity to escape the fate of her

gender. She cuts her hair, dons her dead brother's clothes & goes into the

world as a young boy. Gerold is away from Villaris at the time of the attack &

comes home to find his home in ruins, his family killed & Joan missing. After

the attack, Joan goes to a Benedictine monastery, is accepted as a man of

great learning & eventually makes her way to Rome.

Cross tells in an Epilogue that she wrote the story as fiction because it's

impossible to document Joan's papal accession. The Catholic Church has done

everything possible to deny this embarrassment. Whether or not one believes in

Joan as Pope, this is a compelling story, filled with all kinds of lore: the

brutishness of the Dark Ages, Vatican intrigue, politics, favoritism & the

place of women.--Valerie Ryan (edited)