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Thepapacy has been surrounded by numerouslegends. Among the most famous are the claims that the papal tiara bears theNumber of the Beast inscriptions, that a woman was once elected pope, or that thepope elected afterPope Benedict XVI was to be the last known as “Petrus Romanus”.
One misconception surrounding thepapal tiara suggests that the wordsVicarius Filii Dei (Latin for "Vicar of the Son of God") exist on the side of one of thetiaras.
The story centres on the widely made claim that, whennumerised (i.e., when those letters in the 'title' that haveRoman numeral value are added together as in achronogram) they producethe number 666, described in theBook of Revelation as theNumber of the Beast (theAntichrist), who wears multiple crowns (identified by some as the triple tiara).
VICARIVS·FILII·DEI with the non-numeric letters removed gives: VICIVILIIDI = 5 + 1 + 100 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 500 + 1 = 666
This claim has been made by some Protestant sects who believe that the Pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church,is the Beast or theFalse Prophet mentioned in the Book of Revelation. However, a detailed examination of the existing tiaras shows no such decoration.
Furthermore,Vicarius Filii Dei isnot among the titles of the Pope; the closest match isVicarius Christi ("Vicar of Christ", also rendered in English as "Vicar of Jesus Christ"), the numerical values of which donot add up to 666, but to 214.
The claim that a woman, often calledPope Joan, became pope first appeared in aDominican chronicle in 1250. It soon spread Europe-wide through preachingfriars. The story grew in embellishment but centered on a set of claims.
The period for this claim is traditionally given as AD 855–858, between the reigns ofLeo IV andBenedict III; however, this possibility is unlikely, because Leo IV died on 17 July 855 and Benedict III was elected as his successor on 29 September 855.
Jean de Mailly, a French Dominican atMetz, places the story in the year 1099, in hisChronica Universalis Mettensis, which dates from approximately 1250 and gives what is almost certainly the earliest account of the woman who became known as Pope Joan. His compatriotStephen of Bourbon acknowledges this by placing her rule at approximately 1100. Also, Rosemary and Darrell Pardoe, authors ofThe Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan. The First Complete Documentation of the Facts behind the Legend, is assuming that a more plausible time-frame would be 1086–1108, when there were a lot ofantipopes, and the reign of the legitimate popesVictor III,Urban II, andPaschal II was not always established inRome, since this city was occupied byHenry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and later sacked by theNormans.
Generally, there are two versions of the legend.
"Joan" disguised herself as amonk, called Joannes Anglicus. In time, she rose to the highest office of the church, becoming a pope.
After two or five years of reign, "Pope Joan" became pregnant and, during anEaster procession, she gave birth to the child on the streets when she fell off a horse. She was publicly stoned to death by the astonished crowd, and according to the legend, removed from the Vatican archives.
As a consequence, certain traditions stated that popes throughout themedieval period were required to undergo a procedure wherein they sat on a special chair with a hole in the seat. A cardinal would have the task of putting his hand up the hole to check whether the pope hadtesticles, or doing a visual examination.[1] This procedure is not taken seriously by most historians, and there is no documented instance. It is probably a scurrilous legend based on the existence of two ancient stone chairs with holes in the seats that probably dated from Roman times and may have been used because of their ancient imperial origins. Their original purpose is obscure.
In a seventeenth-century study, Protestant historianDavid Blondel argued that 'Pope Joan' is a fictitious story. The story may well be a satire that came to be believed as reality. This view is generally accepted among historians.
According to theProphecy of the Popes, some interpretations hold that afterPope Benedict XVI, who abdicated on 28 February 2013,[2] there would be one pope left before the destruction of Rome. This individual was labeled by the prophecy as Petrus Romanus.
A series of manuscript prophecies concerning the Papacy.
It is sometimes claimed that there exists a collection of documents that directly refer toJesus, such as the execution order for Jesus signed byPontius Pilate, or were personally written by Jesus, explaining to his followers how to conduct the formation of the Catholic Church after his death, or even the exact date of his return to judge mankind. These documents are said to be a closely guarded secret of the Catholic Church, and supposedly are hidden in theVatican Secret Archives, or at past times in an underground vault ifNazi Germany would invade the Vatican.
However, there is no solid evidence for any of these claims; in history, only one document has ever been attributed to Jesus himself, theLetter of Christ and Abgarus.[3]Scholars generally believe that those letters were fabricated, probably in the 3rd century AD.[4]Even in ancient times,Augustine andJerome contended that Jesus wrote nothing at all during his life. The correspondence was rejected asapocryphal byPope Gelasius I and a Roman synod (c. 495).
Jewish legends related to the papacy include theJewish pope Andreas and also concerning thefate of the Menorah, which some, including former Israeli Minister of Religious AffairsShimon Shetreet, have believed is being held in secret by the Vatican,[5] and the idea of hidden Jewish manuscripts in theVatican Secret Archives.[6]
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