Pope Joan

Pope Joan is a 1996 novel by American writer Donna Woolfolk Cross. It is based on the medieval legend of Pope Joan. For the most part this novel is the story of a young woman, whose desire to gain more knowledge compels her to dress up as a man, who (due to events beyond her control) eventually rises to become the pope. The novel has been adapted into a film, Pope Joan, released in 2009. Plot Joan, the daughter of a priest and his Saxon wife, is born in 814 as the last of three children. When he discovers that Joan has learned to read, her father calls her “child of the devil” and blames the illness and death of his oldest son, Matthew, on her as a punishment. When the middle child, John, is sent away to school, Joan goes with him and is reluctantly accepted as well due to her brilliance. As she cannot live with the other male students, she is sent to live with a knight, Gerold, and his family while she attends the school. Joan and Gerold soon fall in love. Although he remains faithful to his wife, she resents Joan and seizes an opportunity to force her into marriage at age 14. However, the ceremony is interrupted by Viking invaders. Joan narrowly escapes the attack, but her brother John is killed. She then decides to dress as a young man and joins the monastery at Fulda in her brother's place. There she becomes a skilled physician and is ordained as a priest. Her father visits her in Fulda, believing her to be John. When he discovers who she is, he dies of a stroke before he can expose her. When the plague comes to Fulda, Joan sickens. Afraid that they will discover that she is a woman, she flees and finds refuge with a family she once helped.