Pope Joan

Pope Joan or Pope, a once popular Victorian family game, is an 18th-century English round game of cards for three to eight players derived from the French game of Matrimony and Comete and ancestor to Spinado and the less elaborate Newmarket. The game is related to the German Poch and French Nain Jaune. Although its first published rules appeared in Hoyle's Games edition of 1814, an earlier reference to the game, originally called Pope Julius, appeared in The Oxford English Dictionary in 1732. Etymology The name is a corruption of "nain jaune" (yellow dwarf), the name of in France where the game originated. Pope Joan refers to the legend that Pope John VIII was actually a woman. As the Catholic Church denies a female pope, the legend was used as Protestant propaganda in the Victorian era, which also explains the popularity of the game in Scotland. The is sometimes called the Curse of Scotland. Setup