After the return of papal delegation to Rome, Pope John
sent the cardinal deacon Marinus, a highly regarded figure, to request Bulgaria
from Basil once again. Basil, angered at the pope and at his envoy, refused to
receive him. Marinus, while in Constantinople, spoke disrespectfully about
Basil, which led to his imprisonment for a month. This incarceration seemingly tempered
Marinus’ behavior, at least until he left the imperial Roman territory. He
vented his animosity toward the Easterners even on Pope John himself, as it
appears.
John VIII had succeeded Hadrian II in 872, having
previously been his cardinal archdeacon. Already elderly at his appointment,
much like his predecessor, he remained pope until 882, when he was
assassinated. He was found in his chamber, poisoned and brutally hacked to
death with an axe. Official reports claimed that he was greedy and hoarded a
personal treasure, and that some criminal close relatives of his poisoned him
in order to seize this wealth, but when he did not die quickly enough, they
feared less they be caught and thus resorted to using an axe to kill him.
Marinus then became Pope of Rome (882-4), possessing the capabilities of
Nicholas I and harboring intense hostility against Photius, Basil, and the
East. Preparing to condemn Photius once again, he died suddenly and relatively
young, two years after his appointment. His successors, Hadrian III (884-5) and
Steven V (885-891) shared his sentiments but lacked his competence; therefore,
they criticized Photius and asserted their papal primacy in words only but in
vain.
Only about twenty years after the death of John VIII, in
the West there emerged the myth that there was once in Rome a Popess Joan. By
the mid-thirteenth century, there were tens of fictional tales written about
her; their number had risen to the hundreds by the time of the Greek E. Roidis,
who wrote a novel on the topic himself. Even our own Dositheus of Jerusalem
accepted the existence of “Pope Joan,” called “Gilberte,” in the world,
claiming that this “Lady Gilberte,” “an Englishwoman” in nationality, “served
as pope for two years, five months, and four days” after Leo IV, that is, from
855 to 857; that she “was impregnated by a certain servant of hers,” gave birth
during a profession, and died on the spot; and that the serious ancient
historians do not mention her because, as a pope, she was entirely
illegitimate.” (Dositheus of Jerusalem, Dodecabiblus [History of the
Patriarchs of Jerusalem], 7,12,1-7) Serious modern papal researchers hold
four different views:
1.
That she indeed existed after Leo IV and is
identified as John VIII, in which case the John contemporary with Photius is
counted as John IX, not John VIII.
2.
That she was actually John VIII himself, Photius’
contemporary, who was a woman hiding her true identity.
3.
That Pope Joan never existed and the tale is
entirely fictional legend.
4.
That Pope Joan never existed and the myth
originated from insults hurled at John VIII by his associates and successors,
who called him “woman” because he allegedly submitted to Photius like a woman.
I believe the fourth view to be correct. Initially, “woman”
was a mere insult most likely hurled at John VIII first by the harsh and
intransigent cardinal deacon Marinus, who later succeeded him, and then by all
the falcons of intransigence in the Vatican court. I later became a jest,
similar to the story of the tyrant of Ambracia, Periander, mentioned by Aristotle,
(Republic 5,10 [1311b]) and through this, John was slandered as
effeminate. Finally, it evolved into a myth and a legend, in which he was imagined
to be a woman by nature. Now, I think that two additional elements also
contributed to the formation of this myth. First, the fact that the mistress of
the formally and significant behind-the-scences influence on the administration
of the Western Church, which inevitably became exaggerated among the people.
Second, that some popes of the West at that time were homosexual. A mixture,
falsification, and exaggeration of these three elements produced the myth. The myth,
however, also expresses a truth: how much Photius and the Eight Ecumenical Council
were hated in the West from the beginning. (Constantine Siamakis, “Introduction:
The Eight Ecumenical Council and the Related Correspondence of Photius,” in The
Acts of the Eighth Ecumenical Council [Uncut Mountain Press, 2025], 56-58)
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