"standing here which shall not taste of death till " 66 6 they see the kingdom of God,' condensed into the myth of the Wandering Jew." He gives the following "jingling record" of the Papess, which is worth re-quoting. It is a fragment of the rhythmical Vita Pontificum of Gulielmus Jacobus of Egmonden, preserved in Wolfii Lectionum Memorabilium centenarii, XVI. : "Priusquam reconditur Sergius, vocatur The literature on the subject is abundant. The arguments of those who maintain the truth of the story are collected and stated by Frederick Spanheim in his Exercit. de Papa Fæmina (Opp., tom. ii., p. 577), and L'Enfant has given a French translation and better arrangement of them, with additions: Histoire de la Papesse Jeanne, La Haye, 1736; two vols. 12mo. The arguments against the myth are given in Blondel's famous treatise, Familier éclaircissement de 1 Baring-Gould, in his Curious Myths, etc., has the following statement in respect to this work of Blondel: "[Blondel, the great Protestant writer, who ruined the case of the Decretals, says that he examined a MS. of Anastasius in the Royal Library at Paris, and found the story of Pope Joan inserted in such a manner as to convince him that it was a late interpolation. He says, Having read and re-read it, I found that the culogium of the pretended Papess is taken from the words of Martinus Polonus penitentiary to Innocent IV., and Archbishop of Cosenza, an author four hundred years later than Anastasius and much more given to all these kinds of fables.' His reasons for so thinking are, that the style is not that of the Librarian, but similar to that of Martin Polonus; also that the insertion interferes with the text of the chronicle, and bears evidence of clumsy piccing. "In the eulogiums of Leo IV. and Benedict III., as given to us in the manuscrip: of the Bibliothèque Royale, swelled with the romance of the Papess, the same expressions occur as in the Mayence edition; whence it follows that (according to the intention of Anastasius, violated by the rashness of those who have mingled it with their idle dreams) it is absolutely impossible that any one could have been Pope between Leo IV. and Benedict III., for he says: After the Prelate Leo was withdrawn from this world, at once (mox) all the clergy, the nobles, and people of Rome hastened to elect Benedict; and at once (illico) they sought him, praying in the titular church of St. Callixtus, and la question, si une femme a été assise au siége papal de Rome, Amsterdam, 1647-9; in Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique, article Papesse. See also Allatii Confutatio Fabulæ de Johanna Papissa, Colon., 1645; George Eccard, Historia Francia Oriental, tom. ii., lib. xxx., § 119; Michael Lequien, Oriens Christianus, iii., p. 777; Chr. Aug. Heumann, a Lutheran writer, Sylloge Diss. Sacrar., tom. i., pt. ii., p. 352; J. G. Schelhorn, Amanitates Literar., i., p. 146; Jac. Basnage, Histoire de l'Eglise, i., p. 408; Schroeckh, Kirchengeschichte, xxii., p. 75-110; J. E. C. Schmidt, Kirchengeschichte, iv., p. 274-279; A. Bower's Lives of the Popes, iv., p. 246-260. having seated him on the pontifical throne, and signed the decree of his election, they sent him to the very invincible Augusti Lothair and Louis, and the first of these died on 29 September, 855, just seventy-four days after the death of Pope Leo." Pp. 179-181. H. B. S.] APPENDIX C. THE story of Popiel, king of Poland, which is so similar to that of Bishop Hatto of Mayence, is thus given by Mr. Baring-Gould -" Martinus Gallus, "who wrote in 1110, says that King Popiel, having "been driven from his kingdom, was so tormented "by mice, that he fled to an island whereon was "a wooden tower, in which he took refuge; but the host of mice and rats swam over and ate him 66 up. The story is told more fully by Majolus (Dierum Canic., p. 793). When the Poles mur"mured at the bad government of the king, and sought redress, Popiel summoned the chief murmurers to his palace, where he pretended that he was ill, and then poisoned them. After this the "corpses were flung by his orders into the lake. 66 Gopolo. Then the king held a banquet of rejoicing "at having freed himself from these troublesome "complainers. But during the feast, by a strange " metamorphosis (mira quadam metamorphosi), an enormous number of mice issued from the bodies of "his poisoned subjects, and rushing on the palace, "attacked the king and his family. Popiel took "refuge within a circle of fire, but the mice broke "through the flaming ring; then he fled with his wife "and child to a castle in the sea, but was followed by "the animals and devoured." He also gives other stories, more or less parallel to that of Bishop Hatto; for instance, the one of Freiherr von Güttingen. This baron is said to have possessed three castles between Constance and Arbon, in the canton of Thurgau, namely, Güttingen, Moosburg, and Oberburg. During a grievous famine he collected the poor on his lands together, shut them up in a barn, and burnt them, mocking their shrieks by exclaiming, "Hark how the rats "and mice are squeaking!" Not long after a huge swarm of mice came down upon him. He fled to his castle of Güttingen, which stood in the lake of Constance; but the mice swam after him and devoured him. The castle then sank into the lake, where it may still be seen when the water is clear and the surface unruffled (Zeitschrift für Deutsche Mythologie, iii., p. 307). Again, there is a mousetower at Holzölster, in Austria, with a very similar legend attached, except that here the wicked nobleman locks the poor people up in a dungeon and starves them to death, instead of making a bonfire of them (Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 328). Another instance is referred to by Dr. Döllinger in the text. |