May I recommend "Pope Joan", written by Donna Woolfolk Cross?
An excellent view, even if fictionalized, into that era.
Her research is excellent, as is her wordsmithing.
Pope Joan is the pope the RC church has been covering up for centuries, andstill deny her existence, no matter the historical data.
Wasn't she put to death when they found out she was a woman?
Another weird thing that came out in the "Lucrezia Borgia" book that I had never heard of was "nun collecting." The aristocracy often collected nuns, especially enjoying the nuns with stigmata. The nobles would often have sex with nuns as well.
Anal sex was considered illegal and one could be put to death for it. There was a story that a noble had talked one of his collected nuns into having anal sex in a bath. They fell beneath the water and almost drowned.
No, according to "legend", and there is usually some truth to "legends" and "myths", there was a pregnancy and she died in childbirth.
Xtians usually have some sort of weird sexual thing going on.
One must, I think, also understand that the church controlled history in as much as only they had the ability to record events.
Although there were also a very few who were not under the thumb of Rome.
And in there are these kernels of truth.
Just as the history taught in schools today, it isn't accurate.
He who wields the pen, also molds the history.
And the victor writes the history.
One reason it is so important to keep our oral histories alive while we can, and record them accurately.
"Pope Joan" was a good read!
Commenting by HaloScan
