Book Review: Pope Joan by Donna Cross

• I was intrigued by Pope Joan, especially when I read that the book was based on a legend that is believed to be true: the Catholic church has purged all evidence of Pope Joan from its because of the embarrassing problem of having a female rise to the ranks of pope.
  
  Cross does a very good job of showing church history during a time that Europe was plagued by disease, famines, barbarian raids and many other violent things that made living difficult, education almost impossible, and women’s right a laughable circumstance. She tells the story of Joan who is the third child and only daughter of a Catholic missionary priest who married her mother even though she was a heathen, supposedly because of her beauty. Early on, Joan is torn between the literate world of the church that, though completely oppressive to her as a woman, opens doors to her intellect, and the “heathen” world of her mother where the gods are kind and instructive not vengeful. She eventually chooses to become educated and runs away from home when the opportunity presents itself for her to gain education at a monastery.
  
  The remainder of the book deals with Joan’s love of a man, her fascination with learning and reason, her pull to things masculine because they represented power, and the danger of being discovered for what she truly is. When her village is sacked by Vikings, Joan takes advantage of the situation and takes on the identity of her brother who was killed in the attack, becomes a monk and excels in the Catholic church to the point of being elected pope.
  
  I liked the book. It made me think about a lot of things—especially the world we have today where we take for granted education and women’s rights. I did find that the point when Joan “switches” gender to falter a little because Cross seems obligated to “prove” Joan’s existence and the fact that she could have been caught any number of times but somehow wasn’t. Overall, the book is successful and a highly recommended read.
  
  Some of the more compelling ideas explored in Pope Joan are
  
• the lack of rights for women—down to the basic lack of privacy or choice in spouse
  
• the use of superstition couched in religion as a means of “proving” innocence or guilt in all things from witchcraft to murder
  
• the class system which made it impossible for people to rise beyond the station they were born to
  
• education as a privilege—one which someone would give their life for.