JOAN, POPE, called by Platina John VIII. is said to have held the holy see between Leo IV. who died in 835, and Benedict III. who died in 838. Marianus Scotus says, the six years five months and four days. Numberless have been the controversies, fables, and conjectures, relating to this pope. It is said that a German girl, pretending to be a man, went to Athens, where she made great progress in the sciences; and afterward came to Rome in the same habit. As she had a quick genius, and spoke with a good grace in the public disputations and lectures, her great learning was admired, and every one loved her extremely; so that after the death of Leo, she was chosen pope, and performed all offices as such. Whilst she was in possession of this high dignity, she was got with child; and as she was going in a solemn procession to the Lateran church, she was delivered of that child, between the Coliseum and St Clement's church, in a most public street, before a crowd of people, and died on the spot, in 857. By way of embellishing this story, may be added the precaution reported to have been afterward taken to avoid such another accident. After the election of a pope, he was placed on a chair with an open seat, called the groping chair, when a deacon came most devoutly behind and satisfied himself of the pontiff's sex by feeling. This precaution, however, has been long deemed unnecessary, because the cardinals, it is alleged, take care to become fathers before they arrive at the pontificate.