violin performances conspicuous in an age abounding with executive talent of the highest order.—G. A. M.
JOAN, Pope.—Marianus Scotus, a Scottish monk, who settled at Fulda in Saxony in 1085, and died at Mayence in 1086, wrote a Universal Chronicle, which comes down to 1083. In this Chronicle were found words to the following effect:—"Leo the pope died on the 1st of August. To him succeeded John, who, as is asserted, was a woman, and sat for two years, five months, and four days." On this slender foundation, the doubting record of an event supposed to have occurred two hundred years previously, was built the romantic fable of Pope Joan. The original story doubtless arose from the scandals known to have existed at the papal court in the early part of the tenth century, when the power and influence of the pontiffs were often exercised by their mistresses, one of whom raised her own son by Pope Sergius III. to the pontifical chair as John XI. The story of the popess was repeated by writer after writer, with augmentations. In the struggles of the Reformation it was wielded as an arm of offence against the presumed infallibility of the pope. The first printer of Marianus' Chronicle was John Herold of Basle, a Calvinist, and in his edition the passage referring to Joan appeared without the modifying words, "it is said." The controversy that ensued was fierce and long. Bale, the first protestant bishop of Ossory, a convert from Romanism, maintained the accuracy of the story which may be thus briefly stated. When Pope Leo IV. died in 855, the clergy and people of Rome having met to elect his successor, chose a young priest, a stranger in Rome, who had acquired an immense reputation for learning and virtue, and styled him John VIII. The supposed priest was in reality a young Englishwoman, daughter of an English missionary, who had been established at Fulda. Beautiful and talented, she had fascinated a monk of the convent at Fulda, who succeeded in inducing her to assume male attire and enter the convent as a brother. The guilty intercourse carried on by means of this disguise, became at length so dangerous as to force the lovers to fly. They wandered through Europe both learning and teaching, until at Athens, where they were studying Greek, the monk died. Joan made her way in time to Rome, and opened a school which soon became the resort of all lovers of learning. After her election the administration of Rome and the church was conducted with great ability, and the praise of John VIII. was universal. In the hour of her elevation, however, Joan fell again into the sin which had first tempted her; and heedless of the consequences, she was acting her part in a solemn religious procession on one of the rogation days when she was seized with the pains of labour at a spot lying between the church of St. Clement and the Coliseum, and to the horror of all present gave birth to a child in the open street. Both parent and child died. A statue was erected to preserve the infamy of the fact, and it was determined that the pontiff in procession should never again pass by the desecrated spot. This strange tale, which the protestants vehemently maintained because it damaged the catholic cause, was at length overthrown by a French protestant minister, named Blondel, who in the interests of truth published in 1647 an "Éclaircissement de la question." Despite the opposition of enraged partisans, his view of the falsity of the story supported by Bayle, Leibnitz, Eckhardt, and others, prevailed, and the mythical nature of the female pope is now generally admitted. A critical examination of the documents relative to the fable of Pope Joan, by A. Bianchi-Giovini, appeared in Italian in 1845.—R. H.
JOAN I., Queen of Naples, born in 1327, was the daughter of Charles, duke of Calabria, and of Mary of Valois. At the death of her father she was sixteen years of age. While quite young she had been married to Andrew of Hungary, to conciliate the interests of the two branches of the house of Anjou, both of which had claims on the throne of Naples. The marriage was unhappy and ended fatally. A conspiracy was formed against Andrew, and the queen is supposed to have approved its murderous intention. Andrew was hanged to the bar of a window, and Joan made no effort to bring the offenders to justice. At this period she was eighteen years of age, and contracted a second marriage with another relative, the prince of Tarentum. King Lewis of Hungary resolved to avenge the death of Andrew, and for that purpose led an army into Italy, and marched on Naples. Joan fled and took refuge in Avignon, where she was cited before Clement VI. to clear herself from participation in the murder. The town of Avignon belonged to the house of Anjou; and Joan, to conciliate the pope and probably to secure a dispensation for her second marriage, conveyed Avignon to Clement for eighty thousand florins. The Hungarian army being decimated by plague, Joan was reinstated in the throne, and at the age of thirty-six lost her second husband. She immediately took a third, the young prince of Majorca, who received the title of Prince of Calabria. On his death Joan married a fourth time, Otho of Brunswick being promoted to the vacant honour. She had no children, and the heir to the throne was Charles of Durazzo, who was favoured by Pope Urban. Pope Clement, however, persuaded Joan to name Louis, duke of Anjou as her heir. Charles invaded Naples, and captured both the queen and her husband. Otho was set at liberty; but Joan was placed in confinement and afterwards suffocated, 22nd May, 1382.—P. E. D.
JOAN II., Queen of Naples, born in 1370, was the daughter of Charles of Durazzo, king of Naples. She succeeded her brother Ladislas in 1414, at which period she was the widow of William of Austria, her first husband, by whom she had no children. During the lifetime of her husband she had carried on a secret intrigue with Count Pandolfello. On her accession the count was made grand chamberlain. By the advice of her council Joan married Jacques de Bourbon, count of La Marche; and not long after the marriage the bridegroom was made acquainted with the misconduct of the queen in her favouritism of Pandolfello. The latter was arrested, put to the torture, confessed, and was executed in the marketplace, while Joan was condemned to rigorous seclusion. A reconciliation afterwards took place, and Joan recovered her liberty, which she employed by turning the tables on her husband and sending him to prison. Jacques escaped, and, assuming the monastic garb, took refuge in the Franciscan convent of Besançon. The rest of her reign was troublous. In her old age she attempted to constitute Louis of Anjou her heir, but was unsuccessful, and the throne passed to Alfonso of Arragon. She died in 1435.—P. E. D.
JOAN of Arc, the heroic Maid of Orleans, was the daughter of Jacques D'Arc, or Darc, and of Isabean Romée his wife, villagers of Domremy on the borders of Lorraine, and was born in 1410 or 1411. She received the usual education of a peasant girl at that period, and was taught to spin and sew, and repeat her Paternoster and her Ave Maria, but not to read or to write. From her early years she was employed in tending the flocks of the villagers, and was distinguished only by her simplicity and kindness of heart, and her ardent piety. At that period the English had conquered the greater part of her native country. Even the remote village of Domremy did not wholly escape the dangers and privations of these evil times; and on one occasion Joan and her parents were compelled to seek shelter for a short time from the storm at a hostelry in Neufchâteau. The perilous condition of her native land produced a deep impression on the ardent and enthusiastic mind of Joan; and she now began to fancy that she saw visions of saints, and heard mysterious voices, declaring that the foreign invaders were to be expelled, and the independence of France established by her aid. The crisis which took place in the affairs of the country, when Orleans was invested by the earl of Salisbury, seems to have given a definite shape to these phantoms of Joan's brain. Joan announced that she was commissioned from heaven to relieve the city and to crown the dauphin at Rheims. With considerable difficulty, assisted by her uncle, whom she had convinced of the truth of her mission, she prevailed upon Robert de Baudricourt, governor pf the neighbouring town of Vaucouleurs, to send her in February, 1429, to the French court, which was then held at Chinon in the valley of the Loire, between Tours and Saumur, one hundred and fifty leagues distant. Escorted by the Sires de Metz and de Poulengy she reached the vicinity of Chinon, and with some difficulty obtained admission to the presence of Charles. After some conversation with the king and his courtiers, and a long examination before the university and parliament at Poitiers, the popular opinion was so strongly expressed in favour of the Maid that the royal counsellors were constrained, with considerable misgivings, to recommend that her services should be accepted. Her presence among the troops at Blois, and the fame of her supernatural powers had an extraordinary effect in raising the drooping spirits of the soldiers, and it was resolved immediately to make an attempt, under her direction, to throw two convoys of provisions into Orleans, which was now reduced to the utmost need. This difficult enterprise
