medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Fellow List Members,
I am in the midst of reading an historical novel by Donna Cross about the
life (legend?) of the only female pope, Pope Joan, in the Ninth Century.
The cover reproduces a photograph of the _stella [sic] stercoraria_ (from
Cesare D'Onofro's _La Papessa Giovanna_) which, insofar as I have been able
to discern, is a latrine-line chair with a hole in the bottom, located in
St. John Lateran from the 10th-16th centuries, on which new popes had to
sit, and beneath which the lowest cleric reached his hand to verify the
pope to be a man.
Two questions, one of language, the other of Church history. First, is the
phrase _stella stercoraria_ a corruption? I have seen _sella stercoraria_
and _sedia stercoraria_; but, while I was aware of the Dog Star, Dung Star
is a new one on me<g>.
Second, is there any accepted consensus on the actual use of this chair?
The only reference to "stercoraria" I was able to find in the on-line
Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, seems implicitly to disclaim it. That
entry states that "[t]he _stercoraria_, or red marble throne on which the
popes sat" derives it name from the anthem _De stercore erigeus pauperem_
sung during the ceremony of papal enthronement.
--Christopher
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