Has the ever been a female pope in the past?

Question:My father who loves to read newspapers and books read in an article that hundreds of years ago like in the 1800's there was a female pope because supposably she was man but while she was out in mass, they found out that she had her period!Is this true?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My father who loves to read newspapers and books read in an article that hundreds of years ago like in the 1800's there was a female pope because supposably she was man but while she was out in mass, they found out that she had her period!Is this true?

The first who appears to have had cognizance of it was the Dominican chronicler Jean de Mailly (Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichte, xii, 17 sq., 469 sq.) from whom another Dominican, Etienne de Bourbon (d. 1261), adopted the tale into his work on the "Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost."

In this account the alleged popess is placed about the year 1100, and no name is yet assigned her. The story runs that a very talented woman, dressed as a man, became notary to the Curia, then cardinal and finally pope; that one day this person went out on horseback, and on this occasion gave birth to a son; that she was then bound to the tail of a horse, dragged round the city, stoned to death by the mob, and was buried at the place where she died; and that an inscription was put up there as follows: "Petre pater patrum papissae prodito partum". In her reign, the story adds, the Ember days were introduced, called therefore the "fasts of the popess".

gatita_63109

Read this:

en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encycl...

A legend,

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a female pope.

Not in the 1800`s at least. The church doesn`t admit it, but it seems that it happened in the Middle Ages or before. That`s why in the ceremony of the coronation of a new pope, somebody touches between his legs to feel there are testicles there.
maurituchi@yahoo.com

Allegedly Pope Joan, but it's likely to be a legend.

"The earliest reference to a popess can be found in the 11th century writing of Martinus Scotus, a monk from the Abbey of St. Martin of Cologne:

“In AD 854, Lotharii 14, Joanna, a woman, succeeded Leo, and reigned two years, five months, and four days.”"
http://atheism.about.com/od/popesandthep...

Yes, but not hundred of years ago, more like a thousand years.

Pope Joan but it's just a legend, I don't think anyone can prove it and I'm sure the vatican would deny it.

No. There was never a female pope.