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Don't know about a chariot as such, but one of the many Urban Myths that always amused me about the Vatican, is the one where the Pope has to sit, underwearless, on a special chair with a hole in it so someone below can ensure he is in fact not a she.
I suppose this is so they can avoid another Pope Joan, the only female to hold the title and who they only found out about when she gave birth in an alley. And I believe she is supposed to be a myth as well.[?]
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Ah yes - Pope Joan. Very funny description in Top Girls (play by Caryl Churchill).
Oh i do hope it is true (:
Ian
http://www.getatrowel.co.uk - trowels for archaeological excavators
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Sadly for feminists, Pope Joan is clearly a myth, its fullest form was written down by Martin of Opava (Martin Polonus), "Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatum" in the 13th century (so several hundred years after she was supposed to be Pontiff). One version has it that the story was invented as anti-Roman propaganda by Constantinople in the time of Photius.
They've got a "few" Roman bits and bobs thouggh, apart from the art, there's the tip of the Spear of Longinus which purports to be tha which pierced Christ's side. Whether or not the vaytican bit is ffrom the one found by the Crusaders at Antioch is unclear, but its got a better chance than the one now in Vienna (aka "the Spear of Destiny").
