Quis, quid, quomondo, ubi, quando, cur?Quis — siapa?Namanya Joan. Dilahirkan tahun 814 Masehi di Ingelheim (sekarang di wilayah Jerman). Putri satu-satunya seorang kanon (semacam pendeta atau imam) dari Inggris dan istrinya yang orang Saxon. Punya dua kakak laki-laki, Matthew dan John. Dari kecil sudah menampakkan kecerdasan dan keingintahuan yang luar biasa. Joan menderita siksaan fisik dari ayahnya gara-gara hal itu, tapi toh ia tidak mau berhenti belajar.Quid — apa?Perjuangan Joan, yang dengan karunia kecerdasan yang dimilikinya, menolak kenyataan yang terjadi pada masa itu bahwa perempuan tidak diperbolehkan untuk membaca dan menulis, apalagi belajar dan menguasai berbagai ilmu sebagaimana kaum laki-laki. Ditengah-tengah busuknya politik Kepausan Katolik Roma, ancaman Kaisar Lothar dari kerajaan Frank, ancaman wabah yang merajalela, dan juga serangan bangsa Viking, Joan menapaki langkah demi langkah menuju tahta tertinggi dalam Katolik Roma – Paus.Quomondo – bagaimana?Di satu titik Joan membuat suatu keputusan besar yang mengubah seluruh hidupnya – ia menyamar sebagai seorang laki-laki, sehingga ia bisa mempelajari banyak hal – sesuatu yang mustahil dilakukan seorang perempuan pada abad kesembilan. Keteguhannya untuk terus menjalani hidup sebagai laki-laki hampir tergoyahkan ketika ia jatuh cinta pada Gerold, seorang count yang menjadi ayah angkatnya di Dorstadt. Namun toh Joan tetap teguh melakukan apa yang menjadi hasratnya sampai nafasnya yang terakhir.Ubi – Di mana?Mengawali dengan bersekolah di Dorstadt oleh rujukan dari guru pertamanya, Aesculapius, seorang Yunani. Setelah lolos dari serangan brutal bangsa Viking di Dorstadt, Joan melarikan diri ke pertapaan di Fulda di mana ia menyamar sebagai laki-laki untuk pertama kalinya. Kemudian, setelah menghabiskan bertahun-tahun di Fulda, sebuah wabah demam nyaris membongkar penyamarannya sehingga ia kabur, dan akhirnya pergi ke Roma, menjadi tabib pribadi Paus Sergius, dan pada waktunya—ia sendiri yang diangkat menjadi Paus.Quando – kapan?Keseluruhan kisah berlangsung pada tahun 814 hingga 855 Masehi, yang termasuk dalam era Abad Kegelapan. Joan memerintah sebagai Paus pada tahun 853 hingga 855. Setelah Joan meninggal, Katolik Roma dibawah tulisan Anastasius menghapuskannya dari Liber pontificalis, yaitu kronik resmi seluruh Paus yang pernah ada. Empat puluh tahun setelah kematiannya, Uskup Agung Arnaldo menyalin Liber pontificalis dan menambahkan bab mengenai Joan ke dalamnya, sehingga kebenaran tidak sepenuhnya hilang.Cur – mengapa?Mengapa Joan sampai memilih meninggalkan identitas keperempuanannya? Karena ia punya impian, dan hasratnya terhadap impian tersebut demikian besarnya sehingga pengorbanan demi pengorbanan yang ia lakukan dirasanya setimpal. Mengapa lalu ia bisa sampai di tahta tertinggi Katolik Roma? Karena Joan mampu. Karena perempuan mampu, karena perempuan bukanlah makhluk yang bodoh dan lemah. Karena perempuan sejajar dengan laki-laki.***Pope Joan adalah sebuah novel yang lengkap. Sejarah, politik, perjuangan perempuan, agama, perang, cinta, pengorbanan, kemunafikan, kebrutalan manusia; semua terkandung di dalamnya. Sang pengarang, Donna Woolfolk Cross, menghimpun kisah ini dengan apik, tokoh-tokohnya terasa nyata dan emosinya dapet. Apalagi dengan alur cepat yang tidak membuat bosan. Walau di beberapa bagian emang sadis sih, terutama pas serangan bangsa Viking itu. Pope Joan versi film (2009) kurang mengesankan walaupun dari segi cast secara fisik sudah pas, setting juga bagus, tapi emosinya kurang terasa.Salut untuk pengarang yang menyelesaikan penulisan Pope Joan setelah melakukan riset selama tujuh tahun. Salut juga untuk F.X. Dono Sunardi sang penerjemah, karena menerjemahkan karya ini sudah pasti bukan pekerjaan gampang. Puasss banget melahap lebih dari 700 halaman novel ini, karena wawasan bertambah banyak, terutama tentang sejarah, seluk-beluk kepausan di Katolik Roma, dan beberapa kalimat dalam bahasa Latin… Juga bagian Catatan dari Pengarang sungguh-sungguh membantu dalam memahami kisah.Saran saya bagi penerbit yang hendak menerbitkan novel serupa: akan lebih nyaman kalau ada glossary di bagian belakang buku, terutama sih tentang berbagai istilah dan jabatan keagamaan yang tidak familiar bagi saya sehingga membuat saya jadi cukup bingung. Kalau sebatas catatan kaki, kan, kalau ketemu lagi dengan kata “X’, saya sudah lupa catatan kakinya ada di halaman berapa, hehehe.Jadi, apakah Paus Joan pernah ada? Setelah membaca buku ini rasanya saya percaya kalau beliau benar-benar pernah ada. Bagaimanapun, kisahnya menginspirasi para perempuan (dan juga laki-laki) untuk tidak menyerah dan berani berkorban dalam berusaha mencapai impian.Go for it, no matter what it takes! Empat bintang bagi kisah perempuan hebat yang nyaris terlupakan ini.Beberapa kutipan favorit: “Jika ingin dapat bertahan di dunia ini, kau harus bersikap lebih sabar dengan mereka yang ada di atasmu.” – hal. 179 “Sungguh aneh apa yang terjadi pada hati manusia. Orang dapat saja terus hidup selama bertahun-tahun, terbiasa kehilangan, serta berdamai dengannya, tetapi kemudian, dalam sekejap saja, rasa sakit itu muncul kembali bersama rasa pedih dan perih seperti luka yang masih baru.” – hal. 495 “Kita akan tetap berdoa seakan-akan semuanya bergantung kepada Tuhan dan terus bekerja seolah-olah segalanya tergantung pada diri kita sendiri.” – hal. 573 “Terangnya harapan yang dipantikkan oleh para perempuan tersebut hanya serupa kelap-kelip cahaya kecil di samudra kegelapan, tetapi nyalanya tidak pernah sepenuhnya padam. Kesempatan selalu ada dan tersedia bagi kaum perempuan yang cukup kuat untuk bermimpi. Pope Joan adalah kisah dari salah satu pemimpi itu.” – hal. 732.Catatan: “Quis, quid, quomondo, ubi, quando, cur?” tidak lain adalah 5W+1H (Who, what, when, where, why, how) yang konsep awalnya dirumuskan oleh filsuf Romawi Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 SM).@melmarianhttp://surgabukuku.wordpress.com
Whenever you see a legend, you can be sure, if you go to the very bottom of things, that you will find history. Vallet de VirivilleJoan Anglicus is a frustrated young girl. The brightest and most scholarly of all her siblings, she is often denied the chance to learn because of her sex. The Dark Ages were a time when womens brains were thought to be smaller than a man's and only needed for child bearing. Why teach a girl to read and write? Joan cannot accept this. She runs away with her older brother, and after he is killed in a Viking attack, she disguises herself and assumes his identity at a Benedictine monastery. As Brother John Anglicus, she is sought out for her great healing abilities and religious intellect, until eventually she is elevated to the highest throne in the world at the time, the papacy. The story of Pope Joan, a woman who lived disguised as a man and rose to become pope of the Church in the ninth century, is one of the most fascinating in Western history, and one of the least known. Most that have heard of her regard her story as a legend contrived by Protestant reformers, or so the Catholic Church would have you believe, not at all based on facts. But as Viriville said, legend and history are often one in the same. Even though much is not known of the Dark Ages, Woolfolk Cross has done her homework here. This book is well-researched and well-written. I was completely sucked in and had a hard time putting it down. I found the history fascinating. These troubled times were especially difficult for women - as they still are today in some countries. They had no property rights, no opportunity for education. They could be beaten and raped by their husbands at will. So it seems completely logical that a woman would chose to disguise herself as a man. She certainly wouldn’t have been the only woman in history to do so.So why deny she existed at all? Extreme mortification of course, that a woman could deceive so many. History provides many examples of the deliberate falsification of records to suit the masses. But what of the proof? What of the so-called chair exam, where each candidate was examined to prove his manhood as part of the medieval papal conservation ceremony for almost six centuries? What of the “shunned street” in Rome on which Joan reportedly “John Anglicus gave birth to a child…” Even with these facts, given the confusion of the ninth century, it is impossible to know for sure if she existed. We may never know if there really was a Pope Joan. True or not, I sure had a good time reading about it though. An excellent book.
Do You like book Pope Joan (2009)?
well....this was quite an interesting novel. at moments it teetered into a bit too much soap opera territory, so that took away from the story for me. but overall, very interesting. it made me think of ken follett a bit, but was not as engaging as his historical fiction has been for me. i appreciated, very much, the afterword by the author for this updated edition of the book. she addresses her research for the novel and the effort to get the details of the time correct. she even gives thanks to readers who wrote in voicing concerns over certain plot points. in some instances, though historically accurate, cross altered a detail here or there. cross also uses the afterword to address the existence of pope joan and the efforts by the catholic church to remove her from their history. while i was reading, i kept imagining the stress that would go with hiding one's gender. i was also, once again, sad to be reminded of the brutality and violence of our history, especially violence enacted in the name of god. i have never understood that.the novel has made me more interested in seeking out nonfiction works about pope joan.
—Jennifer D
Pope Joan is a figure I was aware of but knew next to nothing about, her existence is surrounded by mystery and so she seems the ideal figure to write a historical fiction novel about. Author Donna Woolfolk Cross writes an interesting tale about what could have been a young girl's life in that time.Daughter of a canon who values women little and definitely finds them unworthy of an education her Joan has to struggle from early on to pursue her studies. Luckily she finds a monk willing to help her learn and who eventually will lead to her being accepted at a school. Much brighter and intelligent than her brother, Joan stands out as a student and eventually develops an attachment to Gerolt, the nobleman in whose house she leaves in. But Gerolt leaves and the village is attacked by Norsemen.To survive Joan disguises herself as her dead brother and becomes John. As a man she is more easily accepted and continues her studies at the Fulda monastery and later travels to Rome where she is known as a dedicated scholar and a celebrated healer. Her fame is such that she is called to attend the Pope and so enters the Vatican's sphere of influence. There she will understand the politics behind the scenes and she will meet Gerolt again.The story is very easy to read and proceeds at good pace. However I did feel that Joan, as a character, was a bit too perfect to be totally believable. Not only that but some things seem to happen too easily or too coincidentally. I suppose I would have liked to see more of her thought process and she having to work more to get where she ended up. She does have some painful decisions to make regarding her relationship with Gerolt but everything else seemed to fall into place quite easily. I did enjoy learning about the politics behind the throne, the same as in every other kingdom, and was surprised to learn about the power of the people in the election of the Pope.History is full of possibilities and this was certainly an intriguing story that kept me interested till the end. Thank you so much to the author for sending me the book.Grade: 4/5
—Ana T.
All in all I would say this book was an enjoyable read and there were some things about it which I found to be interesting. I did like the way in which this book explored the lives of women living in this time period and particularly explored the challenges and struggles of those women who did want to break the mold and wanted more for their lives than what was expected of them and what was allowed to them. But there were some issues I had with the book. One of my biggest complaints about the book is characterization. I felt the characters really lacked complexity and depth and were not very well developed. Most of the characters throughout the book are pigeonholed as either obvious good guys or obvious bad guys. They are all very black and white and one dimensional. Joan herself presented a rather frustrating character, for one thing it did not seem as if she ever really grew or developed as the story continued but from the start to the end she remained the same never matured or seem to learn from any of her experiences and so she always acted the same she did as a child in spite of her alleged wisdom and intelligence. The other thing which bothered me was that while it seemed that the author was trying to portray Joan as being divinely chosen for her role as Pope in which throughout the book some miraculously event would always occur just in time to assist and save Joan from impending dissector. While there is no denying that Joan was gifted and uncommonly intelligent the author made it seem more as if Joan became Pope through shear luck and not because of her own accomplishments and abilities. Joan's lack of common sense, lack of ambition made her come off as not truly having been able to achieve her goals in life through her own cleverness and ability but it was always some outside force that intervened and pushed her forward in life, and without these many convenient acts of chance Joan would not have been able to achieve such accomplishment. In this way the author does detract from remarkable person Joan was supposed to be for in spite of trying to create a portrait of a strong woman it did make her seem almost passive in directing her own fate.
—Silver
