First Woman Pope

Are you aware of Pope Jane? Yup, there was a woman pope. True story. She was killed by her followers when she gave birth during the papal procession. Apparently they thought she was possessed by a demon.

Apparently she was an orphan that got into a monastery and kept her gender hidden through all the years. According to the research that I read, she was a pretty good pope until that little incident of pregnancy.

Two things happened after she was torn limb to limb. The papal procession changed it's route for a few hundred years. The other was the popes chair was created. It is a chair with a hole in it. The new pope would sit in it commando while another cardinal would reach under and determine if the new pope was indeed a man. Unfortunately I don't know the Latin, but the saying was: "The Pope is a man." I understand that the pope's chair is now out of use

wiki/Pope_Joan