Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/187

 Huic erat amasius, ut scriptores credunt. Patria relinquitur Moguntia, Græcorum Studiosè petitur schola. Pòst doctorum Hæc doctrix efficitur Romæ legens: horum Hæc auditu fungitur loquens. Hinc prostrato Summo hæc eligitur: sexu exaltato Quandoque negligitur. Fatur quòd hæc nato Per servum conficitur. Tempore gignendi Ad processum equus scanditur, vice flendi, Papa cadit, panditur improbis ridendi Norma, puer nascitur in vico Clementis, Colossœum jungitur. Corpus parentis In eodem traditur sepulturæ gentis, Faturque scriptoribus, quòd Papa præfato, Vico senioribus transiens amato Congruo ductoribus sequitur negato Loco, quo Ecclesia partu denigratur, Quamvis inter spacia Pontificum ponatur, Propter sexum.”

Stephen Blanch, in his “Urbis Romæ Mirabilia,” says that an angel of heaven appeared to Joan before the event, and asked her to choose whether she should prefer burning eternally in hell, or having her confinement in public; with sense which does her credit, she chose the latter. The Protestant writers were not satisfied that the father of the unhappy baby should have been a servant: some made him a Cardinal, and others the devil himself. According to an eminent Dutch minister, it is immaterial whether the child be fathered on Satan or a monk: at all events, the former took a