# "Habet duos testiculos et bene pendentes"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 7, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878 "2000-01-07T01:11:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dlv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlv)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/1 "2000-01-07T01:11:00Z")
I have come across a web page ([http://www.zetetique.ldh.org/papesse.html](http://www.zetetique.ldh.org/papesse.html) - in French) that makes some very interesting claims about the procedure for electing the Pope. I’m very curious about two things:
1. Is this true or UL? (I mean the part about the stool, not the girl Pope.)
2. If it’s true, is it still a part of the procedure? Did the current Pope have to do it?
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/2 "2000-01-07T01:43:00Z")
1. Stool? Girl?
2. Procedure?
Peace,
mangeorge
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Wow, 00, I made it! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/3 "2000-01-07T01:57:00Z")
Well, my French is not all it could be. But for the benefit of those less able than I (vanishingly few, no doubt) the gist of the posted link is a re-telling of the discredited “Pope Joan” legend followed by a story about how, subsequent to the Pope Joan debacle, a custom developed that required newly elected Popes to submit to an examination of their genitals, facilitated through a seat with a small opening for this purposes. Upon the deacon charged with the task finding the normal male equipment present, he (the deacon) would supposedly announce the subject line, “Habet duos testiculos et bene pendentes” (“He has two testicles and they hang well”) which demonstrated the new Pontiff’s eligibility.
If I have mistranslated anything, please correct me.
So far as I am aware, this ‘custom’ never existed, and like the Pope Joan legend (see [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_139.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_139.html) for Cecil’s take on Pope Joan), is simply false.
I don’t have any actual knowledge of the story, though, so my belief is based simply on the general absurdity of the legend. I’d be interested in hearing any solid information one way or the other.
- Rick
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### Author:  [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/4 "2000-01-07T02:44:00Z")
Geez, dlv, way to just assume we’re all fluent _en francais_
Anyway, [urbanlegends.com](http://urbanlegends.com) has tons of stuff on the Pope Joan UL too. There it claims that she was found out “upon giving birth during a papal procession to the Lateran Church.” There are few takes on the UL [here](http://www.urbanlegends.com/select.cgi?target=religion%2Findex.html).
[One](http://www.urbanlegends.com/religion/pope_joan_con.html) of which describes how the “genital exam” UL may have gotten started:
> [@](#):
>
> Further it was noticed that, on the occasion of his formal inauguration in front of the Lateran Basilica, the newly-elected pope always seated himself on a marble chair. This seat was an ancient bath-stool, of which there were many in Rome; it was merely made use of by the pope to rest himself. But the imagination of the vulgar took this to signify that the sex of the pope was thereby tested, in order to prevent any further instance of a woman attaining to the Chair of St. Peter.
The Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the [“Popess Joan fable”](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08407a.htm) also has no mention of a gential exam.
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### Author:  [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/5 "2000-01-07T02:47:00Z")
_Sacre bleu!_
[Several links debunking Pope Joan](http://www.urbanlegends.com/select.cgi?target=religion%2Findex.html)
[The specific link from which I got the quote](http://www.urbanlegends.com/religion/pope_joan_con.html)
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### Author:  [@dlv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlv)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/6 "2000-01-07T03:07:00Z")
I’m sorry I don’t know of an English-language version of the page. You could try [http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate?urltext=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ezetetique%2eldh.org%2fpapesse%2ehtml&language=fr](http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate?urltext=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ezetetique%2eldh.org%2fpapesse%2ehtml&language=fr)
I was asking about the scrotal exam, not the girl Pope. The page says it’s a legend.
The web page I cited has a picture of what purports to be the chair with the hole in it.
I’m not surprised that the Catholic Encyclopedia says nothing about it.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/7 "2000-01-07T03:20:00Z")
As I recall, the Seat of Peter (basically the Pope’s throne) was originally liberated from a Roman bath. As it was a commode in its first life, it has a hole in the seat, upholstered over now of course.
## But it was never used as an examination chair.
Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan
Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University
“You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reach through reason.”
note: Anyone sending me email please indicate the SDMB in the subject line. I delete everything that smells like spam without review.
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### Author:  [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/8 "2000-01-07T03:21:00Z")
And I answered the scrotal exam part. I only mentioned the Pope Joan links to show how she was discovered to be female.
Geez. No need to get teste…
::rimshot::
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### Author:  [@Jorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/habet-duos-testiculos-et-bene-pendentes/5878/9 "2000-01-07T10:38:00Z")
Conversely: _Quant venet sacerdotum, tenet vostrum ballorum._