Sedes Stercoraria is a chair with a rather large hole cut into its seat.
Sedes comes from the Latin for 'seat' (as with sede vacante) while Stercoraria can be best interpreted as having to do with the posterior. A picture of a Sedes Stercoraria shown at this link clearly illustrates why one would call this a 'posterior related seat.'
It is said that popes, c. 11th century, upon being elected had to sit on a Sedes Stercoraria so that their masculinity could be verified. That Sedes Stercoraria did exist is not in debate. The Vatican Museum and the Parisian Lourve are both claimed to have extant examples from Rome's St. John Lateran, then, and even now, the official cathedral of the Pope.
Sedes Stercoraria is seen by some as validating the claim that there had been a female pope, viz. 'Pope Joan.' The way they see it, a Sedes Stercoraria was needed to preclude the possibility of another female from becoming pope.
I do not believe that there was a 'Pope Joan.' I say so, without demur, on page 82 of my "Popes and the Tale of Their Names" book. I have not been able to find a credible gap in the documented series of 9th century papacies to justify her presence, nor any pope or antipope named 'John' that could have been female.
Yesterday while responding to an e-mail about 'Pope Joan' and the Sedes Stercoraria it suddenly dawned on me that there is indeed a very plausible explanation as to why a Sedes Stercoraria may have been used.
If it was indeed used, it was to check for masculinity not in the context of gender -- but in the context of 'intactness.'
The First Council of Nicaea [Turkey], in 325, the very first of the ecumenical councils, was convoked by Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337), the liberator of Christianity, who even attended some of the sessions. The primary goal of this council, which was attended by 1,800 bishops, was to satisfactorily resolve the 'Arian controversy;' i.e. the exact nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son. In addition to formulating the Nicene Creed, that codified the faith and rebuked Arianism, this Council also implemented twenty new canon laws. The very first of these was the prohibition of self-castration!
Castration would appear to debar one from being a priest. This may have been a custom inherited from the very early days of Judaism.
Mutilation of rivals to impede them from performing certain functions was a somewhat prevalent trait during the Middle Ages. Pope Leo III (795-816), for example, was viscously attacked four years after his unanimous election. Among other atrocities, they tried to cut off his tongue so that he would not be able to conduct his duties as pope.
Against such a backdrop one could understand why there might have been a desire to make sure that a pope-elect had not been previously mutilated.
So, I think, that the Sedes Stercoraria, if used, had nothing to do with the ascertaining of gender. Instead, it was probably a means to establish that a pope-elect was 'unaltered.'
Thank You.
