Louvre

"Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" is a Latin phrase that can be translated as "He has testicles and they hang well." This would be said to confirm that a Catholic cleric is a healthy man.

In the 17th-century engraving, you can see the consecration of Pope Innocent X where this was checked.

This tradition is said to have begun in the 9th century, after Pope Joan.

To check the testicles, a chair with a seat that had an opening in the shape of a horseshoe, the sedia stercoraria, would have been used. Such a chair is also used for defecation. The person being checked would sit on it, after which one or more other clerics would perform the check. This practice has fallen into disuse,[1] reportedly abolished by Pope Adrian VI.

At least two of these types of chairs have been preserved, one in the Vatican Museum, the other in the Louvre.

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