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Cadaver Synod: Trial of a Dead Pope

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We’ve all been angry. Furious even. Seeing the focus of our anger get what they deserve is amazing. But I’ve never wanted to dig up my rival and put them on trial.

That’s what Pope Stephen VI did. He exhumed the corpse of Pope Formosus and had his rotten corpse tried for perjury.

Pope Formosus

Formosus was Pope between 6th October 891 and 4th of April 896. Formosus was worried about the aggressive nature of Guy III, the Emperor. In 892, Formosus had reluctantly crowned Lambert, Guy’s son, to rule alongside his father.

Not liking the ruler or his son, Formosus formulated a plan. In 893, He sent an invite to Arnulf of Carinthia to invade and claim the crown. Arnulf sent his son to invade, which he duly did but had to retreat due to illness in his troops.

Guy III died soon after, leaving his son Lambert as sole ruler. This was not good enough for Formosus. He again pleaded with Arnulf to take the crown. Arnulf crossed the alps in 896, entered Rome and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

Formosus had won. Or not, as it turned out. Both he and Arnulf died within months. Leaving Lambert to retake his crown.

That should have been it for Formosus. A short but interesting footnote of history.

Trial of a dead Pope

At the start of the year 897, Pope Stephen VI (Formosus successors, successor) ordered that the corpse of Formosus be exhumed and brought to the Papal court for judgement. The corpse was sat at a throne and a deacon was appointed to answer for him.

Jean-Paul Laurens, Le Pape Formose et Étienne VII (“Pope Formosus and Stephen VII”), 1870

Accused of perjury and serving as a bishop while a layman (amongst other things) the trial was nothing more than a perverse spectacle. Unsurprisingly, Formosus was found guilty.

In punishment, he was stripped of his Papacy, his three fingers of his right hand (used for blessings in life) were cut off, invalidating any blessings he had given in life and he was buried in a foreigners graveyard.

Then, they dug him up again and threw his weighted body into the Tiber river.

Aftermath

The trial had the opposite effect to which Stephen had hoped. It turned opinion against him. Formosus body washed up on the banks of the river and it was said it had begun to perform miracles.

A public uprising captured and deposed Stephen as Pope. He was strangled to death in prison.

Two later Popes overturned the conviction of Formosus. He was reburied with full vestments in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

However, we don’t finish there. Pope Sergius III had previously taken part in the Cadaver Synod. When he came to power in 904 he overturned the conviction again, reaffirming Formosus guilt. He also had a glowing epitaph added to the tomb of Stephen VI.

So ends the trial of a dead Pope.

Sources

Cadaver Synod (wikipedia.org)

Header Image (pixabay.com)

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