Pope Formosus and Stephen VI by Jean Paul Laurens (1870), depicting the Cadaver Synod of 897, when the corpse of Formosus was exhumed, dressed in papal robes, and put on trial in the Lateran Basilica[1284X841].

Pope Formosus had been unanimously elected in 891 after decades of church politics, excommunication, rehabilitation, and diplomatic maneuvering. Rome at the time was a disaster, wracked by disease, political violence, and factional infighting among powerful Roman families, and the papacy was deeply entangled in all of it.

Western Europe wasn’t doing much better. The empire built by Charlemagne had fractured, and his descendants spent generations fighting one another for crowns and legitimacy.

Formosus fell into conflict with Guy III, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy. In response, Formosus invited Arnulf of East Francia to invade Italy and overthrow Guy, which he successfully did. Guy died, Arnulf was crowned emperor by Formosus… and then almost immediately suffered a debilitating stroke, leaving Italy back in chaos and power returning to Guy’s son Lambert and his mother Ageltrude.

Before they could move against Formosus, the elderly pope died in April of 896. That should have been the end of it.

Instead, Pope Stephen VI, decided otherwise.
Likely hoping to win favor with Lambert and Ageltrude, Stephen convened a synod in January 897 to put the dead Formosus on trial.

Posthumous condemnations weren’t unusual in Church history. What *was* unusual was Stephen ordering Formosus’ corpse exhumed, dressed in papal robes, and brought into the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran to face judgment.

With the half-rotted corpse propped up on a throne, a deacon was appointed to answer on behalf of the dead pope. Formosus was accused of perjury, illegally transferring bishoprics, and illegitimately occupying the papacy itself.

Chroniclers say Stephen screamed at the corpse throughout the proceedings. Unsurprisingly, the corpse lost.

Formosus was declared unworthy of the papacy, his acts annulled, and the blessing fingers on his right hand were cut off. His body was stripped of papal finery, buried, exhumed again, and finally thrown into the Tiber River.

The reaction was immediate. Romans were horrified. Stephen rapidly lost support, was imprisoned, and strangled to death later that same year.

If interested, I cover the full story here: [https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-96-the-cadaver?r=4mmzre&utm\\\_medium=ios\](https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-96-the-cadaver?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios)