In Short
- In January 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered the body of Pope Formosus, who had died about nine months earlier, to be dug up and tried in Rome.
- The corpse was seated on a throne in the Basilica of St. John Lateran while charges such as perjury and illegally becoming pope were read out.
- The trial ended with Formosus declared guilty. His papal acts were annulled, some fingers used for blessings were cut off, and his body was thrown into the Tiber.
- The episode, known as the Cadaver Synod, backfired on Stephen VI, who was soon deposed and later died in prison.
Why Did This Happen?
The late ninth century papacy was wrapped in violent politics. Various noble families in and around Rome saw control of the papal office as a way to influence both church and secular power.
Formosus himself had been a controversial figure, moving between alliances with different factions in Italy and the Carolingian world.
When Stephen VI came to power, he aligned with opponents of Formosus who wanted to delegitimize his papacy.
Putting a corpse on trial was extreme even by the standards of the time, but it served a clear political goal: if Formosus’s acts were invalid, so were some of the appointments and decisions that favored Stephen’s rivals.
The Trial Of A Corpse
Contemporary accounts describe a macabre scene. Formosus’s decaying body was dressed in papal vestments and seated in a chair. A deacon was appointed to speak on behalf of the dead pope as Stephen VI shouted accusations.
When the verdict of guilt was announced, the corpse was stripped of its robes, three fingers of the right hand were cut off, and the body was temporarily buried, then exhumed again and thrown into the Tiber River.
Backlash And Aftermath
Far from stabilizing Rome, the Cadaver Synod shocked many clergy and laypeople. Riots broke out, Stephen VI was imprisoned, and he died there shortly afterward, probably by strangling.
Later popes tried to undo the damage. Some reversed the verdict, reburied Formosus with more respect, and even condemned the Cadaver Synod as invalid. The whole affair has become shorthand for just how wild medieval church politics could be.