Though Pope Formosus was dead, his body was exhumed, dressed in papal vestments, and perched on the stand — then he was found guilty of perjury and other crimes.
In the 9th century C.E., a former pope named Formosus was put on trial by one of his successors, Pope Stephen VI. Formosus was accused of a number of serious crimes, including perjury and assuming the papacy illegally. Throughout the entirety of the proceedings, however, the former pope said not a single word in his own defense. In fact, he said nothing at all.
That’s because Formosus had died eight months earlier, and it was not him, but his rotting corpse, dug up from the grave, that Pope Stephen VI had decided to put on the stand.
Nantes Museum of ArtsDuring the Cadaver Synod, one pope dug up the corpse of another pope and put the body on trial.
The trial of Pope Formosus, known as the Cadaver Synod, or the Synodus Horrenda (meaning, the “Horrible Synod”), took place in January 897 C.E. To the horror of many in Rome, Formosus, who’d died the previous April, was dug up, clad in papal vestments, and perched on the stand. His trial continued even through an earthquake — which some saw as divine retribution — and, in the end, Formosus was found guilty on all charges.
The verdict was perhaps unsurprising, as Formosus was unable to defend himself against Stephen VI’s charges. But why did Stephen accuse Formosus of such crimes to begin with? The answer lies in the chaos of this bizarre era in Vatican history.
There were 17 popes in the 9th century, some of whom met violent ends. Meanwhile, the political landscape in Europe was transforming rapidly. New factions rose and fell, and various popes threw their support behind different leaders as Rome’s power ebbed. Indeed, Stephen VI’s motives for the Cadaver Synod may have been politically motivated, as he attempted to appease certain factions who had disliked Formosus.
But Stephen VI seemingly had another reason for wanting Formosus’ rule to be nullified: He himself was guilty of some of the crimes that he had accused Formosus of. And it’s possible that Stephen thought that if he could nullify Formosus’ rule, he could cement his own grip on papal power.
Ultimately, however, the Cadaver Synod did not turn out well for Stephen VI. And it stands to this day as one of the strangest and most ghastly chapters in the history of the Catholic Church.
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