Formosus trial

Various powerful houses would back different papal candidates whose policies would benefit their own interests. With so many competing allegiances, a spate of mysterious deaths befell newly inaugurated popes who sometimes only served for a few days before being poisoned until their deaths.

In this hostile climate, religious rivalries flourished. Suspicions about Formosus started well before he was elected pope. Two decades before the Cadaver Synod, Pope John VIII accused Formosus of violating canon law by attempting to administer as bishop to more than one see and of conspiring to usurp the papacy. Formosus fled Rome to escape the accusations under threat of excommunication, finally returning to the city after John VIII died in Just nine years later, and with three more popes elected and poisoned deceased, Formosus was elected pope.

He served for four years, until his poisoning death in While Pope Stephen VI screamed accusations and insults at the corpse, a young deacon provided the voice and rebuttals for Formosus.

Unsurprisingly, deceased defendant Formosus as speaking through a deacon did not provide a compelling defense for his crimes. The 9 th and 10 th centuries AD were turbulent years for the papacy of Rome. Caught up in the political machinations of Europe, the Vatican saw a rapid succession of popes come and go.

The situation reached the peak of absurdity with the posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus in January , an event commonly referred to as the Cadaver Synod or the Cadaver Trial. Nine months after Formosus died, his body was exhumed and made to sit on a throne so that he could face the charges levied against him by the then Pope Stephen VI.

Dressed in all the fineries of papal vestments, Formosus faced accusations of perjury, coveting the papacy as a layman, and violating church canons while he was pope. Defended by a mere deacon and obviously incapable of defending himself, the dead Pope was found guilty on all counts.

Formosus was born around AD in the papal state of Ostia. Given the deplorable record keeping of those days, little is known about his life before becoming a Cardinal Bishop in For the next decade or so, he worked as a missionary in Bulgaria and France. In , he was considered for the papacy but did not obtain the position. Sick of the all the politics of Rome, Formosus decided to leave the city for good. Charles II, as he became, ruled for two years in an ill-fated venture against the Saracens.

Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor public domain. In , Formosus was excommunicated from the Church. However, when John VIII was killed in first the assassin poisoned him and then, impatient at the slow working poison, the assassin bashed his head in with a hammer , Formosus was pardoned of all crimes.

While in office, Formosus made a lot of enemies in the upper echelons of power in Constantinople, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, and within the Church itself. He also was persistently bothered by the relentlessly encroaching Saracens.

Yet for all this, Fromosus was loved by the people. When he died, there were riots in the streets of Rome. To stem the unrest, the Church quickly instated Boniface VI as pope. He was succeeded by Stephen VI. The charges brought against Formosus during the Cadaver Synod echo those levied against him by Pope John VIII but were really based on the political demands of a fractious continent.

The reason so many popes came and went and why so many of them were assassinated was because secular kingdoms and fiefdoms would support a candidate for the papacy in order to reap the benefits of a preferred papal allegiance. During his reign, Formosus had supported Arnulf of Carinthia in a bid for the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire.

Formosus was in the act of raising an army against the House of Spoleto when he died in Arnulf also died in at which time Lambert who was 16 at the time and was most likely a mere pawn for his overly ambitious parents came to Rome to receive the imperial crown from the newly ordained Pope Stephen VI. This is the main source of the Cadaver Synod, however, other factors were at work. Additionally, Lambert of Spoleto and his influential mother, the Lombard Princess Agiltrude, still bitterly hated Formosus and may have pressured Stephen VI to humiliate the former pope.

Pope Stephen VI. It was originally published in Charges against Formosus included an attempt to become bishop of Bulgaria, being a traitor to Charles the Bald who Formosus disapproved of and that he coveted the papacy.

Marinus I lasted about two years, his successor St. Finally, Formosus acceded to the papacy in C. Guy of Spoleto Guido was now ruling over a much larger portion of Italy, which was very dangerous for the papal states. Stephen V had unwillingly crowned Guy of Spoleto emperor, and consequently, Formosus, was forced to recognize him and his son Lambert Roman emperor, as well.

Formosus initially looked to them for strength and protection in his new role. Except, Formosus also was collaborating with the King of Germany, Arnulf, who attempted a siege on Rome with the support of Formosus. Guy of Spoleto died that same year, however, leaving his son as emperor, and Arnulf took a second chance to attack Rome. This time Arnulf was successful and Formosus crowned Arnulf emperor of Rome.

The new alliance didn't last long, however. Arnulf was paralyzed as he marched on toward Spoleto, and Formosus died in Stephen was determined to revisit the crimes of his predecessor Formosus. It wasn't enough to simply accuse him or smear his name.

Stephen had Formosus' body dug up, dressed up in pontifical robes and put up on a throne to stand trial. The Cadaver Synod levied the charges of coveting the papacy and ruling over multiple bishoprics at the same time. The prohibition against being bishop of more than one place at a time makes political sense as it would help prevent a bishop from amassing too much power. As for seeking the papacy, that's clearly inappropriate. Buying and selling ecclesiastical goods is forbidden, and just as buying your way into an election isn't just a political crime, it's an ecclesiastical one too.

While Stephen VI didn't give Formosus what would be considered a fair trial today, he did assign a deacon to speak for him. Stephen is reported to have screamed at the corpse, and the deacon's weak defense did little to plead Formosus' case. The drama of the macabre scene was increased when an earthquake shook the San Giovanni Laterano basilica.

Unsurprisingly, Formosus was found guilty. He was stripped of his robes and his three fingers used for the blessing were chopped off. All his measures and acts were annulled, and all the orders conferred by him were declared invalid. After burying him a second time in a cemetery for strangers outside of Church lands, Stephen VI had Formosus dug up yet again and thrown into the Tiber River.

A fisherman or a monk, depending on the legend, found his body, pulled it from the water, and hid it.