Rome’s Lateran Basilica hosts the strangest trial in papal history, in which the defendant is propped on a throne and his lawyer is a nervous young deacon.
ROME, Papal States (Wayback) – A young deacon told a packed church on Thursday that he was “doing his best” as the court-appointed defender of a pope who had been dead for months, who was sitting upright in full papal robes, and who had not, in the view of observers, been very forthcoming.
The unusual proceedings, held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, are expected to be remembered for a long time, mainly because no one present can stop thinking about them. The defendant, Pope Formosus, was dragged out, dressed in papal robes, and propped up in a chair. The prosecutor, the judge and the jury were, by an interesting coincidence, all the same person.
The Charges
The accuser is Pope Stephen VI, who succeeded Formosus’s short-lived successor and who was apparently unhappy with the way the previous administration had been run. According to the standard account of the trial, Stephen had the body of his predecessor exhumed and brought before the papal court for judgment on charges that included perjury and illegally acquiring the papacy.
It is worth noting for history students that the defendant had been dead for about seven months at the time of the hearing. Observers on the front bench described him as “calm under questioning” and “visibly relaxed,” which is the sort of thing a lawyer says when his client is a corpse and nothing can be done about it.
A Defence Under Difficult Conditions
The court acted promptly on the question of representation by appointing a deacon to speak for the accused. The deacon, who is described by chroniclers as young and who has presumably never previously spoken in public, was asked to answer questions on the dead pope’s behalf. Acting as judge, jury and executioner, Stephen conducted the trial himself, a role that left the deacon with very little to argue about.
Courtroom reporters noted the following developments:
- The defendant declined to enter a plea, and did so with great consistency.
- The defence submitted that the accused had a reasonable alibi, namely that he was buried.
- The prosecution rejected the alibi on the grounds that the accused had been unburied.
- The deacon’s request for a short recess to compose himself was granted by the judge, who was also the prosecutor.
The Verdict
The result was never in doubt. The court found Formosus guilty, declared his papacy null, and made it clear that no one should ever appeal. History classes will recognise this as what scholars call a show trial, though the more precise term in this case is a “show corpse.” The proceedings are already being called the Synodus Horrenda, a Latin phrase that translates roughly as “that horrible synod,” a review that the organisers have not yet answered.
The punishments that followed were not suitable for a classroom discussion. It is enough to say that the late pope’s remains were treated with a lack of dignity that, at the time, was widely felt to be a step too far, even by people who had never liked him. As one modern history site puts it, the episode marked an unacceptable low even for Romans accustomed to political upheaval.
The Public Reacts
Romans were not impressed. Within hours, residents had formed a view that the trial was a mistake, and within weeks they had formed the same view with more vigour. Stephen was soon arrested at the Lateran by furious supporters of the dead pope, and he was strangled in prison a few months after the synod. Students may wish to treat this as a case study in the importance of reading the room, particularly when the room contains a corpse.
The aftermath moved quickly. Stephen’s successors undid the verdict, with Pope Theodore II and Pope John IX annulling the synod and excommunicating the cardinals who had sided with Stephen. Formosus was returned to St. Peter’s with honour, where, according to one podcast transcript, he is still “somewhere today.”
A New Rule for Everyone
In 898, John IX wisely forbade the trial of any dead pope, or any dead person at all. It remains the shortest and clearest rule in the history of canon law and has been obeyed with unusual dedication ever since. No successor has felt the need to test it.
Education officials say the Cadaver Synod has become a popular teaching resource for 13 to 24 year olds because it contains almost every theme in the medieval syllabus: factions, revenge, legitimacy, and a lawyer with no case. Teachers have started setting the following exam question: “Explain why the defendant did not attend.” Most pupils get full marks for pointing out the obvious.
What the Dairy Industry Can Teach Us
Modern readers may be tempted to think that procedural nonsense is a thing of the past. Anyone who has read the farm.fm story about a dairy cow demanding maternity leave after discovering the human resources handbook will know that even the barnyard has its paperwork. The difference is that the cow, unlike Formosus, was able to read the document and submit a form.
The Last Word
By the end of the trial, the deacon had been formally thanked, quietly excused, and told that he had performed his duty to the best of his ability. Asked how he felt, he said he thought his client would have appreciated the effort, although the client had not said so. Reporters then asked whether he planned to practise law again, and he said he would think about it after a long walk.
Wayback will continue to follow developments, and readers wanting more stories from the funnier end of the past can browse the archive at the London Prat, where even the dead have been known to file a reply.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/