Rome, AD 897: Pope Stephen VI puts his predecessor Formosus on trial, despite the minor procedural difficulty that Formosus has been dead for nine months
Defendant Remains Silent Throughout Proceedings
ROME, January AD 897 – In what church officials are describing as a landmark legal process, Pope Stephen VI has convened a synod at the Lateran to try his predecessor but one, Pope Formosus, on charges of perjury, violating church law and illegally holding the office of pope. The defendant, who died in 896, was exhumed for the occasion, dressed in full papal vestments and propped on a throne in the courtroom to face the charges in person.
Observers say Formosus offered no defence. A deacon was appointed to answer on his behalf, which court officials described as a fair and balanced arrangement, given the circumstances.
The Charges
The accusations centred on claims that Formosus had broken church rules by moving from one bishopric to another, at a time when bishops were generally expected to remain wedded to their original see, and that his election as Bishop of Rome was therefore invalid. Historians note the case was also deeply political. Rome in the late ninth century was torn by violent factional rivalries among Italian noble families, and Formosus had crowned an emperor from a rival faction to the one now backing Stephen. The trial was, in effect, a family feud between dynasties, conducted through a corpse.
The Verdict
Formosus was found guilty. His acts and ordinations as pope were declared null and void. His vestments were stripped, the three fingers of his right hand used for blessings were cut off, and his body was thrown into the River Tiber. A papal spokesman said justice had been served, and that the defendant had shown no remorse.
Public Reaction
Public reaction was not favourable. According to some accounts, the body was later recovered from the river by a monk and quietly buried, and rumours spread of miracles associated with it. Meanwhile, the Lateran basilica partly collapsed, which many Romans regarded as a sign of divine displeasure. Within months, Stephen VI was overthrown by his opponents, imprisoned and strangled in 897. His successors annulled the trial and Formosus was eventually reburied in St Peter Basilica. A later pope, Sergius III, reportedly revived the case against him, demonstrating that in medieval Rome no verdict was ever entirely final, including death.
Church historians today generally regard the episode, known as the Cadaver Synod, as one of the lowest points in the history of the papacy, and a vivid example of how politics can turn institutions against their own past.
Meanwhile, in 2026
Arguments about the dead continue to divide the living. The London Prat reports Prince William reportedly calling Earl Spencer and Harry traitors over a memoir by their uncle about their late mother. An anonymous source says the heir thinks his brother read it first; the uncle says everyone was told. Medieval historians point out that, unlike in 897, nobody involved has been dug up, cross-examined or thrown in a river, and describe this as encouraging.
The London Prat has been putting the past on trial since 1961 at https://prat.uk/, with its royal memoir video on YouTube. Bohiney at https://bohiney.com/ covers the American courts, where defendants are normally expected to be alive.
Study Questions for Students
Why would anyone put a dead man on trial? What does the Cadaver Synod tell us about politics and the church in ninth-century Rome? Can a verdict about the past ever be final? Discuss without exhuming anyone.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/