Trail Off Tuesdays: The Cadaver Synod

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Ever wondered what happens when political vengeance goes beyond the grave? The Cadaver Synod of 897  stands as perhaps the most macabre judicial proceeding in religious history; a dead pope put on trial by his living successor.

Step back to late 9th century Rome, where papal politics resembled a deadly chess match. Pope Formosus had committed the cardinal sin of backing the wrong emperor candidate, choosing Arnulf of Carinthia over Lambert of Spoleto and his formidable mother Agiltrude. When Formosus died in 896, his enemies saw opportunity. His successor, Pope Stephen VI, orchestrated an unprecedented posthumous trial to erase Formosus's legacy completely.

The spectacle defies modern comprehension: Formosus's nine-month-old corpse was exhumed, dressed in papal vestments, propped on a throne in the Lateran Basilica, and assigned a trembling deacon as defense counsel. The macabre trial ended predictably, the corpse was found guilty, stripped of papal status, mutilated by having its blessing fingers cut off, and unceremoniously dumped into the Tiber River. Stephen's calculation was coldly political; by invalidating Formosus's papacy, he could void all appointments and decisions that favored rival factions.

Yet this grotesque overreach shocked even medieval Romans accustomed to violence. Public outrage swiftly led to Stephen's overthrow and strangulation in prison that same year. Subsequent popes rehabilitated Formosus's memory, reburying him with honor in St. Peter's. The Cadaver Synod reveals the raw politics behind religious authority in medieval times and the limits of what even a ninth-century populace would tolerate.

 Join us as we explore this bizarre chapter that reminds us how the past can be stranger than fiction. What other historical oddities have shaped our world without our knowledge? Subscribe to Trail of Tuesdays to discover more of history's strangest detours.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome back to Trail of Tuesdays, where we wander
down history's strangest sidepaths.
Today's detour takes us to Romein the year 897, for what might
just be the weirdest trial inhistory.

(00:39):
Not because of who was on trial, but because he was already
dead.
This bizarre spectacle is knownas the cadaver synod, and it
remains one of the strangestchapters in papal history.

(01:00):
So let's walk this strange pathtogether.

(01:26):
The late 1800s were not a calmtime for the papacy.
Popes rarely lasted long.
Noble families fought bitterlyfor influence and the Holy Roman
Empire loomed large in thebackground.
Formosus became pope in 891,and let's just say he made some

(01:46):
powerful enemies right from thestart.
Front and center were theSpoletan family, lambert of
Spoleto and his mother Agiltrude, who weren't exactly sending

(02:09):
him Christmas cards.
Why, you might wonder.
Well, of course it was aboutpower.
The Spolitans were no minorrivals.
They controlled the Duchy ofSpoleto, one of the strongest
territories in central Italy,and Lombard had even been
crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
Backed by his formidable mother.

(02:31):
Their family carried bothmilitary and political weight
and they expected the papacy torecognize and reinforce that
power.
But Formosus had other ideas.
Upon becoming Pope, he threwhis support behind Arnulf of

(02:59):
Carinthia as emperor, which wasbasically picking the other team
in a very high-stakes politicalgame, and Arnulf wasn't exactly
beloved the other team in avery high stakes political game,
and Arno wasn't exactly beloved.
He had forced out his own uncleto take power.
His claim was weakened by beingthe illegitimate son of a
Bavarian noble, and his rule wasplagued with worse and shaky

(03:29):
authority in Italy.
Supporting him was risky, andthe Spolitans never forgave
Formosus for it.
On top of that, critics accusedhim of being too ambitious,
holding on to multiple bishopjobs at once when church law
said you really shouldn't.
Basically, it didn't win himany friends inside the church

(03:53):
either.
So when Formosus died in 896,the Spolitans saw their chance
to wipe his influence away, andthe new Pope, pope Stephen VI,

(04:15):
was more than willing to playalong.
But how do you erase theinfluence of someone who's
already dead?
Well, for Pope Stephen VI inJanuary 897, the answer was
simple you put him on trial, andyou might be thinking this was
some sort of posthumous trial,where the defendant is absent

(04:38):
and judged in name only.
Well, you'd be wrong.
Only Well, you'd be wrong,because in order to make the
condemnation look official,formosus had to be there.
Well, or at least what was leftof him.
So his body was dug up, dressedin full paper robes, and placed

(05:03):
on a throne inside the LateranBasilica, as if he were
presiding over his own trial.
To complete the theatre, adeacon was appointed as his
defence attorney.
Imagine being handed that job.
Speak on behalf of a corpse?
Not exactly a dream.

(05:25):
Posting.
Now, with the macabre spectacleall set and the charges, which
included perjury and illegallybecoming Pope, laid out clearly,
the trial began.
What followed was less a legalproceeding and more a grim piece

(05:52):
of theatre.
Pope Stephen VI stood at thecentre, shouting accusations at
the corpse propped up on histhrone.
Witnesses were cold, but thewhole thing was staged.
No one ever doubted the outcome, but the whole thing was staged
.
No one ever doubted the outcome.
And the deacon assigned todefend Formosus could only

(06:16):
mutter a few token responses.
But it was clear.
His words didn't matter.
The verdict had already beenwritten and, unsurprisingly, the
dead Formosus didn't mount muchof a defense either.
As expected, the trial endedwith a guilty verdict.

(06:39):
Formosus was stripped of hispapal office and, if the
chronicles are to be believed,the three fingers he used to
bless were cut off before hisbody was flung into the Tiber
River.

(07:11):
Now, why do all this?
To us, putting a dead pope ontrial sounds like pure absurd
theatre.
But there was a method to thismadness.
By declaring Formosusillegitimate, stephen VI could

(07:37):
wipe out all of his decisions,every ordination, every
appointment, every bishop he hadinstalled.
That meant stripping power fromArnold's allies and reshuffling
the church's hierarchy tofavour the Spoletan faction.
It was politics in its rawestform Erase the man, erase his

(07:59):
legacy and, by extension, erasehis teeth.
But while it all made sense onparchment, in practice it was
extreme and unusual.
And it didn't take long beforeit all backfired.
Because, you see, even in acity used to violent politics,

(08:25):
the cadaver synod pushed thingstoo far.
The cadaver synod pushed thingstoo far.
Romans were shocked.
It was one thing to fight overpower, another to drag a pope's
corpse into court and put it ondisplay.
According to later accounts,formosa's body was eventually

(08:53):
pulled out of the river by amonk and rumors spread that it
performed miracles.
That only fueled the outrage.
Crowds turned against StephenVI and by the end of 897, the
same year he staged the trial,he was deposed, thrown in prison
and strangled to death.

(09:14):
His successors wasted no timeundoing the damage.
Popes Theodore II and John IXrestored Formosa's reputation
and had him reburied with honorin St Peter's Basilica.

(09:36):
Historians still debate on whyStephen VI went to such
grotesque lengths.
Was it personal hatred orparanoia?
Possibly, but most agree it wassimpler than that.
Politics and power dressed upas religion.
Formosus had simply just backedthe wrong emperor and in the

(10:01):
messy power chessboard of thelate 1800s that meant his
enemies wanted his memory andinfluence scrubbed out.
The cadaver synod reminds usjust how unstable the papacy was
in that era.
Popes weren't always theuntouchable figures we picture

(10:24):
today.
They could be dragged intoschemes of noble families and
ambitious rulers, even afterdeath.
But it also shows the limits.
However messy medieval politicscame, the Roman people made it
clear Some things were just astep too far, and putting a

(10:48):
corpse on trial was one of them,and that's the cadaver senate,
the day a pope stood trialmonths after his death, months

(11:08):
after his death.
Trail of Tuesdays is where weexplore history's strangest
detours, and this one might justtake the prize.
Thank you for listening.
Until next time, stay safe andstay curious.
Thank you.