Trial of a dead pope

Condemnation of the pontiff. Photo: UOJ

January 897, the Lateran Basilica in Rome. The body of Pope Formosus, who died nine months earlier, is taken out of its tomb. It is vested in papal garments and seated on the throne. A deacon is placed beside it: he will answer for the defendant, who can no longer speak for himself.

Opposite sits the new pope, Stephen VI. The trial begins. The dead man is asked: "When you were Bishop of Porto, why did you, out of ambition, usurp the universal Roman See?"

There is, of course, no answer. But in order to understand where the question itself came from, we must go back thirty years, to far-off Bulgaria.

The bishop whom they would not release to the Bulgarians

In 864, Formosus became Bishop of Porto, a small town at the mouth of the Tiber, near Rome. Two years later, Pope Nicholas I sent him to Bulgaria. Prince Boris had just baptized his people and was looking for someone from whom to receive recognition: Rome or Constantinople.

Formosus distinguished himself so well that Boris asked that he be appointed Archbishop of Bulgaria. It would seem that a better candidate could not be found: the Bulgarians knew and respected him. But Pope Nicholas refused.

The reason for the refusal was canonical.

Formosus returned home, and around 870 Bulgaria passed under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.

The very rule that held Formosus back then would, thirty years later, turn against him.

From Porto to the throne of Peter

After that, the life of Formosus resembled a swing. In 876, Pope John VIII condemned him. Among the accusations was the claim that, out of ambition, he had sought the Bulgarian archbishopric and even the Roman throne. In 883, the next pope, Marinus I, restored to him the see of Porto.

And in the autumn of 891, Formosus himself became pope. He was already over seventy. The times were hard: Italy was being torn apart by noble houses, each of which dreamed of the imperial crown. In 892, Formosus crowned Lambert of Spoleto. And four years later, he placed the crown on Lambert's rival, Arnulf of Carinthia.

In April 896, Formosus died, having lived about eighty years. His successor, Boniface VI, remained on the throne for about two weeks. In May, Stephen VI was elected.

An interesting detail: Stephen had once been ordained Bishop of the city of Anagni by none other than Formosus. Now the pupil was preparing to judge his patron.

The sentence on a dead man

Historians still dispute who stood behind this trial. Most often, suspicion falls on the rulers of Spoleto, who had not forgiven Formosus for crowning their rival. But formally everything looked like a purely ecclesiastical proceeding.

The charge was that Formosus had violated the Church canon on the transfer of bishops to another see. He had been Bishop of Porto, and therefore had no right to become Bishop of Rome. Hence the conclusion: his election was invalid. And if so, all the ordinations he had performed during his five years as pontiff were invalid as well.

Formosus was buried in the cemetery for foreigners. But even this proved to be not enough. Soon the body was dug up and thrown into the river.

Retribution for the judge

From here the story acquires various versions. According to one of them, a monk pulled the body out of the river. According to another, it was found by fishermen.

According to a Roman tradition, when the body was brought to the Cathedral of St. Peter, the icons of the saints supposedly "reverently greeted" it. There is no direct evidence for this, but the story itself shows how the people regarded Formosus.

Meanwhile, Rome was seething. In the summer of that same year, 897, an uprising broke out, during which Stephen VI was deposed, thrown into prison, and strangled there. The unrighteous judge, too, received a death sentence. 

A parade of popes

Events then rushed forward at breakneck speed. In December 897, Pope Theodore II acquitted Formosus and reburied him in St. Peter's Basilica. Theodore himself reigned for a record-short time - about twenty days.

In 898, Pope John IX convened synods in Rome and Ravenna. They confirmed the acquittal of Formosus, ordered the records of the "cadaver synod" destroyed, and forbade the trial of the dead in the future.

But the matter was not laid to rest. A few years later, under Pope Sergius III, the condemnation of Formosus was reinstated. The priests he had ordained were regarded as laymen if they did not agree to be ordained anew.

Some reigned for a few weeks, others – for a couple of years. The trial of a dead man resolved nothing, but it opened one of the darkest pages in the history of the papacy.

A rule that became vengeance

The canonical norm on the procedure for the transfer of bishops was in itself reasonable. It protected the flock from ambitious men who sought a wealthier see. It reminded that a bishop serves a particular church, and not for the sake of his own career. It was precisely this norm that had once kept Formosus in Porto, although the Bulgarians had very much wanted him.

The story of Pope Formosus shows that church rules work only as long as concern for people stands behind them. When they are used for the sake of reprisal, they wound first of all those who criminally use them. The trial of the dead pope ultimately became a disgrace not for Formosus himself, but for his judges. And Rome understood this faster than the ink could dry on the verdict of condemnation.

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