Why a DEAD POPE Was Put on Trial | Vatican History (Cadaver Synod)

Around the start of 897, by the usual dating, a dead man was put on trial in Rome. Pope Formosus had died months earlier, yet his body was taken from its tomb, dressed in papal robes and seated before a church council, while a deacon answered the charges for him. Why would Pope Stephen VI put a former pope on trial? The charges reached back decades: a move between bishoprics that Church rules opposed, an old excommunication, a sworn oath, and a struggle over who would be crowned emperor. The verdict did not stay with the dead. It threatened the clergy Formosus had ordained, and it opened a dispute that outlasted the trial. In this video: 0:00 A Dead Man on Trial 0:44 Formosus Before the Papacy 1:19 Bulgaria and Boris the First 1:42 Excommunication and the Oath 2:09 Emperors and Rival Crowns 3:49 The Cadaver Synod 4:29 The Verdict 5:15 Why Did Stephen Do It? 6:24 Stephen's Fall 6:46 Legends of the Body 7:16 Ravenna Restores Formosus 8:28 The Case Returns The story of the Cadaver Synod is told from the surviving sources, including the writings of Auxilius and Liutprand of Cremona and the councils of Ravenna (898) and Rome (904). Where historians disagree about motives and dates, we say so. Subscribe for more true stories from the history of the Vatican. #VaticanHistory #CadaverSynod #PopeFormosus