The Backstory: Dead Pope’s Body . . On Trial

We’ve been intrigued in the past few weeks with the ancient traditions surrounding the choice for a new pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church. But that transition hasn’t always been smooth. This is another look at one of the darkest moments in Church history. It was the Cadaver Trial of a dead pope, which took place 1100 years ago.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the past couple of weeks, we've been fascinated watching
an ancient tradition play out, picking a new pope for
the world's one and a half billion Roman Catholics. You
know what, The way it's done really hasn't changed much
over more than a thousand years, although the political intrigue
is a little bit more discreet. Political rivalries of all

(00:20):
sorts go back to the dawn of human history, but
how far do they go when picking a spiritual leader.
It seems timely to revisit this story about a medieval
pope whose opponents dug up his body, dressed it up
in his vestments, and tried him for stuff they said
he did when he was alive. I'm Patty Steele. Yeah,

(00:41):
believe it or not. Dead pope on trial. That's next
on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. No matter
how progressive we think we are, there are traditions that
take us back over a thousand years or more that
are fascinating to a lot of us and incredibly meaningful

(01:02):
to a lot of other folks. This past month, we've
seen the death of a much loved pope, then the
conclave at the Vatican where the new pope, the first
from the United States, was chosen by one hundred and
thirty three cardinals. The protocol for how they gather, vote
and announce their decision to the world really hasn't changed
much over the centuries. We're talking puffs of smoke to

(01:25):
let us know what's going on. But is the rivalry
as intense as it was a thousand years ago? That's
an intriguing question. It turns out it got pretty crazy
back then. Okay, here's an image to consider. Imagine the
Pope dies, He's laid to rest, then dug up from
his grave, dressed up and put on trial for stuff

(01:46):
he did in life. It actually happened. It's the ultimate
case of political rivalry. Now, if you saw the musical Hamilton,
like over forty million other folks, you know that political
rivalry can be really entertaining but also deadly serious, at
least when you don't feel personally invested in it. It's
kind of a laugh for Hamilton and his nemesis Aaron Burr.

(02:09):
It ended with Pistols at Dawn, the most infamous duel
in American history, and it gave Broadway a massive hit.
But political rivalries are nothing new. Okay, let's head back
in time to the Dark Ages, to one of the
most bizarre rivalries in human history, ending in a dead
pope being put on trial. It's the ninth century Rome

(02:32):
is like a medieval soap opera on steroids. Pope Formosis
had died in eight ninety six, but he was really
powerful and loved by his supporters. Now, in fairness, he
made some questionable decisions, but hey, who doesn't. Anyway, he
was still revered by his followers, and that really disturbed
the new pope and his cohorts. Understand, in those days,

(02:54):
being the pope wasn't just a religious thing. It was
about the pope's pure political power. Up until the fifteen hundreds,
the pope actually had the power to choose the Holy
Roman Emperor, and that's where the whole mess grew. Hair
Formoses had named an emperor who was not the first
choice of his detractors. So after his death, the new Pope,

(03:17):
Stephen the seventh, wanted to undo all of the edicts
for Moses had proclaimed during his reign, including his choice
for the Holy Roman Emperor. But that meant Pope Stephen
had to totally delegitimize for Moses He and his posse
wanted to erase for Moses's time as pope from the
record books as how hungry they were for power. They
claimed that while for Mosis was on the papal throne,

(03:40):
he had committed some really serious crimes. So what to do? Well,
now comes the most unbelievable part. I know, Let's dig
him up and put him on trial. Yeah, I'm serious.
What happened next was actually referred to as the cadaver
synod or trial. They exhumed his body to under a

(04:00):
year after his death, dragged his decomposed remains to court,
dressed him up investments, and propped him up on a
throne complete with all the other pope type regalia. Talk
about uncovering his skeletons in the closet, I mean literally,
The trial itself was something out of a horror movie.
Just imagine a bunch of furious clergy members crowded around

(04:23):
a rotting corpse shouting accusations at it. So what were
they accusing him of? Perjury, violating church canons, becoming the
pope illegally, and basically being unworthy of being a pope
in the first place, so they could undo everything he'd
done on the job and make sure he wasn't worshiped
as a former representative of Christ on earth. They wanted

(04:46):
to invalidate all the decisions he made when he was alive.
They shouted questions at the body about the accusations. A
deacon had been appointed to answer those questions for the defense,
but most likely he didn't really do a great job
of representing the dead. Guy onlooker said he had to
be really careful for fear of representing Foremoses too well

(05:09):
and enraging those who ordered the trial. And plus, if
he did a great job of representing Formoses, he wasn't
going to get any money from him, or even a
pat on the back, they said. As the trial took place,
handlers of Formoses's body had to prop it up and
move it around in response to questions. Oh my gosh,
can you imagine how weird that was? And the craziness continued.

(05:31):
Midway through the trial, an earthquake shook the room. Both
sides declared it was a sign from God supporting their side. Now.
At the end of the trial, Formosis was found guilty
of all charges. Big surprise there, and they actually overturned
his papacy declaring his papal acts null and void. Imagine

(05:52):
that happening today. A courtroom where a judge not only
convicts all corpse sitting there in the flesh, well the flesh,
of wrongdoing, and then invalidates all the decisions the individual
made when alive. Next came the punishment face can't execute,
I mean, he's already dead. So after the trial he
was placed in a graveyard for foreigners. But pretty soon

(06:16):
the new pope decided that's not punishment enough. A few
months later they dig him up again and Formoses' body
is tied to weights and tossed into the Tiber River,
the traditional Roman burial for the worst criminals and rulers
who have fallen out of favor. But first they removed
the three fingers on his right hand that he'd used

(06:36):
for blessings. All of this to prevent his body or
parts of it from becoming a holy relic or relics. Actually,
ancient churches all over Italy still have relics. You can
go see them, full body or body parts of saints,
popes and other religious figures. I saw some a couple
of years back. It was kind of odd, but this

(06:58):
wasn't the end of Formosis's very busy afterlife. His corpse
didn't rest peacefully at the bottom of the river. Despite
being weighted down. It eventually somehow washed up on the
river bank and was retrieved by a fisherman. Some said
it began to perform miracles, that it was a miracle
that it made it to shore public like crazy. Finally,

(07:19):
Stephen the Seventh, the guy who had ordered the cadaver synid,
was thrown in jail, and eventually he was strangled to death.
There this gets more and more like a Game of
Throne storyline. Right by the end of the year, the
next pope re established Formoss's reputation at his edicts and
ordered him reburied in Saint Peter's Basilica alongside every other pope.

(07:42):
His fellow clergyman said, maybe he's the real deal, after all,
They even declared him a martyr. Soon, the new pope
banned for all time any more trials of corpses. So
if you're still asking if you could put the body
of a dead pope on trial, the answer is you
used to be able to, but not anymore since the
Church outlawed cadaver trials eleven hundred years ago, and that

(08:07):
is the ultimate story of political rivalry, kind of a
reminder of how far people will go to hold onto
power and settle scores. Pope Leo the fourteenth has arrived
on the papal throne at a much less violent time
in human history, or so we think, and hopefully he'll
be abridged to greater love and understanding between all religions

(08:29):
and all people. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory with
Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow or subscribe
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free to dm me if you have a story you'd
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on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory

(08:53):
is a production of iHeartMedia, Premier Networks, the Elvis Durand Group,
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
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Feel free to reach out to me with comments and
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(09:15):
Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't
know you needed to know.