The year is 897, and the accused sites motionless upon a throne in Rome's Basilica of Saint John Lateran. He is dressed in papal vestments and a crown rests upon his head.  A jury of Cardinals is present to hear the accusations brought by Pope Stephen VI. The accused does not answer any of the many charges leveled against him by the often ranting and screaming pope.  At the conclusion of the Pope's case he asks that the accused be convicted and the Cardinal's acquiesce unanimously by acclimation. The sentence is swiftly carried out and he is stripped of his papal vestments.  The three fingers the accused used to offer the blessings of the Church are hacked from his right hand.  He is then dragged to the Tiber River and thrown in. His name is Pope Formosus, and he bears this abuse without complaint, likely because he died of a stroke nine months before his trial. Pope Stephen VI removed his predecessor's corpse from its vault below St. Peter's Basilica and subjected it to this most unusual of trials.  In the end it would cost him far more than his hated rival. 

 

Prior to his election as Pontiff by the College of Cardinals, Formosus was a Bishop from Porto.  Unfortunately for Formosus while he was well respected as a cleric he always seemed to be on the wrong side in the political infighting that characterized this period in Rome.  When a Holy Roman Emperor, who Formosus had opposed and his chosen Pope came to power, Formosus had to flee Rome in haste.  This was apparently wise because he was tried in absentia for, corrupting the minds of the Bulgarians (he had been a, missionary in Bulgaria and they refused to have any Bishop other than him), conspiring against the Pope, the Papal States, and the Holy Roman Emperor.  These charges were politically motivated and of questionable merit except for the fact that the Bulgarians really did seem set on having him as their Bishop.  Formosus was excommunicated by the Pope John VIII and broken politically.  His excommunication was later lifted when he agreed to leave Rome, become a layman, and never again take up the duties of a bishop. However, after John VIII became the first Pope to be assassinated, Formosus was redeemed by his successor and resumed an important and by most accounts productive role in the Church. After several intervening Popes Formosus was elected as Pontiff in 891, the first person ever excommunicated to hold the office.

 

By the standards of the time, Formosus had a long (five-year) reign that was nowhere near interesting as its aftermath.  His corpse moldered in its tomb for nine months before it was unceremoniously removed for trial.  The trial would go down in infamy as the Corpse Synod.  He stood accused of trying to usurp John VIII's papacy, perjury, and exercising the office of a bishop while a layman. Lest anyone accuse Stephen VI of a lack of due process, he did appoint an 18-year-old deacon to represent the corpse at the trial.  The deacon, perhaps wisely, chose not to utter a single word in his client's defense.  The Pope questioned the corpse repeatedly about its misconduct in life and was not satisfied by its answers (or lack thereof). Everyone involved seems to have been disquieted by the whole affair and afraid to do anything but give the Pope what he wanted.  The verdict was never in doubt.