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Cadaver Synod
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{{short description|Posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus}}{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}File:Jean Paul Laurens Le Pape Formose et Etienne VI 1870.jpg|thumb|300px|Jean-Paul LaurensJean-Paul LaurensThe Cadaver Synod (also called the Cadaver Trial; ) is the name commonly given to the ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus, who had been dead for about seven months, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January 897.For the date cf. Joseph Duhr, "Le concile de Ravenne in 898: la réhabilitation du pape Formose", Recherches de science religieuse 22 (1932), p. 541, note 1. The trial was conducted by Pope Stephen VI, the successor to Formosus' successor, Pope Boniface VI. Stephen had Formosus' corpse exhumed and brought to the papal court for judgment. He accused Formosus of perjury, of having acceded to the papacy illegally, and illegally presiding over more than one diocese at the same time.WEB, Harper, Elizabeth, 2014-03-03, The Cadaver Synod: When a Pope's Corpse Was Put on Trial,weblink 2021-12-13, Atlas Obscura, en, At the end of the trial, Formosus was pronounced guilty, and his papacy retroactively declared null.- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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Context
The Cadaver Synod and related events took place during a period of political instability in Italy. This period, which lasted from the middle of the 9th century to the middle of the 10th century, was marked by a rapid succession of pontiffs.JOURNAL, Wilkes Jr., Donald E., The Cadaver Synod: Strangest Trial in History, Flagpole Magazine, 8, Athens, Georgia, US, 31 October 2001,weblink 8 October 2010, Between 872 and 965, two dozen popes were appointed, and between 896 and 904 there was a new pope every year.WEB,weblinkweblink dead, 1 October 2019, In 897, the corpse of a pope was exhumedâto be put on trial: Known as the 'Cadaver Synod,' the posthumous trial of Pope Formosus resulted from the chaos of the ninth century as factions battled for control of the church, Alberto Reche Ontillera, 20 August 2019, National Geographic, 29 April 2019, Often, these brief papal reigns were the result of the political machinations of local Roman factions, about which few sources survive.JOURNAL, Brook, Lindsay, 2003, Popes and ***ocrats: Rome in the Early Middle Ages,weblink 1, 1, 5â21, Foundations: The Journal of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, {{Citation |last=Noble |first=Thomas |title=The papacy in the eighth and ninth centuries |date=1995 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/new-cambridge-medieval-history/papacy-in-the-eighth-and-ninth-centuries/65B5B276509CD5E2FFB280A9DB903980 |work=The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 2: c.700âc.900 |volume=2 |pages=561â586 |editor-last=McKitterick |editor-first=Rosamond |series=The New Cambridge Medieval History |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-36292-4 |access-date=2022-10-23}}Formosus became bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina in 864 during the pontificate of Pope Nicholas I. In 866 he was sent as a legate to Bulgaria, and was so successful in this position that the Bulgarian ruler Boris I asked the pope to appoint him archbishop of Bulgaria. Nicholas refused to give permission, because the fifteenth canon of the Second Council of Nicaea forbade a bishop from administering more than one see â "a law that was supposed to prevent bishops from building up their own little fiefdoms."WEB,weblink}, The Cadaver Synod: When a Pope's Corpse Was Put on Trial, ELIZABETH HARPER, 3 March 2014, Atlas Obscura, He also travelled to Constantinople, and the Carolingian court, where he met Arnulf of Carinthia, a Frankish Carolingian king who aspired to the throne of Italy.Immediate context
The Cadaver Synod is generally presumed to have been politically motivated. Formosus crowned Lambert of Spoleto co-ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in 892; Lambert's father, Guy III of Spoleto, had earlier been crowned by John VIII.Williams, George L. 2004. Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes. McFarland & Company. {{ISBN|0-7864-2071-5}}. p. 10. In 893 Formosus, apparently nervous about Guy's aggression, invited the Carolingian Arnulf of Carinthia to invade Italy and receive the imperial crown. Arnulf's invasion failed, and Guy III died shortly afterwards. Yet Formosus renewed his invitation to Arnulf in 895, and early the next year Arnulf crossed the Alps and entered Rome, where Formosus crowned him as Holy Roman Emperor. Afterwards the Frankish army departed, and Arnulf and Formosus died within months of each other in 896. Formosus was succeeded by Pope Boniface VI, who himself died two weeks later. Lambert and his mother, the empress Angiltrude, entered Rome around the time that Stephen VI became pope, and the Cadaver Synod was conducted directly afterwards, at the beginning of 897.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}The dominant interpretation of these events until the early twentieth century was straightforward: Formosus had always been a pro-Carolingian, and his crowning of Lambert in 892 was coerced. After the death of Arnulf and the collapse of Carolingian authority in Rome, Lambert entered the city and forced Stephen to convene the Cadaver Synod, both to re-assert his claim to the imperial crown and perhaps also to exact posthumous revenge upon Formosus.Cf., for example, Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l'état pontifical (Paris, 1904), p. 301; and the detailed account in the old Catholic Encyclopedia Pope FormosusThis view is now considered obsolete, following the arguments put forth by Joseph Duhr in 1932. Duhr pointed out that Lambert was in attendance at the Ravenna Council of 898, convened under Pope John IX. It was at this proceeding that the decrees of the Cadaver Synod were revoked. According to the written acta of the council, Lambert actively approved of the nullification. If Lambert and Angiltrude had been the architects of Formosus's degradation, Duhr asked, "how [...] was John IX able to submit to the canons which condemned the odious synod for approbation of the emperor [i.e., Lambert] and his bishops? How could John IX have dared to broach the matter [...] before the guilty parties, without even making the least allusion to the emperor's participation?"Joseph Duhr, "La concile de Ravenne in 898: la réhabilitation du pape Formose", Recherches de science religieuse 22 (1932), p. 546. This position has been accepted by another scholar: Girolamo Arnaldi argued that Formosus did not pursue an exclusively pro-Carolingian policy, and that he even had friendly relations with Lambert as late as 895. Their relations only soured when Lambert's cousin, Guy IV of Spoleto, marched on Benevento and expelled the Byzantines there. Formosus panicked at the aggression and sent emissaries into Bavaria seeking Arnulf's help.Girolamo Arnaldi, "Papa Formoso e gli imperatori della casa di Spoleto", Annali della facoltà di lettere e filosofia di Napoli 1 (1951), p. 85ff. Portions of this view had been argued earlier by G. Fasoli, I re d'Italia (Florence, 1949), 32ff. Arnaldi argues that it was Guy IV, who had entered Rome along with Lambert and his mother Angiltrude in January 897, who provided the impetus for the synod.Arnaldi, "Papa Formoso", p. 103.Synod
File:Tafel paepste.jpg|thumb|The list of popes buried in Saint Peter's Basilica includes the recovered body of Pope FormosusPope FormosusProbably around January 897, Stephen VI ordered that the corpse of his predecessor Formosus be removed from its tomb and brought to the papal court for judgment. With the corpse propped up on a throne, a deacon was appointed to answer for the deceased pontiff.Formosus was accused of transmigrating sees in violation of canon law, of perjury, and of serving as a bishop while actually a layman. Eventually, the corpse was found guilty. Liutprand of Cremona and other sources say that, after having the corpse stripped of its papal vestments, Stephen then cut off the three fingers of the right hand that it had used in life for blessings, next formally invalidating all of Formosus' acts and ordinations (including his ordination of Stephen VI as bishop of Anagni). The body was finally interred in a graveyard for foreigners, only to be dug up once again, tied to weights, and cast into the Tiber River.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}According to Liutprand, Stephen VI said: "When you were bishop of Porto, why did you usurp the universal Roman See in such a spirit of ambition?""Quo constituto...formosum e sepulcro extrahere atque in sedem Romani...collocare praecepit. Cui et ait: 'Cum Portuensis esses episcopus, cur ambitionis spiritu Romanam universalem usurpasti sedem?" Liutprand, Antapodosis, I.30 (CCCM 156, p. 23, ll. 639-43). Liutprand of Cremona's is perhaps the most convenient account of synod, though many additional details are furnished by the pro-Formosan Auxilius. Cf. Dümmler's edition, Auxilius und Vulgarius (Leipzig, 1866), chs. IV (p. 63ff) and X (p. 70ff) especially.Aftermath
The macabre spectacle turned public opinion in Rome against Stephen. Formosus' body washed up on the banks of the Tiber,WEB, JStor, CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, The Cadaver Synod: Putting a Dead Pope on Trial: Why did Pope Stephen VI go to such great lengths to destroy an enemy who was already dead?, 7 February 2019, Amelia Soth,weblink 29 August 2020, and rumor said it had begun to perform miracles. A public uprising deposed and imprisoned Stephen. He was strangled in prison in July or August 897.BOOK, Google Books,weblink Joseph Cummins, History's Great Untold Stories: Obscure Events of Lasting Importance, Allen & Unwin, 2011, 978-1742665122, In December 897 Pope Theodore II (897) convened a synod that annulled the Cadaver Synod, rehabilitated Formosus, and ordered that his body, which had been recovered from the Tiber, be reburied in Saint Peter's Basilica in pontifical vestments. In 898, John IX (898â900) also nullified the Cadaver Synod, convening one synod in Rome, and another in Ravenna. The two synods which affirmed the findings of Theodore II's synod, ordered the acta of the Cadaver Synod destroyed, excommunicated seven cardinals involved in the Cadaver Synod, and prohibited any future trial of a corpse.MAGAZINE, Wilkes Jr., Donald E., 31 October 2001, The Cadaver Synod: Strangest Trial in History,weblinkFlagpole Magazine>Flagpole, 8â9, Athens, GA, Pete McCommons, Digital Commons @ Georgia Law, 29 August 2020, However, Pope Sergius III (904â911), who as bishop had taken part in the Cadaver Synod as a co-judge, overturned the rulings of Theodore II and John IX, reaffirming Formosus's conviction,Williams, 2004, p. 11. and had a laudatory epitaph inscribed on the tomb of Stephen VI.See also
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