Why Was Queen Victoria Such a Prude? …and other historical myths and follies by David Haviland

Author:David Haviland [Haviland, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Reference
ISBN: 978-1909609013
Publisher: Thistle Publishing
Published: 2013-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Body Politic

‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’

L. P. Hartley (1895-1972)

What was unusual about the trial of Pope Formosus?

The man who would become Pope Formosus was born in around 816, although his birth name has been lost to history. He rose through the church, becoming Cardinal Bishop of Porto, a town just south of Rome, in 864. In 872 he was a candidate for the papacy itself, but after losing out to Pope John VIII, he found himself under attack from the new pontiff. Pope John convened a synod (which means a church meeting or council) to hear various charges against Formosus, including that he had conspired against the Holy See, deserted his diocese without papal permission, and despoiled the cloisters in Rome. Under threat of excommunication, Formosus was banished from Rome.

In 883 Pope John was succeeded by Pope Marinus I, and Formosus returned to favour, and to his diocese of Porto. Two further popes followed Marinus, before Formosus himself was elected in 891. Formosus is considered to have been a spiritual man, and a good pope in the context of the times, but he soon made a number of important enemies, including the powerful Spoleto family. Despite this, Formosus held on to his position until his death in 896, when he was succeeded by Pope Boniface VI. Boniface’s reign lasted for just 15 days, after which he was probably forced out by the Spoleto camp, who handed the papacy to Pope Stephen VI, one of Formosus’s former enemies.

Stephen now decided to put the deceased Formosus on trial, in what has become known as the Cadaver Synod. Formosus’s body was dug up, dressed in papal robes, and seated on a throne. The prosecution was led by Pope Stephen himself, who ranted furiously at the corpse, charging Formosus with the same offences he had faced under Pope John VIII. A young deacon was appointed to speak on Formosus’s behalf, but he wisely said little. Technically, Formosus had been guilty of some of the charges. He had broken the canon prohibiting the transfer of bishops from one See to another, and he was also guilty of coveting the papacy, but no one thought it wise to point out to Pope Stephen that he himself was equally guilty of the same offences.

The verdict was a formality, and Formosus was declared to have been unworthy of the pontificate, and so all his actions were annulled, which meant that any bishops consecrated by him, and indeed any priests ordained by them, were no longer valid, which caused enormous confusion. The papal vestments were ripped from Formosus’s corpse, and the three fingers used to give papal blessings were cut from his right hand. Formosus’s body was then thrown into the Tiber, but it was later retrieved by a monk.

After this, things became even more absurd. When Stephen died in 897, Formosus’s body was laid to rest in St Peter’s, before being exhumed and put on trial a second time, by Pope Sergius III in 904.

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