DIGGING UP THE PAST: Inside the Shocking 9th-Century Trial Where the Accused Was Already Dead
DIGGING UP THE PAST: Inside the Shocking 9th-Century Trial Where the Accused Was Already Dead · Avonetics
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In January of 897 AD, the high-stakes political drama inside Rome's Basilica of Saint John Lateran reached an unbelievable level of absurdity. Pope Stephen VI, furious at his deceased predecessor Pope Formosus, decided that a standard post-mortem condemnation simply would not suffice. He ordered local guards to grab shovels, march to the papal tomb, and dig up Formosus, who had been dead and decomposing underground for nine full months.
What followed remains one of the most grotesque legal proceedings ever recorded. Guards propped up the rotting body on an ornate wooden throne, dressing the corpse in full, magnificent papal vestments. To complete the legal farce, Stephen VI assigned a terrified 18-year-old deacon to stand next to the decomposing corpse and serve as its defense attorney.
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Witnesses at the time described a surreal spectacle. Pope Stephen VI spent hours screaming at the silent corpse, accusing Formosus of perjury, canon law violations, and unlawfully seizing the papacy. Whenever the pope paused for breath, the young deacon was expected to utter stuttered apologies on behalf of the deceased. Unsurprisingly, the court found the corpse guilty on all counts.
The punishment was instantaneous and brutal. Executioners ripped the holy robes from the body, leaving it in rags. They chopped off the three fingers of Formosus's right hand—the exact fingers used to deliver holy papal blessings. Finally, a mob dragged the corpse through the cobbled streets of Rome before plunging it into the icy waters of the Tiber River.
Reactions from modern readers and historians alike reflect utter bewilderment. One legal observer noted that while political trials are common throughout history, putting a rotting corpse through formal cross-examination reveals a terrifying level of political paranoia. Another historian argued that the trial was less about madness and more about cold legal maneuvering: by declaring Formosus an illegal pope, every bishop he had ever appointed was instantly stripped of power, wiping out Stephen’s political rivals in one stroke.
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However, Stephen VI underestimated how Rome's public would react to the grotesque spectacle. Shortly after the trial ended, a violent earthquake shook Rome, collapsing part of the Lateran Basilica. Believing the heavens were punishing the city for sacrilege, the citizens of Rome revolted. Within seven months, Pope Stephen VI was overthrown, stripped of his office, thrown into a dungeon, and strangled to death.
Though a later pope pulled Formosus's body from the river and gave it a proper burial, the bizarre legal precedent sent shockwaves through church history, eventually forcing the Vatican to pass a strict law forbidding the trial of dead people forever.
On the latest episode of History Uncut, the hosts dig into the wild political blood feuds, imperial backstabbing, and incredible aftermath of history's most insane courtroom battle.
