GRAVEYARD COURT: Inside the Twisted Medieval Trial Where a Pope’s Rotting Corpse Was Put on the Stand!

In January 897 AD, the ultimate courtroom showdown takes place inside Rome's majestic Basilica of St. John Lateran. But there is a horrifying twist: one of the defendants on trial has been dead for nine months.

Welcome to the Cadaver Synod, the most macabre political drama in ancient European history. Driven by blood feuds and political rivalry, Pope Stephen VI orders the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, exhumed from his tomb. The decomposing body is dressed in full papal robes, crowned with a tiara, and propped upright in a throne to face charges of high treason and church law violations.

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To make the scene even stranger, Stephen VI assigns an eighteen-year-old deacon to stand next to the decaying pontiff. The terrified teenager's job? Function as the official defense attorney and speak on behalf of the corpse whenever questions are shouted across the room.

Eyewitness accounts from the era describe Pope Stephen VI pacing back and forth across the altar, screaming accusations directly into the dead man's face. Whenever the room falls silent, the trembling teenage deacon whispers meek excuses on behalf of the corpse.

Midway through the trial, an earthquake reportedly shakes the cathedral walls. While modern geologists note Rome's seismic history, locals at the time view it as a terrifying sign of divine anger.

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Unsurprisingly, the dead pope loses the case. Court officials execute the sentence immediately inside the basilica. Executioners strip Formosus of his holy robes and hack off the three fingers on his right hand—the ones used to give sacred blessings. They drag the body through the dirt streets of Rome before throwing it into the Tiber River.

One modern commentator noted that the trial wasn't just mad hatred, but a high-stakes legal loop. Invalidating Formosus allowed the ruling political faction to cancel every law, appointment, and crown he had ever handed out.

However, the horrifying public stunt backfires completely. The citizens of Rome, outraged by the desecration of a dead body, form an angry mob seven months later. They storm the papal palace, drag Pope Stephen VI into a dungeon, and strangle him to death in his cell.

The hosts of History Uncut dig into every twisted, bloody detail of this gruesome medieval courtroom drama on this week's episode.