In January 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus dug up from its tomb, dressed in papal robes, and propped up on a throne to stand trial for crimes including “coveting the papacy” and illegally switching dioceses. The decomposing body was assigned a teenage deacon as its defense attorney while Stephen screamed accusations at it, and the inevitable guilty verdict resulted in the corpse having its three blessing fingers cut off before being thrown into the Tiber River.
The macabre spectacle backfired spectacularly when the body was recovered (reportedly performing miracles), an earthquake damaged the very basilica where the trial was held, and Stephen himself was deposed and strangled in prison within months. The so-called “Cadaver Synod” remains one of history’s most bizarre examples of political revenge, proving that medieval church politics made modern cancel culture look like amateur hour.
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