In January 897, Pope Stephen VI had his predecessor Formosus dug out of his tomb. The corpse was dressed in papal robes, propped on a throne in the Lateran basilica and put on trial.
A deacon stood beside the body and answered for it. The charges were real under Church law: Formosus had been bishop of another city when elected, and he had returned to Rome while banned from it. The trial lasted for days. The corpse sat through all of it.
The verdict was guilty. The body was stripped of its robes, three fingers were cut from its right hand and it was thrown into the Tiber. Every act Formosus had performed as pope was declared void.
Rome did not take it well. What happened to Stephen VI before the end of that summer is the part the textbooks leave out. It is where the story gets good.
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