That One Time a Dead Pope Stood Trial
History is filled with strange events that would never happen in the modern world. One of these events was the Cadaver Synod, when a dead pope was forced to stand trial for his crimes. Pope Formosus had been dead for seven months, when the acting Pope Stephen VI demanded that the body should be exhumed. Stephen wanted Formosus to pay for his alleged crimes. He accused the man of illegally obtaining his role as Pope, and that he presided over more than one diocese at the same time.
Obviously, Formosus had nothing to say in his own defense, so he lost the trial by default. His papacy was retroactively declared null and void. Surely, Pope Stephen hoped that by doing this, he could erase Pope Formosus from history. But what really happened is that he made himself look like a crazy person in the history books.
