Pope Formosus

Formosus was born around 816 within the Papal States of Italy in the area surrounding Rome. Formosus's career became notable within the Church when he was appointed as cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Portus in 864. Shortly thereafter, Pope Nicholas I sent Formosus as a legate to Bulgaria in 866, where he served as a papal envoy and participated in the ordinations of Slavic followers of Cyril and Methodius of Rome. In 867, Boris I requested that Formosus be named archbishop of Bulgaria due to his connection with the bishop. The Church did not allow Formosus to change sees as Formosus already held the position of Archbishop of Portus. The transfer of sees went against canon law, as the Church viewed archbishops similarly to the way they viewed marriage. Bishops could not change sees unless it served the best interests of the Church, and Formosus's transfer was seen as transmigration, or the transfer of episcopal sees in the pursuit of personal ambition. Formosus was looking to expand his own influence within the Church, and there were few bishoprics within Europe as it was a vast wilderness with villages far and few between. If he were to take the position as bishop to Bulgaria, not only would Formosus be enforcing the Catholic Church's interests in an area near to the Orthodox Byzantine Empire, but he would also have control over a larger amount of land than his original see of Portus. He also undertook diplomatic missions to France in 869 and 872. Upon the death of Holy Roman Emperor Louis II of Italy in 875, the nobles elected his uncle Charles the Bald as the new emperor. Formosus conveyed Pope John VIII's invitation for Charles to come to Rome to be crowned. Charles took the crown at Pavia and received the imperial insignia in Rome on 29 December. The supporters of Louis' other uncle, Louis the German, and of Louis's widow, Engelberga, opposed the coronation. Fearing political retribution, many of them left Rome surreptitiously. Formosus fled to Tours. On 19 April, John VIII called a synod which ordered Formosus and other papal officials to return to Rome. When Formosus did not comply, he was removed from the ranks of the clergy and excommunicated on the grounds that he had deserted his diocese without papal permission, and had aspired to the position of archbishop of Bulgaria. Additional charges included the accusations that he had opposed the emperor; "conspired with certain iniquitous men and women for the destruction of the Papal See"; and had "despoiled the cloisters" in Rome. The condemnation of Formosus and others was announced in July 876. In 878 the sentence of excommunication was withdrawn after he promised never to return to Rome or exercise his priestly functions. As early as 872 he was a candidate for the papacy; Johann Peter Kirsch suggests that the Pope may have viewed him as a potential rival. In 883, John VIII's successor, Pope Marinus I, restored Formosus to his suburbicarian diocese of Portus. A key accusation that Pope Stephen VI accused Formosus of in the Cadaver Synod was that he abandoned his seat as Bishop of Porto to become the Bishop of Rome. This act was monumental because it had rarely ever been done, and the oath was seen as a serious matter. Following the reigns of Marinus, Pope Adrian III (884–885), and Pope Stephen V (885–891), Formosus was unanimously elected Pope on 6 October 891. ==Papacy==

'' Photian Schism Shortly after his election, Formosus was asked to intervene in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, where Photios I had been ejected and Stephen I, the son of Emperor Basil I, had taken the office. Popes had taken on more secular authority in Rome during the Ninth Century due to a decline of Roman urban administration. Formosus refused to reinstate those who had been ordained by Photios, as his predecessor, Stephen V, had nullified all of Photios's ordinations. However, the Eastern bishops determined to recognize Photios's ordinations nonetheless. Formosus simultaneously involved himself in the dispute between Odo of Paris and Charles the Simple for the French throne. Siding with Charles, Formosus zealously exhorted Odo to cede the throne to Charles, to no avail. Guy III of Spoleto Formosus later involved himself in another conflict, in which Arnulf of Carinthia, the King of Germany, was marching through Tuscany on his way to Rome, and was met with the forces of Guy III of Spoleto, now the Roman Emperor, at the gates of Ivrea. Arnulf took the city after a siege, which began a feud between the two powerful figures. Formosus had trouble building a relationship with Guy, which caused him to become deeply distrustful of Guy and begin to look for support against him. This act went against those of the previous popes, when the papacy's rule was dependent on their relationship with, and the image of, the emperor. On 4 April 896, Formosus died. The cause of his death remains unclear. He was succeeded by Boniface VI, whose papacy lasted 15 days. ==Legacy==

in 1870 Stephen VI, the successor of Boniface VI, influenced by Lambert and Agiltrude, sat in judgment of Formosus. In 897, nine months after Formosus's death, in what is known as the Cadaver Synod, where the pope’s body was exhumed and forced to stand trial. The Synod was an attempt for the church to distance itself from the memory of Formosus, and was an example of violence being used to destroy the symbolism behind the former pope. The corpse was disinterred, clad in papal vestments, and seated on a throne to face all the charges from John VIII. The verdict stated that the deceased pope had been unworthy of the pontificate, and the was applied to Formosus. All of Formosus's measures and acts were annulled, and the orders conferred by him were declared invalid. The papal vestments were torn from his body, the three fingers from his right hand he had used in blessings were cut off, and the corpse was thrown into the Tiber, later to be retrieved by fishermen. In certain historiographical essays, such as Dyan Elliott's "Violence Against the Dead: The Negative Translation and ‘Damnatio Memoriae’ in the Middle Ages," scholars depict the body of Pope Formosus as a victim of ecclesial politics and personal grudges, while others prefer to present Pope Stephen VI as a more benevolent figure attempting to correct the mistakes made by his predecessor. Following the death of Stephen VI, Formosus's body was reinterred in St Peter's Basilica. Further trials of this nature against deceased persons were banned, but Sergius III (904–911) reapproved the decisions against Formosus. Sergius demanded the re-ordination of the bishops consecrated by Formosus, who in turn had conferred orders on many other clerics, causing great confusion. Later, the validity of Formosus's pontificate was re-reinstated. The decision of Sergius with respect to Formosus has subsequently been universally disregarded by the Catholic Church, since Formosus's condemnation had little to do with piety and more to do with politics. In the history of the papacy, there has only been one pope Formosus, and he was a politically charged figure. Formosus lived through the fall of the Carolingian empire from within the church as a bishop, which left him uniquely suited to advance himself following the turmoil caused by the death of Charles the Fat. In order to amass power, Formosus was violently political as shown by his dealings with the Saracens and his attempted bishopric of in Bulgaria as he attempted to gain power for himself. Formosus tried to force the church to bend to his will through his promise to crown Arnulf of Carinthia emperor, and made political moves to keep to the legacy of the fallen Carolingians. These actions went against the Church and eventually led to Formosus's own downfall. Given the political nature of his actions, future popes would refuse to adopt the name Formosus as they wanted to distance themselves from the controversial nature of his actions. Primary Source Account - Liudprand of Cremona Few primary sources document the Cadaver Synod. The most well-known account comes from Liudprand of Cremona (c. 920-972), a historian, diplomat, and later Bishop of Cremona. His book, Antapodosis (Retribution) offers a secondhand account of the events, written roughly 60 years after the synod took place. Composed for the records of Bishop Recemundus of Elvira, Liudprand included Formosus and his posthumous trial as part of a wider analysis on late-Carolingian era Italy. Liudprand wrote Antapodosis during a period of exile from the court of King Berengar II of Italy. As Berengar held very loose familial connection to the Carolingian dynasty, his legitimacy relied on a perception of longstanding social stability. Liudprand sought to ruin this perception and discredit his rival. His work connected the desecration of Formosus’ body to a corrupt and chaotic church protected by Berengar’s predecessors. As a result, historians recognize that the coverage of the Cadaver Synod in Antapodosis likely contains added details that exaggerate the savagery of the event; however, the account remains a leading piece of scholarship for interpreting the trial due to the rarity of viable alternatives. ==References==