The circumstances of his election as
pope are unclear, but he was sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the
dukes of Spoleto, that contested the papacy at the time. An earthquake severely damaged the
Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran during Stephen VI's tenure and the poor state of Papal finances meant that it was not repaired for years. The structure was not repaired until the reign of
Pope Sergius III. Stephen is chiefly remembered in connection with his conduct towards the remains of Pope Formosus. The rotting corpse of Formosus was exhumed and put on trial, before an unwilling synod of the Roman clergy, in the so-called
Cadaver Synod in January 897. Pressure from the Spoleto contingent and Stephen's fury with Formosus probably precipitated this extraordinary event. With the corpse propped up on a throne, a
deacon was appointed to answer for the deceased pontiff. During the trial, Formosus's corpse was condemned for performing the functions of a bishop when he had been deposed and for accepting the papacy while he was the
bishop of Portus, among other revived charges that had been levelled against him in the strife during the pontificate of
John VIII. The corpse was found guilty, stripped of its sacred vestments, deprived of three fingers of its right hand (the blessing fingers), clad in the garb of a layman, and quickly buried; it was then re-exhumed and thrown in the
Tiber. All ordinations performed by Formosus were annulled. The trial excited a tumult. Though the instigators of the deed may actually have been Formosus' Spoletan enemies, notably
Guy IV of Spoleto, who had recovered their authority in Rome at the beginning of 897 by renouncing their broader claims in
central Italy, the scandal ended in Stephen's imprisonment and his death by
strangulation that summer. ==See also==