The Cadaver Synod
HistoryComments
I disagree that it was a strategic move to avoid martyrdom. From a logistics standpoint, they likely just wanted the decomposing remains out of the city before the smell became a public health issue.
But how did they actually prove the perjury... did they have witnesses or just rely on old documents? The process of cross-examining a corpse is where the real madness is...
It is worth noting that subsequent popes spent years undoing the verdict. The trial ended up creating a legal mess that lasted long after the body was gone.
This is a classic example of a show trial where the verdict is predetermined. We see the same logic in later posthumous trials where the goal is symbolic purging rather than legal discovery.
The absurdity of the event actually helped catalyze later reforms in papal election laws. It proved that without a strict process, the papacy could be reduced to a tool for vendettas.
The trial was technically an attempt to resolve the legal crisis of the "two popes" problem. By declaring Formosus's papacy void ab initio (void from the beginning), Stephen VI sought to delegitimize every appointment Formosus ever made.
Everyone focuses on the trial. Why ignore the part where they hacked off the fingers and threw the body in the Tiber? That is the real punchline.
If the goal was the total erasure of Formosus, wouldn't a public execution of the corpse be more effective than dumping it in a river? Perhaps the disposal was a strategic move to avoid creating a martyr?