The
Cadaver Synod is the name commonly given to the
posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosous, held in Rome
on January 897. During the procedings, the decomposing body of
Formosus, who had been dead for nine months, was dressed in his
papal vestments and seated on a throne while his successor, Pope
Stephen VII, read the charges against him and conducted the trial.
Formosus,
who had been appointed bishop of Porto, Italy in 864, had acceded
to the papacy in 891. At the Cadaver Synod, he was accused of
violating church law by serving as Bishop of Rome while he was
still the bishop of a different diocese. No official record of
the proceedings survives, but it is generally agreed that Pope
Stephen VII, together with a panel of judges appointed from among
the Roman clergy, presided over the trial. A deacon was designated
as Formosus's counsel and instructed to answer on his behalf.
The assembly observed the spectacle in silence, while Stephen
shouted accusations and insults at the dead man. At the end of
the synod, Formosus was found guilty, his election as pope was
declared invalid, all of his acts as pontiff were annulled, his
corpse was stripped of its vestments, and the three fingers used
for consecrations were hacked off. The body was then dressed in
ordinary clothes and buried. Shortly thereafter it was exhumed
and thrown into the River Tiber.
I
know I promised I'd never do any current events strips, but I
just can't pass up a chance like this.
I actually have a small series in mind in which Pope solves mysteries
secret agent-style, often with the help of the telepathic Dali
Lama. The police commissioner would be the ghost of Freddie Mercury.
