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Pope Stephen VII exhumed the body of his predecessor, dressed it in papal vestments, and seated it on a throne to undergo a trial, with Stephen presiding. The pretext of these proceedings was that, contrary to the laws of the church, Formosus had agreed to be the bishop of Rome while he was still the bishop of another diocese. His actual offense was that he had crowned as Emperor one of the illegitimate descendants of Charlemagne, after he had already crowned the candidate favored by Pope Stephen.
The corpse was granted the benefit of a defender, who nevertheless did not speak, as Pope Stephen shouted accusations and insults at the dead man. Formosus was declared guilty. His corpse was stripped, dressed in the clothes of a layman, and three fingers were cut from its right handAlternate meanings: Hand (disambiguation A human left hand The hand ( med. manus) is a portion of the arm or anterior limb of a human or other primate, at where the appendage terminates. This part of the limb is especially used in grasping and holding.; the body was then buried, quickly exhumed, dragged through the streets of Rome and then thrown into the TiberThe River Tiber ( Italian Tevere , the third longest river in Italy at 406 km (252 miles) after the Po, flows through the Campagna and Rome in its course from Mount Fumaiolo to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which it reaches in two branches that cross the suburbs of. The ordinations performed by Formosus were annulled.
The macabre spectacle did not advance Stephen's purposes. Formosus's supporters rebelled, resulting in Stephen being deposed and imprisoned. Then, in July or August of 897, Stephen was strangled to death.
Later, Pope Theodore IITheodore II was the son of Photius. He was ordained as a priest by Pope Stephen VI; also his brother Theotius was a bishop. He was pope for twenty days during December 897 before he died. He reinstated the clerics who had been forced from office by Pope S, who served for 20 days in November, 897, used his brief time to anull the Cadaver Synod and to restore Formosus. His body was returned to Saint Peter's Basilica, where it was clothed again in the pontifical vestments, and interred in its own tomb. Pope John IXJohn IX pope from 898 to 900, not only confirmed the judgment of his predecessor Theodore II in granting Christian burial to Formosus, but at a council held at Ravenna decreed that the records of the synod which had condemned him should be burned. Finding also nullified the Cadaver Synod and made unlawful any future trial of a dead person.
Pope Sergius IIISergius III succeeded Christopher as pope in 904 and reigned till 911. His pontificate, so far as is known, was remarkable for nothing but the rise of the pornocracy of Theodora and her daughters. Sergius restored the Lateran palace, which had been shatte, who reigned from 904 to 911, overturned the synods of Theodore II and John IX, reaffirming Formosus's conviction. He went so far as to place a laudatory epitaph on the tomb of Stephen VII. His decisions were not reversed; however, Sergius III is regarded in the Catholic Church as a murderer and an immoral man. His pronouncements concerning the Cadaver Trial are disregarded.