The Cadaver Synod of 897

In January 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, to be exhumed nine months after death, dressed in papal vestments, and put on trial. The deceased pope was propped up on a throne in the papal court, with a teenage deacon appointed to speak for the rotting corpse. Formosus was found guilty of perjury and violating canon law. As punishment, the three fingers of his right hand used for benediction were cut off, his papal vestments were torn off, and his corpse was thrown into the Tiber River. A hermit later recovered the body. Public outrage was immediate—a riot broke out, Stephen VI was deposed and strangled in prison, and subsequent popes overturned the conviction. Formosus was reburied in St. Peter's Basilica, then exhumed again, re-condemned, then rehabilitated again in a series of papal flip-flops.