Pope Stephen VI

Pope
Stephen VI
Papacy began 22 May 896
Papacy ended August 897
Predecessor Boniface VI
Successor Romanus
Personal details
Born Rome[1]
Died August 897
Rome[1]
Other popes named Stephen

Pope Stephen VI (Latin: Stephanus VI; d. August 897) was Pope from 22 May 896 to his death in 897.

He had been made bishop of Anagni by Pope Formosus,[2] possibly against his will.[3]

Biography

The circumstances of his election as pope are unclear, but he was sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the house of Spoleto, that contested the papacy at the time.

Jean-Paul Laurens, Le Pape Formose et Étienne VII ("Pope Formosus and Stephen VII"), 1870. Note the latter is now called Pope Stephen VI.

Stephen is chiefly remembered in connection with his conduct towards the remains of Pope Formosus, his penultimate predecessor. 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 (or Synodus Horrenda) in January 897. Pressure from the Spoleto contingent and Stephen's fury with his predecessor probably precipitated this extraordinary event.[4]

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 receiving the pontificate while he was the bishop of Porto, 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' enemies of the House of Spoleto (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 strangling that summer.[5]

See also

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Stephen (VI) VII". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.

  1. 1 2 The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Stephen VI (or VII)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  2. ↑ Platina, Bartolomeo (1479), The Lives of the Popes From The Time Of Our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII, I, London: Griffith Farran & Co., pp. 237–238, retrieved 2013-04-25
  3. ↑ Mann, Horace. "Pope Stephen (VI) VII." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 21 September 2017
  4. ↑ Cummings, Joseph: "History's Great Untold Stories", page 14. National Geographic, 2006.
  5. ↑ O'Malley, John W., A History of the Popes, New York, Sheed & Ward, 2010
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Boniface VI		 Pope
896–897		 Succeeded by
Romanus
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