Cadaver Synod - Remote Context

Remote Context

The Cadaver Synod and related events took place during a period of political instability in Italy. This period, which lasted from the middle of the 9th century to the middle of the 10th century, was marked by a rapid succession of pontiffs. Often, these brief papal reigns were the result of the political machinations of local Roman factions, about which few sources survive.

Formosus became bishop of Porto in 864 during the pontificate of Pope Nicholas I. He carried out missionary activity among the Bulgarians, and was so successful that they requested him for their bishop. Nicholas refused his permission, because an appointment in Bulgaria would require Formosus to leave his see in Porto, and the fifteenth canon of the Second Council of Nicaea forbade a bishop to leave his own see to administer another.

In 875, shortly after Charles the Bald's imperial coronation, Formosus fled Rome in fear of then-pope John VIII. A few months later in 876, at a synod in Santa Maria Rotunda, John VIII issued a series of accusations against Formosus and some of his associates. He asserted that Formosus had corrupted the mind of the Bulgarians "so that, so long as was alive, would not accept any other bishop from the apostolic see," that he and his fellow conspirators had attempted to usurp the papacy from John, and finally that he had deserted his see in Porto and was conspiring "against the salvation of the republic and of our beloved Charles ." Formosus and his associates were excommunicated.

In 878, at another council held at Troyes, John may have confirmed the excommunications. He also legislated more generally against those who "plunder" ecclesiastical goods. According to the tenth-century author Auxilius of Naples, Formosus was also present at this council. Auxilius says he begged the bishops for their forgiveness, and in return for the lifting of the excommunication, swore an oath to remain a layman for the rest of his life, to never again enter Rome, and to make no attempts to reassume his former see at Porto. This story is doubtful: another description of the synod does not mention Formosus’ presence and says instead that John confirmed his excommunication.

After the death of John VIII in December 882, Formosus' troubles ended. He reassumed his bishopric at Porto, where he remained until elected pope on 6 October 891. Yet this earlier quarrel with John VIII formed the basis of the accusations made at the Cadaver Synod. According to the tenth-century historian Liutprand of Cremona, Stephen (VI) VII asked Formosus' corpse why he "usurped the universal Roman See in such a spirit of ambition" after the death of John VIII, echoing John VIII's own assertion that Formosus had tried to seize the papal throne while he was alive. Two further accusations were also made against Formosus at the Cadaver Synod: that he had committed perjury, and that he had attempted to exercise the office of bishop as a layman. These are related to the oath Formosus is said to have sworn before the council at Troyes in 878.