The Pope Who Put a Corpse on Trial - Because Apparently Dying Wasn't Enough to Escape Papal Court Hearings and Aggressive Cross-Examinations #1010413

The Pope Who Put a Corpse on Trial
Because Apparently Dying Wasn't Enough to Escape Papal Court Hearings and Aggressive Cross-Examinations
What happens when a pope dies—but his enemies aren't finished with him?
In 897 CE, Rome witnessed one of the strangest spectacles in medieval history. The body of Pope Formosus was dug from its grave, dressed in papal robes, placed upon a throne, and brought before a church court.
Yes, the defendant was dead.
And yes, there was still a trial.
Known to history as the Cadaver Synod, this bizarre episode was more than a grotesque medieval curiosity. Beneath the spectacle was a bitter struggle involving popes, rival political factions, royal ambitions, disputed authority, and the extraordinary instability of ninth-century Italy.
Formosus was accused of serious offenses. His corpse was questioned. A representative answered for him. His previous decisions as pope were challenged. Then came the verdict—and the punishment became even stranger.
But the real story does not end when the corpse leaves the courtroom.
The Pope Who Put a Corpse on Trial explores the people, politics, religious conflicts, ambitions, and astonishing chain of events that produced one of the most infamous courtroom spectacles in papal history.
Darkly funny, dramatic, and packed with historical trivia, this book takes readers into a medieval Rome where papal power could become personal, political grudges could survive death, and apparently even a pope's corpse could be summoned to court.
Sometimes history is stranger than fiction. Sometimes history has a courtroom, a dead pope, and absolutely no idea where the line should be drawn.