25 May 2026

In 897 AD, Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, dressed in papal vestments, propped on a throne, and put on trial. A deacon was appointed to speak for the dead man. Formosus was found guilty, stripped of his robes, and thrown in the Tiber. The spectacle so horrified Rome that Stephen was soon overthrown, imprisoned, and strangled.

The Cadaver Synod, Rome, 897 AD