Pope Stephen VI ( la, Stephanus VI; died August 897) was the
bishop of Rome
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
and ruler of the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
from 22 May 896 to his death. He is best known for instigating the
Cadaver Synod, which ultimately led to his downfall and death.
Family and career
Stephen was born in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
His father was a priest named John. Stephen was made
bishop of Anagni
The Diocese of Anagni-Alatri ( la, Dioecesis Anagnina-Alatrina) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Lazio, Italy. It has existed in its current form since 1986. In that year the Diocese of Alatri was un ...
by
Pope Formosus
Pope Formosus (896) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the ...
, possibly against his will.
Pontificate
The circumstances of his election as
pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
are unclear, but he was sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the
dukes of Spoleto
The Duke of Spoleto was the ruler of Spoleto and most of central Italy outside the Papal States during the Early and High Middle Ages (c. 500 – 1300). The first dukes were appointed by the Lombard king, but they were independent in practice. Th ...
, that contested the papacy at the time.
Stephen is chiefly remembered in connection with his conduct towards the remains of Pope Formosus. 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 in January 897. Pressure from the Spoleto contingent and Stephen's fury with Formosus probably precipitated this extraordinary event.
[Cummings, Joseph: "History's Great Untold Stories", page 14. National Geographic, 2006.] With the corpse propped up on a throne, a
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
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 accepting the papacy 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
The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...
. All ordinations performed by Formosus were annulled.
The trial excited a tumult. Though the instigators of the deed may actually have been Formosus' Spoletan enemies, 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
strangulation that summer.
[O'Malley, John W.]
''A History of the Popes''
New York, Sheed & Ward, 2010.
See also
*
List of popes who died violently
References
Sources
*
*Jégou, Laurent (2015)
"Compétition autour d'un cadavre. Le procès du Pape Formose et ses enjeux (896-904)." ''Revue Historique'' vol. 317, no. 3 (675), 2015, pp. 499–523. Accessed 11 April 2020.
*Leyser, Conrad (2010)
"Episcopal Office in the Italy of Liudprand of Cremona, C.890-c.970."''The English Historical Review'' 125, no. 515 (2010), pp. 795–817, at pp. 800–802; 811–813. Accessed 11 April 2020.
*
*
*Di Vito Loré, Marina C. Sarramia (2019)
"Stefano VI, papa."''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' Volume 94 (Treccani: 2019).
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Popes
Italian popes
Bishops of Anagni
Year of birth missing
897 deaths
9th-century archbishops
9th-century popes
Deaths by strangulation
Heads of government who were later imprisoned
Burials at St. Peter's Basilica