Editing Pope Stephen VI (section)

==Pontificate==
The circumstances of his election as [[pope]] are unclear, but he was sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the [[dukes of Spoleto]], 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.<ref>Cummings, Joseph: "History's Great Untold Stories", page 14. National Geographic, 2006.</ref> 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 accepting the papacy while he was the [[bishop of Portus]], among other revived charges that had been levelled against him in the strife during the pontificate of [[Pope John VIII|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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Soth |first1=Amelia |title=The Cadaver Synod: Putting a Dead Pope on Trial |date=7 February 2019 |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-cadaver-synod-putting-a-dead-pope-on-trial/ |publisher=JSTOR |access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>

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 [[strangling| strangulation]] that summer.<ref name=O'Malley>O'Malley, John W., [https://books.google.com/books?id=sWHwrmZowu8C&dq=Cadaver+Synod&pg=PA80 ''A History of the Popes''], New York, Sheed & Ward, 2010, page 79.</ref>