Editing Pope Stephen VI

{{short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 896 to 897}}
{{Redirect|Stephen VI|the Moldavian ruler|Ştefan VI Rareş}}
{{Pope Stephen ToP Dab|VI}}
{{Infobox Christian leader 
| type = Pope
|honorific-prefix=[[List of popes|Pope]]
|title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
|name=Stephen VI
|image =
|caption =
|birth_name=
|church = [[Catholic Church]]
|term_start=22 May 896
|term_end=August 897
|predecessor=[[Boniface VI]]
|successor=[[Pope Romanus|Romanus]]
|birth=
|birth_place=[[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
|death_date=August 897
|death_place=Rome, Papal States
|other=Stephen
}}
[[File:Jean Paul Laurens Le Pape Formose et Etienne VI 1870.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Paul Laurens]], ''Le Pape Formose et Étienne VI'', 1870; Stephen (at left) accuses the corpse of his predecessor Formosus (seated right)]]

'''Pope Stephen VI''' ({{langx|la|Stephanus VI}}; died August 897) was the [[bishop of Rome]] and ruler of the [[Papal States]] from 22 May 896 until his death in August 897. 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]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-VI-or-VII |title=Stephen VI (or VII) |author=((The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica)) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref> His father was a priest named John. Stephen was made [[bishop of Anagni]] by [[Pope Formosus]],<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Platina
  | first = Bartolomeo
  | author-link = Bartolomeo Platina
  | title = The Lives of the Popes From The Time Of Our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII
  | publisher = Griffith Farran & Co.
  | location = London
  | pages = 237–238
  | volume = I
  | year= 1479
  | url = https://archive.org/details/thelivesofthepop01platuoft
   | access-date= 25 April 2013
}}</ref> possibly against his will.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14289d.htm Mann, Horace. "Pope Stephen (VI) VII." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Retrieved: 21 September 2017.</ref>

==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>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[List of popes who died violently]]
*''[[The Bad Popes]]''

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book|last= Dümmler|first=Ernst|title=Auxilius und Vulgarius: Quellen und Forschungen zu Geschichte des Papsttums im Anfange des zehnten Jahrhunderts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=484uAAAAYAAJ|year=1866|publisher=S. Hirzel|language=de, la|pages=9–12; 71–72, 95}}
*Jégou, Laurent (2015). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/44784615 "Compétition autour d'un cadavre. Le procès du Pape Formose et ses enjeux (896-904)."] {{in lang|fr}} ''Revue Historique'' vol. 317, no. 3 (675), 2015, pp.&nbsp;499–523. Accessed 11 April 2020.
*Leyser, Conrad (2010). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/40784369 "Episcopal Office in the Italy of Liudprand of Cremona, C.890-c.970."] ''The English Historical Review'' 125, no. 515 (2010), pp.&nbsp;795–817, at pp.&nbsp;800–802; 811–813. Accessed 11 April 2020. 
*{{cite book |last1=Llewellyn |first1=Peter |title=Rome in the Dark Ages |date=1971 |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |pages=292–296}}
*{{cite book|last=Mann|first=Horace Kinder |title=The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5EOAQAAIAAJ|volume=IV, 891-999|year=1910|publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner|location=London|pages=68–85}}
*Di Vito Loré, Marina C. Sarramia (2019). [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/papa-stefano-vi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ "Stefano VI, papa."] ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' {{in lang|it}} Volume 94 (Treccani: 2019).

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Boniface VI]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=896–897}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Romanus|Romanus]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen 06}}
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Bishops of Anagni]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:897 deaths]]
[[Category:9th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:9th-century popes]]
[[Category:Deaths by strangulation]]
[[Category:Heads of government who were later imprisoned]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]