In January 897, a dead man was dressed in papal vestments, propped on a throne in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, and put on trial for crimes against the Church. The defendant was Pope ...

In 897 AD, the Catholic Church staged a disturbing event that still shocks historians. Pope Stephen VI demanded that the body of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, be dug up and placed on trial in Rome.

You would expect the pope to be a stand-up guy with a strict moral code, right? Well that certainly wasn't the case with Pope Stephen VI, or VII, depending on who you ask. While Stephen wasn't one the ...

This guy was such a jerk that a year after he died, his successor dug him up and put his corpse on trial for the “crime” of being a shitty pope. For real. Google it. Formosus foolishly insisted on ...