Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm de Believing Chalk Reboarding, and
Speaker 1: we are continuing with our Spooky Halloween October series and
Speaker 1: we figured it would be the perfect time to discuss
Speaker 1: an exhimation. And people do suggest exhlimations to us pretty regularly.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, isn't it always the perfect
Speaker 1: time to discuss an exhimation, is if it is stuff
Speaker 1: you missed in history class, But we promised that most
Speaker 1: of the time we don't go looking for these exclamations.
Speaker 1: They just kind of happen. It will be something completely
Speaker 1: unrelated to a potentially disinterred body, and then suddenly there
Speaker 1: is one, so it's kind of a surprise. But this
Speaker 1: one is not a surprise. The exhimation is really pretty
Speaker 1: impossible to avoid, and it's actually what drove listeners like
Speaker 1: Matthew and Naomi and Barry, as well as our friend
Speaker 1: and former coworker Molly Edmunds to suggest this topic to
Speaker 1: us in the first place, because it's a strange, strange topic.
Speaker 1: I mean to make the most obvious understatement, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: really is unusual. And like most exhamations that we mentioned
Speaker 1: on the podcast, this one wasn't done to verify a
Speaker 1: cause of death or to relocate the body. It was
Speaker 1: done to place the months old corpse on trial. So
Speaker 1: of course we have to address the question why would
Speaker 1: anyone disenter a body to put it on trial. Why, indeed,
Speaker 1: especially when that body wasn't just anyone but was a
Speaker 1: former pope. So Encyclopedia Britannica always a good place to
Speaker 1: start if you want a general picture for the basics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they call this trial one of the most bizarre incidents
Speaker 1: in papal history, but you could also call it one
Speaker 1: of the most brutal incidents, one of the most disturbing incidents.
Speaker 1: But dead pope on trial wasn't just this freakish event
Speaker 1: at the time. Before we talk about the trial and
Speaker 1: the specific popes and players involved, we have to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about a dark time called the papal pornocracy. Uh,
Speaker 1: it was, like I said, a series of kind of
Speaker 1: dark years that started just before the end of the
Speaker 1: Carolingian Imperial line in eight eight. So we're talking way
Speaker 1: back this old podcast. So first, just to give you
Speaker 1: a little context, we'll talk about something a little more recent.
Speaker 1: After the death of Pope John Paul the second few
Speaker 1: years back, people around the world, including non Catholics, learned
Speaker 1: a little bit about the papal electoral process called a conclave.
Speaker 1: But the pope hasn't always been elected by a conclave,
Speaker 1: and in the ninth and tenth centuries the selection process
Speaker 1: had a lot of input from Roman noble families and
Speaker 1: German princes. Now these families put forward their own candidates
Speaker 1: and had their own factions, and according to papal historian
Speaker 1: horse k Man quote, the one aim of each party,
Speaker 1: pursued by every resource of violence and intrigue, was to
Speaker 1: get control of the chair of St. Peter. It's occupant
Speaker 1: must be one of theirs at all costs. So it
Speaker 1: kind of figures that there would be quite a bit
Speaker 1: of trouble plus a pretty high turnover. And that's also
Speaker 1: a bit of an understatement. A third of the popes
Speaker 1: elected between eight seventy two and ten twelve died under
Speaker 1: suspicious circumstances, and between eight ninety six and nine oh four,
Speaker 1: the most violent unstable period, there were nine popes. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a remarkably high turnover, even considering that these are
Speaker 1: older fellows most of the time, even when they're actually
Speaker 1: not always old. But our story takes place in eight
Speaker 1: n so really right in the thick of this highly controversial,
Speaker 1: unsettled time, and we're gonna start with the pope who
Speaker 1: started off this high turnover decade, Pope for Moses, who
Speaker 1: is also are exhumed man on trial unfortunately for him.
Speaker 1: And I thought it was interesting because it's not just
Speaker 1: his um the terrible things that happened to him in death,
Speaker 1: but the ups and downs of his predeath religious career
Speaker 1: kind of epitomized the hazards of the time of being
Speaker 1: pope or or being um somebody who was a contender
Speaker 1: to be pope. So he had been born in Rome
Speaker 1: in about eight sixteen, and he was made a cardinal
Speaker 1: bishop in eight sixty four by Pope St. Nicholas the First.
Speaker 1: We're going to really rattle off a lot of successors
Speaker 1: of his in this brief life story. You may want
Speaker 1: to take note. Pope Adrian the Second had sent Um,
Speaker 1: the future Pope Formosis on missions to France, where he
Speaker 1: had performed quite well. He was highly regarded then under
Speaker 1: Pope John the Ape, he had been exiled and excommunicated,
Speaker 1: and um there were some pretty outrageous reasons for this,
Speaker 1: like despoiling cloisters, and it's seemed pretty obviously political since
Speaker 1: for Mosas had, like I said, a good reputation. He
Speaker 1: was considered ascetic and considered a very peaceful, intelligent man,
Speaker 1: So the reasons for this excommunication were probably more that
Speaker 1: he was himself a good contender to be pope. But
Speaker 1: after time he was pardoned but still not allowed to return.
Speaker 1: Then eventually another pope, Pope Marinis the first, allowed him
Speaker 1: back to Rome and returned him to his position, And
Speaker 1: then under the next two popes, st Adrian the Third
Speaker 1: and Stephen the Fifth sometimes Stephen the sixth, he finally
Speaker 1: grew more powerful. So that's quite a busy life story
Speaker 1: just leading up to his eight ninety one election, where
Speaker 1: he himself becomes pope. Under Stephen, though some big political
Speaker 1: things had gone down, so we should tell you a
Speaker 1: little bit about that too. Charles the fat, the last
Speaker 1: Carolingian in the Imperial line, had died in his place.
Speaker 1: Stephen had reluctantly round Duke Guido of Spoleto out of
Speaker 1: a mess of contenders. Roman emperor, but by doing so
Speaker 1: he was giving tremendous power to an uncomfortably close neighbor
Speaker 1: of the papal states. So when for Mosis was elected,
Speaker 1: he also had to go along with Stephen and recognized
Speaker 1: Guido and his son Lambert as co Roman emperors. But
Speaker 1: just because for Moses recognized Guido and Lambert as co
Speaker 1: Roman empress didn't mean he was one behind them. In fact,
Speaker 1: he asked his own preferred candidate, this guy, King Arnulf
Speaker 1: of the East Franks, to come and invade Italy and
Speaker 1: take care of Guido, get rid of him, and get
Speaker 1: rid of his whole faction. And it almost worked. Arnulf
Speaker 1: launched a campaign to Italy and an eight for Moses
Speaker 1: did crown him emperor in Rome, so it seemed like
Speaker 1: almost success. But before Arnolf could actually battle Lambert out
Speaker 1: in Spoleto, Guido had by this point died. The German
Speaker 1: contender was struck by paralysis, and that's what you'll see
Speaker 1: it described as in miss First. I guess this is
Speaker 1: the eight hundreds, so we don't get too many more
Speaker 1: details than that. But anyway, Arnulf was out of the running.
Speaker 1: He had to quit, and not too long after that
Speaker 1: Formosis died, so it kind of seems like the end
Speaker 1: of this immediate story, but that was not the case
Speaker 1: at all. The story of Formosis actually picked up just
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks later after the brief pontificate of
Speaker 1: Boniface the sixth, when a new pope was again elected,
Speaker 1: Stephen the sixth, there's sometimes the seventh. Unlike Formosis, Stephen
Speaker 1: was a supporter of the splatant party Lambert and his mother,
Speaker 1: the Duchess Aggultrude, But he didn't just support them in
Speaker 1: traditional dignified ways. He agreed to conduct a trial to
Speaker 1: punish his predecessor who had betrayed them. So less than
Speaker 1: a year after Formosis had died, Stephen had him disinterred,
Speaker 1: dressed in papal vestiments, and enthroned. Stephen acted as a
Speaker 1: secutor here in this trial, charging for Mosis with the
Speaker 1: charges levied against him during his excommunication, but focusing on
Speaker 1: three main things perjury, coveting the papacy, and violating church cannons,
Speaker 1: specifically transferring from the sea of Porto to that of Rome.
Speaker 1: So a poor eighteen year old deacon was forced by
Speaker 1: Stephen to act as for Mostes's defense. You know, answer
Speaker 1: for him squeaking out some kind of defense whenever he
Speaker 1: could interrupt Steven's tirade against the deceased Pope, and he
Speaker 1: was really too scared to get out much more than mumbles.
Speaker 1: So unsurprisingly, Stephen found for most Is guilty and ruled
Speaker 1: that all of his acts would be null and all
Speaker 1: of his ordinations void. And this really had a double
Speaker 1: calculated perk in addition to obviously shaming for most of Memory,
Speaker 1: which was the primary reason to do it. For most
Speaker 1: has had appointed Stephen himself as a ship and by
Speaker 1: having that appointment annulled, Stephen got off the hook for
Speaker 1: some irregularities in his own transfer from one CE to
Speaker 1: that of Rome. So it was pretty pretty tricky on
Speaker 1: his part to to clean up his his own record
Speaker 1: a little bit. But it wasn't just about assuring Steven's
Speaker 1: legitimacy though, or cutting out for Moss proteges who he
Speaker 1: had um consecrated. It was about just completely disrespecting the
Speaker 1: deceased Pope's body. And I mean, the following is really
Speaker 1: pretty disturbing. What they what they did to the guy.
Speaker 1: And I think this is why um this story has
Speaker 1: stuck around so so prominently in history, ye know. For example,
Speaker 1: the papal vestimates were ripped from the corpse and it
Speaker 1: was redressed in layman's clothes. The fingers used for consecrations
Speaker 1: were cut off and Uncle Trude got to keep them,
Speaker 1: and the body was then dragged through the streets buried
Speaker 1: in a pauper's grave before being dug up again and
Speaker 1: dumped into the Tiber. But thankfully, there's such a thing
Speaker 1: as going too far, and even in this violent partisan
Speaker 1: time in Rome, folks were not happy with Stephen and
Speaker 1: this disgraceful treatment of his predecessor. So it was kind
Speaker 1: of a situation of what goes around comes around. For
Speaker 1: most of his body was eventually pulled out of the
Speaker 1: river by a hermit, where it was reburied, and not
Speaker 1: long after that miracles started being attributed to him. And
Speaker 1: to add to matters for for the Romans who were
Speaker 1: paying attention to the story, the latter in Basilica, which
Speaker 1: is the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome,
Speaker 1: also known as the Pope, collapsed in an earthquake, which
Speaker 1: seemed like a terrible, terrible sign. And so all of
Speaker 1: this plus Stephen really pushing the point too hard. His
Speaker 1: insistence that the clergy ordained by for most to send
Speaker 1: in letters acknowledging that their appointments were invalid. All of
Speaker 1: this bubbled up and finally led to rebellion. The clergy
Speaker 1: and the people of Rome rose up against Stephen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Stephen was stripped of his papal powers and thrown
Speaker 1: into prison, and there the allies of Formosis strangled him
Speaker 1: in August. The next Pope, Romanis, lasted only a few months,
Speaker 1: and the one following him, Theodore the Second, just a
Speaker 1: few weeks. But before Theodore died, he got right to
Speaker 1: work on honoring the dead desecrated Formosis. He held his
Speaker 1: own synod, regarding the cadaver synod and nulling Stephen's ruling
Speaker 1: and restoring for mosiss acts in consecrations. He also had
Speaker 1: the body brought back exhoomed once again to St. Peter's
Speaker 1: and reburied. And it's old too. So after the brief
Speaker 1: pontificate of Theodore the Second, next came John the Nine, who,
Speaker 1: to really make it clear how uncooled this whole trial
Speaker 1: of the dead pope had been, again nullified. Stephen Senate
Speaker 1: twice just for a good measure, and because it apparently
Speaker 1: needed spelling out too. He also prohibited future trials of
Speaker 1: dead people. Probably a good policy for anyone, but um
Speaker 1: not or at least if we're actually putting the body
Speaker 1: on trial. I'll add that caveat. But not everyone was
Speaker 1: a foremost a supporter. I know we're talking about overturning
Speaker 1: this cadaver syno uh. The last pope in this decade
Speaker 1: of rapid fire succession and intrigue, Pope Sergius the Third,
Speaker 1: had supported Stephen from the beginning. He had even taken
Speaker 1: part in the cadaver sin of the trial himself. And
Speaker 1: like Stephen, Pope Sergius the third also had an allegiance
Speaker 1: or alliance with the spoleetant faction and Um he had
Speaker 1: had a pope and an antipope strangled to pave the
Speaker 1: way for himself, and Um allied himself further with the
Speaker 1: most powerful family in Rome, Senator Theophile act in his
Speaker 1: Byzantine princess wife Theodora, and just kind of a side
Speaker 1: out here. Sergius even had a son with their teenage daughter,
Speaker 1: who became a very very powerful future Roman matriarch and
Speaker 1: popemaker herself. But as back back to our maintail, here
Speaker 1: as proof of his loyalty to the House of Spiletto.
Speaker 1: Sertius reaffirmed the cadaver synate. And this was really more
Speaker 1: than just talk. I mean, I know, it sounds like
Speaker 1: a few years after the fact, maybe just trying to
Speaker 1: keep your allies comfortable, but it meant that all of
Speaker 1: formoses ordinations were again invalid. So anyone who had received
Speaker 1: orders under him needed to go back and do it again.
Speaker 1: And Sergius was especially vengeual for any bishops who had
Speaker 1: been consecrated by Formoses, who would obviously be the men
Speaker 1: most closely connected to the former pope and his enemy.
Speaker 1: So all in all, this is a pretty grizzly story,
Speaker 1: and during the Papal por knock or see it extended
Speaker 1: a bit beyond Sergius. To John Peter fam former Vatican
Speaker 1: diplomat and author of Heirs of the Fisherman. Behind the
Speaker 1: Scenes of Papal death and Succession, puts it pretty succinctly
Speaker 1: when he writes that quote, Although at least in the
Speaker 1: minds of believers, the office that these popes have held
Speaker 1: in succession is of divine origin, how these men have
Speaker 1: been raised to that office is a very human affair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and FAM's book that we just mentioned, I mean, really
Speaker 1: does go into the nitty gritty of it all, you know, um,
Speaker 1: looking at the history of popes and how they died
Speaker 1: and what happened after they died, and how uh the
Speaker 1: new pope was was chosen. And I think it's interesting
Speaker 1: to look at that. We're probably more familiar with the
Speaker 1: twentieth century history, but to look at these times in
Speaker 1: the eight hundreds and nine hundreds and and see what
Speaker 1: was going on and what power plays where we're going on,
Speaker 1: but we want to leave on a pretty interest staying side.
Speaker 1: Net's something to think about. There hasn't ever been a
Speaker 1: pope for most is the second poor guy. Though Cardinal
Speaker 1: Pietro Barboa did consider the name in fourteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: he had to be talked out of it. Apparently his
Speaker 1: choice instead was Paul the second sounds a lot safer,
Speaker 1: a lot safer, not calling to mind any dark chapters
Speaker 1: in history, and um, anything you might not want to
Speaker 1: think about during a celebratory time. So anyway, though, this
Speaker 1: was a really interesting thing to research. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: that Molly let us know about it. And thanks to
Speaker 1: Matthew and Naomi and Barry for all suggesting it as
Speaker 1: well making letting us know that it was something you'll
Speaker 1: really wanted to hear about. Two. Yeah, it seems like
Speaker 1: you can get taken to test sometimes for looking at
Speaker 1: the Pope in such a human light. But it is
Speaker 1: really fascinating, it is. So I think that is a
Speaker 1: good a time as any to bring us to listener
Speaker 1: mail while we're talking about listener suggestion. So our first
Speaker 1: email is from Jennifer and she wrote in to say,
Speaker 1: my family and I are traveling around the world for
Speaker 1: a year, two adults and two boys, age ten and eight.
Speaker 1: We first listened to your Marco Polo and Great Wall
Speaker 1: podcasts on the way to the Great Wall of China.
Speaker 1: We listened to your Medici series when we stayed in
Speaker 1: Italy and checked out all the most violent parts of Florence.
Speaker 1: We listened to your podcast about Mary, Queen of Scott's
Speaker 1: when we stayed in Sterling, her childhood home in Scotland.
Speaker 1: And now we are listening to your Book of Kells
Speaker 1: podcast on the way to Dublin to see it. So,
Speaker 1: I don't know this might be one that they would
Speaker 1: have wanted to to skip in Rome. I don't know.
Speaker 1: But she went on to write, your podcast have made
Speaker 1: history come alive for all of us and really added
Speaker 1: some deaths to our travels around the world. Um So,
Speaker 1: I thought that was just such a neat email. We
Speaker 1: do get a lot of um mail from folks who
Speaker 1: are traveling and and sort of use the podcast is
Speaker 1: a little travel primer if they're headed somewhere, But I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever heard from a family who was
Speaker 1: traveling around the world for a year. So I take
Speaker 1: us with you, Vegas will come. We can like deliver
Speaker 1: live podcasts for your entertainment. Maybe. Um So, thank you
Speaker 1: Jennifer for writing in. I hope you guys are having fun.
Speaker 1: And then I also have just kind of a funny email.
Speaker 1: Well it probably wasn't funny for Ruschelle of Toronto when
Speaker 1: she wrote it, but she said, today I had to
Speaker 1: go to the dentists and unfortunately get a root canal.
Speaker 1: I'm not good with dental procedures, but I'm happy to
Speaker 1: say your podcast on the War of the World's and
Speaker 1: historical hoaxes got me through. I hate hearing all those
Speaker 1: tools worrying and the dentist and hygiena's talking about all
Speaker 1: the weird stuff they see. I was so glad when
Speaker 1: they said I could listen to my iPod anyway. Thank
Speaker 1: you for those engaging and lengthy podcasts that were just
Speaker 1: the distraction I needed. So um, this too is a
Speaker 1: new sort of email. We do hear from lots of
Speaker 1: people who are using the podcast when they're training for
Speaker 1: a marathon or they're like working on an Excel spreadsheet
Speaker 1: all day or something, But I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: heard from anybody who was listening during a dental procedure. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, I really don't know how long a route
Speaker 1: canal take. So maybe we should start time in our
Speaker 1: podcast to that specials. Yeah, we can start maybe advertising
Speaker 1: them as um. So thanks for writing in, Rochelle. We're
Speaker 1: glad that we helped you through your dental procedure. And um,
Speaker 1: if anybody else wants to write in and maybe share
Speaker 1: some other unusual podcasts listening stories with us, keep it
Speaker 1: clean though, please, UM you can write us. We are
Speaker 1: at history podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're
Speaker 1: also on Twitter at mist in history, and we're on Facebook,
Speaker 1: and you can of course send us um just your
Speaker 1: suggestions to you for for future episodes topics and if
Speaker 1: you want to learn a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: topics we talked about in this podcast, we have an
Speaker 1: article called how the Papacy Works and you can find
Speaker 1: it by searching for it on our homepage, which is
Speaker 1: at www dot how stuff works dot com. Be sure
Speaker 1: to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Speaker 1: Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house dopp Works
Speaker 1: iPhone app has a ride. Download it today on iTunes.