This is not an interpretation of Pope Stephen getting murdered. This is Jean-Paul Laurens’s 1870 interpretation of WHY Pope Stephen got murdered, which is that he held the Cadaver Synod. That’s the former Pope Formosus propped up in the papal throne, wearing papal garb. Next to him is the deacon who is speaking for him. Hands down, the best painting of the Cadaver Synod.
In 897, in Rome, Pope Stephen VI was strangled, in prison. There. That’s the True Crime. We don’t know who did it — a representative of the people of Rome, we suppose. The interesting part of this crime is not that he got murdered, but why he got murdered. Which was that he had dug up the 7 months dead corpse of a predecessor and put it on trial. In fancy papal garb. With a deacon giving answers to questions, since the dead pope on trial couldn’t do it. We bring you The Cadavar Synod! And Michelle finds musicals.