Rome, January 897. Pope Stephen has the body of the last pope, Formosus, dug up after nine months, dressed in his robes, sat on a throne and put on trial. A deacon is told to answer for the dead man. This is that day, from the deacon's side.

The deacon is real but unnamed: no source records his name, his age or a word he said. Everything said aloud by him in this video is marked as our version. Who ordained him is not recorded; the video says so and assumes it was Formosus.

Where the sources disagree, the video says so: the judge's question comes from Liutprand of Cremona, writing about sixty years later and naming the wrong pope; fishermen or a monk found the body; the body went straight into the Tiber or into a strangers' grave first; how many days the trial took is not recorded.

Sources:

- Liutprand of Cremona, Antapodosis I.30-31 (trans. P. Squatriti, Catholic University of America Press, 2007)

- J. P. Kirsch, 'Pope Formosus', Catholic Encyclopedia vol. 6 (1913)

- Michael Edward Moore and William S. Monroe, as summarised in 'The Cadaver Synod: The Trial of a Dead Pope', Medievalists.net (2025)

- 'The Cadaver Synod: Putting a Dead Pope on Trial', JSTOR Daily

- J. N. D. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (Formosus, Stephen VI, Theodore II, John IX)

Pictures are painted reconstructions, not records. No music.