What happens when a dead Pope is dug up, dressed in vestments, and put on trial by his living successor? A necrophilic coup? Yes, this story is true and Steve Guerra from The History of the Papacy podcast joins Putschcast to unpack the Cadaver Synod of 897 AD, the single most bizarre chapter in Rome's history.

Steve walks us through the grisly scene: Pope Stephen VI exhumes his dead predecessor Formosus, appoints a deacon to speak for the rotting corpse, finds him guilty, cuts off his blessing fingers, and tosses him in the Tiber. It's horror, absurdist theatre, and political thriller rolled into one.

Beyond the freakshow, the Cadaver Synod reveals what happens when institutions eat themselves alive and that there has been some darkness at the heart of the Catholic Church from the very early days. Yet the questions it raises about revenge, legitimacy, and show trials echo into modern politics. 

Tune in for a darkly funny and disturbing conversation about the time the Vatican put a corpse on trial.

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