
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


It wasn't easy being in a position of power in 10th Century Europe. But for Italy and the papacy, it was even worse - for a long period, the pope of the Catholic Church was the only person to have authority to crown the next Holy Roman Emperor. Because this was such a powerful position, many people were willing to kill for it.
Sometimes a new pope would pass decrees undoing certain rules of previous popes, or to promote their own personal or political gain. But the case of Pope Formosus was different - he was made to answer for his alleged crimes after his death, by (literally) exhuming his dead body and putting him on trial.
By Kristen4.7
216216 ratings
It wasn't easy being in a position of power in 10th Century Europe. But for Italy and the papacy, it was even worse - for a long period, the pope of the Catholic Church was the only person to have authority to crown the next Holy Roman Emperor. Because this was such a powerful position, many people were willing to kill for it.
Sometimes a new pope would pass decrees undoing certain rules of previous popes, or to promote their own personal or political gain. But the case of Pope Formosus was different - he was made to answer for his alleged crimes after his death, by (literally) exhuming his dead body and putting him on trial.

17,281 Listeners

34,436 Listeners

38,336 Listeners

9,712 Listeners

368,645 Listeners

99,233 Listeners

10,793 Listeners

32,853 Listeners

8,587 Listeners

17,911 Listeners

9,984 Listeners

7,942 Listeners

438 Listeners

11,436 Listeners

4,361 Listeners