Pope Formosa and Stephen VI The Cadaveric Council; 897: the corpse of Pope Formosa (pope 891 to 896); wearing his pontifical clothes; appeared before a synodal assembly presidee by Pope Stephen VI or VII (pope 896 to 897); at the origin of the exhumation of the body) (Cadaver Synod; posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus; held in the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome during January of 897 - the trial was conducted by the successor; Pope Stephen VI (sometimes called Stephen VII); to Formosus) Engraving from ?????The priests and the monks through the ages?????by Hippolite Magen; 1857 Private collection