Pope Stephen VI (VII) was born with the given name of Stephen in the year A.D., and died in 897 A.D. He began his reign as Pope in the year 896 A.D. and ended his reign in the year 897 A.D., during the Early Middle Ages. Stephen VI (VII) was from Rome, and his papal number is: 114 out of 267 officially recognized Roman Catholic Popes.
Summary: Pope infamous for the Cadaver Synod against Formosus.
Biography:Stephen VI is remembered almost entirely for presiding over the Cadaver Synod, in which the corpse of Pope Formosus was exhumed, dressed in papal vestments, and subjected to a grotesque posthumous trial. The episode has become one of the most infamous scandals in papal history and a symbol of the degradation of ecclesiastical politics in late ninth-century Rome.
His conduct reflected the intensity of factional hatred and the collapse of dignity that could occur when the papacy became captive to partisan revenge. Public outrage eventually turned against Stephen himself, and his pontificate ended in downfall and death.
He remains a cautionary figure, a reminder that the history of the papacy includes moments of grave humiliation as well as sanctity and greatness.
