In 897, Rome witnessed one of the strangest courtroom scenes in history: a dead pope was dug up, dressed in papal robes, and put on trial.

The defendant was Pope Formosus, who had been dead for months. His successor, Pope Stephen VI, accused him of violating church rules and illegally holding office. Since Formosus was not exactly available for cross-examination, a deacon reportedly answered on behalf of the corpse.

The trial, later known as the Cadaver Synod, ended about how you would expect when one side was a furious pope and the other was a body. Formosus was found guilty. His papal acts were declared invalid, the fingers used for blessings were cut off, and his body was eventually thrown into the Tiber River.

The backlash was intense. Stephen VI was later imprisoned and strangled, and Formosus was rehabilitated by later church leaders.

Medieval politics did not just bury grudges; sometimes it dug them back up.