12.17.06
The Cadaver Synod
I know the Catholic Church has some rather, uh, interesting history, but this item (via Metafilter) about The Cadaver Synod of 897 AD really impressed me. Excerpts:
The trial began when the disinterred corpse of [Pope] Formosus was carried into the courtroom. On Stephen VII’s orders the putrescent corpse, which had been lying in its tomb for seven months, had been dressed in full pontifical vestments. The dead body was then propped up in a chair behind which stood a teenage deacon, quaking with fear, whose unenviable responsibility was to defend Formosus by speaking in his behalf. … Stephen VII screamed and raved, hurling insults at and mocking the rotting corpse. Occasionally, when the furious torrent of execrations and maledictions would die down momentarily, the deacon would stammer out a few words weakly denying the charges … The sentence imposed by Stephen VII was that all Formosus’s acts and ordinations as pope be invalidated, that the three fingers of Formosus’s right hand used to give papal blessings be hacked off, and that the body be stripped of its papal vestments, clad in the cheap garments of a lay person, and buried in a common grave.
…The appalling trial and the savage mistreatment of Formosus’s corpse provoked so much anger and outrage in Rome that within a few months there was a palace revolution and Stephen VII was deposed, stripped of his gorgeous pope’s clothing and required to dress as a monk, imprisoned, and, some time in August 897, strangled.
Believe it or not, the tale does not end even there. Read more here… BTW, the MeFi post also includes a pointer to Steven Lahey’s cartoon telling.
Amazingly, this episode apparently made nary a dent or ding in the doctrine of papal infallibility. Then again, maybe not so amazing.
mike said,
December 17, 2006 at 5:35 pm
I heered tell recent-like that papal infallibility was only invented in the 20th century or some such.
Spencer said,
December 17, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Aye, I shoulda looked that up. According to Wikipedia, “This doctrine was defined dogmatically in the First Vatican Council of 1870.”
However, the same article goes on to state “The first theologian to systematically discuss the infallibility of ecumenical councils [of the Bishop of Rome, i.e. The Pope] was Theodore Abu Qurra in the 9th century.” I.e. in the 800s, when the Cadaver Synod was held. And as Wikipedia and other sources also point out, the primacy (if not exactly infallibility) of the Pope was evident and generally accepted as a belief and tenet of the Church as early as the 1st Century.
And even with all of that said, Church doctrine holds that while Papal infallibility may have first explicitly pronounced as doctrine in 1870, it has always been true and the Vatican I pronouncement was merely a clear statement of what (they say) Christ’s teaching was.
While I’m at it, I should probably clear up confusion (including my own) viz.the precise circumstances when Church doctrine says the Pope is infallible. To quote from this article, “When the Pope (1) intends to teach (2) by virtue of his supreme authority (3) on a matter of faith and morals (4) to the whole Church, he is preserved by the Holy Spirit from error.” The Wikipedia article linked to above quotes the Vatican I definition in full.
One can read further about Papal infallibility in this article at the Vatican web site. And/or, search the Vatican web site for “infallibility”.