Pope Formosus

Formosus was born around 816 and rose through the Church despite accusations of abandoning his diocese in Portus to chase higher office in Rome. He became pope on 6 October 891, but his five-year reign tangled him in dynastic wars across Europe: he meddled in Constantinople's church politics, in West Francia's throne, and fatally backed Arnulf of Carinthia over Lambert of Spoleto for the Holy Roman crown. He died on 4 April 896. Nine months later his successor Stephen VI had the body exhumed, propped in papal robes, and subjected to the Cadaver Synod - a trial that convicted Formosus of ecclesiastical ambition and illegitimate rule. The scandal poisoned his memory so thoroughly that the name Formosus vanished from the papacy forever.