Pope Theodore II

Theodore was born around 840 and became bishop of Rome in December 897, stepping into a Church torn by faction and a central Italy racked with disorder. His predecessor Stephen VI had exhumed Pope Formosus, dressed the corpse in vestments, staged a trial, and annulled all his acts. Theodore spent his brief papacy undoing that: he declared the Cadaver Synod void, reinstated Formosus's ordinations, and had the body pulled from the Tiber and reburied with honour. Twenty days after taking office, he died.