Today’s Scripture Reading (October 6,
2015): Numbers 25
I have
always been intrigued by the Cadaver Synod of January 897. The perpetrator of
the synod was Pope Stephen VI and the victim was Pope Formosus, who had died
nine months earlier. Stephen VI was angry with Pope Formosus for reasons that
seems to be unclear. There is no doubt that Formosus had attracted enemies, and
one of those enemies was the Holy Roman Emperor, Guy III of Spoleto. Some
believe that the Cadaver Synod was really his work to disgrace his former enemy
and the Stephen VI was nothing more than his pawn in the exercise.
So in
January 897, the rotting corpse of Pope Formosus was exhumed. The corpse was
then dressed in his Papal robes, set on his throne and tried by Pope Stephen
VI. The trial found Formosus guilty of not being worthy of being a Pope and all
of his decisions and ordinations were reversed (interestingly enough, Formosus
was the Pope that had made Stephen VI a bishop, a decision that should have
been reversed disqualifying Stephen VI from being Pope in the first place, but
the action was probably never attempted.) Following the trial, Formosus was
re-buried in his grave but then was exhumed once more. This time three fingers,
the fingers that Formosus would have used in giving the Papal blessing, were
removed and the body was thrown into the Tiber River only to be recovered and
removed from the river by a Monk.
The cry
against Stephen VI was so great that the Pope was imprisoned and then strangled
that summer, ending Stephen VI’s short rein. Formosus was re-instated and his
body was returned to his grave. And if only this was the end of the Formosus
ordeal. Pope Sergius III reinstated all of the decisions that Steven VI had
made and had poor Formosus exhumed one more time. He put Formosus on trial and once
again found the former Pope guilty of crimes against the Papacy. This time he
had corpse of the former Pope beheaded.
The thing
that hits me in the Formosus saga is that somehow church leaders seemed to lose
their way. Nothing in their behavior honored God. In fact, church historians
believe that most of the charges against Formosus were political in nature, and
not sacred. Formosus was not accused of sin, he was accused of making wrong
political decisions. For the Papacy, this seemed to be a dark period that would
last for at least the next 600 years. Being the Pope was more about the
political realm of power than it was about honoring God. The Papacy during this
period was sold, it was held within families, it was held by Popes prone to
worship other gods, and at one point it was even held by prostitutes who had
influence over the sitting Pope (in this case, once again the offending pope
was Sergius III) – a period sometime known as the pornocracy.
The Popes in
this period had fallen away from the example of Aaron who was willing to defend
the honor of his God rather than let evil reign within Israel. Aaron did not
seem to worry about the politics of the decision. He simply wanted to let his
actions honor God. And even though Aaron’s actions could be viewed as overly
violent from a modern perspective, God knew the intent of Aaron’s heart which
was for God. Admittedly, Aaron did not always carry out his office well, but
God saw a glimpse of light in Aaron that prompted him to make this covenant of
the lasting priesthood. During the dark days of the Papacy, it was precisely
this zealous pursuit over the things and honor of God that the Popes seemed to
forget. They were too tied up in their own political pursuits to worry about
what God might want the church to be involved with – or to be men who stood
firmly defending God’s honor.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers
26
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