The Vatican Verdict

and walls to ceiling art. Visitors come face to face with the dead. You can even buy postcards to send friends back home if you're so inclined. That's not the darkest church attraction, though, there's one other. Visit the Basilica San Giovanni, and you'll learn about a particularly dark and

corrupt moment at the church's past. You see. Bishops, cardinals and a host of other ecclesiastical attendees filled the Basilica in January of eight nineties seven for a synod basically a court of the church, to try one of their own formosis. Dressed in papal robes. Was unable to speak at his trial, so a deacon spoke for him. Seated in his chair, Formosis didn't move, not even during the earthquake that shook and damaged the Basilica. He showed no emotion.

As Pope Stephen the Six screamed at him, demanding answers, a deacon, reading from his script, replied for him. Found guilty of all counts against him, Formosis was not only stripped of his robes and his time as pope declared void, but the three fingers on his right hand that he

had used during blessings were chopped off. His crimes ruling more than one place at a time, and for publicly seeking the papacy, achieving the papacy illegally and immorally, and despite not being able to speak the act of perjury. The trial wasn't formosis first run in with the papal courts either. Back in the late eight hundreds, with the empire crumbling all around them, small factions had cropped up

in the land, forcing political conflicts within the Church. All of a sudden, men who had their sights set on becoming pope now needed the backing of secular leaders, often a new pope emerged every year. At that point in history, Formosis, who was then a bishop, had been successful in converting Bulgarians to Roman Catholicism. The Bulgarians even requested him as

their own bishop. His success didn't go unnoticed, though, and with the competition to gain power, it also made him some enemies in the papal courts, namely Pope John the eighth. Pope John levied a string of accusations against Formosis, claiming that he had brainwashed the Bulgarians into refusing any other bishop and attempting to take over the papacy for himself.

Formosis asked for forgiveness. Perhaps Pope John thought the bishop's rise was too close to comfort, or maybe he was a bit paranoid in turbulent times, so he excommunicated for Moosis. Pope John was later murdered by his own people, so perhaps his paranoia was founded. When the poison failed to work quickly enough, the killer used something more immediately, a hammer.

Pope John's successor reinstated Formosis as a bishop, and a year later, Pope Adrian wore the papal robes before his assassination. In his first year as the pope. Pope Stephen the fifth wore the papal rope next, but was soon unseated by Formosis, who remained pope for five years until he suffered a stroke. Formosis successor ruled for fifteen days before dying of gout or maybe it was poison, It's hard to say. At this point, Pope Stephen the sixth was next.

Formosa had made Stephen the sixth the bishop years earlier, and Pope Stephen still held the post while he served as pope. Yes, there was a rule against that, now, Yes, Pope Stephen the sixth knew it. His solution put Formosis on trial for the same crime. If Formosis was found guilty, then no one would see that Pope Stephen was just as guilty. By Pope Stephen's reasoning, a guilty verdict would also make Foremos's post as bishop, while also pope null

and void, therefore doing the same. Look it made sense to him, But there was a problem with his plan. You see, Pope formosis stroke had been fatal. Maybe it was due to old age he was eighty after all, or maybe poison had caused the stroke. Regardless, he had been dead for several months before Pope Stephen the sixth had his corpse exhumed to stand trial. Not only did this trial serve to cover Pope Stephen's own guilt of papal lawbreaking, it stopped Formosis from being named a saint.

After the cadaver synod, as it became known, Pope Stephen ordered Foremosa's remains to be buried at an obscure location, but then quickly changed his mind, this time ordering it tossed into the Tiber River. The next day, monks recovered the body and buried Formosis in a monastery. Having had enough of Pope Stephen's cadaver trial and exhumations, the people

imprisoned him and he was later found strangled in his cell. Eventually, and a couple of popes later, Formosa's body was recovered once more and buried in his final resting place in St. Peter's Cathedral. Curious, you better believe it. His love for her had no end. For her coronation, only the finest jewels and robes would do. Once seated on the throne next to him King Pedro, the first subjects knelt before her,

kissed her hand, and pledged their loyalty and obedience. With the ceremony behind them, the King and queen traveled to a beautiful monastery. There, the queen was placed into an intricately carved and inscribed marble tomb, the finest in all of Portugal, you see, and As de Castro had been dead for two years. In fact, she had been murdered by order of King Pedro's own father, his predecessor, King Alfonso. But that didn't mean the good people of Portugal had

kissed a corpse's hand out of love or loyalty. No, they'd done so, most likely because of King Pedro's nickname, Pedro the Cruel, and you'll soon understand why. It all started. In the year thirty eight, as part of an arranged marriage between kingdoms, Prince Pedro met and wed Constanza of Castile, declaring her the suitable suitable. That was until he met Constanza's teenaged handmating and As was the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of Lord de Castro, and she responded to Pedro's attention,

which began their not so secret love affair. Prince Pedro became so infatuated with her that he neglected his wife so much and so etent lee that it threatened the already strained relations with the queen's home Kingdom Castile. In an attempt to end her husband's affair, the queen made and as the godmother of the couple's firstborn child. You see, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, god parents were family and that would have made their affair incestuous. Undaunted,

Pedro and Inez still refused to break it off. Then a few years later, his wife died while giving birth to their third child, Ferdinand. With his wife and queen newly deceased, Pedro felt comfortable bringing the relationship with the Nez public, but his father, King Alfonso the Fourth, forbid his son to marry her and then banished her from the kingdom in as, being of illegitimate birth, was not eligible to become queen. Banishment didn't stop the two love birds, though. Instead,

Pedro moved in with his beloved mistress. They even had children together, one of which was a healthy son. Meanwhile, Pedro's son from his dead wife, Ferdinand, had become frail. Soon after, Pedro announced that he had secretly wed Inez, possibly making their son heir to the throne should Ferdinand die. This, along with the Nez's brothers growing influence over Prince Pedro prompted King Alfonso to dispatch three men to kill her. The men did as the king asked and beheaded her.

Needless to say, relations between the father and son were a bit strained after that. Pedro's mother begged her son for peace, and Pedro eventually promised he would not take revenge. It was a promise Pedro wouldn't keep, though. King Alfonso died a year later and Pedro became king, soon earning the nickname Pedro the Cruel due to his direct involvement in shall we say, serving justice both personally and publicly. Eventually, he tracked down two of and Nez's assassins, capturing them

and bringing them back to the kingdom. Then he had them put on trial and found guilty of murder. In one of his public displays of justice, King Pedro ripped their hearts from their chests, claiming that the killers were heartless for crushing his. After the trial and his special blend of justice, King Pedro ordered and Nez's body exhumed and then held the coronation, where he demanded attendees pay her the respect and death that he felt she deserved

in life, but Here's the thing. Despite the posthumous coronation, and Nez was never a legal queen, Pedro had lied to his father about secretly marrying her, and evidence suggests that Pope Inescent the fourth had refused to marry Pedro and Inez or legitimize their children. In the end, it had been this lie that got Pedro's mistress killed. King Pedro the Cruel died in thirteen sixty seven. He was

interred in a second, elaborate tomb near Anez. On the sides, detailed carvings depicted the couple's lives, and when their tombs were placed together, the marble likenesses of Pedro and the Nez faced one another, so that they looked upon each other, as the inscription reads, until the end of the world, and as far as I can tell, no one has trying to separate them ever. Again. I hope you've enjoyed

today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.